Patrick Troughton's final story is a ten-part epic culminating in his trial by the Time Lords
Season 6 – Story 50 "This Doctor will die" - the War Chief Storyline Thousands of soldiers from throughout history have been brainwashed and transported to another world where they must fight until an elite force is created. Humanoid Aliens governed by the War Lord believe that "man is the most vicious species of all" and can be used to conquer the galaxy. Overseeing the scheme is the War Chief - one of the Doctor's own race. A resistance force of de-processed soldiers seizes the Alien War Centre, but the Doctor needs to call upon the Time Lords to send everyone home. Jamie and Zoe are also returned to their original time streams, while the Doctor stands trial for breaking the Time Lords' cardinal rule of non-interference in the affairs of other worlds. His bold defence strikes a chord, and the tribunal sentences him to exile on 20th-century Earth - without the secrets of the Tardis and with a completely new face… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 19 April 1969 Episode 2 - Saturday 26 April 1969 Episode 3 - Saturday 3 May 1969 Episode 4 - Saturday 10 May 1969 Episode 5 - Saturday 17 May 1969 Episode 6 - Saturday 24 May 1969 Episode 7 - Saturday 31 May 1969 Episode 8 - Saturday 7 June 1969 Episode 9 - Saturday 14 June 1969 Episode 10 - Saturday 21 June 1969 Production Location filming: March/April 1969 at Sheepcote rubbish tip, Brighton; Seven Sisters Country Park, Birling Manor Farm and various other locations in East Sussex Filming: April 1969 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: April 1969 in TC4 (eps 1-3), May 1969 in TC4 (ep 4), in TC8 (eps 5, 6 & 8) and in TC1 (ep 7), June 1969 in TC6 (ep 9) and in TC8 (ep 10) Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury Lt Carstairs - David Savile Lady Jennifer Buckingham - Jane Sherwin General Smythe - Noel Coleman Von Weich - David Garfield The War Chief - Edward Brayshaw The Security Chief - James Bree The War Lord - Philip Madoc Major Barrington - Terence Bayler Sgt Willis - Brian Forster Captain Ransom - Hubert Rees Sgt Major Burns - Esmond Webb Commandant Gorton - Richard Steele Lt Crane - David Valla Lt Lucke - Gregg Palmer Sgt Thompson - Bill Hutchinson Corporal Riley - Terry Adams Alien scientist - Vernon Dobtcheff Leroy - Leslie Schofield Harper - Rudolph Walker Spencer - Michael Lynch Russell - Graham Weston Private Moor - David Troughton Du Pont - Peter Craze Arturo Villar - Michael Napier-Brown Petrov - Stephen Hubay Time Lords - Bernard Horsfall, Trevor Martin, Clyde Pollitt Tanya Lernov - Clare Jenkins Quark - Freddie Wilson Yeti - John Levene Ice Warrior - Tony Harwood Cyberman - Roy Pearce Dalek - Robert Jewell Crew Writers - Terrance Dicks, Malcolm Hulke Designer - Roger Cheveley Incidental music - Dudley Simpson Script editor - Terrance Dicks Producer - Derrick Sherwin Director - David Maloney RT Review by Patrick Mulkern (filed 2009) "It was all so long ago," complained Patrick Troughton, testily, when I had the honour of meeting him in 1984. Even then his memories of playing the second Doctor were fading. He remained fond of his time on Doctor Who, but it wasn't quite the favourite role of his career. (He once told me in a letter dated 1980 that it was Quilp.) Now a staggering 40 years have passed since he whirled into oblivion from the Time Lord trial room, but we can enjoy his epic last stand on the BBC's crisply restored DVD. The ten episodes perhaps work best digested in two or three chunks, so it's easy to imagine viewers' impatience in 1969 as the serial sprawled across two-and-a-half months. Ratings peaked at 6.3m (ep 2), troughed at 3.5m (ep 8), but were at a respectable 5m for the finale. The War Games was a ten-week march into the unknown for script editor Terrance Dicks and his buddy Malcolm Hulke, called to arms after two other projects collapsed. And it's a monumental achievement. Their flexible format sustains interest and gradually ups the ante with new battlegrounds, soldiers and villains. It's a Boys' Own story, as Aliens in Nehru suits and dodgy specs play soldiers for real. Given the context, almost every character is male. Lady Jennifer (played by Jane Sherwin, wife of producer Derrick) is a welcome sight, though you may wonder why the Aliens saw fit to draft a non-military woman into their War Zones. The scripts are rich in detail, yet many specifics are dispensed with. These "War Games" occur on an unnamed world run by unnamed Aliens from a nameless "Home Planet", in collusion with another alien, whom we only know by his job description, "War Chief". But, crucially, he's a Time Lord. At last, the Doctor's own race is given a name, and an air of omnipotence, courtesy of Derrick Sherwin. The words "Time Lords" first appeared in print in RT's introductory feature for The War Games (below) and are uttered for the very first time, casually by an Alien scientist, in episode six. (Listen carefully, too, for the single naming of the War Chief's travel machines: Sidrat is Tardis backwards.) Of the five villains on parade the War Chief is top dog for me. Edward Brayshaw, slightly fey but magnetic and with sharply angular stubble, pitches his performance one notch below Abanazar. The moment when he and the Doctor recognise each other across a crowded room is electrifying. ("Run, Zoe. Run!" "Stop them!") A drip feed of information ends in a revelatory exchange in episode eight. "You may have changed your appearance but I know who you are," says the War Chief. The Doctor confirms that they "were both Time Lords", that he himself stole a Tardis and "had every right to leave". The Alien bad guys are all excellently played and distinct from one another. You have to loathe Smythe and Von Weich, the callous 1917 Zone commanders. The Security Chief (James Bree) minces around as if his knickers are too tight, delivering every line in strangulated nasal tones. Philip Madoc is like steel wrapped in velvet as the War Lord, menacingly calm, with a great comb-forward and stubble. As if to compensate for the perceived disaster of The Krotons (his previous Who), director David Maloney doesn't put a foot wrong. His studio work is tightly directed with fluid camera moves and precise compositions. Episode nine, where the main plot wraps up and time catches up with the Doctor, is one of the most exciting of the 1960s. The impact of the majestic tenth episode has barely diminished with the passage of time. A huge Tardis set is pressed into service and, in another first, thrillingly, we see intruders (the War Lord and his guards) enter the control room. Questions that have persisted since 1963 are answered. The Doctor talks candidly to his companions about his origins then actually arrives on his home planet. Tantalisingly, this world remains unnamed and we see little of it (minimalist slabs, mirrors and rostra). The Time Lords are at their most god-like, mentally conjuring force fields and dematerialising the Aliens from existence. At his trial the Doctor gives a spirited defence, explaining it's his duty to interfere in the affairs of other planets. He demands a "thought channel" to illustrate - in a blast of nostalgia - a Quark, Yeti, Ice Warrior, Cyberman and Dalek. But there's also a tear-jerking parting of the ways. Rather like Donna Noble in 2008, Jamie and Zoe must leave with memories of their travels erased. Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury - a perfect team - all decided to quit the series together. Then the verdict: sad and final, but fittingly funny. The Doctor will be exiled to Earth ("Stop! You're making me giddy") and his appearance must change ("I've never seen such an incredible bunch," he says of the choices). No attempt was made to show a transformation, even though Jon Pertwee had been cast on 21 May, the day before episode seven was recorded. The BBC held a press call for Pertwee on 17 June - after RT had gone to press with its "Exit the Doctor and his demons" feature (21-27 June 1969, below), which was left sounding unnecessarily coy: "Who this actor will be we are not telling." So the mighty Trought - face blacked out - vanished into the void. It was the end of the second Doctor, the close of the black-and-white era, and a satisfying if open-ended conclusion to 60s Doctor Who. In 1969, the teatime slot was filled by a sparkling new sci-fi series from America - as BBC1 viewers got their first taste of Star Trek. Radio Times archive material After a dearth of RT coverage in 1969, The War Games garnered two features, one at its launch and one rounding off 1960s Doctor Who. RT billings One RT reader in July 1969 was concerned that the Tardis would be no more. [Available on BBC DVD]
Is this "the most yawn-inducing tract of the entire black-and-white period"?
Season 6 – Story 49 "Anybody else want to die like a hero?" - Caven Storyline In the Pliny system, billions of miles out from Earth, pirates are targeting navigational beacons constructed from "the most valuable mineral known to man" - argonite. So far they've evaded the Interstella Space Corps headed by General Hermack. He mistakenly believes the ringleader to be Milo Clancey, a veteran mining prospector who has befriended the Doctor's party. Paths converge on the planet Ta, base of the Issigri Mining Corporation, where it transpires Madeleine Issigri is in cahoots with the pirate leader, Caven… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 8 March 1969 Episode 2 - Saturday 15 March 1969 Episode 3 - Saturday 22 March 1969 Episode 4 - Saturday 29 March 1969 Episode 5 - Saturday 5 April 1969 Episode 6 - Saturday 12 April 1969 Production Filming: February 1969 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: February/March 1969 in Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury Maurice Caven - Dudley Foster Milo Clancey - Gordon Gostelow General Nicolai Hermack - Jack May Madeleine Issigri - Lisa Daniely Major Ian Warne - Donald Gee Dervish - Brian Peck Dom Issigri - Esmond Knight Technician Penn - George Layton Lt Sorba - Nik Zaran Pirate guard - Steve Peters Space guard - Anthony Donovan Crew Writer - Robert Holmes Incidental music - Dudley Simpson Designer - Ian Watson Script editor - Derrick Sherwin Producer - Peter Bryant Director - Michael Hart RT Review by Patrick Mulkern Robert Holmes, who rapidly became one of the master exponents of Doctor Who, got off to what it would be kind to call an inauspicious start. His first script The Krotons showed promise but was scuppered by a wretched production, while The Space Pirates is arguably the most yawn-inducing tract of the entire black-and-white period. You have to feel sorry for Holmes. Most of the story's limitations - no monsters, no location work and absentee regulars - were imposed upon him. And, late in the day, the episode count was increased from four to six. A four-parter might have made a tighter proposition, but the half-dozen really puts the sag into space saga. The extension is most observable in the first three episodes, which are intolerably dull. The laborious exploits of the pirates as they explode a series of beacons into segments are just not interesting. Equally dreary are the long pursuit sequences with the Space Corps, who remain stiff as cardboard, notwithstanding Jack May's fruity delivery. Much of the time The Space Pirates doesn't even feel like Doctor Who. The Tardis trio doesn't appear until 15 minutes into episode one, and are trapped in one drab cell until part three. Even Troughton felt angered and frustrated at how unwatchable these episodes would be, thinking people would be turning off. Eventually, the Doctor and Zoe use their intelligence (and tuning forks) to get out of tricky situations. But Jamie is given little to do but bellyache, which leaves the Doctor a little hurt: "Sometimes I think you don't appreciate all I do for you." [Frazer Hines, Patrick Troughton and Wendy Padbury. Photographed by Don Smith, 21 February 1969 at BBC Lime Grove Studios. Copyright Radio Times Archive] The production team have by now completely dispensed with scientist Kit Pedler's advisory services, but the spatial concepts and designs feel credible. It would be nice to imagine that Stanley Kubrick's recently released 2001: A Space Odyssey had some bearing on the ponderous pacing of this tale. Certainly, in spring 1969, the fervour in the run-up to the Apollo Moon landings engendered a public appetite for convincing space hardware. Admittedly, the astronaut manoeuvres (filmed at Ealing) look good and the model shots (farmed out to the team behind Thunderbirds) are the best in the series so far. But good effects don't equal good drama. The variety of strange space vessels is, however, just part of our earliest example of Holmes successfully creating a detailed tapestry. His galaxy of the future encompasses the Space Corps, planetary systems, mining corporations and colourful characters with a back-story. Also spicing things up is Milo Clancey. A comedic "Wild West prospector in space", he has the distinction of being the first in Holmes's extensive gallery of eccentrics. Whether you find Clancey entertaining or excruciating will be a matter of taste. For me, he smacks of those hammy loons that used to turn up in Lost in Space and generates a similar sinking feeling. As we stagger to the end of this drear fest and the end of the 1960s, one relief is that this is the final serial with chunks missing from the archive. Radio Times archive material During the run of The Space Pirates, RT featured a profile of composer Ron Grainer [Episode 2 available on the BBC DVD boxed set Doctor Who: Lost in Time. Complete soundtrack on BBC Audio CD]
The Ice Warriors attack the Moon as part of their Earth invasion plans
Season 6 – Story 48 "You dispatched the seeds. In so doing you destroyed your entire species. What is the death of one man compared to that?" - Slaar Storyline Landing on 21st-century Earth, the trio learn that humans have become reliant for global travel on a matter-transmitter called T-Mat, supervised by Commander Radnor and his assistant Gia Kelly. But because the system is failing, the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie take the outmoded transport of a rocket to T-Mat's relay station on the Moon to investigate. Ice Warriors from Mars prove to be responsible: they are hijacking T-Mat as part of an Earth takeover bid, sending deadly spores to destroy the atmosphere, rendering the planet habitable for their own kind… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 25 January 1969 Episode 2 - Saturday 1 February 1969 Episode 3 - Saturday 8 February 1969 Episode 4 - Saturday 15 February 1969 Episode 5 - Saturday 22 February 1969 Episode 6 - Saturday 1 March 1969 Production Location filming: December 1968 at West Heath, Hampstead, London Filming: December 1968 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: January/February 1969 in Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury Commander Radnor - Ronald Leigh-Hunt Gia Kelly - Louise Pajo Professor Daniel Eldred - Philip Ray Slaar - Alan Bennion Brent - Ric Felgate Fewsham - Terry Scully Phipps - Christopher Coll Osgood - Harry Towb Locke - Martin Cort Sir James Gregson - Hugh Morton Grand Marshal - Graham Leaman Security guard - Derrick Slater Computer voice - John Witty Ice Warriors - Steve Peters, Tony Harwood, Sonny Caldinez Crew Writer - Brian Hayles Incidental music - Dudley Simpson Designer - Paul Allen Script editor - Terrance Dicks Producer - Peter Bryant Director - Michael Ferguson RT Review by Mark Braxton You would think it a colossal dampener that the plot of The Seeds of Death is contingent upon two calamitous flaws. First, making this miracle of the space age, T-Mat, operable from the Moon strains credulity till it's piano-wire taut. Only when it all goes belly-up does gig-runner Gia Kelly look into controlling the system from Earth. Well, dur! Second, a conquest plot that involves sending H2O-susceptible fungus to a planet that's 70 per cent water and where rain is always likely is never going to work, is it? The Doctor merely accelerates the inevitable. Still, with those sizeable gaffes swept lumpily under the carpet, we can get on with the job of enjoying what is a perfectly serviceable if somewhat padded potboiler. Brian Hayles and Terrance Dicks (who heavily rewrote episodes three to six), give us stacks of action, abundant changes of scenery, imaginative imperilment and a few engaging characters. In common with many tales from Troughton's tenure, we have a sinewy female lead in Gia Kelly, a proactive, head-girl-at-Roedean type who may not be top dog but basically calls the shots. "You've stopped me once; please don't try it again," she tells the toothless Commander Radnor, who capitulates, knowing his grasp of T-Mat will always be inferior. Incidentally, in the same weeks that The Seeds of Death was playing, the actor playing Radnor, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, could also be seen in the ITV children's series Freewheelers. Perhaps he had a doppelganger. And he'd be joined in Freewheelers by Wendy "Zoe" Padbury two years later. Aside from Philip Ray's crusty cliché of a professor, there's also Terry Scully's petrified quisling Fewsham (few sham quite like he does), who cooperates with the enemy merely to save his skin. He contributes a few decent twists to the story. Other areas of the production range from the impressive to the awful. The sets, for example, are manifold and functional, but after the expansive control rooms and cramped corridors, the rocket is disappointingly shoddy. And the countdown sequence, rendered by means of poor-quality photographs of dials and knobs, compounds the misery. Again, the Weather Control Station (or is it a Bureau? They can't seem to decide) is a decent set, but the climate controller within appears to be a small espresso machine. Costumes. Somehow, wearing pants outside trousers is supposed to be futuristic. Thank goodness, then, for the return of the Ice Warriors, with their crusty chins, triangular teeth, shambling gait and reticulated shells. Having introduced his hissyfitting horrors the year before, Hayles now presents a tripartite Martian society: a don't-argue-with-me Grand Marshal, the facilitating "Ice Lord" (Slaar) and the dung-shovelling hoi polloi. Though it's a perfunctory outing for the companions, Troughton is on imperious form as the Doctor, dodging his foes with a Chaplinesque bounce of the feet, touching his fingertips together repeatedly when he gets excited and repelling attempts to be executed with the words "Your leader will be angry if you kill me - I'm a genius!" He's so good that he fully deserves his rather obvious holiday for the duration of episode four! Despite containing little that's original - essentially it's a fusion of The Moonbase and The Ice Warriors - this steady six-parter, incorporating the sort of lunar capering that pandered to Space Race enthusiasts in the real world, is rattling good stuff. RT Archive material A few months before transmission of this story, RT caught up with the in-demand writer Brian Hayles, in this rare article published in the Midlands edition only. [Available on BBC DVD]
Frazer Hines called it a "horrible story" with "cardboard" monsters. For director David Maloney it was "a disaster". Was it really that bad?
