Capitol Cutaway This Weekend

 

Just a quick reminder that I am away again this weekend, attending the DWAS Capitol Cutaway event at Hammersmith in London. It takes place on Sunday, but I'm making a holiday of it and travelling down Thursday and not returning until Tuesday 8th. I'll have one further quick post this week - either a What's Wrong With... or an Inspirations - on Wednesday night, then it will be a case of reviewing the event after my return.

I don't have anything else planned for the next month or two, so things will finally settle down after the house move and hols. I do plan to visit the big new Doctor Who exhibition at Peterborough Museum in the not too distant future, but unlikely before June.

The Savages - an animated review

With the house move last week I have only just gotten round this weekend to watching the latest of the animated missing stories - The Savages.

With no memorable monsters or surviving material beyond some very brief off-air 8mm clips, it is one of the series' most obscure stories, so it was a surprise that they opted to animate this in front of some other better known adventures.

However, the plan is to animate all the missing episodes - so that they can be included in future Season Collection boxsets - so they would have gotten round to it eventually, and Season 3 is the one with the least material available.

I've already reviewed the story both as a whole and as individual episodes, so I'll concentrate purely on the animation and extras here.

One of the things we do have from the original broadcast is the telesnaps, and these show some very atmospheric filming from director Christopher Barry for the cave-bound scenes. Unfortunately, despite achieving great things with darkness and light on The Macra Terror, this story comes across as the equivalent of one of those over-lit studio productions of the 1980's. The cave sequences come over as very flat and totally lacking in atmosphere.

Some likenesses such as Jano are good, though Steven often looks nothing like Peter Purves. They continue to have problems getting Hartnell right, though the model being used here is an improvement on Galaxy 4.

Neither Tor nor Chal resemble the original actors who played the roles. I'd say landscapes are a little too basic, though indoor settings are great, and they can obviously show more aspects of the Elder city.

Onto the extras, and these are of very high quality for such an obscure little story. In fact, I'd say these were the sort of things you might expect from the Blu-ray boxsets. 

There are three items of particular note - a documentary about The Savages itself, which runs to 90 minutes; a  biography of producer Innes Lloyd; and an interesting BBC training film which, though with only a tentative link with the story itself through their director, illustrates how a half hour TV drama was produced back in the day.

Taking this last item first, we get to see the production of an episode of police drama Z-Cars. The director is Christopher Barry and his PA is future Doctor Who director David Maloney. The piece is presented by Shaun Sutton, who was Innes Lloyd's superior and one of the key people responsible for casting figures such as Tom Baker and Frazer Hines in the series.

We get to see the whole process from start to finish, and well worth watching for anyone interested in the behind the scenes aspects of any BBC TV series of the '60's / '70's.

The Innes Lloyd doc I found of particular interest as it looks at the entire canon of his work, including his early outside broadcast work covering big state occasions such as the funeral of Winston Churchill, through Doctor Who, to his highly acclaimed drama series of the 1980's such as his collaborations with Alan Bennett and Michael Palin. Of the latter, who would have thought that they would ever hear certain intimate body parts being mentioned on a Doctor Who DVD extra...? 

Lloyd himself only features in one small clip from a Barry Norman Film 91 episode, as he rarely gave interviews on camera, but his personal archive of notes plus fanzine interviews are used throughout, so we get to hear his voice through them. It's all fascinating stuff and well worth watching. This also runs to a good hour and a half.

As for the actual story documentary? If you are wondering how they could fill 90 minutes it's because Toby Hadoke takes us on a few detours along the way, looking at writer Ian Stuart Black's other works as well as the general state of the series and its socio-political context in 1966. The most interesting stuff for me involved Patrick Godfrey, who played Tor, who is seen at home with his wife (who just happened to play the elderly Ruby in 73 Yards) and Peter Purves' recollections of the time. Kay Patrick (Flower) is interviewed, as is Robert Sidaway (Avon), not long before he passed away, and there's archive material from Christopher Barry.

The general consensus from those interviewed is that The Savages is a neglected gem, and one in need of series re-evaluation. A shame we have to wait until 2033 for the next story poll to find out...

Considering that there is no written archive material for the story - junked like the episodes themselves - it's a credit to Hadoke and his researchers that they found enough to fill this piece without it going too off topic.

Overall, I'd say that this is one of the better efforts from the animation and VAM teams. 

Episode 156: The Macra Terror (4)

Synopsis:

As Officia pumps more and more gas into the old mineshaft, Jamie is trapped between two Macra...

The Doctor and Polly are in the gas pumping control room where he rapidly tries to work out the complex layout of pipelines. He tricks Officia into revealing the correct sequence which will allow him to reverse the process - flooding the old shaft with oxygen instead of the toxic gas. He locks the doors so that the guards cannot enter.

In the old mine workings, the Macra have seized Jamie but begin to move sluggishly as the oxygen does its work.

