I is for... Ice Governess

When the Great Intelligence first came to Earth it fell as a form of sentient snow. This was in the winter of 1842. It took over the mind of a small boy, named Walter Simeon. 50 years later, it needed to create a body for itself, and used a dead governess as a template for this. The woman, who was governess to the Latimer children, had fallen into a pond the previous Christmas and drowned. Her young charges had hated and feared her. At Christmas 1892, the creation of the template was complete and the governess was reborn as a creature of ice. She maintained some of the original governess' cruel personality. She attacked the Doctor and the Latimer household, which now included her replacement, Clara Oswin Oswald. The Doctor and Clara lured her onto the roof of the house, where the TARDIS was hidden hovering above. However, the Ice Governess followed them up to the ship and seized hold of Clara. Both fell to the ground. Clara was killed, and the Ice Governess shattered into fragments. The Intelligence believed that even these shards could be useful, as it was prepared to accept them from the Doctor, but it was a trick and the Doctor hadn't brought them to it at all. He would keep them in the TARDIS to prevent her from reconstituting herself.

Voiced by: Juliet Cadzow. Appearances: The Snowmen (2012).

• Cadzow is probably best known for her appearances in cult children's TV show Balamory, as Edie McCredie - a show name-checked in Doctor Who itself (in Tooth and Claw).

H is for... Hyph3n

Member of staff at the Tranquility Spa leisure complex on the planet Orphan 55. She was a female humanoid, with ursine features. Her role was as a customer liaison representative, who met new arrivals. When the Doctor and her companions left the complex in search of a missing tourist who had been abducted by the savage Dregs, who lived in the wilderness beyond the Spa's protective dome, Hyph3n accompanied them. When their armoured vehicle came under attack, she was killed by the Dregs.

Played by: Amy Booth-Steel. Appearances: Orphan 55 (2019).

• I still don't know if Hyph3n is supposed to be a joke or not. If not, it's the most pathetic make-up / costume job in the history of the programme. The Taran Wood Beast is a work of genius in comparison. I suspect it isn't a joke, as two other characters in this story simply had stupid green nylon wigs stuck on.

H is for... Hydroflax

Ruthless warrior monarch, known as the Butcher of the Bone Meadows, who reputedly ate his enemies, dead or alive. His constant warring had eventually led to so many injuries that he now existed merely as a head attached to a robot body. An explosion caused the fabled Halassi Androvar diamond to become lodged in his cranium, and this is why River Song got married to him. She planned to have a doctor remove the jewel so that she could steal it and sell it to a group known as the Shoal of the Winter Harmony, who regarded it as a sacred totem. Her assistant, Nardole, accidentally fetched the Doctor instead of the medic she had originally contacted. River did not recognise him in his twelfth incarnation. On stealing Hydroflax's whole head when the deception was revealed, the robot body went after River and the Doctor, as it could operate independently. However, it took for itself two new heads - that of Nardole and that of River's other husband, Ramon.
The TARDIS was unable to dematerialise when someone was both inside and outside the ship at the same time, and the robot was able to force it's way on board when River thought that it was Ramon who was at the doors.

The handover of the diamond was to take place on the Harmony and Redemption, a luxury space-liner frequented by rich criminals. It transpired that the Shoal idolised Hydroflax even more than the diamond as he had conquered them, so would kill anyone harmed him. When the robot arrived at the exchange, it decided it had no further need for the King's head, and disintegrated it, revealing the gem. The robot body was temporarily disabled when it was overloaded with financial information.
The spaceship crashed on the planet of Darillium, where the Doctor gave the diamond to a man who was helping clear away the debris. He was advised to build a restaurant on the site, overlooking the famous Singing Towers of Darillium. The Doctor met River there for their final date, before her ill-fated trip to the Library planet. The Hydroflax robot now worked at the restaurant, still with the interchangeable heads of Nardole and Ramon.
Soon after he had left River, the Doctor extracted Nardole's head from the Hydroflax robot body and attached it to a new one.

Played by: Greg Davies. Appearances: The Husbands of River Song (2015).

• Davies is best known for stand-up comedy, or comedic drama roles in series such as Cuckoo.

H is for... Hyde, Stuart

Stuart Hyde was the more junior of Professor Thascalos' assistants at the Newton Institute near Cambridge. He worked with Dr Ruth Ingram on the professor's TOMTIT device - Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time. It was designed to transport objects from location to location via a type of time travel. Unbeknownst to Stuart and Ruth, Thascalos was actually the Master, and he intended to use TOMTIT to obtain a powerful crystal from ancient Atlantis, which would help him control a Chronovore - Kronos.
When the device was tested in front of a group of government observers, which included the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton of UNIT, something went wrong with the Master's calculations, and Stuart was rapidly aged.

