M is for... Morgan, Ed

Ed Morgan was an elderly housebound man who was investigated by the Cardiff Torchwood team. A young thief named Bernie had been found to be carrying alien technology. When chased, he dropped the device which was then picked up by Gwen Cooper. handling it, she discovered that it could allow her to experience events from the past. She saw an evacuee boy from WWII arriving in Cardiff. The machine not only allowed the user to witness the event, but feel it emotionally.

When Owen Harper used it later, he witnessed a murder. A young man killed a woman beneath a bridge over the river. They had been coming home from a dance, and from their clothing he estimated it to be the early 1960's. Owen became obsessed with what he had experienced and carried out research. The murder details were found in the local press. He identified Ed as a suspect.

It transpired that Bernie had taken the device from a house he robbed, and he had also witnessed the murder. Knowing the killer really was Ed Morgan, he was now trying to blackmail him. This forced Ed to leave his home to track down Bernie. He was killed in a struggle with Gwen Cooper - possibly deliberately taking his own life.

Played by: Gareth Thomas, Christopher Elson (young Ed). Appearances: TW 1.3 Ghost Machine (2007)

• Thomas (1945 - 2016) is, of course, best known for playing the titular hero of Blake's 7. He left the show after its second season, but made a couple of return visits - including the infamous series finale.
• Another popular genre role was the cult folk-horror TV series Children of the Stones. He also has a minor role in the Hammer version of Quatermass and the Pit, as a workman who uncovers one of the skulls in the Underground.

DWM Chronicles 1971

As the recent Yearbook let slip, the next in the DWM Chronicles bookazine range covers 1971 - the Year of the Master.

Season 8 aired that year and, as well as introducing Roger Delgado as the evil Time Lord, it saw the debuts of Katy Manning as Jo Grant, and the late Richard Franklin as Capt. Mike Yates of UNIT. 

We will get biographical features on all three, as well as the usual chapters on VFX, location filming, studio work, the series in the media, merchandise, and what other programmes we were watching that year.

£11.99 to preorder from Panini - published 15th February.

Michael Jayston (1935 - 2024)

It was reported today that the actor Michael Jayston has passed away. He was 88.

Jayston will forever be known to Doctor Who fans as the Valeyard throughout Season 23 of the series - a future interim incarnation of the Doctor himself, who was an amalgam of the darker sides to his nature.

He returned to the role on audio, including an alternate version of the character in the "Unbound" series.

He was also a radio Radio James Bond.

In 1971 he portrayed the last Tsar of Russia, opposite Tom Baker's Rasputin, in Nicholas and Alexandra.

A significant TV role saw him work with Alec Guinness as George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for the BBC. 

More recently he had an important role to play in Only Fools and Horses - initiating the Trotters' eventual wealth by identifying an antique timepiece they owned.

He participated in the extras for the Season 23 Collection box set - including a round-table lunch discussion with the series' stars.

RIP.

Episode 103: War of God

NB: This episode no longer exists in the archives, nor is there a full set of telesnaps. Representative images are therefore used to illustrate it.

Synopsis:

The TARDIS materialises in a secluded yard on the Rue de Bethisy in Paris. Emerging onto the street the Doctor deduces from the architecture that they could be anywhere between the medieval period and the 17th Century.

They observe a young man approach one of the houses, identifying himself as Gaston and that Nicholas Muss is expecting him.

From the man's costume, the Doctor pins the era down to the 16th Century. He is pleased at this, as this was the time of a famous brotherhood of apothecaries who were active in the city. One of their number was Charles Preslin, and the Doctor determines to seek him out.

The house which Gaston entered was that of the Admiral de Coligny - the political figurehead for the Protestant community in France.

The young man then goes to a nearby inn where he antagonises the landlord by praising the Protestant King Henri of Navarre, whilst ignoring his Catholic bride Marguerite - sister of the French King Charles IX, and daughter to the powerful Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici.