Season 6 – Story 47 "That machine must have lain around for thousands of years waiting for someone as clever as us to turn up" - the Doctor Storyline For millennia, the humanoid Gonds have been sending highly educated youths into a machine called the Dynotrope, unaware that their unseen Kroton masters harvest the students' mental power then "disperse" their bodies into dust. When the Doctor and Zoe enter the Dynotrope, their "high brain" energy proves so strong that the dormant, liquefied Krotons are reconstituted to their true crystalline state. At last the Gonds rebel, but the Doctor must use his knowledge of chemistry to stop the Krotons leaving the planet, destroying the community in their wake… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 28 December 1968 Episode 2 - Saturday 4 January 1969 Episode 3 - Saturday 11 January 1969 Episode 4 - Saturday 18 January 1969 Production Location filming: November 1968 at West of England and Tank quarries, Malvern, Worcestershire Filming: November 1968 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: November/December 1968 in Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury Selris - James Copeland Eelek - Philip Madoc Beta - James Cairncross Thara - Gilbert Wynne Vana - Madeleine Mills Axus - Richard Ireson Abu - Terence Brown Student - Bronson Shaw Custodian - Maurice Selwyn Krotons - Robert La' Bassiere, Miles Northover Kroton voices - Roy Skelton, Patrick Tull Crew Writer - Robert Holmes Special sounds - Brian Hodgson Designer - Raymond London Script editor - Terrance Dicks Producer - Peter Bryant Director - David Maloney RT Review by Patrick Mulkern "Phwoar! Bad eggs!" complains Jamie as he emerges from the Tardis and inhales the sulphurous pong of this unprepossessing, unnamed planet. Yes, The Krotons has long suffered a reputation as a bit of a stinker, even among those who worked on it. Frazer Hines called it a "horrible story" with monsters like "cardboard cut-outs", while David Maloney remembered it as "a disaster" for which he, as director, was held responsible. But surely nothing with Maloney's name on it or that of Robert Holmes (two Doctor Who greats) can be all that bad. Can it? I haven't watched The Krotons in ages; in fact, I had to dig out my ancient VHS of its repeat in the 1981 BBC2 season, Five Faces of Doctor Who. The picture quality was ropey even then, and looks doubly so today alongside pristine restored versions of other monochrome serials out on DVD. But revisited now, The Krotons doesn't seem all that bad. With this being Robert Holmes's first commission, we should cut him some slack. Indeed, he submitted the story to the BBC as a standalone sci-fi series; later, under script editor Terrance Dicks's supervision, the concepts were tailored to fit late 60s Who. Subjugation by machines is standard sci-fi territory and the dialogue may lack the colour of Holmes's later classics, but the central ideas (mental power being transferred into pure energy; crystalline aliens suspended in slurry) are original enough. The episodes are packed with incident, the slate-dark quarry filming is fluid and moody, and there are decent performances. Among the Gonds, Gilbert Wynne is strong as Selris's son and heir, Thara; Philip Madoc gives rebellious Eelek an edge, although it's strange to see an actor of his stature in such an undemanding role. Frazer Hines is outstanding as Jamie, getting a surprisingly rare hand-fight and lots of moments to himself. Despite his antipathy, Hines sells his interaction with his ridiculous captors, the Krotons. Wendy Padbury exudes brilliance and squeaky cleanness - oblivious of the effect her skimpy PVC outfit will have on dads at home. Scenes where Zoe and the Doctor discuss chemistry as equals and compete on the learning machines are delightful. Zoe: "The Doctor's almost as clever as I am!" The Doctor: "Zoe is something of a genius. It can be very irritating at times!" Troughton ad-libs, "Great jumping gobstoppers!" and is hilarious in his bumbling attempt to delay the Krotons' plans, dropping the brain-draining headset with "Butter fingers!" and "It's your fault. You're making me nervous!" Patrick Troughton comes to life here, whereas for much of the story he's on low-wattage, half-asleep even, as though thoroughly disenchanted with the material. So what are the failings of the production? The greatest disappointment has to be the titular foes. They have a terrific build-up. Roy Skelton's voice booms over the Learning Hall tannoy like a demented Pretorian store manager. A wonderfully eerie radiophonic theme from Brian Hodgson (a kind of pulsating, rubbery scrunch) heralds their arrival, and then… Oh dear. Rearing up from their tank, some of the silliest monsters ever to shame the series. Holmes intended the Krotons to be humanoid, "covered in metal pyrites" and with a "scabrous, crystalline surface", however costume designer Bobi Bartlett has turned them into a poor man's version of the Lost in Space robot. The suits are constructed from perspex and fibreglass but on screen look wooden and egg-boxy, giving rise to the myth that they were designed in a Blue Peter competition. In longer shots, when the Krotons' flapping PVC "skirts" come into view, it's hard not to snigger. The other weak spot is Selris, leader of the Gonds. James Copeland was only 45 but is aged up and looks uncomfortable in his futuristic tabard. He indulges in an inordinate level of grimacing and his half-suppressed Scottish brogue seems out-of-kilter among his Rada-accented fellows. His finger-wiggling, squawking death scene is unintentionally comical. There was no promotional feature in Radio Times, whose coverage for the series was dwindling. Nevertheless, part one scored the highest ratings for any Troughton episode (nine million viewers). Goodwill from The Invasion and its scheduling in the festive season doubtless played a part. But airing three days after Christmas, The Krotons undeniably gives off a whiff of stale turkey. RT Archive material [Available on BBC DVD; soundtrack available on BBC Audio CD]
The Cybermen invade London via the sewers in a gripping eight-parter, featuring the Brigadier and the debut of Unit
Season 6 – Story 46 "It's the Cybermen. We've just seen hundreds of them coming out of the sewers" - Captain Turner Storyline In 1970s London, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe befriend fashion photographer Isobel whose uncle, Professor Watkins, has mysteriously disappeared. He's being forced to work for International Electromatics, an organisation with a monopoly on the world's electronics, run by sinister Tobias Vaughn. IE is under surveillance by Unit (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), commanded by the Doctor's old ally Lethbridge-Stewart, now a Brigadier. Unit provides military back-up for the Doctor's investigations into IE. Vaughn is plotting with the Cybermen to subjugate the human race, and an advance legion is waiting in the sewers, ready to invade… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 2 November 1968 Episode 2 - Saturday 9 November 1968 Episode 3 - Saturday 16 November 1968 Episode 4 - Saturday 23 November 1968 Episode 5 - Saturday 30 November 1968 Episode 6 - Saturday 7 December 1968 Episode 7 - Saturday 14 December 1968 Episode 8 - Saturday 21 December 1968 Production Location filming: September 1968. Principal sites: Williamstrip Farm, Cirencester; Associated British Maltsters, Wallingford, Oxfordshire; Millbank Tower, London SW1; TCC Condensers, London W3; Guinness Factory, London NW10; Regent's Canal, NW8; streets around St Paul's, City of London Filming: September 1968 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: September-November 1968 at Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart - Nicholas Courtney Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury Tobias Vaughn - Kevin Stoney Packer - Peter Halliday Isobel Watkins - Sally Faulkner Professor Watkins - Edward Burnham Captain Jimmy Turner - Robert Sidaway Corporal Benton - John Levene Gregory - Ian Fairbairn Major Branwell - Clifford Earl Major-General Rutlidge - Edward Dentith Sergeant Walters - James Thornhill Sergeant Peters - Norman Hartley Tracy - Geoffrey Cheshire Private Perkins - Stacy Davies Patrolman - Walter Randall Phone operator - Sheila Dunn Policeman - Dominic Allan Cybermen - Pat Gorman, Ralph Carrigan, Charles Finch, John Spadbury, Derek Chaffer, Terence Denville, Peter Thornton, Richard King Cybermen and Controller voices - Peter Halliday Crew Writer - Derrick Sherwin from a story by Kit Pedler Incidental music - Don Harper Designer - Richard Hunt Script editor - Terrance Dicks Producer - Peter Bryant Director - Douglas Camfield RT Review by Patrick Mulkern The Invasion is one of the pinnacles of 1960s Who - an exciting, elaborate adventure that placed extraordinary demands on cast and crew, and, despite its length, it still holds our attention today. We've seen the wacky time travellers paired with the military before but here, building on the success of The Web of Fear, the production team surreptitiously put a template into place that would eventually bring the series and its menaces squarely down to Earth. Nicholas Courtney returns (bum first, descending a ladder) as Lethbridge Stewart and we share the Doctor and Jamie's pleasure at this unexpected reunion. In the four years since their last meeting, he's "gone up in the world" and is now the Brigadier, in charge of what he describes as an "independent intelligence group". Credit for devising Unit goes to Derrick Sherwin, who has also turned out eight cracking scripts. There's scarcely a dull moment, with fast-moving set pieces and more filming than ever before - all placed in the capable hands of Douglas Camfield, a director renowned for military precision. The first four episodes are grippingly plotted with alien infiltration, the menace of the IE compound and mind control all shamelessly pilfered from Quatermass II (BBC 1955). Vaughn and his inhumanly strong (partly cybernetic) thugs posed the threat until the halfway point, when at last the monsters are revealed. To a pulse-racing radiophonic score from Brian Hodgson, a Cyberman rips through its hibernation cocoon. A proper behind-the-sofa cliffhanger. And it's been a long wait - especially as their presence was heralded a month earlier in RT's coverage for The Invasion. The Doctor and Jamie make a dynamic duo; Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines have by now developed a tactile, symbiotic partnership. They're such unlikely-looking heroes, so the Brigadier's confidence in them is cheering. "They may look like amateurs but that man has an incredible knack of being one jump ahead of everyone." Wendy Padbury sparkles as Zoe. Clad in a sequined catsuit, then groovy 60s gear, she forms a sisterly bond with Isobel. They may be totty (their legs go all the way up, as my nan used to say), but they're ballsy with it. Isobel defies the Brig ("Ooh, you… you man!") and braves the sewers to photograph some Cybermen. When Zoe's quick-fire calculations obliterate the Cyber fleet, the soldiers beg to keep her on: "She's much prettier than a computer!" Kevin Stoney is another key element in the success of The Invasion. His asymmetrical face and urbane/insane manner command our attention throughout. He's wearily amused at all the minor obstructions to his plans so that when he finally boils over in rage at the end of episode three, the effect is incandescent. Sadly episodes one and four are lost. The first instilled the Quatermass vibe with moody film work. And the fourth (as I recall clearly from 1968) showcased impressive stunt work as a Unit helicopter rescues the Doctor's party from the IE compound. Zoe and Isobel in heels and mini-skirts, and Jamie in his kilt, ascend a rope ladder - under a hail of bullets. That they survive unscathed is a miracle, acknowledged in Captain Turner's wry comment: "Fortunately Vaughn's jackboots couldn't shoot a flying elephant!" These crucial missing episodes have been lovingly re-created with animation and original soundtrack for the BBC DVD*. Many of the iconic images come in the later episodes. The Cybermen, at their most silvery, stride through the sewers without a speck of rust or fleck of turd… Flinging aside manhole covers, they march down the steps by St Paul's… Unit soldiers fire bazookas on Cybermen in a well-staged battle… Jumping and howling, the Doctor runs from a barrage of bangs, then squats and composes himself for Isobel's camera. Camfield has kept faith with reliable actors. Courtney and Stoney played hero and villain for him in The Daleks' Master Plan (1965). And he's liberated extra John Levene from Cybermen and Yeti costumes for his first speaking role as Benton (he'd reappear in the 70s). If there's one omission, it's that Courtney doesn't participate in the farewell scene. The Brig must have better things to do than wave off time travellers in a cowfield, but we leave with no inkling that the character will return as a mainstay one year hence. The Invasion had an impact that would resonate throughout coming decades. Unit became the Doctor's home in the 70s and has had regular assignments in Noughties Who and Torchwood. Plot elements (hypnotic control, sewers, even IE) were "borrowed" for Rise of the Cybermen (2006). And the Brigadier himself has survived for 40 years (last seen in The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2008), with Courtney becoming a cheerfully enthusiastic ambassador for the ongoing myth. RT's Nicholas Courtney interview (2008) Radio Times archive material Feature on Kit Pedler and the Cybermen RT billings An article by Kit Pedler in The Listener (10 July 1969) [* Available on BBC DVD and BBC Audio CD]
The police box explodes and the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are trapped in the Land of Fiction
Season 6 – Story 45 "I think we may be in a place where nothing is impossible" - the Doctor Storyline An emergency departure from volcanic lava on Dulkis takes the Tardis out of time and space and into a land inhabited only by fictional figures including Gulliver, D'Artagnan and Rapunzel. The characters' movements are governed by a writer plucked from 1926 England known only as the Master, who is himself controlled by a computer or Master Brain. With Jamie and Zoe in danger of becoming permanent additions to the mythical world, the Master plans to trade places with the Doctor, thus enabling him to escape and the Brain to take over the Earth… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 14 September 1968 Episode 2 - Saturday 21 September 1968 Episode 3 - Saturday 28 September 1968 Episode 4 - Saturday 5 October 1968 Episode 5 - Saturday 12 October 1968 Production Location filming: June 1968 at Harrison's Rocks, Sussex; Kenley Aerodrome, Croydon Filming: June 1968 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: June 1968 in TC3 (eps 1 & 2), July 1968 in Lime Grove D (eps 3 & 4) and TC3 (ep 5) Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines, Hamish Wilson Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury The Master - Emrys Jones Gulliver - Bernard Horsfall The Karkus - Christopher Robbie Princess Rapunzel - Christine Pirie Cyrano - David Cannon D'Artagnan and Sir Lancelot - John Greenwood Blackbeard - Gerry Wain The Medusa - Sue Pulford Children - Barbara Loft, Sylvestra Le Tozel, Timothy Horton, Christopher Reynolds, David Reynolds, Martin Langley Redcoat - Philip Ryan White robots - John Atterbury, Ralph Carrigan, Bill Wiesener, Terry Wright Clockwork soldiers - Paul Alexander, Ian Hines, Richard Ireson Crew Writers - Derrick Sherwin (1, uncredited on screen), Peter Ling (2-5) Incidental music - various library tracks Designer - Evan Hercules Script editor - Derrick Sherwin Producer - Peter Bryant Director - David Maloney RT Review by Mark Braxton A well-established drama series can afford to have a little fun and throw out the rulebook from time to time. And that's especially true of Doctor Who, about which the show's first producer Verity Lambert said, "You could do almost anything you wanted." It's this very flexibility of format that gives flight to The Mind Robber when it could have sunk like a brick, and makes it one of the great stories. In an interview for Radio Times, even Wendy Padbury told me, "That particular story was my favourite. It was very different from any other. It was so innovative and I just loved that. It was also quite scary, with toy soldiers, a forest of letters and the puzzles… it was a very interesting idea." Crossroads co-creator Peter Ling, who was subcontracted to write the story, suggested the move was something of a gamble by the Doctor Who script department. Perhaps it was, but sometimes a gamble results in the jackpot. What Ling brought to the adventure was an assertion that many fans of soap operas such as Crossroads are unable to separate character from actor - fiction from fact, in other words. It's a wonderfully empowering premise. But if the genesis was unusual, the evolution was traumatic. It was a six-part commission, slashed to a four-parter, before a rejigging of the preceding story, The