He lived on site at the Institute and was taken to his rooms to rest whilst an ambulance was called. After the Master had worked out where he had gone wrong, and operated TOMTIT once again, it caused Stuart to be revert to his normal age.
He and Ruth attempted to operate the device later, after it had trapped the Brigadier and his men frozen in a time bubble. Benton was with them at the time. It didn't free the UNIT soldiers, but did have the effect of reducing Benton to babyhood.
Stuart and Ruth finally got the device to work, returning a now nappy-wearing Benton to normal.

Played by: Ian Collier. Appearances: The Time Monster (1972).

• Collier returned to the programme in 1983, to portray Omega in Arc of Infinity. He also voiced Omega on audio for Big Finish.
• The scripts clearly have the Master's alias as Thascalos, not Thascales. The Radio Times 10th Anniversary Special, and the 1973 Dicks / Hulke book The Making of Doctor Who had the wrong spelling, which was subsequently picked up by all the later guide books - and even the BBC's own online episode guide for this story. Thascalos is also the correct spelling for "Master" in Greek.

Nostalgia Trip - The Blackpool Doctor Who Exhibition

Back in the 1970's, one of the highlights of my year was a visit to the Doctor Who Exhibition at Blackpool. My family used to visit the Lancashire seaside town on a regular basis. It was where my parents had spent their honeymoon. I visited the Exhibition every time we went, and took a careful note of every costume and prop on display. Sadly, at that time the mobile phone wasn't terribly mobile, or all that common, so I didn't have a handy HD camera on me. Indeed, I didn't own a camera at the time, and my dad (who was very into photography) never ventured inside with me - so sadly I don't have any visual record of my visits, just wonderful memories.
I was therefore thrilled to see on the Doctor Who News website an item with a link to download an e-book about the Exhibition, packed full of photographs.
I've just downloaded it and had a quick glance through, and it has brought back so many of those happy memories. I look forward to perusing it at my leisure. Whether you ever experienced it yourself, or just want to get to see a bit of Doctor Who history from what really was its Golden Age, I'd strongly recommend downloading a copy for yourself.
It can be found here:
https://blackpoolremembered7485.wordpress.com/download/

I know there was also an Exhibition at Longleat, but that never had the added bonus of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, the Tower, Little & Large at the Winter Gardens, Madam Tussauds, Ripley's Believe It Or Not exhibition, or the all pervading smell of candy floss and freshly baked donuts...

Inspirations - Trial of a Time Lord (4)

The third segment of Trial of a Time Lord was written by husband and wife Pip and Jane Baker, who had contributed Mark of the Rani for the previous season. Veteran script writers, they were regarded as safe hands who could deliver workable scripts on time. During the making of their previous story, they had attended all the location filming and were able to make immediate amendments for the director.
This segment is generally referred to as Terror of the Vervoids, although it has also gone under the umbrella title of The Ultimate Foe. These four episodes were made as part of the same recording block as the two episodes which would close the season, and The Ultimate Foe was at one point also the title for all six parts.
The first four episodes had represented a story from the Doctor's past, whilst parts 5 - 8 had represented his present, as it was from Thoros Beta that he was drawn by the Time Lords to the space station for his trial.
The Bakers' segment comprised parts 9 - 12. There were a number of other storylines considered for this slot, including contributions from David Halliwell, PJ  Hammond, Christopher H Bidmead, and Jack Trevor Storey.
Behind the scenes, Eric Saward had finally reached the end of his tether with JNT, and was now working mostly from home, rarely venturing into the production office. As well as having disagreements about many of JNT's decisions, he was unsettled by the failing health of writer Robert Holmes, who had become something of a mentor. Saward favoured the contribution from PJ Hammond, but JNT overruled him in favour of the Bakers.

The main inspiration for this story was the notion of a 'whodunnit' murder mystery, set on a luxury space-liner. This derived from the works of Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976). There is a nod to this in the production itself as we see Professor Lasky (Honor Blackman) reading a copy of Christie's Murder on the Orient Express - a 'whodunnit' murder mystery, set on a luxury train. This was first published in 1934, and featured the Belgian detective Hercules Poirot. At this point in time it had been filmed only once - in 1974 with an all-star cast, featuring Albert Finney as Poirot. Look away now if you haven't read the book, or seen one of the now three adaptations for the screen, but it is atypical of the usual murder mystery in that all of the suspects did it. The other two adaptations are the ITV version with David Suchet (2001), and the Kenneth Brannagh one from 2017.
The Bakers chose not to follow the book's plot in this sense, retaining a single killer to be unmasked.
A Christie-style murder mystery had been attempted on the show once before - Season 19's Black Orchid - but that had maintained the period trappings and involved no science fiction elements.
The space-liner setting, with its captain portrayed by Michael Craig, might have reminded viewers watching at the time of the BBC's dreadful maritime soap Triangle. This attempted to make cross Channel ferries look glamorous. You'd have Kate O'Mara pretending to sunbathe in 30 mile an hour winds under a clearly leaden sky, on her way to a night out in Harwich. It had been Triangle having a production office in Amsterdam which had led to Arc of Infinity being filmed there.
Needless to say, the Bakers had written for it.
The plant monsters are called Vervoids. The name came from "vervain", also known as verbena - a species of flowering herb.