The regal pair have only just been wed in a lavish ceremony designed to help heal the country's deep religious divide.

The Doctor and Steven, in appropriate historical dress, have come to the inn before going their separate ways. He will go alone to find Preslin, whilst Steven will have a day to explore the city.

Gaston is joined by Muss whilst the inn is also visited by a group of Catholic men, including Simon Duvall. He works in the household of the Abbot of Amboise. 

Before leaving, Duvall instructs the landlord to report on what Gaston and Muss talk about.

Steven finds himself befriended by the young Huguenots after having trouble changing the gold coin given to him by the Doctor. On learning that he is English, they assume he supports their cause.

The Doctor arrives at the Port Saint Martin and meets the initially suspicious Preslin. The old man explains that he and his fellow scientists are being persecuted by the Catholic authorities - especially by the Abbot of Amboise.

Near the inn, a young woman rushes from a building in a terrified state. She bumps into Steven as he sets out to find the Doctor, and he invites her inside when he sees how upset she is.

On seeing soldiers searching for her, Gaston and Muss protect her and they are forced to withdraw.

She is identified as Anne Chaplet, who works in the Abbot's household. On demanding to know why she is afraid, she tells Gaston and Muss of something she overheard - a reference to the town of Vassy. A decade ago, dozens of Huguenots were massacred there on the orders of the Catholic Duke de Guise. One of the victims was Anne's father.

At the Abbot's house, Duvall and a man named Roger Colbert are angry that the Captain of the Guard and his men failed to arrest Anne. They are concerned about how much she heard and who she may tell.

At the inn, the Huguenot group suspect that another Vassy is being planned by the Abbot and his associates. 

To protect Anne further, she is sent to de Coligny's household to work for him. The Admiral must hear what she has to say in person.

Duvall returns to the inn, only to find Anne gone. When he questions the landlord, he is suspicious to learn that that an Englishman was part of the Huguenot group. He also discovers where Anne has been sent.

Returning to the Abbot's house to report back, he tells the cleric of what he has learned.

The Abbot of Amboise is the spitting image of the Doctor...

Next episode: The Sea Beggar

Data:

Written by: John Lacarotti

Recorded: Friday 21st January 1966 - Riverside Studio 1.

First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 5th February 1966

Ratings: 8 million / AI 52

Designer: Michael Young

Director: Paddy Russell

Guest Cast: Charles Preslin (Erik Chitty), Eric Thompson (Gaston), David Weston (Nicholas Muss), John Tillinger (Simon Duvall), Christopher Tranchell (Roger Colbert), Annette Robertson (Anne Chaplet), Edwin Finn (Landlord), Clive Cazes (Captain of the Guard).

Critique:

There are incomplete stories, and there are lost stories. The Massacre is very much a lost story, as not one single second of film / video footage survives - not even an 8mm off-air clip. Additionally, the director elected not to purchase telesnaps of the production, and very few photographs were taken during the making of the episodes. The Target novelisation bears little relation to what was seen on TV back in 1966, so we can't even rely on that.

This has led to it becoming known as one of the most obscure Doctor Who adventures.

Back in 1964, Terry Nation had been working on a story set at the time of the Indian Mutiny (known to fans as "The Red Fort"). This was put aside when he was asked to concentrate on new Dalek material.

The following year, the setting was still under consideration and story editor Dennis Spooner discussed it with John Lucarotti. He had written two highly regarded historical stories for the first season - Marco Polo and The Aztecs.

Problems arose, however, when a rule was introduced that historical stories had to be set prior to 1600. More recent history was too well known to the audience, running the risk of complaints if stories weren't accurate enough. Overfamiliarity was also a concern (something present day producers should think about. Just how many dramas / documentaries do they think we need to see about the same couple of Tudors?).

Lucarotti was offered an alternative and settled on a Viking adventure - despite the fact that they were featuring in a forthcoming story (The Time Meddler, which was even called "The Vikings" at one point).