Ola succeeds in breaking into the control centre but the Doctor and Polly escape through a side door into a corridor, which they lock behind them.

They see pipes running along the wall and decide to follow them.

Jamie finds an ancient door and forces it open. It leads to a lift shaft, and he can hear sounds of music and voices drifting down from above. It must lead up into the Colony.

A cheerleader squad is rehearsing, in preparation for a dance competition. Jamie emerges from the lift shaft and finds himself amongst them. He is mistaken for one of the competitors and demonstrates the Highland Fling - telling them that it gets its name as you fling yourself out of the nearest door at the conclusion.

He reels out the door - only to fall into the hands of Ola. Ben is with him, and identifies him as one of the runaway strangers. However, the young sailor is having doubts about his actions and tries to apologise to his friend.

The Doctor and Polly, meanwhile, find a sealed off control area at the end of the corridor in which one of the Macra is issuing orders. This is the voice behind Control.

They decide that they must get the Pilot here to see this for himself.

In his office, the Pilot is questioning Jamie in the presence of Ola and Ben when the Doctor and Polly walk in. Ola tries to arrest them, but the Doctor points out that they have given themselves up.

Ola and the Pilot begin arguing, with the security chief questioning the recent running of the Colony.

The Pilot agrees to see what the Doctor and Polly have found, and Ben slips out after them.

Ola and Officia decide that the Pilot is no longer to be trusted as he has gone with the strangers into a forbidden area.

The Pilot has now seen the Macra and can no longer deny their existence - and he agrees that they must be fought.

He tries and fails to convince Ola, who has assumed command and is now taking orders directly from Control, which seeks to destroy all those who fail to obey its instructions. Officia begins pumping the gas into the corridor where the Doctor and his friends are gathered.

Ben is in the control room but is unable to unlock the door to free them. Instead, the Doctor gives him a set of instructions on how to alter the pumping systems.

There is a rapid build up of pressure in the sealed-off area and an explosion results - destroying the Macra.

A short while later, the Doctor is enjoying the hospitality of the Colony at a celebration in their honour. When he learns from Ben that the colonists plan to make him their new Pilot, he decides that it is time for them to slip away back to the TARDIS...

Next time: The Faceless Ones

Data:

Written by Ian Stuart Black

Recorded: Saturday 25th March, 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 1st April 1967

Ratings: 8.4 million / AI 49

Designer: Kenneth Sharp

Director: John Davies

Additional cast: Karol Keyes (Chicki)

Critique:

The final episode of The Macra Terror treads a fine line between jeopardy and humour. The Doctor once again bamboozles figures of authority - running rings round both Ola and Officia by using their own rules against them ("You can't arrest us now we've given ourselves up. That's against the rules"), or tricking them into doing exactly what he wants. The Doctor also asks Ola and the Pilot to apologise to each other at one point.

Jamie, meanwhile, gets his Highland Fling routine, which ends on a joke ("Why do you call it the Highland Fling?". "Because we finish the dance by flinging ourselves out the door...").

At the same time we have the Macra menacing the young Scot in the mines, and the travellers and their new friend, the Pilot, threatened by Ola as well as the titular monsters.

We can see elements of the original scripts, in which the Macra were supposed to be insects or spiders. Indeed, there's some sort of confusion as the Pilot asks if they are bacteria or insects after seeing Control.

The sequences in the old shaft at the beginning of the episode had been pre-recorded, partly to minimise the amount of dry ice in studio but primarily because the solitary Macra prop was to get a coat of white paint to feature in this episode, as Control.

There was also a change made to the cast list, as Sandra Bryant was no longer available to play Chicki. She had been offered another job and had asked to be released following the recording of the opening instalment. Replacing her was Karol Keyes. The character had appeared only briefly so it's unlikely many viewers would have noticed this replacement casting.

Recording took place on Patrick Troughton's 47th birthday, between 8:30 - 10pm.

What dry ice was used in studio, for scenes of Jamie fleeing to the lift shaft, were rapidly dispersed with a wind machine.

There were no recording breaks planned - only brief pauses in recording to allow cast members to move between sets or to move the Macra prop.

The main hall of the Colony was seen once again, with its back projection screen showing the still image of the Controller.

For the climax, the explosion was achieved through sound and camera effects only. The image was defocussed and a white-out employed - the camera being over-exposed.

The story ended as it had begun, with the closing credits rolling over the majorettes. Just before the "Next Week" caption, a 60 second trailer was shown for The Faceless Ones, comprising footage from the location filming for that story.

