N is for... Not-Things

Beings of obscure origins encountered by the Doctor and Donna at the edge of the universe - presumed to have travelled across from another dimension.

When the TARDIS abandoned the Doctor and Donna on a seemingly deserted spaceship, they discovered that they were not alone after all. Separated, each encountered what they thought to be the other. The creatures were attempting to establish themselves in this universe by mimicking them. Initial attempts at physically copying the pair proved unsuccessful. Limbs would be too large or too long, and at one point they could not control their size and became gigantic versions of the time-travellers, jamming themselves in one of the larger corridors of the vessel.

As time went by, however, their efforts improved and they also began to absorb their behaviours, personalities and memories.

It transpired that the pilot of this spaceship - an equine bipedal creature - had set the craft to self-destruct to prevent the beings from replacing them. A servo robot was very slowly inching its way towards activating this, whilst the pilot had taken its own life - preferring death to allowing the beings to get into our universe.

The TARDIS eventually returned, and the Doctor almost took the Not-Donna away with him, such was their total mastery of copying every aspect of them by this point. He managed to spot a tiny physical discrepancy just in time to return for the real Donna. Both beings perished when the robot finally detonated the self-destruct.

Played by: David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Appearances: Wild Blue Yonder (2023).

N is for... Nostrovite

A race of vicious shapeshifting aliens encountered by the Torchwood Cardiff team. They could pass for people, but under stress they showed their fangs, talons and red eyes. Their blood was black in colour.

Carnivores, they only fed on living flesh. The female Nostrovite could spin a strong web-like substance, to keep their prey confined until it could be devoured.

One weakness of their disguise was an inability to mimic body odours - allowing them to be identified.

Gwen Cooper was bitten by a male Nostrovite on the eve of her wedding to fiancé Rhys. The creature was shot dead. On waking the next morning, she discovered herself to be heavily pregnant - thus discovering that this was how the creatures propagated. 

Females produced eggs which the male then carried in their mouths. They implanted an egg into a host body through their bite. The embryo grew rapidly, with birth following within 24 hours. 

The mother would then hunt down the host to tear it open and release the child - which would use the host's body as its first feed.

The mate of the dead Nostrovite, posing as a woman named Carrie, tracked Gwen to her wedding venue, where it killed a number of staff and guests before copying others, including Captain Jack and Rhys' mother, Brenda.

The female of the species proved much harder to kill than the male but she was eventually shot dead.

The child was destroyed by Owen using a laser scalpel device seconds before the birth.

Played by: Collette Brown (Carrie). Appearances: TW 2.9 Something Borrowed (2008).

• John Barrowman and Nerys Hughes (Brenda) also appeared as Nostrovite copies of their characters.
• Liver Birds star Hughes had previously played Todd in Kinda.
• Brown began her career as a children's TV presenter, on series Hangar 17. She later featured in the drama Our Friends in the North.

Episode 132: The Tenth Planet (2)

Synopsis:

Outside Snowcap Base, three soldiers have been killed by large robotic beings which have emerged from out of a blizzard...

In the base's tracking room, General Cutler continues to disbelieve the Doctor's claims that they will shortly have visitors from the new planet. He is concentrating more on the deteriorating situation with the Zeus 4 capsule and its two occupants. They will not survive another orbit.

The new arrivals don the overcoats of the dead soldiers and enter the base.

At International Space Command HQ in Geneva, Wigner learns that communications with Snowcap have been lost. The TV news is now showing the general public images of the tenth planet, with scientists arguing over the similarity of its land masses to those of Earth.

With everyone concentrating on the capsule, only the Doctor notices the silver boots of the three soldiers who have slipped into the tracking room. He tries to warn the others but is too late.

The beings unmask themselves, shooting down a guard who attempts to attack them.

Their leader, Krail, informs them that they are Cybermen and have come from the planet Mondas, which was indeed the long-lost twin of the Earth as the Doctor had earlier tried to explain.

Mondas left the solar system centuries ago, and in order to survive their harsh peripatetic existence in the wastes of outer space, the inhabitants resorted to spare part surgery to replace limbs and organs. They are now almost entirely robotic in body, but retain organic brains. However, these have been surgically altered to remove what they see as weaknesses - human emotions.

When Cutler insists that they be permitted to bring the Zeus 4 down, Krail simply states that there is no point as it will be destroyed anyway. It is inevitable. Not only is Mondas exerting gravitational disturbances, it is also responsible for the energy drain which affected both the capsule and its pilots.

When Ben tries to use the dead guard's gun, he is ordered detained - after one of the Cybermen has effortlessly bent the gun barrel. He finds himself locked in the base's cinema room.

When Cutler refuses to co-operate and sends out a distress signal, Krail renders him unconscious. Scientist Barclay is left to do as the Cybermen command. They state that they want the humans to come to Mondas with them, as the energy drain will destroy the Earth. Once there, they will be converted to be like them.