Changes in the production office saw Spooner depart, replaced by Donald Tosh. Tosh approached Lucarotti for a story - only to be told that he was already working on one, agreed with his predecessor. Though no formal contract had been entered into, this was a 'gentleman's agreement' which Tosh felt obliged to honour.

Even though the Meddling Monk story was now in pre-production, Tosh allowed the writer to carry on with his submission, which dealt with Eric the Red's discovery of Newfoundland.

The story got as far as rewrites requested by Tosh when - out of the blue - Lucarotti was told that his work was being rejected. Reasons given included the limiting nature of a story set mostly at sea, and the Monk story already featuring Vikings.

The writer was naturally upset and decided to take formal action against the BBC through his agent. Donald Wilson sided with Lucarotti and John Wiles had Tosh offer Lucarotti another submission. Wiles wanted to see a story which revolved around religious intolerance, and it was Tosh who hit on the idea of it being specifically set during the events in Paris of August 1572.

William Hartnell had been asking to appear in a story in which he did not play the Doctor, and had proposed the notion of the Doctor having an evil son, who looked just like him and who travelled around the universe being villainous.

This idea wasn't picked up, but Wiles liked the idea of the Doctor having an evil doppelganger.

Lucarotti faced more rewrites as the TARDIS crew entered a period of great instability. It was originally envisioned that Anne Chaplet would become the next full-time companion. With the Doctor side-lined whilst Hartnell played his secondary role, she and Steven would team up and at the conclusion would be saved from almost certain death by accompanying him into the TARDIS.

He would eventually change his mind on this, recalling the problems of a historical companion like Katarina, one who would need even the simplest of scientific concepts explained to them.

It would also have involved the Doctor interfering in history, which he and Wiles were set against.

Still unhappy with Lucarotti's work, it was decided to pay him off and Tosh completed the scripts as part of his editing duties. He would get an on-screen credit on the final episode, for the sequence introducing the new companion, but in actual fact he wrote much of what appears on screen. This can be seen by comparing it with Lucarotti's novelisation for Target. Lucarotti came close to having his name taken off the story as broadcast.

The historical background is the Wars of Religion which gripped France in the 16th Century. The incident at Vassy took place in 1562, when the powerful Duke de Guise massacred around a hundred Huguenot worshippers. Relationships between Catholic and Protestant were nearing breaking point again when Guise was assassinated by a Protestant. The wedding of Henri of Navarre to Marguerite de Valois was intended to calm the situation. 

In the background was the ineffectual young King's friendship with Admiral de Coligny. The Queen Mother and her advisors were concerned at his growing influence over the young man - especially when he wanted him to wage war on an old ally and forge alliances with old enemies.

This was a period of history which was not very well known to British audiences. When it came to the Reformation, UK schools tended to concentrate on the Anglican dimension - Henry VIII and the dissolution of the religious houses.

(You can read a dramatized account of these events in La Reine Margot, by Alexandre Dumas, published in 1845. The 1994 film, by Patrice Chereau, is highly recommended, and there is also an older adaptation from 1954).

Chosen to direct the story was Patricia "Paddy" Russell, one of only a couple of female directors at the Corporation. She had gained a great deal of experience working as right hand to producer-director Rudolph Cartier on the original Quatermass serials and his version of 1984 amongst many other productions, many of which went out live.

Russell had originally been earmarked to work on The Edge of Destruction.

Designed to be a cheap production after the preceding Dalek epic, Russell was given five days of filming - four at Ealing and one on location at Wimbledon Common.

This took place in the first week of January1966.

Shots of Anne fleeing the soldiers were completed on the first day, with only Robertson and Cazes present of the main cast. A Paris street set was redressed over the next three days to represent different avenues for different episodes.

Hartnell and Peter Purves attended on the Thursday, with the star only featuring as the Abbot on film. For this he wore white clerical robes.

Because of the Christmas break, Doctor Who was now going into studio just a couple of weeks before transmission.