As this segment was an adventure from the Doctor's future, it allowed the new companion to arrive mid-stream as it were, already travelling with the Doctor, though for an unspecified period of time. The character of Mel Bush, played by Bonnie Langford, was never given an introductory story - at least on screen. Langford's casting naturally got fans already losing patience with JNT even more angry. She was predominantly a song and dance personality, from a light entertainment / variety background, and not perceived by the general public as a serious actress. This looked like further proof that JNT was trying to turn the show into light entertainment, inspired by some recent stunt casting on his part. She had been introduced to the press as the new companion at a photo-call on stage, where she was appearing as Peter Pan, and poor overweight Colin Baker had to suffer the ignominy of being trussed up in a flying harness for the event.
This would go into the mix of complaints which Saward finally got off his chest whilst these episodes were being recorded. He gave an interview with Starburst magazine in which all his frustrations were poured out. JNT was naturally furious and threatened to sue, but his boss advised against this, telling him to ignore it.
Next time: the trial eventually ends well for the Doctor, though not for the person playing him, but first there's Dickensian clerks, Time Lord machinations, and a completely new Doctor to be revealed...

Story 229 - A Town Called Mercy

In which the TARDIS materialises near the small town of Mercy, Nevada, in 1870. As the Doctor, Amy and Rory approach the town they notice a strange line of rocks and stones which encircle the settlement. The Doctor is also surprised to find that Mercy appears to have electric street lighting - which it should not have at this time. On entering the saloon, the Doctor states his name and that he is technically an alien, and the townsfolk immediately round on him. They seize him and carry him bodily to the edge of the town, where they cast him over the rock and wood boundary. A strange figure then materialises in the desert nearby, moving towards him as though by teleportation. Whilst dressed as a cowboy, the man clearly has advanced technological implants, as well as a distinctive marking on his face. The town's Marshal, a man named Isaac, arrives in time to stop the people from preventing the Doctor stepping back over the boundary. The strange gunslinger departs.
At the jailhouse, the Doctor discovers that he is not the only alien doctor in town. In a cell, in protective custody, is a small man with a similar face marking to the gunslinger. He identifies himself as Kahler-Jex, of the Kahler race.

Isaac explains that Kahler-Jex came to their town some years ago and is a doctor. He cured many of an infection, and helped to set up the electric lighting. He has been a good friend to the people of Mercy - until the coming of the gunslinger. For some unknown reason, this being intends to kill him. It won't cross the boundary, however, and the Doctor surmises that it may be programmed not to harm innocent bystanders, which it might do were it to come into town.
Intent on learning more about the cyborg, the Doctor has Rory and Isaac stage a diversion, whilst he rides out into the desert. He decides to trace the source of the electricity supply, and soon comes across a hidden space capsule. Inside, he manages to access Kahler-Jex's files and learns that he is not what he appears. Back at the jail, Kahler-Jex attempts to abduct Amy in order to flee the town. The Doctor returns and stops him, then drags him to the boundary. He has learned that Kahler-Jex was a scientists who performed ruthless experiments on his own people to create a cyborg super-soldier, to fight in a long and bloody war. The gunslinger reappears and approaches. Amy tries to stop the Doctor from allowing the prisoner to be killed. The gunslinger shoots, but Isaac intercedes and is shot instead of Kahler-Jex. He dies, but asks the Doctor to take over from him in protecting Kahler-Jex before succumbing.