He is allowed to make a final effort to save the capsule, but this ends in failure. 

The capsule explodes.

Ben devises a plan of escape. He points the film projector at the door then calls for a Cyberman. When it opens the door it is blinded, and he is able to seize its weapon. When it refuses to surrender, he is compelled to shoot and destroy it.

He then returns to the tracking room. Cutler has woken up and spots Ben sneaking in - motioning to him to give him the Cyberman weapon. He opens fire and destroys Krail and the other Cyberman, then hurriedly contacts Geneva to inform them of the alien incursion.

Wigner informs him that they had sent up a rescue mission - Zeus 5 - shortly before the capsule blew up. A single astronaut was selected, who had to be a volunteer. The person chosen is Terry Cutler - the General's son.

The new craft has double the energy reserves of the Zeus 4, but Cutler is convinced his son has been sent to his death. He will do anything to save him.

A radar technician suddenly announces multiple contacts. A fleet of hundreds of Cyberman spaceships is approaching the Earth...

Data:

Written by Kit Pedler

Recorded: Saturday 24th September 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 15th October 1966

Ratings: 6.4 million / AI 48

Designer: Peter Kindred

Director: Derek Martinus

Additional cast: Krail (Reg Whitehead), Talon (Harry Brooks), Shav (Gregg Palmer), Roy Skelton (Cyberman voices), Christopher Matthews (Radar Technician), Glenn Beck (TV Announcer)

Critique:

Polly: But we cannot live with you. You're... you're different. You've got no feelings.

Krail: Feelings? I do not understand that word.

The Doctor: Emotions. Love, pride, hate, fear. Have you no emotions, sir?

As mentioned last week, once Pedler had decided on the aliens being creatures who were cybernetically enhanced, his initial thoughts were either to break up the human body shape all together, or to have the Cybermen look like idealised men, with only subtle implants. They would all look the same, with only a small coin-sized metal plate on the temple, with a wire leading into the hairline, which could easily be hidden with a hat. They had metal rods and rams at the joints of arms and legs. An electronic chest unit was also specified.

Pedler also specified a transparent forearm, with a human hand at the end. This would have been manageable in close-up, with a model arm, but impossible to achieve convincingly otherwise.

Costume designer Sandra Reid decided against the simplified look to make the Cybermen more striking - by making them more robotic, yet still retaining elements of their past humanity.

The actors wore a grey body suit made from a grey jersey material, with a hood of similar material covering the head. Over this would be worn a transparent plastic outfit, attached to which were plastic epaulettes and metal rings at the joints to indicate the muscular aids mentioned by Pedler.

On the front was the chest unit, which was of considerable size and weight. At the bottom of this hung the Cyber-weaponry - a rectangular frame in the middle of which was a circular unit, from a common household lampshade fitting.

On the head was a metal skull cap which had a large cylindrical lamp attached by three tubes - one on either side of the head and one at the rear. The "handlebars" had a transparent mid-section.

Holes were cut in the jersey material of the hood for eyes and mouth, lined with a silvered vinyl. The actors had the area around eyes and mouth blacked out with make-up. 

The headpieces and chest units were constructed by Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge: below, one of their staff can be seen wearing parts of the costume in the 8mm Follow That Dalek film, made in 1967.

The lamp on the top of the head was originally intended to illuminate - but the bulb exploded on the first test and the idea was abandoned.

The Cybermen made their debut at Ealing on Friday 2nd September on Ealing Film Studio's Stage 3, for their initial appearance at the conclusion to the first episode.

The second instalment required none of the Ealing filming. Some stock footage of radar dishes and radio-telescopes was all that was employed.

Three actors donned the heavy and cumbersome Cyberman costumes for the second studio session. The weight combined with heat from the studio lighting caused them considerable difficulties. Performers had fainted at Ealing, and once fallen could not get up without assistance.

Problems with the stability of the head lamp had already been flagged up during filming, and in studio it was found necessary to use clear sticky tape to hold the "handlebars" in place (see image below). This is apparent in some scenes when viewed on DVD today, though it would have been invisible to viewers at the time, watching the series on tiny 405-line televisions.

The script named the three Krail, Talon and Shav. The first acted as the leader whilst Talon was the Cyberman who confronted Ben in the projection room. These names were never actually used in any of the on-screen dialogue.

The Cyberman voices were provided by Roy Skelton, who had previously provided vocals for the Monoids in The Ark. He discussed how the Cybermen would sound with Martinus.

The actors simply opened their mouths whilst their words were heard - holding them open for the duration of the speech. They therefore had to learn the script - though on occasion we can see them mistime. The sing-song style of speech was supposed to indicate a computerised mode, like a tape loop which might run at different speeds.

A short film sequence from the end of Episode One was used to open the episode, followed by the computer text for the titles, accompanied by an electronic buzzing sound.