It was during the afternoon camera rehearsals for War of God that the majority of images we have from this lost story derive - photos taken of Hartnell and Purves, and of Purves with the Huguenot group, on the inn set.

The episode title and writer credit were shown over a period print of 16th Century Paris (La Maison appartenant de Bretonvilliers a Paris, to be exact). The same image was used behind the closing credits:

Tosh had structured the story so that each instalment took place over the course of a single day, with the tocsin bell sounding curfew to indicate the onset of evening.

General street life sounds were played in for the main sets, but birdsong backed Preslin's street, to indicate that his shop was out in the suburbs.

To save having the TARDIS materialise in studio, the prop was already set up behind gates in a cul-de-sac off the Rue de Bethisy, with just the usual sound effect being played in.

Russell had the set harshly lit, to indicate an August heatwave. There was only a single recording break scheduled - to allow Hartnell and Purves to change costumes.

After recording, Hartnell embarked on another week's holiday - his second in four weeks. He would only feature on film in The Sea Beggar.

Neither Charles Preslin nor the Abbot of Amboise were real historical figures.

As an opening episode, coming immediately after a 12 week Dalek epic, it's very much a low key instalment - concentrating on dialogue over action. It's primarily set around the inn upon which many of the significant characters converge - young people like Steven.

As a period of history few viewers will have been familiar with, time has to be taken to set the scene and provide context, so we have quite a bit of exposition as Steven is brought up to speed about the current situation in Paris, and the events at Vassy from a decade before.

This might be why the story saw a sizeable drop in viewers over its four week run. A talky episode, set in an unfamiliar era, with no action beyond Anne's brief chase by soldiers.

There is much debate about the story title. Like many, I like to call it simply The Massacre. The BBC's own soundtrack release gives this title on the sleeve, but the fuller title of "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve" on the discs themselves. This longer title is supposed to be the official one - but it's rubbish. The Massacre took place on Saint Bartholomew's Day, not on the eve of the festival. If it's a reference to the events leading up to the event, then it ought to read "The Eve of the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day", or something to that effect. 

When Tosh took it over, he renamed it "The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew", which sounds like it's directed towards the Biblical figure.

You may come across purists who insist on the full title. My advice: just ignore them. The Massacre suffices.

Trivia:

• The programme moves to a new, earlier, time-slot of 5:15pm - having gone out just before 6pm previously. This is a reversion to the original time-slot of the first season.
• The series returns to its Riverside Studios home, as used through most of Season 2.
• The ratings start off relatively okay with 8 million tuning in, but will slide thereafter as we'll see. The appreciation figure remains above 50, though.
• This is one of the longest Doctor Who stories of the Classic era, in terms of episode length. Each instalment runs to just under 25 minutes, with the final actually going over. This opener is 24' 41".
• The original overall story title was going to be that of this episode.
• For many years fandom was led to believe that Anne's surname was "Chaplette", whilst Dodo's was "Chaplet". This turned out to be nonsense, and both characters had the exact same surname.
• Eric Thompson (1929 - 1982) is the father of actors Emma and Sophie, and was the husband of Phyllida Law. He is best known for having brought The Magic Roundabout to UK audiences. Law was under consideration for the role of Barbara Wright in 1963, and was eventually associated with the series when she appeared in Eye of the Gorgon, one of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• Christopher Tranchell made two further appearances in Doctor Who - as the passport control officer / Chameleon duplicate Jenkins in The Faceless Ones, and as Andred in The Invasion of Time.
• Erik Chitty will be seen again as Co-ordinator Engin in The Deadly Assassin.
• David Weston will also return - as the Tharil Biroc in Warriors' Gate.
• The extras who played the Policemen in the opening seconds of both the pilot and the transmitted versions of An Unearthly Child - Reg Cranfield and Fred Rawlings - appear together in Parisian street scenes in this story.
• Future Doctor Jon Pertwee was always proud of his Huguenot origins - his surname deriving from Pertuis / Perthuis - a commune in France. The events of this story were the reason why his ancestors came to be living in England.
• Radio Times introduced the new story with its usual third of a page feature, accompanied by one of the images of the Doctor and Steven in the inn (a colourised version of which can be seen above):