The story ends on a troubling note, as we haven't heard a great deal about the origins of the Macra. They are undoubtedly acting against the welfare of the colonists - enslaving them both physically and mentally, and we heard from Medok that those in the Danger Gang often perish. However, the Doctor does appear to potentially be committing genocide here. (We'll find out that he isn't, but not for another 40 years). Was this their homeworld, has invaded by colonists? Were they forced underground, perhaps by terraforming which destroyed their natural habitat? We simply aren't told anything about them, so they are presented as evil monsters that have to be defeated. It's implied, however, that they are all destroyed, not just beaten at the conclusion. This would have been handled differently in another era, where the Doctor would have sought to make peace between the races so that they could help each other on a more equal footing. Or, with Control destroyed, the Macra might have been rendered safe, as we saw with the Gravis and Tractators in Frontios. One is reminded here of the Troughton comic strip panel in which he blasts a giant spider with a ray-gun crying "Die, hideous creature! Die!".

We already know that this incarnation is a manipulative one, but here we are seeing the darkness in his character.

This would be Ian Stuart Black's final contribution to the series. It is noticeable that once Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis moved on from the series, he wasn't invited back - but then he had known them before writing for the series so there was probably some sort of personal aspect to his commissions. He would go on to author all three novelisations of his television stories for the Target book range.

The BBC had destroyed the original 405-line videotapes by 1977.

Six countries are known to have taken The Macra Terror - Australia, Uganda, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Zambia. This doesn't necessarily mean that there were six sets of prints in existence, as copies were often forwarded on to another country once a broadcaster thought they were of no further interest. The prints sent to NZ are known to have been destroyed in 1974 - the same year in which the BBC informed the Australian broadcaster that they could do the same. The zealousness of that country's censor has resulted in us having what few clips we do possess today, and the same territory provided some off-air 8mm footage from Episode 3 - including the opening titles.

 

Trivia:

• The ratings end on a reasonably healthy note. Both viewing figures and appreciation index have remained fairly stable across the four episodes.
• An audience research report from TAM found that Doctor Who had been the third most popular children's programme for Marc, behind Disney Time and Pinky & Perky.
• This was the longest of the four episodes, at 24' 41", thanks to that trailer. Even without it, it's still the longest instalment.
• This proved to be John Davies' only work on Doctor Who. He would go on to direct the BBC's highly acclaimed 1972 adaptation of War and Peace, starring Anthony Hopkins.
• The story was animated for releases on DVD / Blu-ray in 2019. With only a handful of clips remaining from the series, the animators took the opportunity to visually reimagine the story. Character likenesses remain faithful from the broadcast version, but the Macra are now seen in greater numbers (and different sizes) and the sets can be expanded. The Refreshing Department scene was omitted - necessitating a change of costumes for the regulars (only Ben gets a uniform), and a new TARDIS-set opening fails to match up with the existing sequence from the end of The Moonbase (4) which still exists (Polly starts the animated story with hair already short). Look out for a reuse of Romana II from the animated Shada in a crowd scene.

• The Macra made a surprise return in Series 3's Gridlock. Russell T Davies wanted an aquatic monster to feature in this 2007 story, reasoning that the sea would have broken into the lowermost level of the New New York motorway. The area would also be heavily polluted with toxic gases. Instead of creating a new monster, he realised he had a ready-made one within the series history. It is explained that the Macra have devolved this far into the future, and are now simply savage carnivorous beasts.

Classic v Nu Who...

 

Presumably to tie in with the anniversary of the relaunch, there's a YouGov poll released which highlights preferences betwixt classic and "Nu" Who. Older folk prefer the older stuff, and younger folk the newer stuff, so predictable responses. Worth pointing out is that more people who expressed a preference went for the classic era overall, and more than half of those polled had either never seen the programme or didn't like either iterations.

Cybermen: Ultimate Guide

Coming on 22nd May is the next DWM bookazine, this one covering the Cybermen. 

Also forthcoming, on 3rd April, is the new DWM Special Edition, covering the 20th anniversary of the revived series - as is the subject of a new bookazine from Radio Times, downloadable as of 28th March.

What's Wrong With... Frontios

It was always thought that the TARDIS was infinite in size within, but then Christopher Hamilton Bidmead came along and said that a certain percentage of it could be deleted. You can't have a percentage of infinity, so the TARDIS had to be finite in internal dimensions. Bidmead then had the ship lose a full 25%  of its internal mass, so possibly not even of vast size internally.

It should still be of such a scale, however, that a single representative of an alien species shouldn't be able to tear the entire fabric apart and then put it all back together again - and certainly not by simply waving drunkenly to and fro.

More than a bit lucky that most bits of TARDIS are embedded in rock, yet the console and its room are seemingly intact and at least partially operational.

If the Gravis knows about Time Lords and their time machines, why split up the ship in the first place? Why not simply pull it underground, open the doors and get access. If he's so smart, the Gravis ought to be able to work out its operation eventually.

The Doctor tricks the Gravis into reconstituting the TARDIS, as it will cut off its mental link with the rest of its kind. But since when did the TARDIS ever keep any sort of signal out. Psychic projections and even radio waves have penetrated it in the past.

Turlough knows of the Tractators from his own planet. They're going to turn Frontios into a giant spaceship to get them about - but how did they manage to visit other planets in the past? They don't appear to be a very technologically advanced species. They have only very crude mining machines, reliant on human beings (or bits of them), and only the Gravis seems to have any special powers. The rest are pretty useless without him.