The Cyber-weapon had a lamp fitted, which lit up when fired. This was connected to a long flex, and the scene required a recording break as the actor playing the guard had to have smoke pumped into his costume.

The guards' gun was replaced by one with a dummy barrel, so that Whitehead could easily bend it double.

To render Cutler unconscious, the Cyberman simply held his head between its hands.

The Cybermen required two other recording breaks - one for Brooks to smash a dummy door into the projection room, and another to set up the deaths of Krail and Shav.

The episode ended with a shot of the radar scanner screen, across which a number of small lights moved in unison to indicate the approaching invaders.

A couple of queries generated by this episode: why is Ben simply locked up when the guard is shot down, and what exactly is the confusion reported on TV regarding the continents of Mondas?

The first is simply one of those conventions that regulars get to survive, despite doing exactly the same thing that an extra or stunt man might have just done, with fatal consequences.

The confusion amongst the scientists is harder to explain. All they would need to do is turn a photograph upside down to see that Mondas is an exact duplicate of the Earth.

On getting back to his home in Kent after recording, William Hartnell fell ill with bronchitis. Prescribed rest as well as medication, he would be unable to attend the rehearsals for the following episode.

As the fourth and final episode of The Tenth Planet has been lost, it means that this is our final sight of the actor in his original role as the Doctor, before being forced to step down from the series.

It is also our only proper look at the original Mondasian Cybermen in action. They show up only at the close of the first episode, and feature in just the one filmed sequence in the third.

Hartnell's illness wasn't the only health crisis to hit this story. Gerry Davis had already been forced to deal with the hospitalisation of Kit Pedler during the writing stage - as we'll hear about next time...

Trivia:

• The ratings see a big rise in viewing numbers, with almost a million more tuning in than for Episode 1 - but the appreciation figure actually drops slightly, taking it back beneath the 50 mark once again.
• Pedler had specified human hands for the Cybermen, but Sandra Reid's recollection was that they were supposed to have gloves. When these failed to turn up at Ealing, a silver-blue make-up was applied to the actors' hands instead. The gloves turned up later, by which time it was decided they were no longer required.
• The film Ben finds in the projector is an old Western. In his novelisation of the story, Davis changes this to a James Bond movie - specifically The Man With The Golden Gun.
• Sir Hugh Greene, Director General of the BBC, sent a note to the weekly review meeting to say how much he enjoyed this episode - especially as it had featured more Cybermen.
• This episode was selected for a number of National Film Theatre screenings across England in the 1980's.
• Gregg Palmer - Dutch actor Donald Van der Maaten - can be seen in the flesh, as it were, in The War Games. He plays the German officer, Lieut. Lucke, in the third episode.
• Hammer Horror fans will recognise Christopher Matthews as Dennis Waterman's brother in The Scars of Dracula. Another horror role was the male lead in Scream and Scream Again, which also featured Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. Sci-fi roles included an X-Wing pilot in the first Star Wars film, and a member of Moonbase Alpha's crew in two episodes of the first season of Space:1999.

Story 297b: Flux - War of the Sontarans

In which the Doctor succeeds in guiding the TARDIS back through time to avoid impact with the Flux - a rolling mass of destructive energy which is devouring the cosmos.

The wave strikes, and the Doctor suddenly finds herself alone in a bizarre dream-like landscape, dominated by a huge crumbling house. Before she can identify where she is, she is on a battlefield. There are dead soldiers lying around, wearing red uniforms of the mid-19th Century, and abandoned artillery.

The TARDIS is also here, and Dan and Yaz soon appear. A woman approaches, accusing them of robbing the dead. She is Mary Seacole, who has come to the Crimea to nurse the wounded - for this is Sebastapol in 1855. They here enemy troops approach, and the Doctor is shocked to discover that they are not Russian soldiers. They are Sontaran warriors...

Vinder has also been thrown into another environment by the Flux. He is in an ancient temple complex, where he is confronted by floating Priest Triangles. They ask if he has come to make repairs, as they need someone to fix something of great importance. Led into the inner chamber, he discovers that six plinths, which appear empty, actually have a white-robed figure standing on them - only visible when approached. These are the Mouri, but two are missing.

Seacole takes the Doctor and her companions to her hospital / shelter, which she calls the "British Hotel". First Dan, then Yaz vanish, and the Doctor discovers that the TARDIS doors have disappeared - trapping her here. She assumes this to be a side effect of the Flux interacting with vortex energy.

Dan finds himself back on his street in Liverpool - but dominating the skyline is a Sontaran warship. The aliens have invaded. Chased through the city, he encounters his parents - Neville and Eileen - who tell him that the planet is now dominated by Sontarans, despite human resistance activity.

Yaz has arrived at the same location as Vinder. As she explores, she encounters the Liverpudlian tunnel-obsessive Joseph Williamson, who has also found his way here. He is looking for the way home, and wanders away.