What's Wrong With... City of Death

 

Not a lot, if numerous polls are anything to go by. Its reputation partly lies on the massive viewing figures it enjoyed - but people forget that ITV were on strike for many weeks, and there were only three channels in 1979. I read a comment on FB last month knocking Ncuti's debut for failing to match the figures achieved by this story. The concept of 'Context' is totally lost on some people...

The series has always had a problematic relationship with Paradox. It is usually simply ignored, and only occasionally used as a plot point. Letts and Dicks came up with the Blinovitch Limitation Effect to help get round certain aspects of it. The Master had to convert the TARDIS to maintain one in the Series 3 finale. The Twelfth was happy to talk directly to the audience about one.

We have one here in City of Death, and it's a big one. 

If Scaroth prevents the human race from ever evolving, then how could he manipulate them to arrive at the point where he can go back in time to do the thing which will prevent their evolution...?

The prehistoric scenes see absolutely fantastic model work - but a really horrible fake-looking studio set.

The sky on the model shots is streaked with cloud and atmospheric, whilst in studio it's plain yellow.

Are those supposed to be distant mountains? If so, the perspective doesn't work. There's no sense of space at all.

Apparently there wouldn't have been any land surface to walk on at that time - and you would not be able to breath. Adams picked this up later and when he adapted bits of City for one of his novels he had the characters wear protective gear.

That old chestnut: how does Scaroth manage to fit into that mask when his head is much bigger? (This was in the days before tissue compressors and farting side-effects, though it's not as bad as the Foamasi).

Why did he wear a mask in the first place (when he isn't wearing one in ancient Egypt)?

Why take his mask off at the end of Part One? (Is it that old foreknowledge of a cliff-hanger coming up?). Why do it just when he knows his wife is looking for him?

And where did he get all the masks anyway - especially in ancient times?

He must have squandered a great deal of money swanning about like a rich playboy, because after thousands of years he ought to have amassed far more money than even 7 Mona Lisa's are worth.

Even in 1979, the sums being talked about aren't vast.

Why isn't he a king or a President?

Why employ a scientist, when he must have technical skills of his own far in advance of someone like Kerensky? If he does want to run the risk of involving a human scientist, why not a whole team of them?

It's never fully explained how the splinter thing works. Presumably they all came into being at different points in history simultaneously. If so, how exactly do they know what their future self will need / want, if they're experiencing their particular time zone for the first time?

Did any splinter have to hang around millions of years waiting for the human race to evolve, or did they somehow all manage to conveniently land up within the relatively narrow confines of human history?

Shouldn't the Count have checked the cellar to make sure his paintings are alright? They could have been eaten by mice or something, and bang goes his millennia-old scheme, to save his entire race from extinction.

(And even if he had been successful, what difference would it have made to the Jagaroth? How important was this one spaceship?  Wouldn't they have just blown themselves up anyway, if that's what they're like as a species?).

Hard to say if they're supposed to be intentionally funny, or its just badly directed, but why does no-one bat an eye-lid in the café when men start brandishing guns?

Why do the henchmen wear stupid big black hats, when they're clearly not fashionable (we see enough of the Parisian men in the location filming). Why don't they just wear T-shirts with "I am a Henchman" and make life simpler for themselves.

Duggan is written / played far too broadly. Seriously, would multi-millionaire art collectors ever think of employing someone like him to investigate for them? He clearly doesn't know the meaning of "discretion". 

And finally, the less said about the love life of the Count and Countess, the better...

Story 283: Kerblam!

In which the Doctor receives a home delivery...