Dominators, freed up an extra episode to be filled. Which is why script editor Derrick Sherwin ended up writing the opening episode of The Mind Robber (no writer was credited on screen for the only time in the programme's history). With the budget spent, however, all that remained were a few old props and the cunning of the writer. And despite its brevity, the opener is teasingly odd and unsettling, with its featureless landscape, a spooky pair of doppelganger companions, a genuinely anxious Doctor ("No, Jamie, no!") and a Tardis disintegrating in the void. While the remaining episodes are more fanciful and less sinister, the premise that literally anything can happen makes for an artfully unpredictable enterprise, from the pleasing symbolism of a sword turning into a dictionary and the change in Jamie's facial features (necessitated by Frazer Hines's chicken pox) to a rare stop-motion outing for the show (the Medusa's serpentine hair). [Hamish Wilson briefly taking over the role of Jamie, alongside Patrick Troughton. Photographed by Don Smith, 28 June 1968 at BBC TV Centre, TC3. Copyright Radio Times Archive] The motley inhabitants of the Land of Fiction are well cast. Emrys Jones makes a suitably potty Master, more than two years before Roger Delgado would be allowed that very title as the Doctor's fellow Time Lord; Bernard Horsfall, despite a variable accent, cuts a noble Lemuel Gulliver; and fans of 70s children's serials will recognise a young Sylvestra Le Tozel, who played Helen in the inexplicably terrifying The Boy from Space. The short, sharp episodes work like a charm, full of variety and Brian Hodgson's striking sound design (the synthesised crackle and echoing creaks lend delicious foreboding to the White Robots and the toy soldiers respectively). The humour is delightful, without whacking viewers over the head with it (a curse that made the show excruciating on other occasions). Examples here include Jamie's exchange with a crestfallen Rapunzel, who tells him, "It's a pity you're not a prince: you'd have made rather a good one," and Patrick Troughton's magnificent "Sausages!" when telling the Master what his scheme will turn mankind into. Then there's Zoe's tussle with the Karkus, who resembles a onetime opponent of Mick McManus. I keep expecting Kent Walton to introduce their bout with the words "Greetings, grapple fans". I especially like the bit where Zoe kicks him up the arse. Their fight is such an astonishing event that Troughton looks absolutely dumbfounded, while Wendy Padbury is so out of breath she fluffs her next line. Perhaps the Doctor isn't at his brilliant best. Forgetting what Jamie looks like makes the Doctor appear uncharacteristically stupid, as does his volte-face regarding their whereabouts - after telling Jamie and Zoe the emergency unit will take the Tardis out of the space/time dimension, he later says, "Where in time and space am I?" But his climactic duel of wits with the Master - a kind of Neverending Story with freedom as the prize - more than makes up for this. Probably the worst that can be said of The Mind Robber is that it's a bit middle-class. In fact, I'm surprised piano lessons and a gymkhana weren't woven into the plot. After all, not every member of the audience would have identified with such bookish pursuits. I know plenty of people who as children were happier tearing about in the fresh air and getting their knees grazed than pushing their noses into Gulliver's Travels or the Greek myths. Nevertheless, The Mind Robber is brave, pioneering, mad television, and all the more praiseworthy for wading through the treacle of adversity to reach the screen. Radio Times archive material [Available on BBC DVD, BBC iPlayer and as part of Tales of the Tardis]
Season six kicks off with the robotic Quarks and bickering Dominators for a "boring" operation
Season 6 – Story 44 "I warn you, a Dominator must be obeyed. Your leader is nothing to me. I respect only one thing: superior force" - Navigator Rago Storyline The Tardis lands on the peace-loving planet of Dulkis at the same time as the Dominators, an aggressive race backed by armed servant robots called Quarks. The population seems powerless to the enslavement plans of the invaders, but the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe motivate a rebellious faction of Dulcians in a bid to repel the Dominators. However, the oppressors' ultimate aim is to drill into the planet's core and trigger a radioactive outpouring to refuel their fleet of spaceships… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 10 August 1968 Episode 2 - Saturday 17 August 1968 Episode 3 - Saturday 24 August 1968 Episode 4 - Saturday 31 August 1968 Episode 5 - Saturday 7 September 1968 Production Location filming: April 1968 at Gerrards Cross quarry, Bucks; Olley sandpit, Trottiscliffe, Kent Filming: April/May 1968 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: May 1968 in TC4 (eps 1 & 2) and May/June 1968 in TC3 (eps 3-5) Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury Navigator Rago - Ronald Allen Probationer Toba - Kenneth Ives Cully - Arthur Cox Kando - Felicity Gibson Teel - Giles Block Senex - Walter Fitzgerald Balan - Johnson Bayly Bovem - Alan Gerrard Tensa - Brian Cant Tolata - Nicolette Pendrell Etnin - Malcolm Terris Wahed - Philip Voss Quarks - John Hicks, Gary Smith, Freddie Wilson Quark voices - Sheila Grant Crew Writer - Norman Ashby (pseudonym for Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln) Special sounds - Brian Hodgson Designer - Barry Newbery Script editor - Derrick Sherwin Producer - Peter Bryant Director - Morris Barry RT Review by Mark Braxton Backstage unrest can either bring out the best in a production crew by stimulating its creative juices, or be manifested on screen with merciless clarity. The opening two stories of season six provide textbook examples of these scenarios - and it's apparent in seconds which is which. Originally slated as a six-parter, The Dominators was, incredibly, the work of Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, whose brace of Yeti yarns is such a focal point of the classic canon. But the pair submitted their screenplay late and script editor Derrick Sherwin rewrote it heavily, reducing the adventure by an entire episode. Unhappy with the result, the writers donned pseudonymous camouflage, and resentment simmered for some time afterwards. Welcome, then, to the world of bullies versus weeds… Dennis the Menace v Walter the Softy, if you will. A comment on the hippie movement of the time, The Dominators, according to Haisman, examined "what happens to a completely submissive society… when it is suddenly overrun". A diverting idea, certainly, but not a new one (The Daleks). Neither is the plan of drilling into a planet's core (The Dalek Invasion of Earth), nor the concept of a space museum (The, ahem, Space Museum). In just one small example of the laxity on display, the woolly phrase "sort of" can be heard five times in less than 20 seconds. That could be down to actorly improvisation, of course. In which case director Morris Barry should have stepped in - as he should when Johnson Bayly repeatedly mispronounced robots as "roe-berts". Stop it! The cliffhangers are hopeless, too, the worst being the Quarks' destruction of the museum, with any anxiety about the fate of Jamie and Cully doused by clearly seeing the pair flee the area beforehand! It's hard to root for anyone among the black-and-white protagonists. The scowling, bickering Dominators are one-note, while the Dulcians (surely Dulkian is the correct derivative of Dulkis? Then again, maybe Dullard does the job just as well) are mostly cringing simpletons. Arthur Cox does his best with the more spirited Cully but… Such a lack of audience identification makes watching the serial a terrible trudge, and the characters aren't helped by their costumes. The floaty dress worn by male and female Dulcian may suggest the necessary combination of apathy and hedonism, but just looks daft. I pity poor Wendy Padbury for having been made to go native. The Dominators fare no better, either; Rago and Toba look like the unfortunate love-children of a piñata donkey and the Thames Barrier. Happily there are a few saving graces. One is the Quarks, whose foldaway arms and mace-heads were nice pieces of draughtsmanship. But any intention to create a worthy successor to the mighty Dalek was scuppered by the Quarks' barely comprehensible baby-on-helium voices. There are some magnificent examples of on-location pyrotechnics, too, the best of the bunch being the obliteration of Cully's craft in episode one. Very satisfying. As is the stirring sight of Jamie once again taking the game to the opposition. He's right up there in the shortlist of best companions, no question. But this is grasping at straws. Centring an entire plot on a boring operation says it all, really. It's tempting to say: "Move along - there's nothing to see here." But given the behind-the-scenes turmoil, perhaps we should be grateful it ever made transmission at all. Radio Times archive material [Available on BBC DVD and BBC Audio CD]
The Cybermen attack a space station and Wendy Padbury joins as companion Zoe
Season 5 – Story 43 "This isn't just an attack by an alien race on a space station. The Cybermen have another purpose" - the Doctor Storyline A faulty Tardis strands the Doctor and Jamie aboard Silver Carrier, a 21st-century supply rocket 87 million miles off course. It's deserted apart from a hostile Servo Robot, which dispatches a stream of spheres across space to penetrate the hull of Station Three, aka the Wheel. They contain Cybermats - an early phase in an elaborate invasion plan devised by the Cybermen. The travellers must convince the crew of the Wheel of the danger facing them and, ultimately, the Earth. They befriend a young astrophysicist, Zoe, who stows away on the Tardis hoping to join their adventures. First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 27 April 1968 Episode 2 - Saturday 4 May 1968 Episode 3 - Saturday 11 May 1968 Episode 4 - Saturday 18 May 1968 Episode 5 - Saturday 25 May 1968 Episode 6 - Saturday 1 June 1968 Production Filming: March 1968 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: April 1968 in Lime Grove D (ep 1), TC3 (eps 2 & 4), TC1 (ep 3) and May 1968 in Riverside 1 (eps 5 & 6) Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury Jarvis Bennett - Michael Turner Leo Ryan - Eric Flynn Dr Gemma Corwyn - Anne Ridler Tanya Lernov - Clare Jenkins Enrico Casali - Donald Sumpter Armand Vallance - Derrick Gilbert Bill Duggan - Kenneth Watson Chang - Peter Laird Elton Laleham - Michael Goldie Kemel Rudkin - Kevork Malikyan Sean Flannigan - James Mellor Servo Robot - Freddie Foote Cybermen - Jerry Holmes, Gordon Stothard Cyber voices - Peter Hawkins, Roy Skelton Crew Writer - David Whitaker from a story by Kit Pedler Special sounds - Brian Hodgson and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Designer - Derek Dodd Story editor - Derrick Sherwin Producer - Peter Bryant Director - Tristan de Vere Cole RT Review by Patrick Mulkern Cumbersome, retro but with one or two neat features - yes, it's the Servo Robot, a sort of waddling Smeg fridge reject that is, to my mind, emblematic of this entire bargain-basement serial. At the end of season five fresh ideas and money fall short, and we witness an uneasy alliance between scientist Kit Pedler and fabulist David Whitaker. Pedler developed the wheel-shaped space station and technical, astronomical ideas, but these alone couldn't sustain six episodes. It was down to Whitaker to flesh out some drama, albeit with a clunkingly tortuous plot. As he recalled in 1978, "That was a characters' story" - most of whom don't appear until the end of episode one. Before that, the opener dwells on the travellers' exploration of an unfamiliar environment - an effective Who formula (cf the first Dalek story, The Ark in Space, even the start of 2008's Silence in the Library). Here it's a deserted rocket. And, as I vividly recall from childhood, tension mounts in this lost episode as the Doctor and Jamie pass through sliding doors and eventually encounter the lumbering Servo Robot. But surely this isn't the hidden menace that made the Tardis overload? Anticipation is well maintained, yet anyone who caught BBC1's trailers or RT's short preview knew full well the Cybermen were secreted aboard. For their fourth outing in two years, they undergo another redesign - silvery wetsuits, "hydraulic" limb connections and a teardrop effect at the eyes. Unfortunately, the budget would only run to two new costumes. Their invasion strategy - convoluted even by Cyber standards - has been concocted by a Cyber-Planner (a device that looks like it was knocked up on Blue Peter). The Cybermats return and this time the threat they pose is made clear. After their "eggs" have magically popped through the Wheel's hull, the little critters sap fuel and zap crew. The humans are the usual international mix, led by yet another unhinged incompetent (Bennett). His No 2 Leo Ryan sits around indulging Tanya, the daft Russian, as she twitters on about her hypersensitive nose. The most engaging character is Gemma Corwyn, a mature, sympathetic widow whose murder by the Cybermen should be more distressing but is skated over. Wendy Padbury charms as Zoe, the perky new companion devised by script editor Derrick Sherwin. Practically brainwashed in logic and astrophysics, this "proper little brainchild" provides a counterpoint to the Cybermen and is upset when Leo calls her robotic. "I don't want to be thought of as a freak," she says. "I want to feel things as well." Zoe doesn't hit it off with Jamie (who's sorely missing Victoria) and she giggles at his kilt. "You're wearing female garments!" "You watch your lip," snaps Jamie, "or I'll put you across my knee and larrup you." "This is going to be fun!" she says. A new dynamic is created. Each pokes fun at the other's level of education, but they start to bond after a space walk in the path of meteorites. This is actually one of the most extraordinary moments in Doctor Who. Plot-wise it gives Jamie and Zoe a brave task and "exciting" cliffhanger, but how callous of the Doctor to send them into such danger. He barely excuses himself, saying, "I am much too busy" and "Zoe calculated the risk." Still, the bowling ball meteorites look less than threatening. They join other risible effects such as a bottle-top Cybership and the silly Cyber spacewalk that ends with 2D cut-outs fluttering into the distance. In place of incidental music we have a chillingly electronic score from the BBC's own Radiophonic Workshop. As Brian Hodgson told me in our RT interview, "Sometimes it was because they'd run out of money." But this treatment certainly enhances many late 60s productions. Points of note. The Wheel in Space was the only story recorded in Lime Grove, Riverside and Television Centre - all three of the show's 1960s studio homes. It marked the last contribution from voice maestro Peter Hawkins, who'd worked on every Dalek and Cyberman story. And here Jamie first gives the Doctor his alias "John Smith" (39 years on this would even make it into a story title: Smith and Jones). Season five ends somewhat flatly, but viewers in 1968 were treated to a re-run of The Evil of the Daleks - meaning an almost uninterrupted two-year run of Doctor Who. Radio Times archive material [Episodes 3 & 6 available on the BBC DVD boxed set Doctor Who: Lost in Time. Complete soundtrack on BBC Audio CD]
A terrifying seaweed monster breaks out at a gas refinery – and Victoria leaves the series
