Tuesday 29 August 2017

Inspirations - The Massacre


Often referred to as "The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Eve", but generally cut down to just The Massacre. The longer title isn't exactly accurate in terms of the timescale of the Massacre.
Before we get to the history, a word about how the story came into being. These days, it is unlikely that such an obscure period of history would be chosen for a Doctor Who story, and it would hardly be considered as a suitable follow-up to an epic 12 part Dalek story that had seen two new companions bite the dust.
The writer originally selected for this slot in production was John Lucarotti. He had been promised three commissions back when Verity Lambert was producer, and he still had one to fulfill. He wanted to write a tale about Vikings - Eric the Red discovering the Americas - but it was pointed out to him by Donald Tosh that Vikings had already featured in the previous season, in The Time Meddler. It was Tosh who sent him off to write about this bloodier than usual episode in France's long-running religious wars.
Lucarotti had little interest for the subject, but delivered a set of scripts. Tosh did not like these, and so extensively rewrote them. He received a credit on the fourth episode only, as he was still employed by the BBC when he rewrote the first three. As references, Tosh may have looked to Christopher Marlowe's 1593 play The Massacre at Paris, or to Alexander Dumas' 1845 novel La Reine Margot.


So, the Doctor and Steven arrive in Paris in the 16th Century, as the Doctor deduces from the architecture and the costumes. He does not know the exact date of their arrival. He elects to go and visit the famous apothecary Charles Preslin. This is an entirely fictional character by the way.
Steven elects to see the sights rather than wait back in the TARDIS, and becomes friendly with a group of young Huguenots - French Protestants. They meet a young servant girl - Anne Chaplet - who has run away from the home of the Abbot of Amboise. This is another fictional character.
Anne is another Huguenot and she has overheard a plot in which her old town of Vassy was mentioned. This had been the scene of a massacre of Huguenots by Catholic forces, so the fear is that something similar is being planned. Paris is full of Huguenots come to celebrate the marriage of the King's sister, Margaret, to Henri III of Navarre - a leading Protestant. The Queen Mother, Catherine de' Medici, hopes that this will ease tensions between the rival religions. She and Tavannes, Marshal of France, are unhappy with the level of influence which the Huguenot Admiral de Coligny has over the young King Charles IX.
When Steven sees the Abbot, he is shocked to discover that it is the Doctor in disguise. He is actually the Doctor's double, but Steven refuses to believe this throughout the whole story, even when the Abbot is killed by Tavannes for failing to assassinate the Admiral.
The Doctor and Anne eventually track down Preslin's shop and meet the Doctor. On learning the exact date, the Doctor sends Anne home and hurries Steven back to the TARDIS, as the Queen Mother talks the King into launching a preemptive strike against the Huguenots before they can assassinate him. On learning of the Massacre, Steven is convinced that the Doctor has sent Anne to her death, and storms out of the ship when it next lands - in present day Wimbledon Common. A girl named Dodo (short for Dorothea) arrives to report an accident as Steven returns, and she has the surname Chaplet - so maybe Anne did survive after all. She joins them on their travels.


France had already experienced three religious wars, and the Massacre of Paris took place in the fourth. There were seven episodes in all. The massacre of Huguenot worshipers by troops under the command of the Guise at Vassy had taken place in 1562, during the first of the wars. In 1561 Calvin had written that a King who did not follow the teachings of God was no longer fit to rule. He had previously argued the opposite, that Kings derived their powers from God and had always to be obeyed.
In October 1571, and again in May 1572, French Protestant troops had intervened against Catholic forces in the Netherlands, and it was widely believed that Admiral de Coligny had talked the 22 year old King into sanctioning these. Tensions were already running high in Paris following harvest failures and high prices when the Queen Mother arranged the wedding of Henri and Margaret. Leading Catholics were against this union, and it was opposed by Pope Gregory XIII, and King Philip II of Spain. There was a power struggle going on amongst the leading Catholic factions at the same time. The marriage took place on August 18th, 1572. Coligny wanted the King to water down some of the conditions of the last peace accord, and this may have led to his attempted assassination on 22nd August, when he was shot on his way home from the Louvre. The assassin got away.


The Massacre follows the traditional view that this was all down to Catherine de' Medici, and the Admiral's influence over her son. It is now thought that it was the work of the Guise faction acting on their own volition, or the Duke of Alba, who governed the Netherlands for Philip of Spain.
Fearing a Huguenot backlash for the assassination attempt, the Catholic forces arranged for the killing of all the leading Protestants still in the city in the early hours of August 24th, the signal to begin being the matins bell of the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, which stood next to the Louvre. de Coligny was stabbed to death in his sick bed and his body defenestrated into the street. The killing rapidly escalated as the Paris mob turned on all Huguenots. The violence lasted several days, before spilling out into the provinces. The death toll in Paris alone numbered in the thousands, though the exact figure is not known. King Charles met his parliament on 26th August and justified the slaughter as a means to have thwarted a Huguenot massacre of the Catholics. Pope Gregory rejoiced, and had a special medal struck. Philip of Spain is said to have laughed - the only time he was ever seen to do so. Ivan the Terrible is actually said to have been quite appalled by the carnage. Queen Elizabeth was naturally alarmed. Her ambassador to Paris - Sir Francis Walsingham - only just managed to flee.
In recent years, Catherine de' Medici has no longer been seen as the sole architect of the Massacre. Her arrangement of the wedding showed that she wanted peace at all costs, and she ensured that Henri of Navarre was safely gotten out of the city. The blame has now shifted to her younger son - Henri - who would later become King himself, or to a group of Catholic noblemen with strong Italian links.
Catherine's three sons would all become King, and all die prematurely, and Henri of Navarre would eventually become King Henri IV of France. He had to convert to Catholicism, stating that Paris was worth a mass.


The Massacre gave William Hartnell the chance to play another character, and a villainous one at that. It is interesting that he does not demonstrate any of the usual Hartnell vocal mannerisms - showing that these were all part of Hartnell's performance as the Doctor.
Lastly, a word about Dodo. Though she mentions having a French grandparent, it seems highly unlikely that her surname would survive in the female line (from Anne) for nearly 400 years. Then again, it does seem a huge coincidence that the TARDIS landed just where she was going to be, so maybe it was trying to tell the Doctor and Steven something.
A scene written, but not filmed, would have had Ian and Barbara arriving just in time to see the TARDIS dematerialise from the Common. One of the reasons the Doctor gives for welcoming Dodo onto the TARDIS is that she reminds him of Susan.
For another fictional take on the events of the Massacre, I can recommend the 1994 film adaptation of La Reine Margot.
Next time, Dodo's accent wanders nearly as much as the TARDIS does, in a story of two halves.