A robotic figure materialises in the TARDIS - one of the famed Kerb!am Men. This company is the biggest home shopping business in the galaxy. Their warehouse and distribution centre covers an entire moon of the planet Kandoka. Whilst successful commercially, the firm is suffering staffing issues. The company is almost fully automated, with the robot Kerb!am Men teleporting across space to make deliveries. Other robots - known as TeamMates - crew the facility. Only a small number of humans are employed - which has caused problems with the people of Kandoka, who are suffering high unemployment.

The Doctor's package contains a new fez, which she had forgotten she had ordered. Within the packaging, she discovers a note calling for help.

They decide to go to the moon and investigate. On arrival, they meet head of HR Judy Maddox and manage to get taken on as staff - allowing them to look around under cover.

Staff are given electronic ankle tags, which monitor their movements and prevent them entering areas they are not permitted to go into, based on their role.

The Doctor swaps anklets with Graham in order to get into the packing area, as that is the best place to start looking for their mysterious message sender. Graham is dismayed to find that he is now assigned to being a janitor and handed a mop and bucket by a TeamMate.

Ryan is also in the packing area, and meets a young woman named Kira. He is surprised at her reaction to receiving a gift - but she explains that she has never been given anything before.

Yaz is in the warehouse and meets co-worker Dan, who explains that he hardly ever gets to see his family on Kandoka. The pair swap a task, and Dan is killed a short time later by a TeamMate in a secluded part of the building.

The Doctor meets the warehouse executive, Jarva Slade, and takes an instant disliking to him as she observes him bullying Kira.

Graham meanwhile meets co-worker Charlie, a young man who is secretly in love with Kira - not realising that she shares his feelings.

Odd power losses keep occurring, and an emergency break is called. Everyone gathers in a garden area where the TARDIS crew can compare notes. Yaz tells the Doctor about Dan's sudden disappearance, and this is not the only one according to Charlie, so she decides to confront Slade. They will go to his office to lodge a formal complaint about Dan and the others.

In his office, the Doctor admonishes Judy about the lack of concern for the workers.

They decide to wait until Slade leaves then break back in to search his files. They find it odd that he still uses a pen and paper. His files reveal that he has been keeping notes about the vanishing staff. Judy discovers them, thanks to their anklets, and they tell her of their suspicions about her boss.

The Doctor comes to realise that the automated systems of the company are working against the human employees - which is why Slade uses old-fashioned tools. They assume he is responsible. In the company's  foyer is one of the original Kerb!am delivery robots, and the Doctor realises that it will not be connected to the current systems. She steals it and reactivates it.

They discover that Kira has been called down to the lower levels, which are no longer in use. She has been lured there with a Kerb!am delivery. They rush to the area and spot her in a sealed room, just as she opens her parcel. Charlie shouts a warning but she cannot hear. As she bursts the bubble-wrap, she is disintegrated. Ryan realises that Charlie knew exactly what was going to happen.

It transpires that Slade is not the villain they thought he was. He has been monitoring the situation but is not responsible. He couldn't tell anyone of his fears as he distrusted the automated systems, and wasn't sure if Judy was involved.

The person behind the sabotage and the disappearances is actually Charlie. Kira's death had been a tragic accident. He has been testing weaponised packaging - explosive bubble-wrap which activates when popped. He intends that millions of potentially lethal packages will be despatched across the galaxy. His motivation is the company's disregard for human workers' rights. Kerb!am, by concentrating on automation and robots, is responsible for mass unemployment and misery on Kandoka, and Charlie wishes to punish the company by destroying their reputation.

A whole army of Kerb!am Men has been assembled, ready to be sent out to customers.

Charlie is a genius, pretending to be otherwise to secure a menial role where he would not be noticed. The company systems have recognised his tampering and taken action to stop him. It was the company computer which sent the message to the TARDIS.

The Doctor programmes the prototype delivery robot to send a message to the robots to deliver their packages here. She urges Charlie to get out of the way but he refuses. Their packages explode - destroying them and killing the young man.