Is his nose the seat of his powers - as he's the only one that has one?

Just why is the Doctor so afraid to be so far in the future? He has never bothered too much about what the Time Lords would do, and has visited Earth colonies at crucial moments in their history in the past.

Something everyone notices is the metal bar, which Tegan places across the middle of the door handles to delay a pursuer, magically moving to the top of the door handles all by itself.

The run up to this scene shows that Tegan needn't have bothered as her pursuer takes ages to reach the door anyway - long enough for her to run out, look round, grab the bar, then put it in place. He was only a few feet away from her in a relatively small room.

The spaceship crashed decades ago, and yet no-one has gotten round to putting a proper floor in the infirmary. It is basically a dirt floor, which is hardly hygienic for a hospital setting. Why are sick people not being treated in the spaceship? Surely it would afford more protection than a shelter built out in the open.

There's no electricity, but Mr Range uses an electronic keypad to open filing cabinets.

A number of cuts were made - one of which leads to a continuity error as Tegan is aware of the Doctor's plans when he hasn't told her them.

There's a lot of 20th Century language on display, despite this being in the very far future, yet no-one knows what a coat / hat stand is - despite people still wearing hats and coats.

Review - The Collection - Season 7

Before the usual range of posts recommence I thought I'd take a quick look at the latest of the Blu-ray classic season releases. Season 7 was Jon Pertwee's first as Doctor, and Caroline John's only as Liz Shaw. It is very much an atypical season, with an odd 4, 7, 7, 7 episode shape, so only four stories for the year. The opening story was the first to be produced and broadcast for colour television, and it was made entirely on location and on film thanks to a BBC strike.

The three longer stories all revolve around a scientific complex - Wenley Moor's cyclotron research centre, the UK Space Centre, and the "Inferno" drilling compound. The phrase "gritty realism" also gets bandied about for much of this season, though it's really only The Ambassadors of Death which features murderous criminals and far-reaching conspiracies. The story also features two big stunt set pieces.

I've looked at the stories in the past, and they will eventually be looked at episode by episode, so what of the extras?

To be honest, this set is a little light on new VAM. Inferno got a Special Edition DVD release, with a lot of new material, and Spearhead From Space had two big new documentaries when released onto Blu-ray. The other stories were double disc DVD releases, so came with a lot extras. All of this material appears on this new set.

Of the brand new extras, we obviously get more "Behind the Sofa". Couch 1 seats Geoffrey Beevers and Daisy Ashford (widower and daughter of Caroline John. He appears briefly in Ambassadors whilst she is now playing Liz on audio). They are joined by Toby Hadoke. Couch 2 seats Janet Fielding, Sophie Aldred and Sarah Sutton. When not complaining about the lack of strong female characters in the show in 1970, they're talking about handbags and what Liz is wearing. The third couch hosts Katy Manning and Matthew Waterhouse. The latter can be quite annoying at times.

Matthew Sweet interviews John Levene, who has reverted back to the surname Woods. He gets quite emotional at times, and it's nice to see him talk about some of his other, very varied, careers. Clips of him in other TV productions are interspersed through the end credits.

Sweet also presents one of the four new documentaries - "Terror in the Suburbs". This was very disappointing after a good start - a look at the filming locations for the Auton attack as they are today. It then develops into a socio-cultural essay on "Suburbia", and Doctor Who hardly gets a look in.

Much better is "Lucky 13" which looks at the science behind the Season 7 stories. There are quite a few archive clips of Kit Pedler, whilst most of the running time is given over to the space programme which was reflected in Ambassadors. In particular we look at Apollo 13 - hence that title - and the BBC's coverage of the events which coincided with the broadcast of the Who episodes.

The third documentary is a biography of Nicholas Courtney. It's slow to get started - by the 13 minute mark he still hasn't been born yet - and it sometimes drifts away on little tangents. It could have done with some tighter editing, to focus purely on his life and career. It would have been nice to have seen some of his other work as well. Presenter John Culshaw is joined by a Troughton sound-alike at the end - who sounds nothing like Troughton...

The last new doc takes a look at Malcolm Hulke - the latest of Hadoke's "Looking for...". Interviewees include Terrence Dicks' widow. A taped interview features, so we get to hear what the writer sounded like. He died in 1979, before fandom really got into its stride, so we never really got to know him like many of the other behind-the-scenes figures.

The convention footage this time sees Caroline John being interviewed, before being joined by Barry Letts.

Finally, a word about the restoration of the episodes themselves. There were sound issues with some of the interiors on Spearhead, and these have been fixed. The three 7-parters all had colour problems and these have also been improved, though with Ambassadors you often see it slipping into monochrome at the edges of scenes. Overall, the stories look far better than on any previous releases.

