Synopsis:
Alexander Denes, Controller of the Central European Zone, is denounced as a traitor by Salamander - accused of failing to protect his people from a volcanic eruption which the Leader had predicted. He is placed under arrest. He tells Donald Bruce that he looks forward to challenging Salamander in court and has no intentions to flee.
Salamander takes Fedorin away for talks. He is blackmailing the deputy, intent on setting him up to replace Denes whilst having control over him. Fedorin once again denies the accusations against him.
Salamander then hands him a small box - claiming the contents will determine his future. It contains poison...
Bruce is shocked to see Jamie on the palace terrace, now in the uniform of a security guard. He tries to get him to explain what was going on between Salamander and Kent in the latter's office, but Jamie is able to deflect his questions.
Denes is being held in a corridor as there is nowhere else to guard him securely. Bruce insists he be well looked after and a meal is ordered.
Victoria is in the kitchens, which are presided over by the curmudgeonly Chef Griffin. He is not impressed by her cooking skills, and frets that tonight's meal will be a disaster.
Fariah is present, and she tries to warn Victoria into leaving.
Jamie then arrives and reports that Astrid is working on a plan to free Denes. He asks Victoria to get close to Fariah as she may hold valuable information about her employer, who she clearly dislikes.
Victoria agrees that there is something evil about Salamander, just from the reactions of people around him.
At Kanowa, Kent has a mobile home parked just beyond the perimeter of Salamander's research facility. They have watched footage of the Hungarian volcanic eruptions, and Kent tells the Doctor that he believes Salamander to be behind such recent natural disasters - and the answer lies here. He has been suspicious about the facility for some time due to the amount of money and resources that have been diverted into it, despite it only having a small number of staff. It was whilst investigating this that he was removed from office, and all his evidence then disappeared.
They spot Benik and a guard approaching, so the Doctor hides in a box seat.
He has come to warn Kent off, suspicious of his presence so close to the facility. He orders the guard to begin smashing crockery by way of threat then withdraws.
The Doctor has seen first-hand the sort of people Salamander surrounds himself with - but this is not enough to make him accept Kent's suspicions about him. He must have concrete proof.
Astrid arrives at the Palace in the uniform of a messenger. She is stopped by Janos, Denes' guard, who tries to charm her. She brushes him off as the Guard Captain arrives and tells him she has a message for the Leader which must be delivered in person.
The Captain is about to recall seeing her before, but Denes causes a diversion and Astrid hurries away. She makes her way to the kitchen and is able to tell Jamie and Victoria of her plan. He is to create a diversion in the grounds, under cover of which she will spirit Denes away to safety.
Victoria meanwhile tries to learn more about Fariah, and it is clear that Salamander has some hold over her.
Salamander is speaking to Bruce about the arrest and who should replace Denes - making it sound like promoting Fedorin was Bruce's idea.
Victoria is taking a tray of food to Denes when she is intercepted by Fedorin in the corridor. He palms the salt cellar and sends her to fetch another, then opens the box given to him by Salamander.
The Captain informs Salamander of Astrid's presence, having now recalled seeing her with Jamie and Victoria in the park. No message has been delivered to him, so he orders the guards to frighten her away then follow her and see where she goes and who she contacts.
Victoria arranges to sit with Denes as he eats, in readiness for the rescue attempt.
The food has not been poisoned, however. Fedorin could not bring himself to use it. Salamander feigns indifference - then poisons Fedorin's wine, killing him. He claims that the deputy has committed suicide.
In the kitchens, Jamie claims to have seen intruders in the gardens and opens fire. As the guards rush to respond, Astrid overpowers Janos. However, the rescue goes wrong as the Captain shoots and kills Denes. Astrid escapes, but Victoria is captured.
Jamie has also been apprehended and the pair are brought before Salamander, who orders them taken away for questioning.
Bruce finally gets the opportunity to ask Salamander about his recent visit to Kent's office when the young pair were also present. The Leader states he hasn't seen Kent in months. Bruce insists that he saw him there the previous day - or someone very much like him...
Written by David Whitaker
Recorded: Saturday 16th December 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 6th January 1968
Ratings: 7.1 million / AI 48
Designer: Christopher Pemsel
Director: Barry Letts
Additional cast: Reg Lye (Griffin), Bill Lyons (Janos)
Of all the episodes, Derrick Sherwin claimed that this was the one he did least work on, so it is very much as David Whitaker intended it - or is the one with the greatest contribution from Barry Letts. That Fariah was not originally intended to be a food-taster, and Victoria was to be another security guard and not a kitchen assistant, may suggest the latter.
Patrick Troughton made his appearance on Blue Peter on Thursday 14th December, alongside the winning entrants of their design-a-monster competition, and the next day he, Hines and Watling were taken out of rehearsals to carry out location work on the forthcoming Yeti sequel. This overlapping of productions was becoming a constant irritation for the star, who often had to sacrifice days off for filming.