Yaz then meets the Priest Triangles, which lead her to where Vinder is waiting.

The Doctor meets Lt General Logan at the British Hotel - commander of the British forces here. he is planning a counter-offensive against the Sontarans - and refuses to heed the Doctor's advice about them.

She fears a bloodbath should Victorian soldiers attempt to battle alien laser weaponry.

From Logan and Seacole, the Doctor discovers that the corruption of history is only recent. Seacole reveals that she has a wounded Sontaran soldier - Svild - hidden at the Hotel. The Doctor decides that he should be released, so that she can follow him and discover the location of the Sontaran base.

She is determined to try to negotiate a peace. Svild will inform his commander that she is here.

They follow him discreetly and see him enter a nearby valley, where a fleet of warships are hidden by a camouflage barrier.

He tells his commander - Skaak - of the Doctor's request for a parley, before being shot dead for having allowed himself to be captured.

Dan learns that the Sontarans invaded two days ago - just as the Lupari spaceships formed their shield around the planet. They have made their base at the docks, so he heads for there - sending his parents to safety.

Vinder and Yaz have learned that they are in the Temple of Atropos, on a planet called Time. The Mouri act as conduits for all the time in the universe, which passes through them. They control it and prevent it from causing chaos - but two have been damaged.

Dan witnesses Commander Ritskaw executing curfew-breakers, and overhears mention of a full temporal offensive which is due to take place. He decides to break into one of the warships to learn more.

The Doctor attend her parlay with Skaak and discovers that the Sontarans have simply exploited the Flux - slipping into Earth just before the Lupari shield closed. They have made this incursion into history as a test, before launching their main attack on the whole of Earth's past, present and future.

Her attempts at peace are halted by the arrival of Logan, who pledges his forces to battle. Skaak naturally accepts the challenge.

The Doctor is unable to halt the slaughter. She and Seacole break into a warship, where she manages to make contact with Dan on another ship in 2021. They must each stop their respective war fleet.

Dan is then captured by warriors - but is saved from summary execution by the arrival of Karvanista, who continues to be bound to him.

Logan returns a broken man, his troops almost entirely wiped out. The Doctor knows that Sontarans are vulnerable for a short period each day when they re-energise themselves from their ship. She forms a plan, then she, Seacole and Logan set off for the hidden valley with some surviving soldiers. Once there, they begin sabotaging the ships as the aliens recharge. However, Logan decides to adapt the scheme.

In Liverpool, Karvanista arranges for the ship he and Dan are in to take off then crash into the others - creating a temporal chain reaction. They escape through a waste unit into the dock.

Instead of merely disabling the fleet in Sebastapol - to force the Sontarans to withdraw, Logan has released their fuel which will be ignited. 

The Doctor discovers this too late, as the entire fleet explodes. The Liverpool fleet is also destroyed, with the temporal shockwave wiping out both incursions and putting history back on course.

The Doctor is able to gain access to the TARDIS again - now increasingly warped within - and heads off in search of her companions.

It materialises in the Temple of Atropos - where she encounters Swarm and Azure. They have with them a giant mute figure, known as Passenger. They have destroyed the Priest Triangles and now Yaz and Vinder are captive - transformed into the missing Mouri. 

The full force of time is about to flow through them, destroying them...

Flux - War of the Sontarans was written by Chris Chibnall and first broadcast on Sunday 7th November 2021.

It is the first of two instalments of the Flux storyline which could have been stand-alone episodes, with some rejigging. In this case, the removal of the Temple of Atropos material. The Sontarans have been shown to be interested in mastering time travel since the beginning. In The Time Warrior they had some limited technology, allowing Linx to move between Medieval England and the 20th Century. By The Invasion of Time, they are actually launching an attack on Gallifrey itself, and may well have conquered or destroyed it had the Doctor not been there. (So it's ironic that their agents, the Vardans, involved him in the first place).

So a story in which the Sontarans attempted another invasion by manipulating time and altering history as a test could easily have been a story in its own rights.

As mentioned last time, the aliens have undergone a design makeover. The basic outline remains, including the short stature and the domed helmet which reflects their domed heads. In place of the very rubbery-looking blue costumes introduced in Series 4, they now sport a dark padded suit, with a number of armoured sections - on chest, shoulders, knees and forearms. Below is a costume from the Worlds of Wonder exhibition.

The metalwork is tarnished, looking slightly rusted, and therefore more lived-in and battle-used. As for the masks, they have also undergone a tweak to make them resemble more closely the original Linx mask, in terms of skull shape and colouring. Their spaceships remain the version introduced in The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky.

We only visit the planet Time for a few scenes - when Vinder arrives, followed by Yaz, and finally when the Doctor catches up with them. Swarm and Azure only appear briefly, accompanied by new character "Passenger". Victorian eccentric Williamson appears, and his role in events remains totally enigmatic.