Saturday 26 August 2017

C is for... Cessair


An alien criminal from the planet Diplos. She committed acts of murder, employing a number of blood-drinking stone Ogri, and stole the Great Seal of Diplos before being captured. Whilst being transported in a prison ship, the craft became stranded in hyperspace and Cessair escaped down to Earth in prehistoric times. To mark the location of the portal to hyperspace she had a stone circle built, seeded with her Ogri servants. She never left the area, establishing herself in positions of power through a series of guises. She disguised herself as the pagan goddess the Cailleach. In mediaeval times she was the Mother Superior of the nearby Convent of the Little Sisters of Saint Gudula. Later she was landowner Lady Morgana Montcalm, and the reclusive Mrs Trefusis. Then she was Senora Camara, whose husband did not survive the voyage from Brazil. By the 1970's, she was living as Vivien Fey, dwelling in a cottage near the stone circle. She had as her guest the noted archaeologist Prof. Amelia Rumford, who was studying the circle. She continued to pose as the Cailleach, and had influence over a local Druidic group led by a man named De Vries, who lived at Boscombe Hall, built on the site of the convent. She used them to feed the Ogri with blood sacrifices.


The Doctor, Romana and K9 arrived nearby, in search of the third segment of the Key to Time. This turned out to be the Great Seal, which Vivien wore around her neck.
The Doctor found a number of portraits hidden in the cellars of the Hall, which all looked like Vivien, proving that she was a long-lived alien.
Cessair abducted Romana and took her to the spaceship in hyperspace. The Doctor followed, and inadvertently released the Megara - justice machines which were to have judged Cessair thousands of years ago. The Doctor had to find a way to prove to the Megara that Vivien was Cessair, and did so by seizing hold of her as the Megara were about to execute him. They used a mind probe to check that she had not been damaged, and so learned of her true identity. She was taken to the circle and turned into one of the standing stones, though not before the Doctor had managed to obtain the Seal.

Played by: Susan Engel. Appearances: The Stones of Blood (1978).

  • Cessair seems to have influenced local Cornish mythology - using the names Morgana and Fey from Arthurian legends. She may have been the inspiration for the Arthurian witch character.
  • The Cailleach is a Celtic goddess, with legends in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Scotland she is also known as the Queen of Winter, and is supposed to have created a number of mountains when she dropped rocks from a basket whilst striding across the landscape. The Corryvreckan whirlpool is said to be caused by her washing her plaid. She's generally seen as an old woman or hag, herding deer in the mountains. 

C is for... Cell 114


A race of belligerent aliens who invaded planets through subterfuge and infiltration. Small groups of sleeper agents were established on planets, living normal lives until their activation was triggered. Their cover was so deep they had no idea of their true nature until the activation. When one of their number - a woman named Beth - was attacked by burglars, her true nature asserted itself, and this led to the rest of the Cell being activated. They were conditioned to carry out acts of sabotage, and killed their own family members. Their right arms could transform into savage blades, with bio-mechanical implants. These implants linked them to their own kind, furnishing information to their invasion fleets. They were prepared to commit suicide by blowing themselves up. A man named David killed his family, then set out to blow up a store of nuclear weapons located outside Cardiff. Captain Jack Harkness stopped him, and his implant exploded harmlessly near the weapons store. Beth deliberately provoked Torchwood into killing her, rather than allow them to de-programme her. Before dying, David had warned Jack that there were many more Cell members on Earth.

Played by: Nikki Amuka-Bird (Beth), Doug Rollins (David). Appearances: TW 2.2 Sleeper (2008).

C is for... Celation


The Master of Celation was a member of the alien alliance of outer systems, brought together by the Daleks as part of their scheme to wage war of the cosmos. Pale skinned, his body was covered in black lumps. He spoke in a harsh whisper, and moved with a slow, graceful movement. Fellow delegate Zephon had talked Celation into joining the alliance. When Zephon attempted to leave, he expected Celation to join him, but he remained loyal to the Daleks. After the death of Trantis, Celation took the lead, and was openly antagonistic towards Mavic Chen. Their help no longer required, the Daleks had the alliance members thrown into a cell. Freed by Steven and Sara Kingdom, Celation agreed to return to his own people to warn them against the Daleks.



Played by: Terence Woodfield, Ian East. Appearances: Mission to the Unknown (1965), The Daleks' Master Plan (1965/6).

  • Celation is stated to be one of the delegates in Mission to the Unknown - despite none of the aliens looking like he does in the subsequent 12 part story. He's also played by two different actors throughout the course of Master Plan, with slightly different costume / make-up.

C is for... Caven


Maurice Caven was the sadistic leader of a group of space pirates. They were attacking navigation beacons in deep space. These were made of Argonite, a valuable metal. Caven had set up his base on the planet Ta, home to the Issigri Mining Company. He was helped by Madeleine Issigri, who helped to conceal his activities. Caven had her father held prisoner in his old office deep beneath the planet's surface. Madeleine believed her father dead, killed because of his one-time business partner Milo Clancey. The pirates employed Beta Dart spacecraft, which they disguised using Issigri livery. When Clancey arrived on Ta, along with the Doctor and his companions, Caven decided to make him appear to be the person responsible for the beacon attacks. As the forces of the Space Corps closed in, Caven had Clancey and Madeleine's father, Dom, sent into space in a remote controlled ship, set to explode. He also planted a bomb to blow up the mining complex. The Doctor stopped the bomb. When he tried to flee the planet, Caven's ship was blown up by missile fired by Space Corp's Major Warne.

Played by: Dudley Foster. Appearances: The Space Pirates (1969).

C is for... Cathica


Cathica Santini Khadeni was a reporter working on Floor 139 of Satellite Five, which beamed news across the Earth Empire in the year 200,000. She longed to make it to Floor 500, to which the best people were promoted. She was upset when colleague Suki got promotion ahead of her, feeling that she was the better reporter. The Doctor challenged Cathica's refusal to question what was going on in the station. A journalist should ask questions, and query everything. After the Doctor and Rose overrode the lift to take them up to Floor 500, Cathica decided to start investigating, beginning with the heating system that pumped hot air away from the top of the station. She followed the Doctor and Rose to Floor 500, and overheard the Editor describing how the human race was being held in check through manipulation of the news, and that an alien creature called the Jagrafess was the real boss on the satellite. Knowing she was within earshot, the Doctor guided Cathica in what to do - linking herself to the station systems to channel the heat back into Floor 500. This destroyed the Jagrafess and killed the Editor.
Like all journalists on the station, Cathica had undergone an operation to have a small hatch opened in the front of her skull, allowing raw data to be beamed directly into the brain where it was edited into news.

Played by: Christine Adams. Appearances: The Long Game (2005).