It was recently announced that the people who produce the animations of lost stories want to up the rate of releases. Apparently this is because they intend to include them on the Season 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 boxsets. This points to the B&W seasons being held back to last, so probably a Tom Baker set next, or perhaps Season 21 to complete the JNT era.

Series 15 Titles

 

Episode titles for the forthcoming series...

Blog Update

I'm afraid there's going to be another break in posts as I'm in the middle of packing prior to a house move later this week. (I'm also working my way through the Season 7 Collection when I do have any spare time - will review next week). The internet won't be set up at the new place until Monday 24th, so I'm pausing the blog until everything's sorted out.

I'll finish The Macra Terror episodes when back up and running again, then the usual posts will resume - Inspirations, What's Wrong With... and the A-Z - but then there's another short break as I visit London for a long weekend to attend the DWAS Capitol Cutaway event on 6th April.

The week after that sees the launch of Series 15, so I'll be resting the story reviews until after it has finished - since I'll be writing new episode reviews instead.

Those reviews are likely to be posted on the Sunday after broadcast, so it will mean a temporary move for the Episode posts to a weekday for the duration of Series 15.

I'll let you know if anything changes, but thank you for your patience in the meantime.

Episode 155: The Macra Terror (3)

Synopsis:

The Doctor and his companions have insisted on seeing the Controller for themselves, instead of his static picture. They are shown an older man, in a dishevelled uniform, who is being forced to speak to them by someone - or something - off-screen. This is confirmed when a huge crab-like claw reaches into view and drags the man away. Polly screams that the Macra are in control of the Colony...

The Pilot orders the strangers be sent away to the mines. Ben is told to spy on them and report any issues. 

After they have been hurried away, the voice of Control reassures the Pilot that they must be put to work mining fresh gas reserves, and he is urged to forget what he had just seen.

Ola brings the Doctor and his companions to the mine control room, which is presided over by a man named Officia. He explains how the gases are generated by natural salts and are very valuable. Ola orders that the strangers need not know what they are mining - only that they should work. Initially it is decided that Polly should remain in the control room, but she insists that the Doctor should take on this role due to his advanced years. Whilst he disagrees with this, he realises that he might be able to exploit his role in this area. Polly and Jamie will go to the mines, and find and that they are to join Medok on the "Danger Gang". He explains that none of the hospital treatments had worked on him, so this was the only place left for him.

The Doctor sees Ben, and begins to quietly undermine the voices which he knows to be controlling his thoughts.

In the mines, Polly and Jamie discover that the gas they are expected to mine is highly toxic to humans.

The Doctor makes some calculations, based on the readings on the various gauges - chalking them on the wall. The Pilot arrives and is shocked to see these, since the Colony computers took years to come up with the same figures. He orders him to destroy the equations.

Officia makes a mess of tapping a new gas strike and is rendered unconscious temporarily - long enough for Jamie to steal his keys. Ben had been watching, and they are unsure if he saw the theft. As he helps Officia back to the control room, Jamie slips away and finds a large wooden door in the tunnel he had spotted earlier. The key fits this and he slips through, but an alarm sounds.

The recovered Officia alerts the Pilot. Control states that someone has broken into the old shaft, but refuses to allow Ola's guards to enter that area.

Medok attempts to follow Jamie, but a huge claw seizes him by the throat.

The Doctor discovers that Ben had seen Jamie steal the keys, but had not reported this - confirming that his mental conditioning is breaking down. Confused, the young man goes off to seek advice from the Pilot whilst the Doctor seeks a means of helping Jamie by studying the nature of the gas.

He, meanwhile, has discovered that Macra roam the old mine shaft and are hunting him down.

Control once again insists that no colonist be allowed to enter the old shaft. Instead, it orders that guards be placed at the entrances whilst it gives new orders to Officia. He is to flood the old shaft with the toxic gas.

Forced deeper into the tunnels by the thickening cloud of gas, within lurks a Macra, Jamie finds himself trapped between it and another of the monsters...

Data:

Written by Ian Stuart Black

Recorded: Saturday 18th March 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 25th March 1967

Ratings: 8.5 million / AI 52

Designer: Kenneth Sharp

Director: John Davies

Additional cast: John Harvey (Officia)

Critique:

The original draft of this episode, when the story was still being called "Dr Who and the Spidermen", referred to the Pilot as the Colony's "Prime Minister". The script gives hints that the Macra was supposed to be realised by a man in costume. There's a description of an insect man with a "great plumped up back". Jamie shouts at it: "You horrible beastie. Did the devil send you? You're an insect from the pit of Satan!".

Some of Polly's dialogue was originally given to a female miner.

Monday 13th March should have been a day off before the start of rehearsals for this episode, but the regular cast had to go to Gatwick Airport to film exteriors scenes for the next story. They were then taken out of rehearsals on Friday 17th for the same reason.