Designer Pemsel devised a corridor set which could be filmed from different angles to represent different parts of the Palace, using various props to try to disguise this. It is supposed to be the entrance way into the palace, the area where Denes is being held, and the route to and from the kitchens. Unfortunately this does not come across on screen and it looks like all the action is taking place in the same small stretch of corridor.
The episode has Troughton appear both as Salamander and as the Doctor. All of his scenes as the dictator were recorded first, with the scene set in Kent's trailer recorded at the end of the evening. Kitchen scenes were recorded which allowed him time to change costumes and make-up.
Hines and Mary Peach were seen wearing security guard uniforms this week.
Recording breaks were mainly arranged to work around the corridor, with actors walking left to right, then right to left to suggest the different locations - or to place George Pravda in and out of the set.
Bill Kerr had a portrait photo taken at TV Centre on Thursday 14th, to be used as set dressing for Kent's trailer.
The Doctor and Kent watch more stock footage of volcanic eruptions on a small monitor in the trailer.
Troughton enjoyed working with the Australian actor as he made him laugh a lot.
When hiding in the box seat, Troughton made farting sounds to put Kerr off.
Scripted, but not recorded, was a final scene involving Astrid and Denes. In this she was seen to try to help the dying man towards the exit but he knew he was finished and urged her to leave him and save herself. Its removal does make the scene as broadcast look rushed.
Hines and Watling were now granted a week's holiday as neither Jamie nor Victoria would appear in the fourth episode - but both would still have to join Troughton at Ealing on Monday 18th for filming on The Web of Fear.
This episode was fairly notorious for many years, thanks to it being the sole surviving instalment of the story (until the rest turned up in October 2013). Letts was always annoyed that his earliest contribution to the series was this episode. We now now that it is atypical of the story as a whole and doesn't really represent it well at all. It doesn't have any of the action-orientated location filming seen in the opening episode, or any of the spy-fi trappings of the second half of the story. It looks cheap, and some of the performances are a little broad. However, it did have its fans - even before 2013 and the opportunity to enjoy it in context.
As previously mentioned, it was always thought that the reason for the episode's survival was due to it being the first recorded for broadcast on the new 625 line definition transmission system. This was actually the opening episode, but the paperwork was in error. We would certainly have had a much higher opinion of the story had it been that first instalment which had been the orphan episode - what with helicopters, hovercraft, and the Doctor in his underwear.
What some people seem to like about this episode is the thing that others hate the most - the kitchen sequences. Griffin appears only in this episode, and doesn't have any role to play beyond these comedic scenes - so his presence is entirely superfluous to the plot. He's only there for light relief.
What fans like about these scenes, however, is the very fact that Whitaker takes the time to include them. They're little snapshots into the lives of peripheral characters getting on with life on the edge of the bigger political machinations which are playing out on a global scale.
Contemporaries of the writer, such as Dennis Spooner, claimed that Whitaker over-wrote and a lot of material not necessarily vital to the plot had to be cut - "food machine scenes" - but these little pauses do provide a break from the otherwise breathless pursuit of the main narrative.
However, this episode is rather short on incident, so such scenes might not be of much value here.
One criticism of the episode which really can't be defended from the audience point of view is the apparent cheapness of it. The setting is the Presidential Palace remember, so the idea that there isn't a single room available in the entire building in which to lock up Denes is a preposterous one. A man accused of treason, responsible for the deaths of thousands, is left to sit in a corridor with one guard - who isn't even there all the time... And it's such a boring corridor, with far too much garish wallpaper on show. Having George Pravda seated whilst others stand and talk beside him leads to too may scenes in wide shot, so the background takes up a sizeable proportion of the picture.
I say it's indefensible from the audience point of view - but a work of genius if you're a designer with very little money to play with, or a relatively inexperienced director limited for time on the night of recording.
- The ratings see a dip of half a million this week, with the appreciation index remaining below the 50 mark.
- Australian actor Reg Lye (1912 - 1987) came to England in the early 1960's after a successful career back home. He was only in the UK for a short time, but still managed to become the go-to actor if an Australian character was needed. When the Australian film industry picked up in the early 1970's - the New Wave - he returned home to continue his career there, which included a Best Supporting award from the AFI for Sunday Too Far Away.
- Bill Lyons would go on to become a successful writer, particularly for television. He has written a record number of scripts (over 460) for Emmerdale, having started in 1984 when it was still Emmerdale Farm. He has also contributed 60 scripts for EastEnders.
- Gordon Faith, here portraying the Guard Captain, became better known as a speech and voice coach, including work with the BBC radio drama repertory company.
- Radio Times published a small photograph of Frazer Hines as Jamie to accompany the listings this week - one taken during the location filming for The Abominable Snowmen:
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