Dan properly becomes the Doctor's companion this week, whilst Vinder also joins the Doctor's narrative.

We are also introduced to a monochrome dream-like landscape in which there is a huge, tottering house, which appears to be slowly breaking apart.

The guest cast is headed by Sara Powell as Mary Seacole. She had a recurring role in fire brigade drama London's Burning. Lt General Logan is Gerald Kyd. Like Powell, he has appeared in forensics drama Silent Witness and is currently co-starring in Love Rat.

We are introduced to dan's parents, but unlike previous companions  since 2005 we will not get to know them very well. This will prove to be their sole appearance. Both actors are Brookside veterans - Paul Broughton playing Neville, and Sue Jenkins playing Eileen. Broughton also featured in the BBC4 live version of The Quatermass Experiment.

The Sontarans are the same as last week - Jonathan Watson and Dan Starkey, and Craig Els is back as Karvanista. 

New character "Passenger" is Jonny Mathers. 7' 2" tall, he is actually a tenancy sustainment officer in his day job.

Overall, one of the highlights of the series - mainly because of its "stand-alone" quality and a respectful treatment of the Sontarans. The aliens were badly handled by Steven Moffat, being treated as figures of ridicule only, and there purely for comic relief. Writers like Robert Holmes could get across how ludicrous they could be, but balancing this with their ruthlessness and danger.

The horse joke is great.

Things you might like to know:

• Mary Seacole was born on 23rd November 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica. Her mother ran a boarding house and had herbalist skills, which may have led Mary into the nursing field. The "British Hotel", established when she travelled to the Crimea to help wounded troops, was intended as accommodation, but the officers explained that the men would prefer their own barracks. She therefore turned it into an eating establishment, which proved highly successful. She died in 1881, and in 2004 was voted the greatest ever black Briton.
• Seacole had already met the Twelfth Doctor, but on audio.
• The Mouri are all played by female actors, though it is hard to notice on first watch due to the costume / make-up.
• Their derives from "mauri", which means a lifeforce, vital essence, or symbol of a life presence (or an object or person which embodies this). This from the Māori culture.
• "Atropos" is Greek for inflexible or unalterable - so the opposite to flux.
• The Doctor uses Venusian Aikido to overpower her guard - the martial art introduced in the Third Doctor's era.
• Some of the dialogue mirrors the Tennyson poem The Charge of the Light Brigade - inspired by an event once described by the Second Doctor as "magnificent folly".
• An alien race called Ravagers were to have featured in the temple scenes, but were cut from the final draft.
• A spin-off graphic novel featuring Captain Jack was planned for this episode, back when the Flux storyline was set to include him. This was scrapped when Barrowman got cancelled.
• The Priest Triangles are voiced by Nigel Lambert. He played the scientist Hardin in The Leisure Hive.
• The mask worn by Mathers as Passenger had previously featured in a pornographic Star Wars parody. And no, I've never seen it. Honest.

A waiting game...

We all know that the next series will be on screen in Spring 2025, no matter what happens. This is mainly down to the fact that they filmed it straight after what they call Season One (but most of us call Series14), allowing Gatwa to do other work. It's in the can, and unless someone wants to write it off for tax purposes (as happened with the DC / HBO Max Batgirl movie a couple of years ago) we'll get to see it next year.

What happens next is the mystery, and there are concerns.

In the summer, around the time that the programme was being plugged (though hardly prominently) at San Diego Comic-Con, RTD was upbeat and told interviewers that the third new series would likely be commissioned in the autumn. He's now saying something different.

The issue these days is the co-production deal. Left to Bad Wolf / BBC, this would no doubt have been a fairly speedy process, but we now have the House of Mouse in the equation. 

Their input, partly editorial but primarily financial, is crucial. Were Disney to pull funding, the series would really need to find another partner in order to afford a full season of the quality we are now used to.

RTD is now saying that the decision to commission a third series won't be made until after S15 has aired. This would take us to late spring / early summer, depending on the broadcast dates, before they even begin to make the next series. 

And that's if it happens at all.

In my opinion, there is only one reason why Disney would hold back their decision to re-commit: they were not impressed by S14 alone, and want to see how S15 fares, and it will all come down to income against expenditure. 

It cannot be about the quality of the new stories in the can - as they will already have been screened for them. If they liked the response to S14, and are happy with the new batch of episodes, then why not go ahead and commit to more?

S14 may have had good audience figures for younger adults, but that was the only demographic which was reported as encouraging. As I've stated before, RTD was expected to increase the audience share for that demographic - but I'm sure it was supposed to be as well as the others, not instead of.

Overall, the BBC claimed to be happy due to audience share / weekly placing. These things are of some importance to Disney as well, but they are not a public service broadcaster. It's a business, and they want to see new subscribers and increased advertising revenue. 