On the same day Innes Lloyd contacted BBC Visual Effects due to problems which were being experienced with Shawcraft Models. Director Gerry Mill had encountered issues during the pre-filming for The Faceless Ones, whilst the producer had been very unhappy at the cost of the Macra prop. He asked if someone from the department could visit the studio during the making of this or the final episode to assess the prop and confirm that it had really cost the £500 he had been charged.

Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie had declined to work on Doctor Who right from the outset, unless they were given additional staff and workshop space. As this couldn't be offered, responsibility for VFX had always fallen to the individual story's designer in conjunction with external contractors like the Uxbridge-based company. Lloyd was asking if he could get better value for money by using other contractors. In the end, the BBC VFX department would finally take on responsibility for the programme in-house from the next story to go into production, which would be The Evil of the Daleks.

Episode 3 of The Macra Terror saw the very first appearance of the opening title details being superimposed over the new title sequence. In the past, the writer and episode title / number had appeared after the title sequence had faded out, being superimposed over the opening shot of the new episode.

In this instance, the opening scene was a restaging of the cliffhanger sequence from Episode 2.

The main new set was the mine control room which was covered in pipelines. This included a built-in back projection screen. There were two sections of mine tunnel set up, with T-junctions to allow for variety of shots. The new shaft where the Danger Gang operated saw metal panels running along the walls, and the tunnels had arches with angled tops. It looked more like a futuristic corridor than a mine tunnel. The old shaft was dressed differently, with rounded arches and sprayed with latex cobweb material. Dry ice was used to represent the poisonous gas. This and low lighting helped hide the deficiencies of the Macra prop.

As there was only one, relatively immobile, Macra, the final sequence had to be recorded out of sequence. Basically, all of the shots of the Macra moving right to left had to be shot first and then, after a break to reposition it, recorded again moving left to right. Davies edited these sequences as he went along, sitting in a mobile editing suite in the car park outside the studio. The material had to be transferred to 35mm film so that it could be used for the cliffhanger reprise in Episode 4. Not only would it be too time consuming to restage this action, but it was intended that the Macra prop would be repainted for the following episode. It should be recalled that there was only a single week between recording and broadcasting at this time.

Frazer Hines found the situation ridiculous as it showed up the impracticalities of the Macra.

Much of it relatively dark in tone, this episode does see a bit of comedy business with Troughton. After working out the way the mine control room operates from the various dials and gauges, he gives himself a score of 10 out of 10. When the Pilot confirms that his scribbled equations were correct, he gives himself a higher score (long before Spinal Tap) - then cracks a joke when water makes the chalked figures run into one another.

At one point he wishes he had been issued a mask like those going down the mine - one of the last times his hat fixation is referenced.

This humour is balanced by somewhat threatening dialogue from the Doctor, however. He appears to be content to set Jamie on his companion - pointing out that he wouldn't treat him as nicely as he might. There's definitely an explicit threat in his "... watch out Jamie doesn't catch you. He's not as tolerant as I am".

Trivia:

• The ratings see a significant improvement this week, both in terms of viewing figures and audience appreciation. More than half a million extra viewers, and four points up on the previous AI figure.
• John Harvey had previously appeared in an earlier story by Black, when he played Professor Brett in The War Machines. Usually called upon to play police or military officers, he featured in a number of Hammer Horrors - Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Vampire, The Satanic Rites of Dracula - and sci-fi films such as X The Unknown and They Came From Beyond Space.
• The Australian censor cut the scenes with the claw from the reprise from Episode 2. Interestingly, the cliffhanger wasn't badly cut - probably because the action is so dark and gas-shrouded that the audience wouldn't be able to see what was going on anyway.
• In his novelisation, Ian Stuart Black has Medok survive his encounter with the Macra.

Inspirations: The Day of the Doctor

Featuring Three Doctors, partly set on Gallifrey and involving UNIT on Earth, in a story marking a significant anniversary...

But enough of The Three Doctors, this is the 50th Anniversary story.

Steven Moffat did take the Pertwee story as a basis for his celebration. After the 10th and 20th birthdays had been celebrated with multi-Doctor stories, fans have come to expect this sort of story structure whenever a big anniversary rolls round. For the 60th, RTD avoided a multi-Doctor story (unless you count the climax of The Giggle where we have an overlap) but he did bring back a popular old Doctor.

The three Doctors Moffat wanted were the trio of post-2005 ones - but that meant coaxing Christopher Eccleston back to the series. He had left the role under a shadow, which is yet to be fully explained. His agreeing to return was very much a long shot, and - as expected - he declined the invite. This is why Moffat instead created the hitherto unknown War Doctor, as he couldn't see the McGann Doctor as a warrior.

The story was to revolve around the Last Great Time War, in particular the events which led the Doctor to put an end to the conflict by destroying both his own people and the Daleks.

That he had been responsible for this had emerged gradually over the course of the first half of the 2005 series.

Some of the action revolves around Gallifrey's second city Arcadia. The Doctor had previously stated that he was present at the Fall of Arcadia in Doomsday.