C is for... Catchlove


Captain Neville Catchlove was second in command of a British Army unit which discovered a hibernating Ice Warrior in South Africa. The Ice Warrior awoke, and was named Friday by the soldiers. It talked them into repairing its ship and taking it home to Mars with the promise of fabulous wealth. Catchlove knew that their commander, Colonel Godsacre, had a secret to hide. He had once escaped a hanging for cowardice. This gave him a hold over the older officer. When Friday helped to resurrect the Ice Empress Iraxxa, Catchlove took charge and was happy to exterminate the Ice Warriors. When it became clear that they could not win, he decided to abandon his colleagues and flee in the spaceship, taking Iraxxa hostage. He was shot dead by Godsacre.

Played by: Ferdinand Kingsley. Appearances: Empress of Mars (2017).

  • Kingsley is the son of actor Sir Ben Kingsley.

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Story 179 - Smith and Jones


In which medical student Martha Jones is making her way to work at the Royal Hope Hospital, on the banks of the Thames in central London. It is her younger brother Leo's birthday today, and older sister Tish rings to warn that their father, Clive, will be bringing his girlfriend to the celebrations, to the chagrin of mum Francine. Martha often acts as mediator, and suggests that Clive and his new partner, Annalise, could leave before Francine arrives. A man in a long brown coat suddenly walks up to her and gives her his tie. She is surprised, later, to see the same man in bed in the hospital when consultant Mr Stoker takes the students on his rounds. Mr Smith has not left the hospital since admitting himself the day before. Tish calls again, to warn her sister of a strange storm brewing above the hospital. The rain seems to be pouring upwards into the sky. The building is shaken, and everyone looks outside to see that they are no longer in London. The entire hospital has been transported to the surface of the Moon...


The man from the ward appears, now dressed in a blue suit, and he introduces himself to Martha as the Doctor. He has taken a shine to her as he is impressed with the way she is handling the situation, asking all the right questions whilst everyone else is panicking. He explains that he had discovered alien technology hidden around the building - H2O Scoops - and had admitted himself in order to investigate. Another patient, an old lady named Florence Finnegan, goes to Stoker's office along with two men who are dressed in black bikers leathers, their faces concealed under helmets. They hold Stoker down whilst Florence sucks his blood through a straw. Martha finds him dead soon after, his body totally drained of blood. A number of massive cylindrical spaceships arrive, and an army of black clad figures march across the lunar surface towards the building. The Doctor recognises them as Judoon - brutal alien police officers. He surmises that they have come to arrest someone in the building, and it was they who moved the hospital off of the Earth as they had no jurisdiction on the planet. The Judoon leader removes his helmet, to reveal rhinoceros-like features. The aliens begin to scan the patients and staff, marking those checked with an "X" on the back of their hand. The Doctor worries that if they are looking for an alien then they might think he is the criminal. Martha is more concerned that the air will run out soon. The biker figures are recognised by the Doctor as Slabs, animated figures made from solid leather, and presumably employed by the alien criminal. They chase him and Martha, and he uses an X-Ray machine to destroy one of them.


Martha works out that Florence is the person whom the Judoon are searching for. She drank Stoker's blood in order to assimilate it, so that she would appear human to the Judoon scans. She is a Plasmavore, responsible for murdering an alien child princess. She starts to sabotage an MMR machine, so that it will create a devastating pulse of electro-magnetic energy. This will kill everyone on the Moon except herself, hidden behind a shield. It will also wipe out all human and animal life on the surface of Earth facing the Moon. The Doctor allows himself to be captured by Florence and her remaining Slab servant, and she starts to consume his blood. Martha and the Judoon arrive, and the medical student urges the aliens to scan Florence again. The old woman is shocked to find that she now registers as alien. The Judoon destroy the Slab, and then incinerate the Plasmavore. Their work done, they head back to their spaceships and leave, with the oxygen running dangerously low. Martha uses CPR to revive the Doctor, and he is able to stop the MMR machine from overloading. As the air finally runs out, the Judoon transport the hospital back to Earth.
That evening, Martha leaves the pub where her family is celebrating and sees the Doctor standing nearby. He shows her the TARDIS. Not believing it can travel in time, the Doctor goes back to that morning - returning moments later without his tie. He agrees to take Martha on one journey.


Smith and Jones was written by Russell T Davies, and was first broadcast on Saturday 31st March, 2007. It is the first episode of Series 3. It introduces Freema Agyeman as new companion Martha Jones. She had impressed the production team when chosen to play the short-lived character of Adeola in the previous series' finale. The similarity is covered in the script as Martha tells the Doctor that her cousin was killed at Canary Wharf.
As with Rose, she has a family, who will come to greater prominence as the season progresses.
Francine is played by Adjoa Andoh, who had featured in the previous series opener under Cat Nun prosthetics as Sister Jatt. Trevor Laird is Clive. He is the latest actor to bridge the Classic and New eras of the programme, having appeared as Frax in the Mindwarp section of Trial of a Time Lord. Tish is Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who has gone on to great things, and Leo is Reggie Yates, better known as a presenter and DJ.
The notion of a building being transplanted onto the Moon was one Davies had thought of for a while. Looking for a reason to justify why this would happen led him to think of it being taken out of Earth's jurisdiction - which led onto the aliens being policemen. Davies liked the idea of aliens having animal-heads on humanoid bodies, and so came up with the rhinoceros-like Judoon.


The other new alien is the Plasmavore Florence, played by Anne Reid - another returnee from the Classic era. She was Nurse Crane in The Curse of Fenric. Having a blood-drinking foe led to the consultant getting the name of B Stoker, after Dracula's author. He is played by Roy Marsden.
The principal Judoon - the only one seen without its helmet - is regular monster artiste Paul Casey, and they are voiced by Nick Briggs.
The title refers to the fact that the Doctor uses the alias Smith - first given to him by Jamie in The Wheel In Space. Smith and Jones are regarded as two of the most common English surnames, so much so that suspicions are aroused when used.

Story Arc: Posters are seen urging people to "Vote Saxon", and he is mentioned in dialogue as claiming that aliens exist.


Overall, a very strong season opener, which rattles along at quite a pace. Much better than Series 2's first episode. Freema impresses from the start. The Judoon make for an entertaining new monster. Two things not so great - Florence doesn't make for a very strong foe, and the business with the Doctor expelling radiation through his foot is embarrassingly infantile.
Things you might like to know:

  • A Royal Hope Hospital featured in an episode of Law & Order: UK, which starred Freema Agyeman, and was written by Chris Chibnall.
  • From the aerial shot of the missing hospital we can see that it is located where a real London hospital is situated - St Thomas', opposite the Houses of Parliament.
  • Davies intended Mr Stoker to refer to a character he had created for the series Children's Ward, but his colleagues assumed it was a Dracula reference and so added the "B" initial to his office door plate.
  • It's now customary for the Doctor to kiss his companion - though never in a romantic way. The Ninth sucked the Vortex out of Rose, whilst she kissed his Tenth incarnation whilst inhabited by Cassandra. Here the Doctor uses the kiss to plant his DNA on Martha to confuse the Judoon scans. However, it does lead her to think that he might fancy her - leading to a theme of unrequited love throughout the rest of the season.
  • There was a planned sequence involving a window cleaning cradle, but this was eventually used by Davies in the next series opener, Partners In Crime.
  • The Doctor loses his Sonic Screwdriver when he uses it to boost the X-Ray device. This is the first time this is seen to happen since he lost one in The Visitation.
  • Martha makes a comment about the Slabs coming from the planet Zovirax. This is a reference to a TV advert of the time for cold sore cream, where people afflicted would wear motorbike helmets with blacked out visors to hide their ailment.
  • When shown in Canada for the first time, this episode and the preceding Christmas Special - The Runaway Bride - were screened in the wrong order.
  • When shown on the Watch channel, the scene of the man who had attacked a Judoon being killed was cut.
  • The Doctor continues his fixation about hospitals having a little shop. The previous series opener - New Earth - had seen him bemoan the fact that the Sisters of Plenitude establishment didn't have one.
  • The Doctor implies that he once had a brother. "Not any more" he says.
  • The phrase "A Platoon.. of Judoon... on the Moon" was written by Davies as he knew David Tennant would be unable to pronounce it without giving away his real Scottish accent.

Sunday 20 August 2017

Inspirations - The Daleks' Master Plan


Now in its third season, it had been decided that Doctor Who would comprise mainly four part adventures, with a six part Dalek story every six months or so. The Controller of BBC 1 - Huw Wheldon - was a big fan of the Daleks, as was his mother. He asked outgoing producer Verity Lambert to show more of the Skarosian menaces, and she came up with the idea that two Dalek slots could be combined to form one massive 12 episode adventure, that would run over the Christmas period. New producer John Wiles was horrified to inherit this, as it would take up most of his first year in charge. Knowing that Terry Nation would never be able to come up with all 12 episodes, Donald Tosh agreed that he would write half - the set-up and the conclusion - whilst Dennis Spooner would handle the middle section.
Dalek director Richard Martin had moved on, and so Douglas Camfield was hired to direct. As deadlines loomed, as Tosh tells it, Nation dropped off his scripts on the way to the airport, but these were mostly episode outlines rather than full scripts. As such, much of The Daleks' Master Plan ought to be credited to Tosh.
We've already looked at the origins of the Kemble-set opening episodes, thanks to the prequel episode Mission to the Unknown. We've still got the jungle warfare elements, and Nicholas Courtney's Bret Vyon is the new Bond-like character. Like Bond villains, the Daleks have got themselves a big base, a group of allies, and have developed a super-weapon - the Time Destructor.


There is a new, humanoid, villain added to the mix - would be ruler of the universe Mavic Chen (Kevin Stoney). He already runs the Solar System, but that isn't enough. Part Three sees the Doctor and company fleeing Kemble in Chen's stolen ship. This allows for the first of two chase sequences, so the story can introduce new locations and new adversaries. First we have the desperate criminals of Desperus. This prison planet is obviously influenced by the penal settlement of Devil's Island - the episode is actually called Devil's Planet. One of these hirsute felons - Kirksen - gets onto the ship and takes Katarina hostage in the airlock. She has been telling the Doctor that she knows she will die soon since she came aboard the TARDIS, and in Episode Four this comes to pass. She sacrifices herself to help the Doctor, opening the airlock to space. The first companion death, and she only came into the programme in the previous story. Tosh and Wiles had realised that someone from so long ago would need everything explained to them, or accept things that she ought to have questioned - which would have slowed the drama down to a standstill.
Watching her death scene at home was the director Stanley Kubrick, who was preparing 2001: A Space Odyssey. He wanted to know how the shots had been achieved. (Adrienne Hill had been filmed on a trampoline, shot from below. These death scenes were the first she filmed for the show).
The action moves onto Earth, where Bret's friend turns out to be in the pay of Chen and he is forced to kill him. He is himself shot dead by a new Security Agent - Sara Kingdom. She, the Doctor and Steven are accidentally transported to yet another jungle planet - mire-ridden Mira. Nation had introduced matter transmission to the programme with his travel dials in The Keys of Marinus. Mira is home to the invisible Visians. Nation will return to invisible aliens in a few years time. Sara admits that Bret was actually her brother, and quickly joins forces with the Doctor and Steven when the Daleks show up. She is clearly modeled on The Avengers companions Cathy Gale and Emma Peel, as well as some of the female agents encountered by Bond.


The Visians attack the Daleks, allowing the Doctor and company to flee, but the ship is drawn back to Kemble. In trying to create a fake Core for the Time Destructor, Steven accidentally shrouds himself in a force-field. This allows the Doctor to retrieve the TARDIS. There then follows the oddest episode in the history of Doctor Who - The Feast of Steven. This one went out on Christmas evening. It was felt that Daleks exterminating people on Christmas Day might not go down very well, so this episode is played for laughs. The first section sees the TARDIS materialise in Liverpool on Christmas Day, 1965. The Doctor gets arrested on a vagrancy charge - believed to be squatting in the new Police Box that's been delivered outside the police station. The Doctor thinks he recognises a man he meets in the station as having been in the market place of Jaffa. This is an in-joke as the man is played by Reg Pritchard, who had played the rather camp tailor Ben Daheer in The Crusade.
It had been hoped that the cast of Z Cars would have featured here, but their producer vetoed the idea. Steven pretends to be a Scouse policeman to rescue the Doctor and they move on. On the scanner, they see a woman about to be cut in half by a saw in a timber yard. Rushing to her rescue, they find that they have arrived in a Hollywood studio of the silent era. A number of films are in production - the Perils of Pauline type they first saw, another not unlike Valentino's The Sheikh, and a Keystone Kops affair. Morton Dill had thought they were filming a Keystone Kops routine when the TARDIS materialised on top of the Empire State Building in The Chase. Charlie Chaplin is referenced, and the Doctor meets Bing Crosby, who's thinking of giving up clowning to take up singing. Crosby never acted in comic roles in silent movies.
After fleeing back to the TARDIS, the Doctor then famously breaks the fourth wall by including the viewers in his Christmas toast.


The following episode aired on New Year's Eve. The Doctor realises that someone is following him and assumes that it is the Daleks, who have discovered that he had given them the fake Core. It transpires that it is not the Daleks at all, but a return appearance by the Meddling Monk, once again portrayed by Peter Butterworth. Spooner, his creator, is the author of this episode. The Monk's return - the series' first recurring character - allows for more humour over the festive period. Before meeting him, the TARDIS lands in the middle of a Test Match between England and Australia at the Oval cricket ground. The usually unflappable BBC cricket commentators are parodied, with one of them looking to see if this has ever happened before. After a brief meeting with the Monk on a volcanic planet, the TARDIS arrives in Trafalgar Square to witness the New Year celebrations. The Daleks have indeed found out that they have been sold a pup, and so send to Skaro for their own space time machine - allowing the story to be stretched out further. TARDIS, Monk and Daleks (with Chen in tow) all arrive in Egypt at the time of the building of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. It looks pretty much finished, so the year must be around 1260 BC. This setting was one of those originally intended for inclusion in The Chase. That previous Dalek pursuit had seen the Doctor's companions encountering Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster, and this time it is the Mummy who is referenced, as Sara and Steven see a bandaged figure emerge from a sarcophagus. It's just the Monk, trussed up by the Doctor.


