Episode 130: The Smugglers (4)

Synopsis:

The Doctor and his companions are trapped in the church crypt by Squire Edwards and Jacob Kewper. As the smugglers argue over what's to be done with them, they fail to see the pirate Cherub enter. Polly screams as he throws his knife into the innkeeper's back, and a shot rings out...

The Squire has been shot and wounded. Cherub demands to know Longfoot's secret, and threatens to kill Ben and Polly if the Doctor does not tell him.

The Doctor tells him the cryptic message but pretends not to have worked it out, asking if the names are those of local settlements.

The pirate announces that the names - Smallbeer, Ringwood and Gurney - are all men who once served with him and Avery, and "the deadman's secret key" refers to Tim Deadman, the galley boy.

The Squire warns Cherub of the curse said to have been placed on the treasure.

Pike arrives on the beach, and sends two of his men - Gaptooth and Spaniard - to find Cherub. He then leads the rest of his men to the churchyard where they surround the tomb containing the smugglers booty. Gaptooth arrives to say that their fellow pirate has not been found.

Nearby, Josiah Blake is riding towards the village with a party of militiamen.

Pike enters the crypt and overhears Cherub continuing to threaten the Doctor for the treasure's whereabouts. He realises that his henchman has been planning to steal it for himself and challenges him.

The two fight, and Ben and Polly take the opportunity to sneak away down the secret passage.

In the churchyard, the rest of the pirates begin sampling the brandy and rum in the smugglers' hoard. Some of the goods are transported to the beach, where the pirates are surprised to see a large blue wooden box within a cave.

The duel in the crypt concludes with Pike slaying Cherub. He now demands to know the treasure's location. The Doctor agrees, but only on the condition that Pike leave the village alone. When Pike claims his men will want to loot, the Squire mocks his command over them.

Blake arrives nearby and splits his men into two groups - one to go directly to the churchyard and the other to enter the crypt through the secret passage.

In the crypt, the Doctor explains to Pike about the names of the dead pirates on their memorial tablets, and indicates a spot in the middle of the floor which lies between the four. Longfoot had altered existing tablets, as the named pirates were all buried at sea.

Pike lifts the central flagstone and initially thinks he has been tricked. However, delving deeper, his spiked hand emerges wrapped in pearls.

He then hears the sounds of fighting outside, as Blake's men begin their attack on the now drunken pirates in the churchyard.

Polly has gone on ahead of Ben and as she emerges into the cave she is captured by Daniel, one of the pirates. Ben hears her scream and is forewarned. He overpowers Daniel and fights with Spaniard.

Blake arrives to help, then leads his party into the passage. Ben will accompany him, whilst Polly goes to the TARDIS.

Believing that the Doctor has betrayed him, Pike attacks him. Blake arrives and the Squire manages to put Pike off balance before he can kill the Doctor. Blake then shoots the pirate captain. He falls dead, surrounded by Avery's treasure.

Ben quickly leads the Doctor to the passage.

The wounded Squire is repentant, and Blake has noted how he tried to help.

Safely back in the TARDIS, the Doctor and his companions contemplate the curse that surrounded Avery's treasure. The ship soon materialises at its next destination and they notice an immediate drop in temperature.

The Doctor announces that they have arrived at the coldest place on Earth...

Next time: The Tenth Planet

Data:

Written by Brian Hayles

Recorded: Friday 29th July 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 1st October 1966

Ratings: 4.5 million / AI 43

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Julia Smith

Additional cast: Jack Bligh (Gaptooth), Les Clark (Daniel)

Critique:

Brian Hayles specifically stated in his initial scripts that the pirate "Spaniard" was to be mute - much to the annoyance of fight arranger Derek Ware who was to play him. As well as organising the action and playing the most physical of the pirates, Ware also doubled for John Ringham in location scenes involving horse riding. This included a sequence in which Blake was thrown from his mount - with Ware landing in a pile of dung.

This episode was to see the debut of a stuntman who would go on to play a significant role in the series - Terry Walsh. He was stunt double for both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and provided his own stunt team - PROFILE - for the series after issues arose with Ware's HAVOC group, albeit briefly. More of him later.

After a relatively small amount of location footage needed for the previous instalment, the final episode contained a considerable amount of filmed material.

A number of local men were employed as extras, to portray the militia unit. Some also doubled for pirates.

The TARDIS departure sequence at Nanjizal Cove was one of the first things filmed on Sunday 19th June as it required the regular cast, and their availability on location was limited.

The fight sequence with Spaniard and Daniel at the cave mouth area, which also involved Michael Craze and Anneke Wills, was filmed on the same day.