If the new episodes can't deliver that, Disney will not reinvest. They've just shown that they can be perfectly ruthless when it comes to a series that doesn't meet expectations, even a prestige one - just look at Star Wars: The Acolyte, which has been cancelled after one season.

The big concern is that S15 is simply more of the same as S14, which under-performed when judged against most criteria of success.

Episodes - Afterlife: Zeus 4 Spacesuits (Updated)

The spacesuits worn by Schultz and Williams of the Zeus 4 mission were not created for Doctor Who. They were existing outfits which had first seen screen time in the 1964 film The First Men in the Moon (below).

In this they are worn by the modern day astronauts who are supposed to be the first group to set foot on the Moon, before discovering evidence of an unknown earlier British expedition. Two colour schemes are seen - yellow and a very dark blue. The most distinctive feature of the suit is the white ribbed vest, upon which the astronauts' flags have been stitched.

There are no colour images from The Tenth Planet, but we can see that Williams is wearing a lighter suit than Schultz - so presumably the Australian is wearing the dark blue version to Earl Cameron's yellow one. Their sleeves are quite short - but the movie image shows that the suits were originally intended to be worn with long gauntlets.

The suits only appear at the beginning and end of the Ray Harryhausen movie, which was based on the story by H G Wells.

However - that wasn't the starting point...

Before they started cropping up on screen, the outfits were actual high-altitude flying suits, developed by Windak Ltd in 1962 (above). Following WWII, pilots were flying at ever greater altitudes and required pressurised suits. The visor was heated to prevent misting, and the closed automatically in the event of an emergency.

The suits reappear during the Troughton era, when they are seen to be worn by the crew of The Wheel in Space. We see them most clearly at the beginning of the surviving sixth episode, when they are worn by Jamie and Zoe. Again we can see the colour difference - with Frazer Hines wearing the dark suit and Wendy Padbury the yellow.

It's difficult to see as we don't get a very good look at it, but the yellow suit also appears to feature - minus the white vest - in Professor Eldred's space museum in The Seeds of Death.

The most famous appearance by the spacesuit by far, in that it would have been seen by many millions of people, was in the second of the Star Wars movies - The Empire Strikes Back.

Darth Vader assembles a group of mercenaries and bounty hunters to track down Luke, Leia, Han and company, best known of whom is Boba Fett. Alongside him, however, is a character named Bossk - a reptilian biped who is wearing the yellow version of the Zeus 4 spacesuit. Naturally enough there was an action figure release. Bossk also features briefly in Return of the Jedi, as well as The Clone Wars animated series.

Update:

Many thanks to eagle-eyed "Reykjavik" - see comments below - for letting me know of an earlier Star Wars appearance by the spacesuit. A humanoid character named BoShek (above) wears the dark version in the cantina sequence in 1977's Star Wars: The First One. He is seen speaking to Obi-Wan at the bar when they first arrive, prior to encountering Han. Played by Basil Tomlin, apparently the character hails from Corellia.

If anyone knows of any more appearances, do let me know.

Episode 131: The Tenth Planet (1)

Synopsis:

At Snowcap Base, situated in Antarctica, US General Cutler and his international team of scientists and military are monitoring the Zeus 4 space mission. On board are astronauts Schultz and Williams. 

The TARDIS materialises close to the underground base. The Doctor and his companions don appropriate winter outfits and venture outside. They spot a periscope and other objects, indicating that there is a structure beneath the ice.

They are spotted by the duty team via the periscope, and soldiers emerge from a hatch to capture them and usher them inside.

The Sergeant informs them where they are, whilst Private Tito is ordered to notify Cutler. He arrives in the duty room, and angrily demands to know who they are and how they came here.

Unhappy with their answers, he orders that the Sergeant escort them to the observation room which adjoins the main space tracking room. He will deal with them once they have handed over Zeus 4 to the next tracking team.

The Doctor points out a calendar, and Ben and Polly discover that this is December, 1986.

In the tracking room, chief scientist Barclay is alerted to a problem. The space capsule is off course.

Schultz and Williams are instructed to take fresh bearings of their position using Mars as a reference.

The Doctor and his companions are alerted to the commotion next door, and the Doctor quickly writes something on a piece of paper, to be given to the General.

It becomes apparent that the planet which the astronauts thought to be Mars is nothing of the kind. They are being influenced by a new planet which appears to have moved rapidly into the solar system, heading towards the Earth.

Not only has it caused Zeus 4 to go off course, it now seems to be causing a catastrophic power loss.

Cutler and Barclay realise that the capsule has only one chance of survival if it can be brought down on its next orbit.

The Doctor insists on speaking with Cutler, claiming to have information about the new planet. The first images come through, and on a monitor they begin to pick out familiar land masses. It closely resembles an inverted version of the Earth. Barclay is surprised to see that this is exactly what the Doctor predicted in his note.