Season 5 – Story 42 "It's down there, in the darkness, in the pipeline… waiting" - Van Lutyens Storyline When the Tardis splash-lands in the North Sea off the coast of England, the travellers row to shore, only to be captured by guards for trespassing in a gas refinery's restricted area. Taken to the Euro Sea Gas headquarters, they learn of the problems that are plaguing drilling operations. These are later sourced to a parasitic form of seaweed that can emit poisonous vapour, or produce mind-controlling foam. The Doctor discovers that Victoria's screams somehow subdue the weed creatures, and is thus able to thwart their planned invasion by amplifying the noise. Jamie and the Doctor are saddened by Victoria's decision to stay with a couple who work for the refinery. First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 16 March 1968 Episode 2 - Saturday 23 March 1968 Episode 3 - Saturday 30 March 1968 Episode 4 - Saturday 6 April 1968 Episode 5 - Saturday 13 April 1968 Episode 6 - Saturday 20 April 1968 Production Location filming: February 1968 at Red Sands Fort, Thames estuary; Botany Bay, Margate, Kent; Denham, Bucks Filming: February 1968 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: February/March 1968 in Lime Grove D (eps 1-5) and March 1968 in TC1 (ep 6) Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling Chief John Robson - Victor Maddern Van Lutyens - John Abineri Harris - Roy Spencer Maggie Harris - June Murphy Megan Jones - Margaret John Price - Graham Leaman Oak - John Gill Quill - Bill Burridge Perkins - Brian Cullingford Carney - John Garvin Chief Baxter - Richard Mayes Chief engineer - Hubert Rees Crew Writer - Victor Pemberton Incidental music - Dudley Simpson Designer - Peter Kindred Story editor - Derrick Sherwin Producer - Peter Bryant Director - Hugh David RT Review by Mark Braxton I wonder if writer Victor Pemberton lives by the maxim that worse things happen at sea. They certainly do in this six-part thrill-ride, containing rigs under siege, staff under pressure, a bizarre yet everyday threat and a dangerously mad leader - with a chopper chase and an outgoing companion added for good measure. It's a rollercoaster ride of tone, too, from a sense of mischief and fun, through tense, sweaty horror of the unknown, to a gnawing sense of loss when Victoria decides to end her travels. You can find at least one great moment in every single Doctor Who story. Fury from the Deep features arguably the greatest number and biggest variety of scary scenes, among them: the cadaverous, pop-eyed Quill unleashing his catastrophic halitosis; Van Lutyens being sucked into a foamy bog; Maggie's terrifyingly long, slow walk into the waves; and Robson's "Come in, Doctor, we've been waiting for you," beckoning his nemesis into the bubbles like some Vosene-addicted Blofeld. But there are so many more. It has to be said that the science is a little, well, shaky. What really is the connection between natural resources, thrashing tendrils, heartbeats, mountains of suds and gas-breath? It's just like the famous Russell T Davies shopping list of ingredients, but in this case we never get the satisfactory flow chart that connects them all. And you sense that, beneath all the surging froth there's a strident eco-message thrashing to get out. The RT featurette coinciding with episode one hinted that this was rich territory for just such a treatment. But environmental concerns aren't overt in the way that they would be in, say, 1970's Inferno (in many ways a re-tread of Fury), or in 1973's The Green Death. Not that any of this matters. Pemberton seems much more interested in a straightforward, chill-filled escapade. And Fury has fathoms of fright, wiping all memory of The Underwater Menace and its soggy inanities, and paving the way for other successful marine adventures (The Sea Devils, Terror of the Zygons etc). It also contains one of the most telegraphed departures in the show. Consider these early warnings from Victoria: "I don't really like being scared out of my wits every second"; "Why can't we go anywhere pleasant, where there's no fighting, just peace and happiness?"; "I'm tired of one crisis on top of another". She's even given a night to think it over, so when she tells the Doctor and Jamie she's staying, they - and we - are more than prepared. Deborah Watling looks back on the story with fondness, especially the foam fight at the beginning. As she once told me, "Pat and Frazer got into the middle of the foam. They're having a wonderful time. All of a sudden they stop, look at each other and then look at me, walk towards me and drag me into the foam and I come out like a foam monster. A lot of the public were there and they just thought it was wonderfully impressive." Not that the winter shoot in Margate was a picnic, as Frazer Hines told me: "It was freezing. The wind was so cold that by the time we got ashore [on a dinghy] my knees were blue. I was going out with Susan George at the time and she had to massage the colour back into them!" Two other reasons the story stands out are the fact that both male and female characters are well drawn, from Victor Maddern's hilariously belligerent but superbly acted Chief Robson ("What are you staring at?") to Margaret John's impressively sure-footed Megan Jones ("Pull yourself together, man!"), which was one of the show's best guest roles for a woman. The use of sound is enterprising, too, with radiophonic rumble and splurge dovetailing nicely with Dudley Simpson's piano reverb and cold synths. Fury from the Deep may not be especially deep, but it's indubitably furious. Horror is pushed to the fore - and yet there's not a single death. "Everybody lives!" But we'll leave the last thoughts to Deborah Watling, then Frazer Hines. DW: "I remember having to say goodbye to Doctor Who and Jamie. I adored Pat and he adored me, and Frazer was like a brother - a naughty brother." FH: "We all loved Deborah and were very sorry to see her go." Radio Times archive material [Soundtrack available on BBC Audio CD]
A spooky all-time classic in which the Yeti invade the London Underground and Nicholas Courtney debuts as Lethbridge Stewart
Season 5 – Story 41 "Someone here is in league with the Yeti. Maybe even controlling them... It may be any one of us" - the Doctor Storyline The Tardis struggles to break free from a web-like substance that suspends it in space. Landing in the London Underground in the near future, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria soon meet an old ally - Professor Travers, whom they met in Tibet 40 years earlier. He has inadvertently reactivated a Yeti and allowed the Intelligence to regain a foothold on Earth. Mist has enveloped the capital, deadly fungus is seeping through the Tube system and the Yeti are on the attack. At a deep-level wartime fortress, it's down to a team of scientists and soldiers, led by Colonel Lethbridge Stewart, to defeat this menace… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 3 February 1968 Episode 2 - Saturday 10 February 1968 Episode 3 - Saturday 17 February 1968 Episode 4 - Saturday 24 February 1968 Episode 5 - Saturday 2 March 1968 Episode 6 - Saturday 9 March 1968 Production Location filming: December 1967/January 1968 at Shelton Street and Poupart's Yard, Covent Garden; Ealing backlot, London Filming: December 1967/January 1968 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: January/February 1968 in Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling Professor Travers - Jack Watling Anne Travers - Tina Packer Colonel Lethbridge Stewart - Nicholas Courtney Staff Sgt Arnold - Jack Woolgar Captain Knight - Ralph Watson Harold Chorley - Jon Rollason Driver Evans - Derek Pollitt Julius Silverstein - Frederick Schrecker Corporal Lane - Rod Beacham Corporal Blake - Richardson Morgan Craftsman Weams - Stephen Whittaker Yeti - John Levene, John Lord, Gordon Stothard, Colin Warman, Jeremy King, Roger Jacombs Crew Writers - Mervyn Haisman, Henry Lincoln Incidental music - various library tracks Designer - David Myerscough-Jones Story editor - Derrick Sherwin Producer - Peter Bryant Director - Douglas Camfield RT review by Patrick Mulkern What's your favourite story? It's a somewhat facile question - and "favourite" doesn't automatically connote "best" - but a Doctor Who fan will have a ready answer. I always cite The Web of Fear as "my all-time favourite". It may not enjoy the gloss of 21st-century Who nor even star my "favourite Doctor". So why? Maybe it's because this is the earliest story I braved as a tot. After months of fleeing the room in terror at the signature tune - and at Troughton's sinister mug bubbling forth - in the winter of 1968 I steeled myself to linger and saw what I perceived as bears with glowing eyes in dark passageways. I was captivated. Perhaps it's because The Web of Fear forms a clever sequel to that other classic, The Abominable Snowmen. Just 13 weeks later we have the fun of seeing Travers decades older, reeling at the sight of the Doctor's youthful party and desperately guilty; he's reactivated a Yeti control sphere and triggered the current crisis. Or is it just that the concept is all stations to barking? Robotic Yeti. In the London Underground. Armed with web guns. Controlled by a disembodied Intelligence. Spreading pulsating fungus... Ludicrous, yes, but dramatised with such heart-stopping graveness that it works brilliantly. Only in Doctor Who! Maybe it's the inherent horror of the Underground. With almost all the action locked deep within the Tube (or the confines of a drab, subterranean fortress), writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln tapped into the claustrophobia latent in most commuters and visitors to London. (This thought was expanded upon in RT's Web of Fear feature - accompanied by an abysmal cartoon.) Nothing was filmed on the real Tube, but the sets at Ealing and Lime Grove are remarkably convincing. Could it be episode three's casual introduction of Lethbridge Stewart? On the page he's shrewd and enigmatic, but director Douglas Camfield redrew the character as a very young colonel and "anglicised Scot". Thus Nicholas Courtney (then 38) joined the series. Given how, as the Brigadier, he would become so popular - indeed Doctor Who's most enduring star - it's queer that we never actually witnessed his first meeting with the Doctor. They've already hooked up off screen moments before Victoria finds them in a tunnel. I pointed this out to Courtney during an RT interview in 2008. "Do you know, that never struck me before," he said. "I'd have thought Douglas - a stickler for those things - would have sorted that, but then maybe it was done to sow the seeds of doubt. Everyone was very suspicious of the Colonel - whether he was in league with the Yeti." Almost any of the characters could be the Intelligence's secret pawn. "Me perhaps?" the Colonel tells the Doctor. "Or even you." Both ideas are plausible: the Doctor has vanished for the whole of part two, and the Colonel "suddenly popped out from nowhere". This device spreads paranoia within the small cast and heightens tension for first-time viewers. And full praise to Haisman and Lincoln for making these people feel real. There's Chorley, the oily hack who becomes a gibbering wreck, rheumy old Sgt Arnold ("Don't try to be funny with me, lad!") and cowardly Evans ("You've got to take care of Number One in this world. I'm getting out of these tunnels fast!"). Anne Travers ("I have a very quick temper and very long claws") is a rounded modern woman and bright enough to be co-opted by the Doctor. Study her: she's a prototype of 1970 companion Liz Shaw. And, of course, there's grumpy Professor Travers ("Television? Never watch it!"). The Web of Fear is a tour de force for Douglas Camfield. He's masterly at creeping terror (Victoria lost alone in the tunnels), shock-reveals (lurking Yeti, the fungus) and the spectacular battle in Covent Garden. He also polishes moody dialogue scenes - the Doctor explaining the Intelligence and secrets of the Tardis to the Colonel; possessed Travers revealing the Intelligence's plan; and the row at Silverstein's museum... This sequence is shot and lit like a Hammer horror and uses a magnificently eerie excerpt from Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. When the Yeti is reanimated, its cuddly owl-like outline shimmers before our eyes into a brutal hulk with eyes ablaze. It's a brazenly unexplained transformation that enhances the Yeti's supernatural mystique. Both are superb designs by Martin Baugh. These Mark II Yeti also growl - long thought to be the distorted sound of a toilet flushing. (My RT interview with Radiophonic whizz Brian Hodgson has cast some doubt.) I love everything about The Web of Fear. It's a tense, classy production - and genuinely nightmarish. And my fingers are crossed that some day someone will find film prints for episodes two to six.* * I am delighted to say my wish came true. In 2013, against all expectation, film prints for The Web of Fear were found in Nigeria (with the sad exception of Episode 3, Lethbridge Stewart’s debut). It is a huge pleasure to be able now to watch this almost complete serial any time I like. I wouldn’t revise one word of what I wrote above in 2009. It remains a favourite and remains a classic. Several scenes came rushing back to me across the decades, and episode 4 is just as I imagined it – one of the finest episodes of 1960s. The whole production is a crowning glory for director Douglas Camfield. Radio Times archive material RT introduced the story with a full-page article and quite abysmal cartoon. A few weeks later there was a profile of Frazer Hines. And there were various other mini articles during the story's run. Also below the six episode billings. [Available on DVD]
Patrick Troughton is superb in dual roles as the Doctor and megalomaniac Salamander
Season 5 – Story 40 "You must find this man who impersonated me. The dangers are obvious. He could walk in anywhere at any time pretending to be me and ruin everything" - Salamander Storyline The Tardis arrives on a beach in Australia in 2018, where the Doctor is immediately mistaken for his identical double, Salamander - a powerful figure known to many as the saviour of the world. However, a discredited former ally Giles Kent and his action-woman sidekick Astrid insist that Salamander is a ruthless megalomaniac. He is engineering natural disasters and political coups in a bid for world domination. Kent asks Jamie and Victoria to infiltrate Salamander's retinue in Hungary, and tries to persuade the Doctor to pose as his villainous doppelganger… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 23 December 1967 Episode 2 - Saturday 30 December 1967 Episode 3 - Saturday 6 January 1968 Episode 4 - Saturday 13 January 1968 Episode 5 - Saturday 20 January 1968 Episode 6 - Saturday 27 January 1968 Production Location filming: November 1967 at Climping beach, West Sussex; Ealing, West London Filming: November 1967 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: December 1967/January 1968 at Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Salamander - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling Giles Kent - Bill Kerr Astrid Ferrier - Mary Peach Benik - Milton Johns Alexandre Denes - George Pravda Donald Bruce - Colin Douglas Fariah - Carmen Munroe Fedorin - David Nettheim Anton - Henry Stamper Rod - Rhys McConnochie Curly - Simon Cain Griffin the chef - Reg Lye Swann - Christopher Burgess Colin - Adam Verney Mary - Margaret Hickey Guard captains - Gordon Faith, Elliott Cairnes Guard on Denes - Bill Lyons Benik's sergeant - Andrew Staines Crew Writer - David Whitaker Incidental music - library recordings of Bela Bartok pieces Designer - Christopher Pemsel Story editor - Peter Bryant Producer - Innes Lloyd Director - Barry Letts RT Review by Patrick Mulkern The Enemy of the World… There's something arresting and indefinably great about that title. If only the same could be said of the six episodes it encompasses. Coming midway through a season rich in classic monster tales, it does what it sets out to do: provide a breather and some contrast. But… It purports to be a political thriller and is far from thrilling. It's written on a grand-ish scale to which the budget cannot stretch, so we're left with tracts of dull, repetitive dialogue. Action switches abruptly from Australia to Hungary then back again, but we never really get the sense it's set in either. Caravans may have been the in-thing in the late 60s, but a tedious amount of time is spent in Giles Kent's tiny trailer on the outskirts of a research centre. And are we seriously expected to believe Salamander's subterranean dwellers Down Under can set off volcanoes in Hungary? Please! The Doctor's companions are shoehorned into episodes two and three with material quite unsuited to their characters. Perhaps we might have bought the contemporary, more grown-up Ben and Polly being taken seriously in Salamander's court, but not the Hansel and Gretel figures that are Jamie and Victoria. Indeed, so superfluous are they, they make no appearance at all in part four - the only companionless episode until 1977's The Deadly Assassin - and have barely a handful of scenes in parts five and six. (Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling were given a lighter workload over the Christmas/New Year period.) On the positive side, David Whitaker gives us a police state, large videoscreens, talk of natural disasters and geographical Zones reminiscent of Orwell's 1984. He also provides striking characters for whom director Barry Letts has assembled a decent cast. Swooping in by helicopter, Mary Peach lands a meaty role as Astrid, and is clearly influenced by Emma Peel and the Bond girls. Better known for comedy, Bill Kerr plays the duplicitous Aussie Giles Kent. Carmen Munroe imbues Salamander's food-taster Fariah with passion, and Milton Johns is perfectly vile as sadistic Benik. But this is Patrick Troughton's showcase. Much as I dislike the preposterous notion of doppelgangers (cf The Massacre), this is the USP of The Enemy of the World. It almost goes without saying that Troughton excels himself. He's fully in character as the Doctor - paddling with glee in a Victorian bathing suit; being enigmatic with Astrid about his "Doctorate"; taking the moral high ground and refusing to help Kent until episode five. He is also completely convincing as sinister Salamander, with darker complexion, hair in a neat parting, and unwavering Mexican accent. (The Doctor deduces Salamander is from the Yucatan.) Even more impressive are the many scenes where Troughton shows the Doctor getting into character as Salamander, pretending