The Doctor is forced to hand over the real Core to Chen. He has sabotaged the Monk's TARDIS yet again - making it look like a Police Box to draw Dalek fire, and he has stolen the directional unit - hoping it will be compatible with his older ship. The Monk is last seen on an ice planet, doomed to wander aimlessly until he can replace the unit. The unit does manage to get the TARDIS back to Kemble before burning itself out. Not content with one big base, the Daleks have built themselves another - an underground bunker. Chen's sanity finally collapses as he starts giving the Daleks orders, and it is only a matter of time before they exterminate him. The Doctor steals the Time Destructor and activates it. Time starts to unravel forwards. The jungle turns to desert, and Sara ages to death. The second companion death, within the same story, though there continues some debate about whether or not she is a proper companion. Steven rescues the Doctor, and throws the Destructor into reverse. The Daleks regress to embryos, and John Wiles and Donald Tosh start writing their resignation letters.
Next time, Steven sees double and the Doctor looks for a chemist shop in 16th Century Paris...

Thursday 17 August 2017

C is for... Castrovalvans


According to the TARDIS databanks, on the planet of Castrovalva existed Dwellings of Simplicty. Here, the Doctor would be isolated from all technology, and so free to heal after his fourth regeneration. Castrovalva appeared to be a hilltop citadel, and its people were a friendly, peace-loving humanoid race. They engaged in ritualised hunting parties, wearing furred, masked costumes that had belonged to their ancestors. Librarian Shardovan refused to participate in these hunts. Their leader was a wise old man - the Portreeve. The Doctor was placed under the care of physician Mergrave, and soon recovered. He decided to read the history of Castrovalva, which chronicled the city from the coming together of various tribes up to the present day. He discovered that, though supposedly old, this had been written by Shardovan. He soon became aware that Castrovalva was not what it appeared. It was subject to dimensional instability. Mergrave became confused about its geography when asked to draw a map showing his apothecary. Shardovan had created the history because he had come to realise that his people had none. They were all a creation of the Master, harnessing Adric's mathematical skills to create block transfer computations. He had been the Portreeve in disguise.
When the Doctor freed Adric, the city began to collapse in on itself. The Castrovalvans turned on their creator - ensnaring him in his own trap.

Appearances: Castrovalva (1982).

  • "Castrovalva" is the name of a work by the artist M C Escher, famous for his strange optical illusions. A print had hung behind the desk of producer John Nathan Turner's boss, and it had always annoyed him.

C is for... Castellan


The Doctor had encountered two other holders of this post on Gallifrey before he met this unnamed individual. The Castellan was a senior Time Lord, responsible for internal security. He commanded the Chancellery Guards. This Castellan held a seat on the High Council, and was one of its key members. At the same time that he was investigating the apparently accidental death of a Time Lord technician, the Time Lords became aware that an entity from the universe of Anti-Matter was attempting to break into this universe by bonding itself physically to the Doctor. The Castellan had the TARDIS recalled to Gallifrey, materialising it in a security area. A humourless and obsessive man, he failed to heed warnings by a friend of the Doctor's - Damon - that might point towards a traitor at work. He pursued the Doctor ruthlessly. When the Doctor was captured and sentenced to vapourisation the Castellan harboured doubts, and ordered Captain Maxil of the Chancellery Guards to investigate the execution. A fellow member of the High Council - Hedin - was the traitor, seeking to bring Omega back from his long exile. Hedin manufactured evidence that made President Borusa look like he was in league with the Doctor. The Castellan was prepared to shoot down the Doctor when he went to arrest Borusa, but Hedin intervened and was killed, as he knew Omega needed the Doctor alive.


Later, when the Doctor was taken out of time in all of his regenerations and deposited in the Death Zone on Gallifrey, the Castellan was once again part of the inner circle of the Council. This was the work of Borusa. Knowing of the animosity felt by the Castellan towards the Doctor, he made the perfect scapegoat to throw attention away from himself. He arranged for the forbidden Black Scrolls of Rassilon to be found amongst the Castellan's effects and ordered his arrest - authorising use of the Mind Probe to interrogate him. He then engineered his murder, employing a Chancellery Guard Captain to shoot him down in a faked escape bid.

Played by: Paul Jerricho. Appearances: Arc of Infinity and The Five Doctors (1983).

  • A Castellan is the governor of a castle.

C is for... Cassandra (2)


Lady Cassandra O'Brien dot Delta 17 claimed to be the last pure bred human, and so was a guest on Platform One in the year 5 Billion to witness the final destruction of the Earth. Born a boy in Texas, she had grown up in England. After transitioning to a woman, she became obsessed with her appearance and embarked on hundreds of surgical procedures to improve her looks - resulting in her becoming a piece of skin stretched on a frame, with eyes and mouth, and with her brain held in a jar. She married several times, outliving all of her wealthy husbands.
She arrived on the Platform with attendant nurses, whose main job was to keep her permanently moisturised. She brought gifts of an ostrich egg (which she believed to have been a beast like a dragon), and a Wurlitzer juke-box, which she thought was an i-pod.
Desperate for funds to finance her next cosmetic operation, she hatched a plan to engineer a hostage situation on the Platform. She employed the Adherents of the Repeated Meme to distribute metal spheres to her fellow guests, inside each of which was a robot spider programmed to commit acts of sabotage. When it appeared that the Platform would be destroyed, she opted for a back-up plan, having invested heavily in the competitor firms of those aboard. She transmatted off the Platform, but the Doctor reversed this and brought her back. Without her attendants, the heat in the station caused her to dry out and she burst apart.


A faithful servant named Chip, who was a short-lived clone, salvaged her brain and eyes, and connected them up to a new body made from another piece of her skin. He hid her in the basement of the hospital on New Earth. She spent her time reminiscing about her earlier life, and plotting to discover the secrets of the cat-like Sisters of Plenitude who ran the hospital. Her robot spiders alerted her to the fact that Rose and the Doctor had arrived on the planet and were coming to the hospital. She tricked Rose into going to the basement and employed a psycho-graft to transfer her mind into Rose's body. Her own body and brain died. She pretended to be Rose and helped the Doctor discover what the Sisters were up to - growing cloned humans to use as laboratory guinea-pigs. They carried many virulent diseases, and Cassandra released them. At one point she transferred herself into the Doctor. On another occasion she entered one of the clones, and was shocked by the loneliness she felt there. When forced to vacate Rose's body and accept her inevitable demise, Chip stepped in and became a willing host for her. His life had been almost over, however. The Doctor took her to visit her earlier self, when she still had a humanoid body. She had based Chip on the last person ever to tell her she looked beautiful - which proved to be her future self.