The weapon which the Doctor deployed was known as the Moment, as we had learned in The End of Time when it gets reported to Rassilon in the council chamber. That earlier story had shown the political elite on Gallifrey's last day, whilst this story shows another chamber - the War Room belonging to Gallifrey's military.

Eccleston night not have come back, but Billie Piper was happy to return. However, Moffat elected not to have her simply back  as Rose. The Moment would be a sentient device, which made sure that its operator accepted the consequences of using it. Piper therefore played the psychic interface with the Moment which took a form from his mind - the Bad Wolf Rose. Being a Time Lord weapon, this form could be from his future.

She only interacted with the War Doctor. The current incarnation retained Clara as companion, but Ten was on his own, and it is implied that he comes from the period between The Waters of Mars and his arrival on the Ood-Sphere at the start of The End of Time. We know this as when he was reunited with Ood Sigma he mentioned having now married Queen Elizabeth (I). The elderly Elizabeth had recognised him in The Shakespeare Code, following an event which had annoyed her but which hadn't happened to him yet.

The presence of Daleks in the story was a given, this being the last day of the Time War. For an additional threat, confined to a separate plot, were the Zygons. They had featured only once before in the series in 1975's Terror of the Zygons, despite their massive popularity (thanks to the design work of James Acheson, the direction of Douglas Camfield and the performance of John Woodnutt).

David Tennant had spoken in the past of his love of the creatures, and Moffat was already a fan. They were chosen to  provide this additional plot strand.

This has lead to inconsistencies, however. There's no sign of the Skarasen, despite Broton having implied that they are dependent on the monsters.

The biggest problem, though, is that we have refugees turning up on Earth in the 1560's, when Broton suggested that he had only recently heard about the disaster which had befallen their world, and the refugees certainly wouldn't be arriving until well after the 20th Century.

Also, Broton's group had been located at Loch Ness for centuries - so why had the refugees not contacted him on arrival?

The shape-changing nature of the Zygons is played for laughs here - rabbits and horses as well as people.

That's the broad outline of Moffat's story. There's lots of little nods to the past within it, right from the opening moments. 

We see a policeman checking the gates to the junkyard on Totter's Lane, in monochrome scenes, in homage to the opening of An Unearthly Child. (A shift from monochrome into colour had also featured at the start of The Two Doctors).

Clara is teaching at Coal Hill School - just as Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright had done back in 1963. Ian is listed on the school noticeboard as the Chairman of Governors. Like The Five Doctors, we get a mix of original arrangement of the theme music with the current version.

At one point Clara rides a motorcycle into the TARDIS - just as the cop had done in The Movie. We'd also seen Ten drive out of the ship on a scooter in The Idiot's Lantern, and the current Doctor emerged on an anti-grav bike in The Bells of Saint John.

The Doctor is seen to still be wearing Amy's reading glasses.

UNIT continue to be based at the Tower of London, first established in The Christmas Invasion. Like Malcolm (who gets a mention here) in Planet of the Dead, the latest Scientific Adviser is a big fan of the Doctor.

UNIT's Black Archive - first seen in SJA's Enemy of the Bane - has now been moved to beneath the Tower, when it was previously out in the countryside somewhere.

A few old props are seen - bits of Cyberman etc. - but the main interest is only glimpsed. There are loads of photographs, mainly from the classic era, which feature companion mash-ups - characters who were never seen together on screen:

The First and Third Doctors have previously mentioned being help prisoner in the Tower, and for the Eleventh this is his second known incarceration there.

The War Doctor often represents the classic era (or the Hartnell role in The Three Doctors), and is used to mock some aspects of the modern series - despairing of some of the others' catchphrases or questioning the amount of smooching which goes on.

His TARDIS is a mix of classic era and Ninth, and we will get a vague glimpse of the latter when he comes to regenerate.

For the finale we get to see all of the Doctors come together to save Gallifrey. Oddly, this includes the Seventh Doctor twice - once from The Movie and once from Battlefield. Other TARDIS-based clips come from The Daleks, Tomb of the Cybermen, The Mind Robber, Colony in Space, Planet of Evil, Frontios, Attack of the Cybermen, Rose and Parting of the Ways. The Troughton dialogue comes from The Seeds of Death, however, whilst Pertwee's comes from The Green Death. Davison's comes from The Five Doctors.

As well as all the nods to the past, we are also treated to a nod to the future as Peter Capaldi's "attack eyebrows" also feature.

One of the classic Doctors does turn up in person, as we see Tom Baker portray the Curator - seemingly a future incarnation of the Doctor, revisiting an old persona.

Finally, we see all of the Doctor's line up for a curtain call.

Overall, it's more of a celebration of the revived series than it is of the classic era.

What's Wrong With... The Awakening

It's just a short two-parter - but that's one of the problems. Originally four episodes long, it was heavily edited down to half the length and this leaves it rather rushed.

The anachronisms should have been prolonged, so that the audience would be unsure as to when this story was set - the 17th or 20th Century. The fact that it's a contemporary story with characters just dressed in English Civil War costume is given away far too quickly.