to be him in front of various people, but still showing us, the viewers, it's really the Doctor underneath. In the finale, we even get the fourth combination, as Salamander hoodwinks Jamie and Victoria into thinking that he is the time traveller to gain access to the Tardis. Sadly, this dramatic (and only) head to head between Salamander and the Doctor was drastically curtailed after a filming cock-up. What interests me most about The Enemy of the World is the sense of old-school Who making way for the new. In places, Whitaker's sedate, wordy script is given a thorough workout. Episode one is vastly rewritten with more than half opened out into action sequences, involving chases, a chopper and a hovercraft, filmed along the dunes near Littlehampton. The tyros responsible were Barry Letts and Derrick Sherwin, who in the next few years would completely change the landscape of Doctor Who. I'd love to see part one now (it's been junked) as the first showcase of their talents. The coming and goings in the production office in late 1967 are too complex to detail here, but the most significant change was the departure of Innes Lloyd. In his two-year tenure he remoulded the series - kicking out history stories, introducing four vivid companions and classic foes (Cybermen, Yeti and Ice Warriors). In recasting the lead actor, he ensured the programme's longevity. For this bold move alone, he deserves his place high among the Doctor Who greats. - - - Writing in 2013, after the fabulous and unexpected return of this serial to the BBC, I have to say I am thrilled to be able to watch it now. I probably wouldn’t revise a word of what I wrote above in 2009. The story looks almost as entirely as I imagined, arguably better in places, especially the film sequences, and is as much a success for Letts and Sherwin as it is for Troughton and Whitaker. The performances are strong and the weaknesses in the plotting and setting remain. Above all, it presents something very different and very appealing in the rolling timeline of Doctor Who. Many thanks to everyone who played a part in bringing back into existence. * Radio Times archive material Slightly out of context, in the middle of this monster-free story, RT gave Doctor Who its first full-colour cover, showing Patrick Troughton on the set of The Ice Warriors, to accompany a two-page article on monsters. There was a mini-feature introducing guest star Mary Peach and an article on the costumes of Peach and Bill Kerr, which for a long while was the only existing indication of the year the action was set in. Also below the six episode billings. And what would life be without a gratuitous photo of Frazer Hines? [Available on DVD]
Global "cooling" brings about a new Ice Age and the debut of a classic foe – in an imaginative tale with lots of hissing and shouting
Season 5 – Story 39 "And then the glaciers will move again. Five thousand years of history crushed beneath a moving mountain of ice" - Clent Storyline In the year 3000, Earth is in the grip of a new Ice Age. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive at Britannicus Base - a Georgian mansion within a protective dome - where Leader Clent and his team are using an ioniser in the struggle to keep the glaciers at bay. At the ice face, Clent's men discover an alien warrior, frozen and perfectly preserved since the last Ice Age. Brought back to life, Varga sets about freeing his comrades from the glacier and reactivating their spaceship - no matter what cost to the ionisation project… First transmissions One - Saturday 11 November 1967 Two - Saturday 18 November 1967 Three - Saturday 25 November 1967 Four - Saturday 2 December 1967 Five - Saturday 9 December 1967 Six - Saturday 16 December 1967 Production Filming: September/October 1967 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: October/November 1967 in Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling Leader Clent - Peter Barkworth Elric Penley - Peter Sallis Jane Garrett - Wendy Gifford Arden - George Waring Storr - Angus Lennie Walters - Malcolm Taylor Davis - Peter Diamond Voice of the Computer - Roy Skelton The Ice Warriors: Varga - Bernard Bresslaw Zondal - Roger Jones Turoc - Sonny Caldinez Isbur - Michael Attwell Rintan - Tony Harwood Crew Writer - Brian Hayles Incidental music - Dudley Simpson Designer - Jeremy Davies Story editor - Peter Bryant Producer - Innes Lloyd Director - Derek Martinus RT Review by Patrick Mulkern Brrrrr! Time to defrost another old relic from 1967. And all the staple elements of that period are on show: isolated base, small band of humans, leader on the brink of mania and ice-cool female eye-candy - plus, of course, a terrifying alien threat. Monsters were the nouvelle vague: Innes Lloyd, and Peter Bryant especially, loved them. Their intention now was that Doctor Who should frighten, and writer Brian Hayles was commissioned to develop a formidable new foe. "Proper 'ice warrior', isn't he?" says scientist Walters when Varga's spooky visor first appears through the ice face. It's a striking description and one that would stick but I've always wanted to know, what do they call themselves? Not Martians. What race are they? (By their fourth appearance in 1974 they were actually calling themselves Ice Warriors.) These "cruel Martian invaders" made an instant hit and became a popular recurring monster - they had to wait until 2013 to be thawed and revived in 21st-century Who. Hayles devised the Ice Warriors as creatures that could exhibit greater personality than, say, Daleks and Cybermen, and Bernard Bresslaw - oddly still discernible under layers of rubber and fibreglass - is brilliant as Varga. He menaces ("What are your qualifications for existence?"), scoffs, teases, "laughs" and does an awful lot of hissing. But, truth be told, his subordinates remain standard lumbering hissers. Hayles envisaged them simply as warriors in futuristic armour; it was costume designer Martin Baugh who gave them a reptilian twist so that, rather like crocodiles or turtles, their armour plating became integral carapaces. There were also different designs: indeed, Varga's "suit" changes between episodes one and two! Thanks to a fortuitous find in a BBC store cupboard in 1988, film prints of four of the original episodes are still available for our viewing pleasure. Thus most of the storyline can be followed, although the lost parts two and three included crucial moments. Varga kidnaps Victoria and reveals his origins "from the red planet" and his intentions: "Whether to go back to our own world or to conquer this." We're also deprived of the defining cliffhanger when Varga thaws his comrades from blocks of ice. So let's take a temperature reading. There are many positives - besides the towering titular reptiles. Special episode titles play across a glacial montage, backed by a haunting soprano. Director Derek Martinus filmed convincing icy "exteriors" at Ealing Studios, and even hired a small brown bear! The scientific detail spouted by Clent's team and the Doctor rings true - even if the advance of the glaciers "100 metres today" is implausible. The "global cooling" angle is laudable for the time. This new Ice Age has been precipitated by the worldwide devastation of vegetation. "No plants: no carbon dioxide," says the Doctor, to which Clent adds, "Suddenly, one year … there was no spring." The regular trio works well. The Doctor, back in his massive fur coat, proves himself to Clent with his mental acuity but pointedly disdains computers. He braves a visit to the Ice Warrior ship armed with nothing more than a stink bomb, then, seeing them in the flesh, does a comical double-take ("Oh my word!") and turns to flee. Jamie shows a lust for the ladies in their skimpy outfits and teases prim Victoria. "You see how those lassies were dressed… You don't see yourself dressed like that then?" She does a lot of whimpering but stands up to Varga and looks the perfect angelic heroine during the chase through the glacier. Less effective is the repetitive blather about the base's dependence on "the computer". A reasonable anxiety in 1967 perhaps, today the message feels hammer-driven. Peter Barkworth shows fleeting sensitivity as pressure-cooker Clent, but does an awful lot of shouting and his borderline hysteria becomes wearing. Sporting peculiar stubble, Peter Sallis plays scientist/deserter Penley, holed up in a plant museum with science-phobic scavenger Storr (Angus Lennie, later aka Crossroads' outrageous chef, Shughie McFee). They make an odd couple; arguably Doctor Who's first gay couple. The finale is disappointingly shambolic (tension evaporates, scenes misfire and Victoria vanishes), but on balance The Ice Warriors is an imaginative serial and a well-mounted showcase for cool new monsters. Radio Times archive material In 1967 we published an introductory feature with an error in the photo caption – Victoria is being pursued by Turoc (Sonny Caldinez) not Bernard Bresslaw as Varga. There were small profiles of composer Dudley Simpson (RT 18 November 1967) and guest star Peter Barkworth (RT 25 November 1967). Also (below) the six episode billings and two letters: one celebrating four years of Doctor Who (RT 18 November 1967); another, challenging the facts of the story, was answered by writer Brian Hayles (RT 16 December 1967). Also during the course of this story, BBC1's children's magazine show Blue Peter launched its first Design a Monster competition. [Episodes 1, 4, 5 & 6 available on BBC DVD, as well as animated versions of episode 2 & 3. Complete soundtrack available on BBC Audio CD]
A revered classic in which the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria must defend a Tibetan monastery against robotic Yeti
Season 5 – Story 38 "Leave the monastery. There is great evil here" - the Doctor Storyline When the Tardis lands near a Tibetan monastery in 1935, the Doctor prepares to return to the monks of Detsen a holy bell or ghanta that he was given for safekeeping on a previous visit. But the expected "welcome of a lifetime" never materialises. Instead the Doctor is accused by an English explorer called Travers of murdering his companion. In fact the killer was one of the Yeti - also encountered by Jamie and Victoria - which turn out to be robots manipulated by the Doctor's former friend, Padmasambhava. The frail, centuries-old High Lama is possessed by a space-dwelling Great Intelligence planning to take over the Earth… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 30 September 1967 Episode 2 - Saturday 7 October 1967 Episode 3 - Saturday 14 October 1967 Episode 4 - Saturday 21 October 1967 Episode 5 - Saturday 28 October 1967 Episode 6 - Saturday 4 November 1967 Production Location filming: September 1967 at Nant Ffrancon Pass, Gwynedd Filming: August 1967 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: September/October 1967 at Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling Travers - Jack Watling Abbot Songsten - Charles Morgan Thonmi - David Spenser Khrisong - Norman Jones Padmasambhava - Wolfe Morris Ralpachan - David Baron Rinchen - David Grey Sapan - Raymond Llewellyn Yeti - Reg Whitehead, Tony Harwood, Richard Kerley, John Hogan Crew Writers - Mervyn Haisman, Henry Lincoln Incidental music - none Designer - Malcolm Middleton Story editor - Peter Bryant Producer - Innes Lloyd Director - Gerald Blake RT Review by Mark Braxton If The Abominable Snowmen were a stick of rock, it would have Doctor Who running through it. Few stories scream out the show's name, and capture its appeal, quite so precisely. Here's that list of ingredients: unusual setting; huge and threatening monster; creepy malefactor; clear storytelling; and that killer concurrence of personal peril with widespread jeopardy. Other adventures fit the mould, but not with such atmosphere and ingenuity. The tragedy is that, here we are, deep into one of the most sustained runs of quality serials in the show's history, and yet only a paltry number of episodes prevail. From The Moonbase up to and including these Himalayan high jinks, only ten of a possible 31 instalments exist; take it back to the start of the Troughton tenure and it's 12 from 45 - just over a quarter! Fortunately you're given a decent flavour of Snowmen if you combine the sole survivor, episode 2, with the soundtrack and telesnaps on the BBC website. All of them remind us it's a marvellous jaunt, and for many reasons. There's something uniquely unsettling about an isolated monastery - just read The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, or watch its film adaptation. And designer Malcolm Middleton does a superb job here with his flame-lit corridors, giant buddha, functional main courtyard and shadowy inner sanctum. The exteriors are reasonably meshed with studio scenes, though at no point does Snowdonia convince as Tibet. But then neither does the Welsh countryside cut it as the foothills of Vesuvius in 2008's The Fires of Pompeii. So let's not blame such failings on the old. The entire story, inspired by a mythical beast like 1975's Terror of the Zygons by the Loch Ness monster, is accorded further mystique by an off-screen "prologue". The Doctor has lived a life prior to the stories we've seen: he visited Detsen three centuries before, and befriended the chap with the really long name. In 1967 this was something relatively new for viewers to grapple with, and gained more currency as a narrative technique hereafter. Writers Haisman and Lincoln people their landscape with compelling characters. As well as the misguided but essentially decent Travers, the monks - wrestling a clutch of hard-to-pronounce but authentic-sounding names - are nicely delineated. The best of them is Padmasambhava. It's an astonishing vocal performance by Wolfe Morris as the alien-possessed Lama, switching from modulated compassion to spat-out malice. And there's something searingly gruesome about his crumpled countenance. Another way in which this unusually lean six-parter stands out is in its lack of music. Try to imagine such an approach working in today's era of wall-to-wall scoring. Silence v "total music"… there's no right or wrong answer. After all, it's the variety of approach that has kept the show running for so long. But here it enables the sound of wind whistling through the cloisters to create the mood, and for the actors to do more with their voices: as well as Morris's "dual-lead" vocals throughout, Patrick Troughton's subtlety in "talking down" an entranced Victoria in episode five is also marvellous. Perhaps the fact that it was such a happy working atmosphere for regulars Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling informed the production. When I once interviewed her about being in the show, Watling told me about the fun of working alongside her real-life father Jack (playing Travers)."Dad and I were like mates," she said. "Pat, Frazer and he got on like a house on fire. One day I lost them all and later found them at the back of the catering van having a few brandies to keep warm. I asked for one but they said I was too young. I was only 19." Whatever synergy it was that fashioned such on-screen magic… travelling trio on indomitable form, unusual subject, formidable monsters… The Abominable Snowmen remains a revered standard-bearer for the show. The mark of a good adventure is the desire of the producers to repeat the success. Viewers only had to wait three months to see Travers and those furry foes again… Radio Times archive material RT's photographer Don Smith travelled to Snowdonia in September 1967 to record the filming of The Abominable Snowmen. Here are a few shots of the cast and crew with the Yeti. (Images copyright Radio Times Archive). Also below, the six episode billings from 1967 and a small article that RT published on the story's location. [Episode 2 available on the BBC DVD boxed set Doctor Who: Lost in Time. Complete soundtrack on BBC Audio CD]
The long-lost classic in which the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria encounter the Cybermen frozen on Telos