Played by: Zoe Wanamaker. Appearances: The End of the World (2005) and New Earth (2006).

  • According to a BBC reference book (Monsters and Villains), Cassandra was born Brian Edward Cobbs.
  • Wanamaker was making a number of appearances in the Poirot TV series at the time these episodes were filmed, so only had limited time to record her dialogue, and to have motion capture done on her facial features in order that the Mill could animate her.

C is for... Cassandra (1)


Daughter of Priam, King of Troy. She feared that the city would fall after it accepted a gift from the Greeks, and at first thought that this might be the TARDIS, which brother Paris had found. She insisted it be burnt - prompting Vicki to leave the ship. Cassandra could foresee the future, though she was cursed that no-one would believe her prophesies. When it became clear that Vicki knew Steven, who was posing as a Greek warrior, Cassandra had her thrown into prison. When the city fell, Cassandra was taken captive and given to Agamemnon. Her handmaiden, Katarina, joined the TARDIS crew.

Played by: Frances White. Appearances: The Myth Makers (1965).

  • There is a popular myth that White asked the Radio Times not to credit her. She has denied this and states that it was a mistake by the publication.
  • In Greek mythology it was Apollo who gave Cassandra the gift of prophesy, and added the curse of never being believed when she spurned him. She was raped by Ajax in the temple dedicated to Athena, who wrecked the Greek fleet in revenge. Cassandra was killed along with Agamemnon shortly after they reached Mycenae.

Monday 14 August 2017

Small Worlds - Torchwood 1.5


In which Jack wakes from a vivid nightmare - a memory of something which happened to him decades ago. As an officer in the British army he was traveling through India in the boxcar of a train when it passed through a tunnel. Within seconds, all of his men were dead - suffocated with rose petals. Jack finds a lone petal beside his bed. The next day he takes Gwen to see a lecture about local folklore, given by an old friend of his named Estelle Cole. She has taken some photographs which she claims show Faeries, taken in a local woodland.
At Estelle's home, Gwen sees a photo of her as a young woman, with a man who looks exactly like Jack. He claims that this was his father, who courted Estelle for a time. Jack warns Estelle that Faeries are not the benign creatures she believes them to be, but she refuses to accept this. Outside, he tells Gwen that they are beings from outwith Time itself and are totally amoral. Back at the Hub, Jack asks Toshiko to monitor for any unusual weather events, as these can indicate Faery activity.


A young girl named Jasmine lives in a house that backs onto the woodland where Estelle saw the creatures. She is a solitary child, with no friends, and who does not get on with her mother's boyfriend, Roy. He fails to pick her up from school and so she walks home. A man named Mark Goodson attempts to lure her into his car. Jasmine does have friends - ones that only she can see. A fierce wind forces Mark to withdraw and he feels that someone is hunting him. In a nearby market he begins to regurgitate rose petals. He finds a police officer and asks to be arrested, admitting that he is a paedophile.  In custody, he dies - suffocated by petals. Jack and Gwen are called in to investigate the death. Jack tells Gwen about the events in India, back in 1909. Some of his men had drunkenly run over and killed a child. This child was a chosen one for the Faeries, and this is why they killed his men in the train.
That night Estelle hears someone prowling outside her home and calls Jack. Going out into the garden to fetch her cat she is caught in a torrential downpour. This freak weather is spotted in the Hub. By the time Jack gets to the house, Estelle has died from drowning. Jack admits to Gwen that the man in the photo was him. Returning home, Gwen finds her flat has been ransacked. A miniature sculpture, like a stone circle, has been left on the floor.


The next day, Jasmine is bullied at school. The playground is buffeted by strong winds, causing everyone to panic - all except Jasmine. Owen has discovered that the piece of woodland where Estelle saw the Faeries - Roundstone Woods - has always been wild and never been built upon, despite redevelopment all around it. It contains an ancient stone circle. When Jack and Gwen investigate the school, Gwen is convinced that something is watching them from the trees. They decide to go and speak to Jasmine. Roy has boarded up the fence to stop Jasmine from going into the woods. A party is being held to celebrate the fifth anniversary since Roy started going out with her mother. It is attacked by winged, green-skinned creatures. One of them kills Roy, suffocating him. Jasmine runs into the woods. Jack realises that the girl has been chosen to join the Faeries, and that nothing will prevent this. To the horror of his colleagues and her mother, Jack allows the creatures to take Jasmine.
Back at the Hub, Gwen is studying images of the Cottingley Fairies, taken in 1917. She zooms in on one of the faces of the dancing figures, and sees that it shows a smiling Jasmine.


Small Worlds was written by P J Hammond, best known for creating Sapphire and Steel. It was first broadcast on 12th November, 2006.
Hammond had been sounded out for a Doctor Who contribution by script editor Eric Saward in the mid 1980's, though nothing had come of the approach.
For a change, there are no alien aspects to the story, though Jack does reference a monster from the classic era of Doctor Who. The Faeries are Earthbound creatures, who have always lived alongside us, though they don't follow linear time. I've read a lot of Scottish folklore, and Faeries feature prominently. The stories rarely show them in a benign light. At best they are amoral. They are often alleged to steal children, or nursing women to feed their own children, replacing them with a piece of wood. Another popular tale is that of the person who joins them in a dance. He thinks he has only been with them a few hours, whereas a year or more has really passed. In one version, a whole century has gone by.
Child abduction features in the Doctor Who series 2 story Fear Her, but at no point is it ever even suggested that this may be due to a paedophile. Small Worlds tackles this subject head on, in the character of Goodson.


Jasmine is played by Lara Phillipart. She features in The Idiot's Lantern, watching the Coronation at the Connolly household. Estelle is Eve Pearce. She's a poet as well as an actor.
Overall, one of the highlights of the first season. Hammond is a great writer, and his contribution to the second season will be one of its best.
Things you might like to know:

  • The Doctor Who monster Jack refers to is the Mara - from Kinda and Snakedance. He suggests that the Faeries might be part Mara. At least that's the conclusion fans jump to. Hammond would be referencing the Germanic legends, where the Mara can steal peoples' breath and are the derivation of the word "nightmare", whereas Christopher Bailey was inspired by a Buddhist demon.
  • It has been implied that Jack never sleeps, yet here we see him in bed, waking from a nightmare.
  • The Torchwood website claimed that Jack's role in India, 1909, was when he was acting as a con-man, out to steal diamonds.
  • The Cottingley Fairies were revealed to have been a hoax in the early 1980's, when the two cousins who feature in the pictures admitted they cut the figures from a book and fastened them with hat pins. When first revealed to the public, they caught the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was convinced of their authenticity. The August 2017 edition of Fortean Times has a feature, marking the centenary of the photographs.
  • The episode ends with a quotation from The Stolen Child, by W B Yeats - a devout believer in the supernatural. It runs: "Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild. With a faery hand in hand. For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand".