Asked to explain, he tells them that Earth once had a twin... 

A disbelieving Cutler cuts him off, then contacts his boss - Wigner, Secretary General of International Space Command, based in Geneva - to update him on events. Wigner demands to know more about the strangers, so Cutler orders the Sergeant to investigate the blue box on the ice outside the base. He takes Tito and another guard with him.

The capsule continues to lose power, and now the astronauts themselves are feeling drained of energy.

The Doctor tells his companions that they should expect visitors from this new planet...

Finding the strange wooden structure locked, the Sergeant sends Tito back inside to fetch a cutting tool. After he has gone, a group of strange figures emerge out of the blizzard. They raise their arms and strike the men down, killing them instantly. 

When Tito returns, he fails to notice that the figure by the box is actually one of the new arrivals, disguised with his colleague's heavy overcoat. Too late he realises the deception, and is also killed by a single blow. Discarding its disguise, the figure reaches down to examine the body. It appears to be robotic in nature. The face is a blank, skull-like mask - but its hands are human...

Data:

Written by Kit Pedler

Recorded: Saturday 17th September 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 8th October 1966

Ratings: 5.5 million / AI 50

Designer: Peter Kindred

Director: Derek Martinus

Guest cast: Robert Beatty (General Cutler), David Dodimead (Barclay), Dudley Jones (Dyson), Alan White (Schultz), Earl Cameron (Williams), John Brandon (Sergeant), Shane Shelton (Tito), Steve Plytas (Wigner)

Critique:

It's all too common for people to describe The Tenth Planet as the first Cyberman story, and the first regeneration story. That's only true in hindsight, however. The production team were planning on "rejuvenating " the Doctor at the end of the story - they would end up using "renewed" on screen - and at this stage the Cybermen are simply the latest one-off monster, and they bear very little resemblance (physically or temperamentally) with the future versions which we will know as recurring villains, the series' No.2 monsters.

During the making of The Smugglers, William Hartnell had met with Innes Lloyd to discuss his future on the show. The outcome was that the star was to step down, with the role of the Doctor recast. The decision to leave was presented to the public as having been taken by mutual consent, but we know that Hartnell wished to carry on, provided his workload was lessened. 

However, plans had been laid months before to replace him due to his struggles with scripts and his irritable attitude towards others - including his last producer. He had often played up his age and health issues to get his own way, but now this was coming back to haunt him.

With the third season out of the way, it was planned that Hartnell would record one final story, at the conclusion to which the new Doctor would be introduced. He would be specially contracted for just the four episodes, just like the guest cast.

The star embarked on his summer holiday, spending some time in Cornwall indulging his passion for sea-angling. 

The director of his swansong was to be Derek Martinus, who had managed to forge a good working relationship with him during the making of Galaxy 4. He wrote to Hartnell to give him updates on the story's development - informing him, for instance, about the casting of Robert Beatty as main guest artist, an actor he had already worked with on the 1946 movie Appointment With Crime.

It is clear that efforts were being made to make Hartnell's departure as painless as possible for the actor.

After coming up with the idea of a super-computer dominating London from the Post Office Tower, Kit Pedler had been taken on as the series' scientific adviser by story editor Gerry Davis. He was tasked with coming up with another concept, and this time was invited to author the story himself. Davis would be on hand to assist with turning his scientific concepts into effective TV drama.

Pedler wanted to include two main ideas. The first was a space capsule running into difficulties, inspired by the contemporary developments in the Space Race between NASA and the Russians. The capsule would be based on that of the Gemini missions - now named "Zeus" as NASA was employing names from Greek mythology - and the tracking station control room would resemble that at Cape Kennedy. 

The Antarctic setting derived from Pedler's love of sci-fi classic The Thing From Another World (1951).

Pedler's second idea concerned the nature of the visitors to Earth from the planet's twin. (A sister world for Earth had been one of Davis' prompts to prospective writers, having first been mooted by Malcolm Hulke back in 1963 for his unused "Hidden Planet" plot). Pedler originally envisaged these as "Star Monks", but Davis was worried that this might be too close to the Meddling Monk of The Time Meddler.

(One of the things Davis introduced during his tenure was a notice-board outlining the basic plot to every story produced so far, accompanied by a photograph - to ensure that ideas weren't duplicated. He was pleased to see that this was still being used when he visited the production office to discuss his "Genesis of the Cybermen" idea with JNT fifteen years later).

Davis encouraged Pedler to concentrate on his scientific input and less on the drama. One of his fears concerned the dehumanising consequences of spare-part surgery, which he discussed with his wife one afternoon at home in Clapham. What would happen if you took such surgery too far? Would a person become more machine than man, and at what point could you no longer be classed as human? Are you still "you" if everything that made you that person was taken away and replaced?