Season 5 – Story 37 "Some things are better left undone, and I have a feeling that this is one of them" - the Doctor Storyline On the deserted planet of Telos, the travellers find an archaeological team from Earth looking for the lost tomb of the Cybermen. Although the Doctor helps the party enter the tomb, he insists the Cybermen be left in hibernation. However, expedition financier Klieg and his business partner Kaftan, both members of the Brotherhood of Logicians, intend to use the revived cyborgs to conquer the Earth. It turns out that the tomb is a trap to help the Cybermen repopulate and, when they have been awoken, the Controller and his minions launch Cybermat creatures to subdue the visitors… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 2 September 1967 Episode 2 - Saturday 9 September 1967 Episode 3 - Saturday 16 September 1967 Episode 4 - Saturday 23 September 1967 Production Location filming: June 1967 at Gerrards Cross quarry, Buckinghamshire Filming: June 1967 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: July 1967 at Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling Professor Parry - Aubrey Richards Eric Klieg - George Pastell Kaftan - Shirley Cooklin Toberman - Roy Stewart Captain Hopper - George Roubicek Jim Callum - Clive Merrison John Viner - Cyril Shaps Peter Haydon - Bernard Holley Ted Rogers - Alan Johns Crewman - Ray Grover Cyberman Controller - Michael Kilgarriff Cybermen - Hans de Vries, Tony Harwood, John Hogan, Richard Kerley, Ronald Lee, Charles Pemberton, Kenneth Seeger, Reg Whitehead Cybermen voices - Peter Hawkins Crew Writers - Kit Pedler, Gerry Davis Incidental music - various library tracks Special sounds - Brian Hodgson Designer - Martin Johnson Story editor - Victor Pemberton Producer - Peter Bryant Director - Morris Barry RT Review by Mark Braxton Some story titles from the annals are uttered with hushed reverence and The Tomb of the Cybermen, heralding a golden age for the show, is no exception. But is this Season Five opener fully deserving of classic status…? It's a fabulous start, certainly, with continuity from the preceding story to remind us of Victoria's introduction, switching to Professor Parry's motley crew on Telos, who resemble escapees from Benidorm. The ITV sitcom, that is. They're a fascinating bunch. Chief among them is logic-driven madman Eric Klieg, leant an exotic edge by Cypriot character actor George Pastell, though I think original choice Vladek Sheybal (Kronsteen in From Russia with Love) would have been even more suavely memorable. Then there's Queen Beehive herself, Kaftan (how very 60s), played by producer Peter Bryant's wife Shirley Cooklin. And the hilariously pessimistic Viner (the part guaranteed Cyril Shaps further work on the show). The new-style Cybermen are well realised, though I was never a particular fan, finding them limited and clumsy. However, the concept of an entire crypt full of the blighters is a terrific one (almost as petrifying as the barrow in The Daemons, 1971). The Telos terrors have been bolstered by a Controller, with his veined cranium denoting extra intelligence, and also by the scuttling Cybermats. The idea of the latter is definitely scarier than the actuality: their ping-pong eyes and felt teeth are very Blue Peter, while the story doesn't make clear what threat they actually pose. Many say the "electrolarynx" Cyber-voice was an improvement on the singsong whine adopted by actors in The Tenth Planet. I'm not so sure. The earlier method, with its haphazard emphases, was somehow weirder and more alien-sounding, while the new Cybermen add rogue vowels on the end of sentences ("You will remain still-a"; "We must survive-a"). They sound like a Mark E Smith tribute act. What's worse, being under stress seems to turn them into rabid Punch and Judy men. When I watched Tomb with my young son recently, he kept asking me what the Cybermen were saying. World domination would be some way off while diction was such a problem. That said, in 1967 the Cybermen were becoming clear favourites - it was their third appearance in a year. RT honoured the fact with a striking cover and, inside, a Doctor's diary entry about being on Telos! Patrick Troughton was building up a head of steam as Doctor Two now, and his relationship with Jamie was well cemented. There's plenty of humour between them: the scene where the Doctor realises he's holding Jamie's hand and tosses it aside in annoyance is redolent of Oliver Hardy himself. There's a softer side, too. Much has already been written in books and on fansites, not surprisingly, about the moment the Doctor counsels Victoria on the grieving process. It's tenderly acted and unfussily written, but credit should also go to director Morris Barry for his expressive use of close-up. It was rarely more appropriate than here. One dark truth is inescapable, however. Everything that happens, and that includes multiple deaths, is a direct result of our hero. Methinks the Doctor protests too much as he repeatedly warns the expedition of the lurking dangers, while helping them past the electrified entrance and then enabling Klieg to access the main chamber. Another uncomfortable moment sees the Doctor appealing to the unfortunately named, partly processed Toberman. "They tried to make you their slave," he insists, before using the poor man himself on a life-or-death mission. It's a case of curiosity killing someone else's cat. On the other hand, the Doctor knows the moment "Cybermen" are mentioned that non-interference is not an option. It's why we follow his adventures. The Tomb of the Cybermen does deserve its reputation. Look at the ambition and scale of the thing: the brilliantly designed sets, including that dizzyingly tall hybernation chamber; the seamless integration of location filming and studio work; and the slow escalation of terror. It's undoubtedly a classic. But, even better was still to come… Radio Times archive material To introduce Doctor Who's fourth season there was a classic Cyberman cover and an entry from the Doctor's diary. [Available on BBC DVD and BBC Audio CD]
An epic tale leads from Gatwick to Victorian England to Skaro, where the Doctor at last meets the Dalek Emperor
Season 4 – Story 36 "Without knowing, you have shown the Daleks what their own strength is… You will take the Dalek factor. You will spread it through the entire history of Earth!" - Dalek Emperor Storyline After the Tardis is stolen from Gatwick, the Doctor and Jamie's investigations lead them to the antiques shop of the mysterious Edward Waterfield. He has laid an elaborate trap - and they are transported back in time to 1866, to a house in the Kent countryside. Waterfield and Theodore Maxtible, the owner of the house, are gentlemen-scientists whose experiments with mirrors and static electricity have accidentally attracted Daleks to their laboratory. The Daleks coerce the Doctor into isolating the "human factor" - instincts and traits they will adapt to make themselves invincible - and Jamie must be the guinea pig. He's set a series of challenges while rescuing Waterfield's captive daughter, Victoria. Events move to Skaro, where the Doctor finally meets the Dalek Emperor and discovers the true evil behind the Dalek plan… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 20 May 1967 Episode 2 - Saturday 27 May 1967 Episode 3 - Saturday 3 June 1967 Episode 4 - Saturday 10 June 1967 Episode 5 - Saturday 17 June 1967 Episode 6 - Saturday 24 June 1967 Episode 7 - Saturday 1 July 1967 Production Location filming: April 1967 at Kendal Ave, Ealing; Warehouse Lane, Hammersmith; Grimsdyke House, Harrow Filming: April/May 1967 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: May/June 1967 in Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling Theodore Maxtible - Marius Goring Edward Waterfield - John Bailey Ruth Maxtible - Brigit Forsyth Mollie Dawson - Jo Rowbottom Kemel - Sonny Caldinez Bob Hall - Alec Ross Kennedy - Griffith Davies Keith Perry - Geoffrey Colville Arthur Terrall - Gary Watson Toby - Windsor Davies Daleks - Robert Jewell, Gerald Taylor, John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar, Ken Tyllsen Dalek voices - Peter Hawkins, Roy Skelton Crew Writer - David Whitaker Incidental music - Dudley Simpson Designer - Chris Thompson Story editors - Gerry Davis (1-3), Peter Bryant (4-7) Producer - Innes Lloyd Dalek fight sequences directed by Timothy Combe Director - Derek Martinus RT Review by Patrick Mulkern Alchemy is the key motif to David Whitaker's majestic seven-parter. The transmutation of base metal into gold is the obsession driving Theodore Maxtible, as we eventually discover, but the theme resonates in subtler ways throughout. Troughton's whimsical Doctor exhibits a far darker side. Previously eclipsed Jamie is at last allowed to shine. Daleks develop human characteristics. One human even becomes a Dalek. Modern Britain shimmers with a puff of gas into Victorian times. That setting - with an explosion - sublimes into a far-flung world. And underscoring it all, the incidental music segues seamlessly between instrumental and electronic. The Evil of the Daleks may feel inherently transitional, but it is also conclusive. In presenting the ultimate annihilation of the Daleks, it brings a four-year chapter to a close, with a long-awaited return to Skaro (complete with sound effects from 1963). It's undeniably an all-time classic too and, by virtue of outstanding production values, is arguably the most impressive of the 1960s Dalek serials. The story boasts an intriguing mystery, well-drawn characters, atmospheric settings and thrilling set-pieces. It utilises all three of the series' milieux: modern day, period and alien planet. Admittedly, the plot is overly elaborate, the Victorian segment an episode too long and the "scientific" principles are barking - but no matter. David Whitaker is blithely flexing his writing muscles. Present at the programme's creation in 1963, he understands its soul and mechanisms. He sees the magic of Doctor Who. If the Doctor can step out of a police box, why shouldn't Daleks burst out of a hall of mirrors? He writes better for the Daleks than their creator Terry Nation; he allows them to be devious, takes risks by making them child-like (playing trains) and humorous ("dizzy, dizzy Daleks"). Whitaker's characterisation of the Second Doctor is also intriguing. The Daleks describe him as "more than human"; they give him the pseudonym "Doctor Galloway" years before his home planet Gallifrey would be named. Much of the unnerving ambivalence from Troughton's debut story is restored. "I am not a student of human nature," he declares. "I am a professor of a far wider academy of which human nature is merely a part." Then the Doctor is taken into even darker waters as he relishes the challenge of deriving the "human factor". After these life-threatening tests, Jamie is understandably furious. In a throwback to the discord of the early Hartnell era, Whitaker gives the Doctor and Jamie their only serious barney. "We're finished," snaps the Scot. "You're just too callous for me … Whose side are you on?" Frazer Hines fulfils his potential and gets the lion's share of the action. Jamie is funny, heroic, merciful (with Turkish wrestler Kemel) and bashful in the presence of Victoria. The new companion is introduced gradually. For weeks, Victoria seems little more than a pretty damsel in distress, her floor-length skirts echoing the shape of her Dalek captors, as she's shunted through moonlit corridors. She doesn't even meet the Doctor till episode seven. But Deborah Watling is winning in the role - one deliberately mirroring Alice in Wonderland, whom she'd played in a BBC/Dennis Potter drama in 1965. [John Bailey and Marius Goring. Photographed by Don Smith, 20 May 1967 at BBC Lime Grove Studios. Copyright Radio Times Archive] The Mad Hatter of the piece is not, for once, the Doctor. With top hat, wonky spectacles and mane of white hair, Maxtible makes for a memorable rogue (played by distinguished actor Marius Goring). Obsessed with transmutation, it's fitting that he should be impregnated with the Dalek factor and start mimicking them, arms outstretched, as many child fans had been doing for the past three years. (Even the Doctor has a go!) Top marks to Dudley Simpson for his most evocative score. As well as the oboe-led theme for Victoria, he conjures dark sonorities with a blend of bass clarinet, alto flute and muted horn. The throbbing electronic Dalek theme, emulating the bassline of Ron Grainer's signature tune, lifts many set-pieces - especially the conclusion to part six… "No, I don't like the look of this," says the Doctor, as his party is forced into a vast darkened chamber on Skaro. The lights come up and a goosebump-inducing voice booms out: "DOC-TOR! So YOU are the DOC-TOR!" The Dalek Emperor is a triumph for 1967 and the voice work by Peter Hawkins second to none. This finale is suitably dripping with finality, as civil war breaks out among Daleks and the Emperor is destroyed - a spectacle that feels more conclusive than in any earlier Dalek serial. "The final end," states the Doctor from a high vantage point. And so it would seem. Terry Nation was planning to market his creations in America and the Doctor Who team decided that the Daleks had had their day. Indeed, they wouldn't resurface for four-and-a-half years. - - - Radio Times archive material Introductory feature including a few words from Dalek operator John Scott Martin. Two weeks later there was another small feature on guest star Marius Goring. The Evil of the Daleks was the first complete Doctor Who serial to be repeated on UK television, starting in June 1968. RT printed a full-page poster with the Daleks on a backlot at Ealing studios. This scene didn't appear in the serial itself. The repeat billing for the first episode featured an illustration by Victor Reinganum. - - - [Episode 2 available on the BBC DVD boxed set Doctor Who: Lost in Time. Complete soundtrack available on BBC Audio CD]
Body-snatching Chameleons are at work at Gatwick Airport. Pauline Collins guest-stars - as companions Ben and Polly leave
Season 4 – Story 35 "This man they call the Doctor, where does he get his knowledge?… He's a threat to our operation" - Captain Blade Storyline London, 1966: the travellers arrive at Gatwick Airport. Polly happens upon a murder and is kidnapped, then Ben vanishes, so the Doctor and Jamie try to persuade the authorities to take action. It turns out that a number of youths have disappeared while flying with Chameleon Tours. Samantha Briggs, the sister of one of the missing people, helps the Doctor and Jamie uncover an abduction plot in which aliens, scarred by a catastrophe on their own planet, are stealing human identities. After the youngsters are all returned to Earth in exchange for the Doctor's help, Ben and Polly choose to stay behind - realising they've returned to the exact day their travels began. First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 8 April 1967 Episode 2 - Saturday 15 April 1967 Episode 3 - Saturday 22 April 1967 Episode 4 - Saturday 29 April 1967 Episode 5 - Saturday 6 May 1967 Episode 6 - Saturday 13 May 1967 Production Location filming: March 1967 at Gatwick Airport Filming: March/April 1967 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: April/May 1967 at Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Polly - Anneke Wills Ben Jackson - Michael Craze Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines The Commandant - Colin Gordon Jean Rock - Wanda Ventham Samantha Briggs - Pauline Collins Captain Blade - Donald Pickering Insp Crossland/The Director - Bernard Kay Ann Davidson - Gilly Fraser Heslington - Barry Wilsher Steven Jenkins - Christopher Tranchell George Meadows - George Selway Nurse Pinto - Madalena Nicol Spencer - Victor Winding Insp Gascoigne - Peter Whitaker Supt Reynolds - Leonard Trolley RAF pilot - Michael Ladkin Announcer - Brigit Paul Policeman - James Appleby Crew Writers - David Ellis, Malcolm Hulke Incidental music - various library tracks Designer - Geoffrey Kirkland Story editor - Gerry Davis Associate producer - Peter Bryant Producer - Innes Lloyd Director - Gerry Mill RT Review by Mark Braxton There's something inherently ghastly about a human head without a face. Genre fans of a certain age will know this from Sapphire and Steel, while Doctor Who reused it as a scare tactic for the Autons and the 2006 story The Idiot's Lantern. Here, first-time Who writers David Ellis and future stalwart Malcolm Hulke could have worked it into a savvy parable about loss of identity. Instead they created a satisfyingly hard-edged adventure with abundant location filming, gritty horror and elements of James Bond (sliding panels, freezer pens, passenger aircraft sucked into satellites). Only episodes one and three still exist in their entirety - but at least they are key ones. Extraordinarily, it's only the second story - and Troughton's first - set in the present day: you can see the blueprint being inked in for later 60s stories, as well as Pertwee's Unit-stamped 70s. Music plays an important role, too. A new, embellished theme tune (from episode two onwards) features "electronic spangles" and bass-line echo, while good use is made of ambient murmurings from the music library to underscore the story's more sinister passages. Not so great are the frenzied bongos for scenes of running around. Way too Avengers! Cynics would have no problem detecting plot holes. Why, for instance, don't the travellers simply return to the Tardis at the very beginning rather than scatter to all corners of Gatwick Airport? (The answer is, of course, that there would be no story.) And the Chameleons' elaborate scheme would, you feel, attract an avalanche of concerned relatives rather than a lone, anxious sister. Also, how did the disaster on their planet remove their faces with such surgical precision? Despite this, The Faceless Ones unveils its mystery with ease and elegance. The sprinkling of solid characters (Blade, Briggs, Crossland and the Commandant) and the drive for authenticity would no doubt have left an impression on the producers. It's a story in which Patrick Troughton's Doctor is totally in control, slowly gaining the trust of the people around him. His determination to solve the puzzle needles the establishment, but his authoritative voice soon rises above the hubbub of incredulity. And his in-built resolve not to see the Chameleons as bad per se prefigures future philanthropy, especially in the reinvented series. It's another fine outing for Frazer Hines as Jamie, terrified by the aircraft he calls "beasties" and wandering around lost like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. His brief romantic fling with Samantha Briggs denotes an attempt to launch a new companion. And on this evidence she would have made a wonderful addition to the show: spunky, gobby and freewheeling. Sadly actress Pauline Collins didn't want to tie herself down. Recalling his time on the show, Hines once told me there was another reason to be sad, and not just for him: "Patrick and I both fell for Pauline!" The script betrays other signs of tinkering, with both Ben and Polly absent for three entire episodes. It gets us used to their imminent departure, yes, but the backstage view that they "weren't working" is mystifying to me. They were a delight; they looked good and complemented each other beautifully. Still, their departure scene is better than most. While not wanting the adventure to end, Polly's homesickness shines through ("Can't we stay in London a bit?"), and Ben is touchingly loyal to the end ("We won't leave, Doctor, if you really need us"). The Doctor famously dislikes farewells, but this is a proper one, deliberately written and movingly acted. For companions of Ben and Polly's stature, it was the very least they deserved. - - - Radio Times archive material - - - Annekedote “I have to say the BBC were completely disloyal. They were courting Pauline Collins. They were saying we’ll get rid of Polly and maybe you’d like to come on board. ‘Oi, where’s the loyalty!’ This is my clear memory. I said to [husband] Mick Gough, ‘They’re going to kick Mike Craze off,’ and I thought, ‘If I don’t go now, I’m going to get addicted to this £68 a week. And then I’m going to be in the show for the rest of my life.’ We were sad to leave. Pat [Troughton] was sad. Frazer [Hines] was pleased. More lines for him.” (Talking to RT, March 2012) RT's Patrick Mulkern interviews Anneke Wills [Episode 1 & 3 available on the BBC DVD boxed set Doctor Who: Lost in Time. Complete soundtrack available on BBC Audio CD]