The whole ghosts thing is confusing. Why do some people materialise corporeally, like Will and the disfigured thief, whilst others are just phantoms? And why do some of the latter look real whilst others are a sort of ghostly silver colour?

Everyone connected with the village seems familiar with the name "Malus" - but how would they have known its name?

A couple of directorial issues. Tegan is walking along, minding her own business, when she gets abducted. But you can see that her attacker must have been standing right in front of her in the open to have achieved this.

The Doctor and Jane confer as they're hiding under the stairs in the secret tunnel - despite their searchers only having just walked past (after ignoring the only place in the tunnel where anyone could hide).

What exactly happens to Sir George at the climax. He falls into the crack, but what happens next? Does he get eaten, or is the big malus of the same proportions as the little one, meaning there's a huge unseen drop below the face that he falls down? 

The story borrows (very) heavily from The Daemons, but in that story Chris Barry managed to show that Devil's End had a population. Where are the inhabitants of Little Hodcombe?

That 1970's story was also set at May Day. Here we see lots of sunshine, and no-one's wearing their big coats. So why does Sir George need a roaring log fire in his little study.

These days, the showrunner would devise a whole three season story arc around the fact that relatives of Tegan fall foul of alien interventions.

Finally, it's yet another Davison story in which lots of people get invited into the TARDIS and hardly bat an eyelid, and owning a dimensionally transcendental time machine apparently makes everyone automatically believe everything you say.

Inspirations Cutaway: Night of the Doctor

Regular readers will know that this blog concentrates on televised Doctor Who, so for me Paul McGann was the Doctor for one night only back in May 1996. The Eighth Doctor has gone on to enjoy a significant afterlife lasting many years - but that's all on audio or in novels and comic strips.

McGann had the opportunity to appear on screen once more when the 50th Anniversary rolled round in November 2013 - but The Night of the Doctor would prove to be a short minisode, and be released only on-line. He would have to wait another nine years to appear on BBC One, when he joined other ex-Doctors for the channel's Doctor Who centenary special.

The main 50th Anniversary was going to be featuring the War Doctor, and Steven Moffat thought it might be an idea to show just where he came from. An unknown incarnation, who had to be connected to the Time War, there was only one place he could have originated, and that was the wilderness years between 1996 and 2005.

That meant coming after McGann and before Eccleston.

The minisode opens with a spaceship in trouble, and the TARDIS materialises on board in time for the Doctor to rescue its lone pilot Cass. Trouble is, she sees the Time Lords as just as bad as the Daleks and declines his help. The Doctor has deliberately kept himself out of the conflict up to this point - helping but never fighting.

He decides to stay with Cass as the ship crashes. This just happens to be on the planet Karn.

We were introduced to this bleak world in The Brain of Morbius, where we learned that it was home to the mystic Sisterhood. They appear here, under a new leader named Ohila. The Sisterhood had passed into the leadership of the similarly named Ohica in the 13th Season story, but then the Doctor had stressed the importance of change. Ohica presumably refused to outstay her welcome as Maren had.

The group extricate the Doctor and Cass from the wreckage. She can't be helped, and he's fatally injured. 

Having the action set on Karn and featuring the Sisterhood made sense for Moffat, as not only was it a nod to one of the most popular seasons ever, but it had been stated in that older story that the Sisterhood had ancient links with the Time Lords. Their Elixir of Life was sometimes used to help save them should there be problems with a regeneration and that is exactly what this minisode is designed to be - a regeneration story. It wasn't so much about closing the door on the Eighth Doctor, as showing us the birth of the War Doctor.

Cass's reaction to him provides the impetus to make him decide that he can no longer stay on the sidelines of the conflict. The Elixir in the past simply healed or prolonged life, but now it has been refines so that it can give different results. The Doctor can basically chose the nature of his next persona, and he chooses to be a soldier. McGann regenerates, but before he goes he recalls all of his companions and, of course, these are all from the spin-off material except for Grace. (A problem with spin-offs shoehorning their own companions into gaps is that you then wonder why the Doctors entirely fail to recall them in various televised flashbacks).

We then get a glimpse of the War Doctor, looking much younger than when seen at the conclusion of The Name of the Doctor. That's because they used a bit of footage of John Hurt from the BBC's 1979 adaptation of Crime and Punishment.

An in-joke is when McGann asks if the regeneration is going to hurt...

Next time: The (New) Three Doctors...

British Museum Who

I was surprised today to find that Doctor Who is represented in the British Museum. On the top floor there is a gallery devoted to the development of money, and there on display was one of the dummy £10 notes which featured in The Runaway Bride. There was even a video of the sequence playing on a loop beneath it. The series crops up in the oddest places.

Cyber Art

Spotted this near Brick Lane whilst on a walk this afternoon, snapping some street art.

By the way, a new trailer arrived this evening for the next series. Looks rather good, though they always do...