For the rest of the filming, only the guest cast were needed on location, and Ringham filmed scenes with the militiamen assembling on Bosistow Cliffs on Monday 20th June. Other beach scenes were completed on this and the following day.

Tuesday 21st saw Michael Godfrey, Ware and Jack Bligh landing their boat on the beach.

Above: Derek Ware (Spaniard), George A Cooper (Cherub) and John Ringham (Josiah Blake) on location. 

Below: Blake brings the Militia

The final studio session of the series' third year of production got underway at Riverside Studio 1 on the last Friday of July.

The day did not start well for Craze, as he fell through an unsecured trapdoor during the morning's rehearsals, injuring his arm.

To save having to employ David Blake Kelly as a corpse, extra Terence Connolly acted as body double. The opening credits came up over a close-up of the knife hilt in Kewper's back.

The director scheduled a large number of recording breaks - mainly due to lighting requirements as most scenes were split between the churchyard in daylight, and the darkened crypt interior.

Wills also had to change her blouse to a ripped version for the final TARDIS scene, to tie in with location filming where Polly's sleeve is torn.

Terry Walsh had not participated in the location filming, and so made his first appearance in studio, playing one of the pirates in the churchyard. Much later, in one of his rare interviews, he claimed that he played both pirates and militiamen - getting killed, crawling off set and changing his wig / hat to come back on again as someone else. It's a nice story, but the cast lists of stuntmen and extras would dispute the need for doubling up as he described.

Also on the studio stunt team was Buddy Windrush, the alias of actor Bryan Mosley who had portrayed delegate Malpha in The Daleks' Master Plan (and who would go on to find fame as Alf Roberts in Coronation Street). His brother Fred was also involved in the same capacity.

The end credits rolled over a shot of the Doctor and companions looking directly into camera, as though we, the audience, are seeing the scene from within the ship's scanner.

With the recording over, the cast left to commence their summer break, with Hartnell planning a return to Cornwall for a lengthy fishing holiday.

Not for the last time, it is suggested that the interior of the TARDIS has a direct correlation with its external environment. This episode concludes with the Doctor and companions noticing an immediate drop in temperature, as they have arrived (spoiler...) at the South Pole.

In The Chase, the Doctor had stated that the ship could not simply hang around in space to avoid the Daleks - implying that they would run out of air eventually. Later, he talks to the Monk about his TARDIS' ability to do this safely. That first mention is in a story written by Terry Nation - and he is the writer who most often treats the TARDIS as though it were a conventional spaceship, which can run out of air and otherwise be affected by the nature of the atmosphere outside.

From a production point of view, The Smugglers Episode 4 marks the conclusion to the third season of Doctor Who. It had been a turbulent year for the series, both on and off the screen. Setting aside Verity Lambert's credit on Mission to The Unknown - recorded at the end of the previous season - the show had undergone a complete change of key personnel in the production office, with both John Wiles and Donald Tosh relinquishing their roles earlier than planned. On screen, the role of the female companion figure had seen a revolving door of actresses. 

The increasingly frail star, who disliked change, had found the entire experience unsettling, and he was struggling more and more with learning his scripts. His frustration would be taken out on others, especially those behind the camera. His latest companions were young, contemporary characters - played by young contemporary actors - and Hartnell had failed to form a close working relationship with them. During the making of this story, the decision had been taken that he would leave at the termination of his current contract. He would be back for Season 4, but only The Smugglers would fall within this contract - being recorded as part of Season 3.

For his final story, contractually, he would be a guest artist in his own show...

Trivia:

• The story limps to a close with low viewing and appreciation figures. They have at least remained consistent across the four episodes, but this week the series actually drops out of the weekly Top 100 most watched programmes.
• Brian Hayles did not write the closing TARDIS scene. It was provided by Gerry Davis in order to segue into the next episode.
• Amongst the militiamen is actor Hugh Fraser, in one of his very first television appearances. He would go on to become famous for playing Captain Hastings, opposite David Suchet's Poirot.
• There is a continuity error over the naming of the pirate who accompanied Spaniard to the beach. He is supposed to be called Daniel, but at one point is referred to as David - a fluff by Jack Bligh.
• This is the first of two stories in which Polly is the only female character, the other being The Moonbase. This situation won't happen again until 1972's The Mutants, in which Jo is the only woman on screen.
• The story has no incidental music - nor "special sounds".
• According to Wills, this was both her and Craze's favourite story.
• As previously mentioned, the Australian censors have allowed us to see some brief bloodthirsty scenes from this story. The 16mm film prints were still being offered by the BBC in 1974. The cut Australian copy was returned the following year - but by 1977 the serial no longer existed in the BBC archives.