Friday 11 August 2017

August's Figurines


Three figurines again this month - two regular releases plus the latest of the special editions. First of all we have the Professor Yana Master. An extremely good likeness of Derek Jacobi.
With him is Dalek Caan, as he appeared in The Stolen Earth / Journey's End, with the casing broken open. This is one of those figurines that looks odd out of context, being so brightly coloured. On screen it was kept in a harsh spotlight, in a darkened chamber.


The special edition figure is the Yeti, as it appeared in The Web of Fear. It is roughly twice the size of the normal figurines. Unfortunately, mine came with a couple of the talons broken off - that's three months running I've had to get the super-glue out. Either Eaglemoss need to improve their packaging, or my postman has to to go.
Next month we will be treated to Sharaz Jek, from The Caves of Androzani, plus - what it possibly the most pointless release yet - the Space Pig from the Series 1 Slitheen story. October sees an Ogron plus a Cheetah Person, whilst the next special edition will be Aggedor.

Tuesday 8 August 2017

Inspirations: The Myth Makers


Until relatively recently, it was widely accepted that a man named Homer wrote an epic poem about a legendary war - and of a ten year siege by Achaean (Greek) heroes of a city named Troy.
More recently it has become widely accepted that the Greeks really did besiege and destroy the city of Troy, in the Dardanelles, during the Bronze Age. It's Homer himself who has become the myth.
If he did exist, he certainly wasn't a first hand observer of the conflict - he lived several centuries later.
It appears that the tale was handed down orally over those centuries by story-tellers until someone - possibly Homer - wrote it down. But the germ of the poem came from first hand accounts of a real conflict. There's corroboration in Hittite texts of a Mycenaean Greek High King campaigning in Asia Minor in the area where archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the ruins of the city he believed to be Troy, which had clear destruction layers. The Greeks had built a new city on top of this, and the Romans had built another on top of that. Alexander the Great had no problem identifying it as the site of Troy. He was shown the tomb of Achilles - a mound near the site - and is said to have swapped his own shield for that of his hero.
That's as much as we can say about a conflict in the region in the Bronze Age. The details, such as Paris abducting Helen; her husband Menelaus seeking help from his brother - Agamemnon - and other Greek city states to lay siege; the siege lasting ten years; and the subterfuge of the Wooden Horse etc - all this can never be proved. Some of it is certainly artistic licence on the part of the bards who first told the tale.


We've said a lot about Homer, but nothing so far about the Doctor. The Myth Makers - always known under this title - was written by Donald Cotton. He had written a number of plays for the Third Programme, most inspired by the classical Greek myths. When story editor Donald Tosh invited him to contribute a storyline to Doctor Who, he settled on the legend of the Wooden Horse of Troy. Cotton elected to make the episodes humorous, but with a sudden switch to darkness in the final section when Troy would fall, and most of the characters would be killed.
The action begins with the TARDIS materialising near Troy. The Doctor goes out to confront two men who are fighting - distracting one of them (Hector) long enough for the other (Achilles) to kill him. Achilles takes the Doctor to be Zeus, and he plays along as he's taken to the Greek camp where he meets Agamemnon, the spineless Menelaus - who just wants to go home and isn't that bothered about getting Helen back - and the cynical Odysseus, who wants proof of his divinity. Steven comes looking for the Doctor, gets taken for a Trojan spy, and so the Doctor has to step in to save him. He decides to show Odysseus his "temple" - the TARDIS - but when they get there it has gone. Vicki, nursing a sore ankle, was still inside. She emerges from the ship after it has been carried into Troy.
Vicki needs to be rescued from the city by Steven, whilst the Doctor is challenged to come up with a way of capturing it. She falls in love with King Priam's son Troilus, whilst making an enemy of his sister Cassandra, the prophetess. Steven pretends to be a warrior named Diomedes and allows himself to be captured by Paris - so he can get to Vicki. The Doctor decides that the Wooden Horse must have been made up by Homer, so he won't be messing with history if he suggests it to Odysseus.
The city falls, the Trojans are massacred - except for Cassandra who gets taken captive, Troilus, who runs off with Vicki (who changes her name to Cressida), and Katarina, a handmaiden who looks like she's going to be the new companion as she departs in the TARDIS with the Doctor and Steven.


As well as the general myths of the Trojan War on view, the other big inspiration is the story of Troilus and Cressida. Shakespeare's play is probably the best known version, but earlier than that we have Chaucer's poem - and he is said to have taken the idea from Boccaccio. He in turn took inspiration from 12th Century poet Benoit de Saint-Maure. The two lovers fail to live happily ever after in the literary sources - with Troilus slain in battle and Cressida taking a Greek lover, ironically the person whom Steven is impersonating.
Whilst on the subject, Diomedes was not killed during the Trojan War. He returned to Greece and successfully founded a number of new cities.
Maureen O'Brien only discovered she was being written out of the series on her return from holiday at the end of Season 2. New producer John Wiles had heard her complain about the scripts for Galaxy 4, and thought she wanted to leave, so asked Tosh to arrange it as soon as possible. Of the four companion departures to date, that's two who have fallen in love with someone in the course of a few days, though Susan never got to make the decision to leave the TARDIS for herself.


Homer's Iliad is set in the later stages of the war, but ends before the fall of Troy - so the Wooden Horse doesn't feature. It is briefly mentioned in his other great work - The Odyssey - though that is set after the war has ended, when Odysseus is trying to get home to Ithaca. It is actually to the Roman writer Virgil that we should look for the full story of the Horse - in The Aeneid. Virgil recounts the story of the actual fall of the city, and of how the survivor Aeneas, after much wandering, arrives in Italy and founds Rome.
As far as Donald Cotton was concerned, the Wooden Horse was simply inspired by a Siege Machine. Though not common, they had been used at the time the war was set. An interesting theory is that the Horse was not a real one but a metaphorical one. The horse was one of the symbols of Poseidon. As well as being god of the seas, he was also responsible for earthquakes. Archaeologists working at Troy have found that it is not always possible to confirm if an area of destruction was man-made, or the result of a natural disaster like an earthquake. Troy lies in modern Turkey, which is geologically unstable.
Was the idea of a ten year siege such an unlikely one? It is written as though it was continuous, but warfare up until the formation of standing armies was a seasonal thing. You went off campaigning each year, but went home for important things like the harvest. A campaign lasting ten seasons is perfectly feasible.
Even something as fantastic as Achilles' vulnerable heel might have its derivation in truth. Experts have recreated armour from Bronze Age Asia Minor. It affords a great deal of protection - apart from the back of the lower leg...
Next time, it's back to Kembel for Dalek shenanigans of epic proportions.