Judy and Slade agree to improve working conditions for the  staff, and to recruit more people over machines.

Kerblam! was written by Pete McTighe, and was first broadcast on Sunday 18th November 2018.

This was McTighe's first work on the series, and he has since gone on to produce the trailers for The Collection Blu-ray box sets, many of which have become sequels to classic stories of the respective seasons.

The title may roll off the tongue, but the story, unfortunately, leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Despite the sudden saintly behaviour of the boss and his Head of HR at the end, the story appears to be siding with the big corporation against the workers.

Imagine if the Doctor joined forces with the Musks, Bransons and Bezoses of this world to defend them against their staff, struggling to establish a nascent trade union.

Yes, Charlie is a terrorist, who has killed a number of workers as part of his scheme, but like all extremists he believes whole-heartedly in his cause and thinks that what he is doing is the right thing. Ends justify means. But he is not out for power, or wealth, or anything for himself. He's fighting a system on behalf of ordinary working people, who want to work, but there's a massive corporation limiting its workforce to just 10%, concentrating on cheap automation.

The people who are fortunate to work for Kerb!am are treated like slaves - not even getting time enough off to see their children.

It's a story we see today - sweatshops, slave labour gangs and employees forced to work in unsafe conditions - underpaid and overworked. 

Having a nice smiley people-person in head office doesn't make things any better.

That people-person, Judy, is played by Julie Hesmondhalgh. Employed of late by RTD in his Cucumber / Banana series, she had also starred in the third season of Chibnall's Broadchurch. It was as transexual Hayley in Coronation Street that she first came to fame. She has also just featured in Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which has had a huge political impact in the UK in recent weeks.

Playing Jarva is Callum Dixon.

There's a cameo appearance for "comedian" Lee Mack as the unfortunate Dan. He has his own sitcom and fronts a prime time Saturday night quiz show, but I'm afraid I fail to find him either funny or entertaining - so I'm glad he  gets little screentime.

Charlie is played by Leo Flanagan, best known for Waterloo Road, whilst Kira is Claudia Jessie - a regular on period drama Bridgerton.

Overall, it could have been a good old-fashioned style of story - a satire on globalisation and the way corporations abuse the people who bring them their wealth, but its sympathies lie in the wrong direction for me. Fans of the Voc Robots and their Heavenly Host cousins will be happy, whilst others might see the TeamMates as pale imitators.

Things you might like to know:

• First TV story to have an exclamation mark in its title, though they've appeared in spin-off media titles.
• Two past Doctors are referenced. The fez is synonymous with the Eleventh, and the Doctor uses Venusian Aikido - the martial art form favoured by the Third.
• "Robophobia" is also mentioned, and as mentioned above, the robots do strike one as similar to the killer Vocs of Robots of Death.
• There are scenes in the packing area where the TARDIS crew have to descend to the lower levels, avoiding the automated systems. This is heavily influenced by the Geonosis foundry sequence in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
• Chris Chibnall attended his farewell party in a Kerb!am Man costume.
• The Kerb!am Man at the Worlds of Wonder Exhibition in Edinburgh in 2023:

DWM 600

The 600th issue of Doctor Who Magazine arrives on Thursday. Mainly looking at recent episodes, it will also have a tribute to Richard Franklin, as well as Planet of the Daleks in the Fact of Fiction.

PS: the recent DWM Yearbook let slip that the next Chronicles special edition might be covering 1971.

Whilst I'm here, we now know that the DVD of The Church on Ruby Road is released on 12th February, and The Daleks in Colour follows two weeks later.

The US Amazon claims the animated The Celestial Toymaker is due 26th March - which if true means the UK gets it before then.

Lastly, Feb 4th sees the screening of Horror of Fang Rock at the BFI in London. These screenings always herald the imminent releases of the Collection box sets, so shouldn't be very long to wait for the Season 15 set.