The Doctor must save a human colony from insidious crab-like parasites
Season 4 – Story 34 "Our ancestors believed in the virtues of healthy happiness, and we have tried to keep their ideals alive. Sometimes, alas, it is necessary to use force" - the Pilot Storyline In the distant future the Doctor, Jamie, Ben and Polly visit an apparently contented Earth colony resembling a huge holiday camp. But the inhabitants, under mind control, are mining a gas that is poisonous to humans but vital to the survival of crab-like creatures called the Macra. Ben turns against his friends after subjection to the aliens' evil influence, but eventually comes to his senses. With the Doctor's help, he destroys the gas extraction controls, killing the Macra and liberating the humans. First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 11 March 1967 Episode 2 - Saturday 18 March 1967 Episode 3 - Saturday 25 March 1967 Episode 4 - Saturday 1 April 1967 Production Location filming: February 1967 at Associated Portland Cement quarry, Dunstable, Bedfordshire Filming: February 1967 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: March 1967 at Lime Grove D Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Polly - Anneke Wills Ben Jackson - Michael Craze Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines The Pilot - Peter Jeffrey Ola - Gertan Klauber Medok - Terence Lodge The Controller - Graham Leaman Officia - John Harvey Chicki - Sandra Bryant/Karol Keyes Alvis - Anthony Gardner Barney - Graham Armitage Questa - Ian Fairbairn Sunnaa - Jane Enshawe Broadcast voice - Richard Beale Control voice - Denis Goacher Macra operator - Robert Jewell Crew Writer - Ian Stuart Black Incidental music - Dudley Simpson Designer - Kenneth Sharp Story editor - Gerry Davis Producer - Innes Lloyd Director - John Davies RT Review by Mark Braxton A holiday camp infested with crabs doesn't sound like somewhere you'd want to go, does it? Fortunately, whatever horrendous experience inspired The Macra Terror, it's a surreptitiously creepy story, a variation on the camp-under-siege yarn that is structured along similar, snake-in-paradise lines to Ian Stuart Black's debut story, The Savages. And this one backs up the hidden-horror thrills with an intelligent workout on totalitarianism. The omens are visible from the off. Beneath all the steam baths, moonlight treatments, refreshing departments and cheerleading sessions there is perturbation and menace. It's right there in episode one, in the desperate flight of the half-crazed Medok, and in the tannoyed greeting to the time travellers: "Welcome again, friends. Now, back to work everyone!" While the companions are submitting themselves to assorted leisure activities, the Doctor finds the conviviality disquieting and won't be jollied along by any old tarting-up machine or Big Brotherly pronouncement. There's such an atmosphere of fixed-grin bonhomie that you almost expect the campers to be reading copies of the "Tally Ho" and greeting each other with "Be seeing you". Into this Orwellian nightmare, Black thrusts the regulars, and his distribution of work among them is remarkably even. The Doctor is by turns caring, curious and calculating; Ben adds a distressing unease to the group dynamic in his brainwash-induced betrayal of his friends; Polly persuasively conveys panic at the lurking beasties (the scene in which she and Ben clutch each other like Hansel and Gretel in the deep, dark forest is especially touching); and Jamie is honourably obstinate throughout ("They're a weird sort of folk"; "You don't send a lassie and an old man down to dig"). Ian Stuart Black's original decision to call the serial "The Insect-Men" seems to have filtered through to the shooting script, with the Macra referred to several times as "insects". Giant crabs is what they are! And to begin with their realisation is impressive, their glowing eyes beaming out of the shadows and their flailing claws signalling malign intent. The scene where the Controller is clamped around the neck on screen is pure, Doctor Who magic. But the Macra are, shall we say, lacking personality, so their resurrection by Russell T Davies in 2007's Gridlock was a surprise, to say the least. The Macra Terror isn't without error, and some scenes date it horribly: the rehearsing cheerleaders look like bobbysoxers from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, their "Ra! Ra! Ra!" chant is excruciating, and why the majorettes feel compelled to dance to what sounds like a stylophone with its batteries giving out is a mystery. The story, continuing the irksome tradition of deleted adventures, had a good cast led by fine journeyman actor Peter Jeffrey as the Pilot. It also saw the debut of the title sequence featuring Troughton's face - only five stories into his reign, but never mind! Ian Stuart Black's output is undervalued. Yes, he gave us The War Machines, but both The Savages and The Macra Terror are top-hole. And, as that great sage of pomp-rock Meat Loaf once sang, two out of three ain't bad. - - - Radio Times archive material - - - Annekedotes “I’ve just done the narration for that [on an AudioGo CD]. It was really dark story. They wouldn’t get away with it now. I’m listening to Michael and me running down corridors with nasty creatures looming out of the darkness, and I want to stop the recording because I’m getting upset. This is so frightening.” “When it was on telly, my daughter at home was asking, ‘Dad, is Mummy coming at home tonight?’ My character was going up inside the mouth of this ghastly crab with my little white boots kicking about. Being sucked into a monster… What fun!” (Talking to RT, March 2012) RT's Patrick Mulkern interviews Anneke Wills [An animated version is available on BBC DVD and Blu-Ray. Soundtrack available on BBC Audio CD]
The Cybermen return with a plan to attack Earth from the Moon
Season 4 – Story 33 "There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things - things which act against everything that we believe in. They must be fought" - the Doctor Storyline In 2070, Earth's weather systems are kept in balance by the Gravitron - a powerful device controlled by a scientific corps based on the Moon. Some of these 19 men have succumbed to a paralysing virus that turns their veins black. Arriving in the Tardis with Polly, Ben and Jamie, the Doctor realises this isn't a disease at all but that the Moonbase is under attack. The Cybermen have infiltrated and are scheming to use the Gravitron to "eliminate all dangers" - that is, destroy all life on Earth… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 11 February 1967 Episode 2 - Saturday 18 February 1967 Episode 3 - Saturday 25 February 1967 Episode 4 - Saturday 4 March 1967 Production Filming: January 1967 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: February 1967 at Riverside 1 (eps 1-3), Lime Grove D (ep 4) Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Polly - Anneke Wills Ben Jackson - Michael Craze Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Hobson - Patrick Barr Benoit - André Maranne Nils - Michael Wolf Ralph - Mark Heath Sam - John Rolfe Dr Evans - Alan Rowe Cybermen - John Wills, Sonnie Willis, Peter Greene, Keith Goodman, Reg Whitehead Cyberman voices - Peter Hawkins Voice from Space Control - Alan Rowe Voice of Controller Rinberg - Denis McCarthy Crew Writer - Kit Pedler Incidental music - various library tracks Special sounds - Brian Hodgson Designer - Colin Shaw Story editor - Gerry Davis Producer - Innes Lloyd Director - Morris Barry RT review by Patrick Mulkern "Gravity," the Doctor mutters to himself. "Now there's a thought. Gravity!" He's weighing up what force he might be able to use against the Cybermen, but out of context - and at a stretch - it could be Patrick Troughton psyching himself into his subtly modified part. By now the production team have taken the Doctor by the scruff of the neck and ironed out his mercurial excesses. He's still an impish vagabond but gone are the disguises, very baggy trousers and, sadly, the iconic Pied Piper hat. The recorder also disappears (flatly vetoed by director Morris Barry). This script calls for deadly seriousness - and of course Troughton does "serious" quite brilliantly. "There is something evil here," the Doctor warns in episode two, before delivering a gripping mission statement (quoted at the top of this column). There's also the spine-tingling "Did they search in here?" moment when he realises a Cyberman has been hiding in their midst all along. Throughout, Morris Barry captures the star's striking facial expressions in an array of extreme close-ups. And what a face! Here, at last, Troughton nails the second Doctor. The Cybermen have been largely reinvented, too, since The Tenth Planet. Their twangy voices, provided by Peter Hawkins, are a vast improvement. Sandra Reid's second stab at the design retains the essential features and is arguably the most impressive Cyber-costume until the Russell T Davies era. Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis have also realised the base-under-attack format, tried and tested in that earlier story, is ideal for the series: it concentrates the drama, plus the budget can be splashed on one main set. In fact, it's a shameless remount, with Moonbase instead of Snowcap, and another multinational, all-male staff, this time with a more amiable leader, "Hobby" Hobson. Kit Pedler's scripts impart dollops of science without jarring and allow for a good deal of incident and suspense. He gives Doctor Who its first gradual reveal of a monster - metallic arms come into shot, then looming silhouettes - delaying the money-shot of a new-look Cyberman until the first cliffhanger. (Spoilt in 1967, of course, if you'd seen any advance publicity, including RT's introductory article.) None of this build-up can be seen today: episode one is now lost. Nor can we enjoy watching the Tardis crew in spacesuits doing low-gravity aerobatics on the Moon surface - beating Neil Armstrong there by two years. Episode three (also junked) features the principal face-to-face encounter between the humans and the silver invaders, where intriguingly one Cyberman recognises the new Doctor: "You are known to us." How? We want to know. Oddly, the Doctor has almost no dialogue in this instalment, bar one short section where we hear him in conversation with his own thoughts. So Ben and Polly come to the fore - and slightly out of character - preparing a solvent to destroy the invaders' chest units. Jamie has little to do. A late addition to the plot, he's bed-bound with concussion for half the story, raving about the Phantom Piper (a Cyberman spookily marauding the sickbay). Morris Barry enhances the atmosphere with an unrelentingly eerie soundscape: notably, an echoing whine for the vacuum of space and electronic "breathing" in the automated sickbay. The Space Adventures music, which underscores the stirring shots of the 11 silver giants marching across the Moon, would become synonymous with the Cybermen. Barry makes maximum use of Ealing Film Studios for the lunar surface sequences, but he fell foul of antiquated facilities at Lime Grove when Who returned to its original home for episode four. Audio feedback from the production gallery ("Cue!") can be heard throughout the transmitted soundtrack - largely expunged from the CD and DVD releases. The Moonbase provides a solid template that much of the Troughton era would follow. How fitting that in an adventure hinging on gravity, Doctor Who should once again firmly find its feet. Radio Times archive material An introductory feature showing the new-look Cybermen. Annekedotes “The excitement of Doctor Who was that we were exploring ahead of time. We did space exploration. Doctor Who was there first before man went to the Moon. I was at this convention a few years ago where they had all the astronauts and I wanted to say to them, ‘I went there first!’ We were proud of that. We broke ground.” Filming flying about on the Moon surface: “Kirby wires are very uncomfortable. They come through the legs like a horrible jockstrap and then buckle over the shoulders. You have to bend over then straighten up and it was painful. It wasn’t the blissful experience I was looking forward to.” (Talking to RT, March 2012) RT's Patrick Mulkern interviews Anneke Wills [Episodes 2 & 4 available on the BBC DVD boxed set Doctor Who: Lost in Time. Complete soundtrack available on BBC Audio CD]
The Tardis team encounter Fish People and mad Professor Zaroff on Atlantis in this camp misfire