Friday 4 August 2017

C is for... Cass (2)


Crew member of the Drum - an underwater mining facility in a flooded valley in the North of Scotland. The crew had found a strange craft on the lake bed and brought it into the complex. Its engines suddenly fired - killing the commander, Moran. His ghost appeared moments later, and the crew had to seek shelter in a Faraday Cage which the spirit Moran could not enter. Another, alien, ghost appeared - dressed like a funeral director.
As Cass was second in command, she took charge. She had been deaf since birth, and had a colleague named Lunn who signed for her. Cass was very protective towards Lunn - refusing to allow him to enter the craft. Fortunately, this prevented him from becoming a victim of the ghosts - transformed into another of their kind. Her protectiveness was because she was in love with him, but didn't feel she could say so. He was secretly in love with her in return.
Lunn's immunity proved helpful once the Doctor and Clara arrived and helped them investigate what was going on. Whilst Cass couldn't hear an approaching ghost, she could feel the vibration of the axe it was dragging, and this saved her life.
Another victim of unrequited love, her colleague Bennett convinced Cass and Lunn to admit their feelings towards each other after the ghosts had been neutralised.

Played by: Sophie Stone. Appearances: Under the Lake / Before the Flood (2015).

  • Sophie was a 24 year old single mum when she became the first deaf actor to be enrolled at RADA. Inspiring.

C is for... Cass (1)


Pilot of a spaceship which was breaking up near the orbit of the planet Karn. She had transported her crew off the vessel and stayed behind. The Doctor materialised the TARDIS aboard the vessel and attempted to rescue her. On discovering that he was a Time Lord, she refused to go with him - believing both sides in the Time War to be just as bad as each other. The Doctor decided not to leave her, and remained on the ship when it crashed. He was taken from the wreckage, dying. Cass was already dead, and the Sisterhood of Karn could not bring her back. This prompted the peace-loving Eighth Doctor to regenerate into the incarnation known as the "War Doctor".

Played by: Emma Campbell-Jones. Appearances: Night of the Doctor (2013).

C is for... Carter, Alice and Steven


Daughter and grandson of Captain Jack Harkness. Her mother was Lucia Moretti, who worked with Jack in Torchwood Three. She left the organisation in 1977, and put her daughter under deep cover - as Alice Sangster. She went on to marry Joe Carter, and had a son - Steven - in 1999.
Alice knew all about her father, and refused to have any connection with him - knowing the dangers associated with him. They started limited contact after Lucia died - Jack being passed off as an uncle to Steven due to his apparent younger age.
When the aliens known as the 456 began to send messages to Earth through its children, Steven was one of those affected. The Government elected to destroy Torchwood as part of a cover-up, as Jack had been involved in an earlier encounter with the species. Agent Johnson traced Alice and Steven and took them into custody, as a means of getting Jack, Gwen and Rhys to hand themselves in. They were released when Jack convinced Johnson that there was a way to combat the aliens. This needed a child to be used as a conduit for a signal. To save millions of other children, Jack allowed Steven to be used. The signal worked, but Steven was killed. Alice refused to speak to him after this, and in remorse Jack fled from Earth.


Played by: Lucy Cohu (Alice), Bear McCausland (Steven). Appearances: TW: Children of Earth (2009).

C is for... Carter (3)


Commander of the Teselecta - Justice Department Vehicle 6018. This humanoid-shaped machine could transform its appearance to look and sound like anyone. The original person was transported inside it. If a wrong-doer, they were killed by the machine's robotic Antibodies. Others were given a wristband device which protected them.
Within the Teselecta were some 421 miniaturised crew members. The machine could travel through Time - visiting people who had committed serious crimes and who had managed to escape justice, usually by dying. Carter's vessel travelled to Berlin in 1938 to punish Adolf Hitler, taking on the appearance of a Nazi officer named Zimmerman. Carter realised that they had arrived seven years too early. The Teselecta was then knocked down by the crashing TARDIS. When Amy and Rory's friend Mels regenerated into River Song, Carter realised that he had a new target - as she was the killer of the Doctor. He was prevented from harming her by her daughter, who disabled the Antibody safeguards - forcing Carter and his crew to abandon ship and return to their mothership.
The Doctor encountered Carter again when the Teselecta was disguised as Gideon Vandalour of the Silence, frequenting a bar in the docklands of Calisto B. After giving him information about Silence agent Gantok, Carter allowed the Doctor to use the machine to feign his death.

Played by: Richard Dillane. Appearances: Let's Kill Hitler, The Wedding of River Song (both 2011).

C is for... Carter (2)


Penny Carter was the science correspondent for The Observer newspaper, investigating the weight loss claims of Adipose Industries at the same time that the company was attracting the attention, separately, of the Doctor and Donna Noble. Whilst not suspecting alien activity, she was concerned about their miraculous results. She decided to hide in the company's HQ after it had closed, concealing herself in a cubicle in the Ladies' toilets. Donna had the same idea, and at first thought that it was she who had been discovered by Miss Foster and her security men. Whilst being interrogated in Miss Foster's office, the Doctor and Donna spied on her, he from outside the window and she from the glass panel on the door. This was the first time they had seen each other since the Racnoss incident of two Christmases ago. Penny was untied, only to be recaptured and tied to a chair again. After the Adipose spacecraft had come to collect their youngsters, and Miss Foster had plunged to her death, Penny emerged from the building - still tied to a chair. She was convinced the Doctor and Donna were crazy.

Played by: Verona Joseph. Appearances: Partners in Crime (2008).

  • Had Catherine Tate not returned to do Series 4, journalist Penny Carter would have been the new companion to replace Martha Jones.

C is for... Carter (1)


Dr Carter was a pathologist at the hospital to which Sarah Jane Smith was taken after being caught up in a quarry blasting accident. At the Doctor's behest he investigated the stone hand which she had been found clutching. The hand appeared to have a helical structure like DNA, and it absorbed radiation from the electron microscope examining it. Sarah woke and stole the hand, knocking Carter out with a blast of energy from the blue crystal ring which the hand had worn. Carter insisted on accompanying the Doctor to the Nunton Nuclear Power Complex, where Sarah had taken the fossil.
The ring caused anyone who came under its influence to fall under the power of the hand's owner - an alien named Eldrad. They were compelled to prevent anyone from hindering the hand's attempts to reconstitute itself. Crying "Eldrad must live!", Carter attacked the Doctor with a wrench, but he lost his balance and fell from a high gantry to his death.

Played by: Rex Robinson. Appearances: The Hand of Fear (1976).

  • Third and final appearance by Robinson in the programme - all in stories directed by Lennie Mayne. His first was as another doctor - Tyler - in The Three Doctors. He then played the miners' leader Gebek in The Monster of Peladon.
  • His wife - Patricia Prior - also featured in The Three Doctors, playing Mrs Ollis.