Furious that it has killed an innocent man, the gunslinger gives the town an ultimatum. If Kahler-Jex is not handed over to him by noon the next day, he will come into the town and take him, killing anyone who gets in his way.
Back at the jail, Kahler-Jex tells the Doctor of how he stopped the war with his super-soldiers. Once the war ended, they were all decommissioned, except for the gunslinger, who was once Kahler-Tek. he has been systematically eliminating everyone involved in the super-soldier programme and has pursued him across the cosmos. He is the last survivor. he tries to convince the Doctor of his sorrow at what he had done, and of how he has tried to make amends ever since. That night, the Doctor stops a lynch mob from seizing Kahler-Jex. The next day he has many of the townsfolk apply fake markings to their faces in order to confuse the gunslinger's sensors and create a diversion that will allow Kahler-Jex to be smuggled out to his ship. However, the scientist has realised that he will never be at peace, and must atone for his sins. Once in his space capsule he activates a self-destruct mechanism and is killed in a massive explosion. With no purpose left, Kahler-Tek elects to go back into the desert and destroy himself. The Doctor convinces him, however, that this town needs someone to defend it and ensure law and order. The gunslinger becomes the town's protector.

A Town Called Mercy was written by Toby Whithouse, and was first broadcast on 15th September, 2012. It was the first attempt at the Western genre in the programme since The Gunfighters, back in 1966. That was generally felt to have been unsuccessful, with poor audience appreciation figures, leading to the ending of the purely historical stories. This wouldn't be a conventional Western - it would have a science-fiction element to it, in the same way that the previous season's pirate adventure hadn't been a straightforward historical romp. It was Steven Moffat who came up with the idea of doing a Western, and envisaged a small town being menaced by a robot. Whithouse elected to make the villain sympathetic, and was inspired by the Frankenstein Monster for the gunslinger.
The story proved controversial for the scene in which the Doctor forces Kahler-Jex out of the town at gun-point, determined to see him killed for what he had previously done in his war. This was quite out of character for the Doctor in general, and this incarnation in particular. The previous week had seen him deliberately cause the death of the trader Solomon by diverting missiles at his ship.
The episode was filmed overseas - at two Western themed locations in Spain, which had previously hosted many "spaghetti western" films and TV series. These were Oasys / Mini Hollywood, and Fort Bravo / Texas Hollywood in Almeria.

As with the pirate story of the year before, a number of genre cliches are squeezed in. There's the undertaker eager for new business, who had previously appeared in A Fistful of Dollars, and other spaghetti westerns. The gunslinger's ultimatum is for High Noon. The Doctor had been deputised in The Gunfighters, but here he becomes the town's Marshal on the death of Isaac. We have a lynch mob forming, as in many Westerns - as well as The Gunfighters again. The Doctor gets to wear a stetson again, as he did in Series 6, and he rides a horse.
The Western theme is reflected in this week's personalised opening titles, as the Doctor Who logo is given a rough wooden finish, with bullet holes.
This episode was given a prequel - "The Making of the Gunslinger". It depicts events prior to the story - a flashback to the creation of Kahler-Tek.

The main guest artists are Adrian Scarborough, who plays Kahler-Jex, and Ben Browder, of Farscape and Stargate fame. Browder has also appeared in Arrow. He accepted the role as he knew his children loved Doctor Who, and he wanted to do a Western. Scarborough has guested in dozens of TV series, but is probably best known for regular appearances in a couple of sitcoms - Miranda and Gavin & Stacey.
Playing the gunslinger, Kahler-Tek, is Andrew Brooke. The other actor of note in this story is Garrick Hagon, as the undertaker. He had previously appeared in the programme as rebel leader Ky, in 1972's The Mutants. Most of his material as Tatooine native Biggs in Star Wars: A New Hope, was left on the cutting room floor. He is often called upon to play American characters in British made TV series and movies.

Overall, a so-so story. There are some interesting moral and ethical debates on show, and some fine guest performances (especially Scarborough), but the episode is generally lacking in incident.
Things you might like to know:

• Working titles included "The Gunslinger" and "Mercy".
• Whilst on location, the crew made use of their proximity to the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains to film some scenes for Asylum of the Daleks, for the exteriors of the Asylum planet.
• There is a clear shot of a large white-washed building on top of a hill in the background of some desert scenes, which seems out of place with the supposedly remote location. This was Tabernas Castle. It is odd that this building wasn't digitally removed.
• This is the first story since 2005's Rose not to have any CGI work from The Mill. The new company is Space Digital. They had contributed some work on The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, but are given the full episode to do here.
• About 10 minutes in we see an American flag flying. It has 50 stars on it, which is an anachronism for 1870. There should only be 37 stars at that time.
• The Doctor was supposed to be taking Amy and Rory to Mexico to see the Day of the Dead festival. They mention recently having been to the court of King Henry VIII, where Rory lost his phone charger. This seems to match events seen in the following story - The Power of Three - where we see the trio hiding under Henry's bed. This has led some fans to assume that this story actually occurs some time in the middle of The Power of Three's narrative, rather than preceding it. It may simply be that the scene in The Power of Three is them going back later to fetch the lost charger.