Season 4 – Story 32 "You're not turning me into a fish!" - Polly Storyline The Doctor, Polly, Ben and newcomer Jamie arrive on a volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Deep below the surface they discover the lost civilisation of Atlantis, whose inhabitants worship the goddess Amdo. They've been transforming shipwrecked mariners into Fish People, a slave force that supplies them with fresh seafood. Under the guidance of Professor Zaroff - a scientific genius from 20th-century Europe - the Atlanteans believe their city can once again rise from the sea, but the Doctor realises the professor is insane and that his plan will destroy the world… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 14 January 1967 Episode 2 - Saturday 21 January 1967 Episode 3 - Saturday 28 January 1967 Episode 4 - Saturday 4 February 1967 Production Location filming: December 1966 at Winspit quarry, Worth Matravers, Dorset Filming: December 1966 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: January 1967 in Riverside 1 Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Polly - Anneke Wills Ben Jackson - Michael Craze Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Professor Zaroff - Joseph Furst Thous - Noel Johnson Damon - Colin Jeavons Ara - Catherine Howe Ramo - Tom Watson Lolem - Peter Stephens Sean - PG Stephens Jacko - Paul Anil Nola - Roma Woodnutt Damon's assistant - Gerald Taylor Overseer - Graham Ashley Zaroff's guard - Tony Handy Crew Writer - Geoffrey Orme Incidental music - Dudley Simpson Designer - Jack Robinson Story editor - Gerry Davis Producer - Innes Lloyd Director - Julia Smith RT Review by Patrick Mulkern (revised in 2012) The Underwater Menace has always been held in low esteem, even by those who worked on it - and deservedly so. It's clearly one of the weakest outings for Patrick Troughton's Doctor. The narrative sloshes around in B-movie shallows and the production is shoddy. Yet there are still morsels to enjoy in this peculiar little adventure. If you sift through the bilge, you may even find one or two pearls… Luscious Anneke Wills restrained on a bed, whimpering while a surgeon with bushy eyebrows (Colin Jeavons) advances with a syringe, determined to turn her into a fish… Fit duo Michael Craze and Frazer Hines cavorting around in tight wetsuits… Temple acolytes wearing seaweed-and-shell garments, conch hats and fish masks… An effete high priest prancing about baring his blubber-gut… Or, the pièce de résistance, a mittel-European madman sneering at the Doctor, "So you're just a little man after all, like all the rest. You disappoint me" (Ooh, err)… Indeed, if you have any appreciation at all for High or Low Camp, then this is the story for you. It's far camper than anything put out by later producers John Nathan-Turner or Russell T Davies. So put your flippers up, flush your gills and gurgle. The serial is awash with bizarre notions. For starters, "raising" Atlantis by draining the ocean - why don't the locals simply ascend to the island above? The ludicrous Fish People - are they a new species? Or is it just the cheapo "half-Fish People" who are the result of Damon's experiments? And why are the Atlanteans solely dependent on plankton? Go fishing! Strangest of all is Professor Zaroff, the series' first properly "insane" villain. Scenery-chewing Austrian actor Joseph Furst clearly relishes a glut of OTT lines: "I could feed you to my pet octopus" and the immortal "Nothing in the world can stop me now!" Geoffrey Orme's script was, if not a hot potato, perhaps a soggy biscuit. Story editor Gerry Davis had rejected it once, but it went into production when another commission collapsed. Back in the 1980s I interviewed the two directors involved (for Doctor Who Magazine). Hugh David: "You couldn't take a tiny tank at Ealing and pretend you were in the middle of the Atlantic indefinitely. So I told Innes [Lloyd] I couldn't do it." So the baton was handed to Julia Smith: "All the underwater sequences were a problem," she said, "but we got by with trickery." And despite being unpopular with the regular cast, Smith managed a fair job. After a run of serials using old scores, library tracks or no music at all, maestro Dudley Simpson was rehired. He delivered a fabulous score - reverberating chant for the Temple of Amdo and, in his first collaboration with the Radiophonic Workshop, synthesised organ music. The track underscoring the Fish People's revolt (a risible "underwater ballet") in part three is wildly inappropriate but utterly wonderful. Recovered in 2011 by RT’s Ralph Montagu, part two is in fact Troughton's earliest surviving episode. That's 12 weeks into his run. Shameful! It's like first being able to view Christopher Eccleston in Bad Wolf or Matt Smith in The Pandorica Opens. By this stage the outré second Doctor is bedding down, although he does still dress up and lark about. His three cute-as-buttons companions, however, are poorly served. Ben's role is shared with Jamie (a late addition to the cast) and Polly, so resourceful in The Highlanders, suddenly becomes a bleating nit. Tellingly, the two best scenes in the whole serial - the top and tail in the Tardis - were written by Gerry Davis. Here the regulars shine. First, Jamie is formally introduced to the wonders of time travel and viewers hear the foursome's private thoughts. Then, at the end, the youngsters tease the Doctor about his piloting skills - and all hell breaks loose. "I'm very sorry everybody but the Tardis is out of control!" Variations on this mayhem, echoing the new Doctor's erratic persona, would recur throughout his tenure. And, of course, there would be far superior adventures ahead. - - - Radio Times archive material A small introductory feature introducing the Fish People and Jamie. By this stage in its production Doctor Who was going into the recording studio only one week before transmission and after RT went to press, so RT could usually only send a photographer to earlier filming dates on location or at Ealing Studios. - - - Annekedote “Patrick was mean to Julia Smith. He didn’t love her. He made her life a misery by being argumentative. He could do that. And I had the line, ‘You’re not turning me into a fish!’ I love it. I haven’t seen the episode they found last year yet but that’s the first time we see what Pat was doing with the character, how he was playing with the part. That’s the earliest version we have.” (Talking to RT, March 2012) RT's Patrick Mulkern interviews Anneke Wills [Episodes 2 and 3 available on DVD. Complete soundtrack available on BBC Audio CD]
Ben is keelhauled, Polly finds courage and the Doctor drags up, while Jamie (Frazer Hines) joins as Jamie – in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden
Season 4 – Story 31 "Look, mate. He is going to sell us like the stinking fish he thinks we are. Slave labour, that's what we're gonna be. Slave labour!" - Ben Storyline The Tardis arrives in 1746 Scotland, where Bonnie Prince Charlie has been defeated at the Battle of Culloden. The travellers are captured by the McLarens and their piper, Jamie McCrimmon, who are being tracked down by the English. The Doctor gains the clan's confidence by treating their wounded Laird, but they're captured by a redcoat troop led by Lt ffinch when Polly and the Laird's daughter are out fetching water. The soldiers hand the men over to Grey, a corrupt solicitor who sells prisoners into slavery in the West Indies. In Inverness, the women blackmail ffinch into helping them. The Doctor escapes and smuggles arms to the Highlanders, who are being held aboard a stolen vessel, the Annabelle. The prisoners depose Grey and the ship's murderous captain, Trask, and the Doctor, Ben and Polly make it back to the Tardis with Jamie in tow. First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 17 December 1966 Episode 2 - Saturday 24 December 1966 Episode 3 - Saturday 31 December 1966 Episode 4 - Saturday 7 January 1967 Production Location filming: November 1966 at Frensham Ponds, Surrey Filming: November 1966 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: December 1966 in Riverside 1 Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Polly - Anneke Wills Ben Jackson - Michael Craze Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines Solicitor Grey - David Garth Kirsty - Hannah Gordon Lt Algernon ffinch - Michael Elwyn Perkins - Sydney Arnold Trask - Dallas Cavell The Laird - Donald Bisset Alexander - William Dysart Willie Mackay - Andrew Downie Mollie - Barbara Bruce Colonel Attwood - Guy Middleton Sergeant - Peter Welch Crew Writers - Gerry Davis (& Elwyn Jones) Incidental music - various library tracks Designer - Geoffrey Kirkland Story editor - Gerry Davis Producer - Innes Lloyd Director - Hugh David RT review by Mark Braxton This tartan-clad caper was the last of the "true historicals" for 16 years (the England-in-1925-set Black Orchid was the last). But did this important period of the Whovian legacy go out with a bang or a whimper? On paper it's dashing, ambitious fare, packing into its four, long-since-wiped episodes elements of ideological and class conflict, piracy and the evils of servitude. The fact that script editor Gerry Davis had to take over penning duties from commissioned writer Elwyn Jones (he was too tied up with Z Cars and Softly, Softly) earns the story extra Brownie points. But this being the aftermath of Culloden, it's not quite the epic it might at first have suggested. The battle is over, so there's no need for hordes of extras (canny cost-cutting, some might say), and the antagonists' respective standpoints are never adequately explained. Davis seems much more interested in a romp, not that there's anything wrong with that. It's also an opportunity for the still wet-around-the-ears Patrick Troughton to demonstrate his versatility … or to arse about using silly voices and costumes, depending on your viewpoint and ability to embrace 'Allo 'Allo!-style comedy. But while The Romans and The Myth Makers, for example, were lifted by a more confident approach, The Highlanders stoops to pantomime and cliché, with its "Sassenach dragoons" and "scurvy swabs". The Doctor's disguises are not so much elaborate as silly and unconvincing: a German with strangulated accent called Doctor von Wer (oh dear); a washerwoman who seems to have inspired Monty Python's pepperpots; and a redcoat with a droopy moustache. The sole reason for the last ruse is to make the audience believe Ben, having cheated death at sea, is about to be recaptured by soldiers. But if the Doctor's input is lower-division, The Highlanders does at least give the companions a fair crack of the whip. Ben's Houdini-influenced avoidance of a sea burial is memorable, as is Polly's teasing of Lt Algernon "fer-finch" and the way she employs womanly wiles to engineer a reunion with her friends. Compared with Ben's breathless heroics, however, Pol's treatment of the locals comes across as condescending ("You're just a stupid peasant!") or calculating ("Bye bye, Algie dear"). Mind you, ffinch probably deserves it for being a bit of a wimp. At least smooth-talking Grey and Bob Hoskins-alike Trask make striking villains, while Frazer Hines has surprisingly little to do as the likeable Jamie. Thank goodness the producers spotted his potential: he'd go on to become one of the longest-serving and most popular companions of all time. Hines's Scottish accent is lot stronger here than in subsequent adventures, perhaps to complement the inflections of the actors playing the other Scots. In summary, there's colour and atmosphere but little real excitement - an absence of build-up and pay-off is chiefly to blame and the lack of a proper soundtrack doesn't help. Less of a Highland fling and more of a misdirected toss of the caber. --- Radio Times archive material A full-page introductory feature profiled the new star Patrick Troughton. The letters page carried a complaint about historical accuracy. - - - Annekedote “My goodness, that’s a dark story. I’ve read the Target book. I just think those stories are brilliantly written. They stand up today and I’m completely proud. At one point I say to Hannah Gordon’s character something like, ‘Oh God, you peasants. Is that what the women of your century do, just cry all the time?” So that wasn’t Polly being frightened and weedy. She’s saying we’ve got to get the money here and get some guns. She’s very resourceful. She saves the day. And it was directed by Hugh David – he was drop-dead gorgeous.” (Talking to RT, March 2012) RT's Patrick Mulkern interviews Anneke Wills [Soundtrack available on BBC Audio CD]
Patrick Troughton debuts as the second Doctor, facing his archenemies on Vulcan
Season 4 – Story 30 "Marvellous creatures. You have to admire them. They're the new species, you see? Taking over from homo sapiens. Man's had his day… finished now" - Lesterson Storyline The transformed Doctor explains that he's "been renewed" by "part of the Tardis", but Ben and Polly remain suspicious of the newcomer. Their next landing site is the Earth colony Vulcan. Having witnessed the murder of a visiting examiner, the Doctor uses the dead man's access pass to investigate. He meets a scientist called Lesterson, whom he is appalled to learn has found inert Daleks in a crashed space capsule. Lesterson activates them in the hope that they can help improve productivity. But while the Daleks feign submission, they are covertly manufacturing more of themselves and are in league with a rebel faction of humans secretly led by head of security Bragen… First transmissions Episode 1 - Saturday 5 November 1966 Episode 2 - Saturday 12 November 1966 Episode 3 - Saturday 19 November 1966 Episode 4 - Saturday 26 November 1966 Episode 5 - Saturday 3 December 1966 Episode 6 - Saturday 10 December 1966 Production Filming: September 1966 at Ealing Studios Studio recording: October/November 1966 at Riverside 1 Cast Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton Ben Jackson - Michael Craze Polly - Anneke Wills Bragen - Bernard Archard Lesterson - Robert James Hensell - Peter Bathurst Janley - Pamela Ann Davy Quinn - Nicholas Hawtrey Resno - Edward Kelsey The Examiner - Martin King Kebble - Steven Scott Valmar - Richard Kane Daleks - Gerald Taylor, Kevin Manser, Robert Jewell, John Scott Martin Dalek voices - Peter Hawkins Crew Writer - David Whitaker (final scripts by Dennis Spooner) Incidental music - Tristram Cary Designer - Derek Dodd Story editor - Gerry Davis Producer - Innes Lloyd Director - Christopher Barry RT Review by Mark Braxton What an extraordinary event: a beloved TV character falling seriously ill and reviving in a totally different form. A spectacular concept, as important to the show's popularity (and longevity) as the initial man-in-a-time-machine premise. It was one that garnered scant attention at the time, however - try to imagine a Tennant-to-Smith transition passing virtually unnoticed! The RT cover for 5 November 1966 depicted only Daleks, while the featurette inside focused on Ben and Polly and casually mentioned en passant that Patrick Troughton was the new Who. A small drop-in picture of him accompanied the episode two listing. So the change in the Doctor's appearance must have been discombobulating for the audience. The mixed feedback from RT readers in the 26 November 1966 issue (see below) seemed to reflect this. But two aspects of an accomplished story by writer David Whitaker (with uncredited co-writer Dennis Spooner) tell us this was anticipated. First, the very presence of the Daleks provided viewers with some vital familiarity. And second, the companions, more than ever before, represented the viewer in their reactions, in their suspicion and curiosity. But more of them later... Patrick Troughton used a variety of distraction techniques while a nation mourned the disappearance of William Hartnell. And although Trout's performance is intriguing: mischievous, comical and necessarily different from Hartnell's, existing material (get used to that phrase) betrays an actor finding his feet - and his voice - as the Time Lord. Yes, it's yet another lost story and arguably the one that's most sought after by fans. Especially as all the other regenerations are amply covered by print, picture and moving image. [Patrick Troughton. Photographed by Don Smith, 22 October 1966 at Riverside Studios. Copyright Radio Times Archive] Troughton's rumpled, recorder-tooting galactic vagabond had a few image problems initially. It's amusing to think that someone thought a battered stove-pipe was a good idea. But if it was a rubbish look, it did at least stick in people's minds: look at comic-strips of the time and you'll see that tall, crumpled hat perched on the 2-D Doctor's head. On TV he only wore it sporadically for three stories. As fans grew accustomed to this short, dark stranger, so too did the companions, even in the space of one story. Anneke Wills and Michael Craze were already the perfect team as posh Polly and chippy Ben. From opposite ends of the social spectrum, they naturally had varied viewpoints, and their differing attitudes to the Doctor here are superbly rendered. While Ben says, "You, my old China, are an out-and-out phoney," Polly warms to the new-look time traveller in a charmingly loyal way, countering with "Don't listen to him, Doctor, I know who you are" - this after joining in with the Doctor's childlike tongue twister ("Lesterson, listen"). The return of the Daleks further sweetens the regeneration pill, but their use is far from one-dimensional. Whitaker employs them in unexpected ways, and even though their motives are rather tipped off by their quizzical intonation of the story's catchphrase -"I am your ser-vant?" - for a long time the Daleks don't seem like the enemy. Their juxtaposition with the backstabbing colonists is startling, notably when one Dalek asks, "Why do human beings kill human beings?" It would be many years before their integration to a plot would be quite so stimulating. After the universe-conquering scheme of The Daleks' Master Plan, Whitaker wisely went in the other direction. The claustrophobia of Vulcan's corridors works well, and Lesterson's descent into insanity is genuinely frightening. The Daleks' conveyor belt of doom was another brilliant creation, and stuck in the minds of many young viewers, as did the sight of a naked, tentacled Dalek. The Power of the Daleks presents us with an intelligent, logical set of scripts that don't over-reach. It was and is top-drawer Who. - - - Radio Times archive material RT's stalwart photographer Don Smith went on set at Riverside for the first episode, resulting in this striking Dalek cover. The introductory feature clearly didn't intend to dwell on the new Doctor or reveal him in costume. RT billings The letters page reflected a mixed response to Troughton's debut. And there was a small trail to The Highlanders. - - - Annekedote “I have this very strong memory of Patrick walking in with his red cardigan and Greek bag and we all stood up and clapped. He was so anxious. He was beside himself with anxiety that he was going to kill Doctor Who off. I think that’s why he went too far with his Harpo Marx wig.” He actually tried one? “Yes, he did and Michael Craze said, ‘I’m not acting with you if you’re wearing that. That’s it!’ ” (Talking to RT, March 2012) RT's Patrick Mulkern interviews Anneke Wills [Animated version available on BBC DVD and Blu-Ray]