This took Pedler into the realm of cybernetics - the study of control systems and the way in which information flows within a system. Over time, it has come to be associated specifically with mechanical systems, but could equally apply to any sort of business process / environment.

As the idea of "Cybermen" developed, Pedler wanted to make sure they did not look like stereotypical robots. He initially wanted to break up the humanoid body shape - having the face within the chest, or arms emerging from the hips for instance. 

Later descriptions had them looking very like idealised versions of men, all looking very similar, dressed in metallic one-piece costumes. Their cybernetic aspect would be more subtle - just a small metal disc on the temple with a wire disappearing into the hairline. Their forearms would be transparent however, filled with lights and wiring.

We'll discuss the Cyberman design process more fully next time, when they make their full appearance.

Michael Craze and Anneke Wills visited Ealing Film Studio's Stage 3 on Wednesday 31st August to film the opening Antarctic exterior scenes, after the materialisation of the TARDIS. 

Their co-star was not present - the Doctor being doubled in the background of shots by Gordon Craig, who had fulfilled a similar role on The Smugglers location work. You'll notice how the Doctor lurks by the TARDIS and doesn't have any dialogue in these scenes. He was given dialogue in the draft scripts, but this was deleted when Hartnell was stood down from the filming to reduce his workload.

It was only at this time that the rumour about the star being replaced was confirmed as far as the companion actors were concerned.

Craze had undergone nasal surgery during the summer, to remove a bone chip. The operation had not gone to plan, with a burst blood vessel causing a dangerous complication. The blizzard was achieved using polystyrene chips being thrown in front of a wind machine - and Craze asked that the production assistant, Edwina Verner, take care and avoid his face in case he inhaled any. However, in the confusion of filming he got a face full anyway. He did not hold this against her, though. He invited her out for a coffee, and they were subsequently married.

Whilst extras played the soldiers in the capture scene on 31st August, Brandon and Shelton were required to be on set on Friday 2nd September to film the cliff-hanger sequences - despite the Sergeant and Tito being almost entirely obscured by their winter weather outfits.

Model filming for all episodes took place on the very first day of filming - Tuesday 30th August.

One of the changes introduced by Innes Lloyd for the new season - the first to fall entirely under his control - was a change to the production schedule. Studio recording would no longer take place on a Friday evening, following a week of rehearsals which had commenced on the Monday. Recording would now take place on a Saturday, with rehearsals commencing on the Tuesday. Mondays would be used for filming on the following story.

William Hartnell was naturally very nervous about his final story.

In rehearsals, he ordered that the popular table-tennis matches be suspended as it was disturbing his concentration.

His physical health was not good, having caught a chest infection during the break as well as coping with the growing effects of his arteriosclerosis.

Publicity for the first studio day concentrated on guest star Robert Beatty and the two astronauts in their space capsule. Some shots of Beatty showed him in formal uniform and tie, which he does not wear on screen at any time. 

Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge made the tracking room screen, as well as the binocular viewing unit used by the astronauts. (I'll discuss the spacesuits in a separate post shortly).

A number of Beatty's more memorable quips were actually ad-libbed - such as adding "... nor your hair", when telling the Doctor he doesn't like his face. "The penguins would miss me" was also an ad-lib.

The scripted year 2000 was changed to 1986, and scientist Barclay was renamed Clement David instead of Tom.

Only one recording break was planned for the evening - to move the regulars from the crew room to the observation room, though an unscheduled one was taken after the astronauts experienced growing physical weakness.

Stock footage was used of a Gemini space mission, as well as establishing shots of the Antarctic landscape.

Some of the sound effects from The War Machines are reused.

The caption writer had a bad day. Pedler's first name was given as "Kitt" in the opening titles, whilst Davis became "Davies" on the closing set.

The "Cyberman theme" is heard for the very first time - a library track called Space Adventure: Part 2 by Martin Slavin. It is first heard when Mondas appears on the monitor screen, before being used as backing for the approach and attack by the Cybermen at the conclusion of the episode.

One or two obvious plot issues in this opening instalment. The Doctor and companions, instead of being immediately locked up, are actually moved to an area which provides them with easy access into the critical tracking room. 

The increasingly cynical Ben scoffs at the idea that there may shortly be visitors at the South Pole - "Visitors? What, here? Well who do you think's bringing them? Father Christmas on his sledge?" - entirely forgetting that he, Polly and the Doctor are visitors themselves.

The Sergeant seems to intuit the latest crisis with the capsule before it actually happens.

And Polly recognises Malaysia, upside down. Most people would be hard pressed to identify its outline the right way up, but upside down? Especially when you can see the more obvious continental masses of Africa and South America.

Positives include the casting, which reflects Pedler's insistence on a multi-national, multi-ethnic setting. Earl Cameron becomes the first Black actor to be given a substantial role in the series, his peers having previously been consigned to background status in stories such as The Crusade.

The first appearance by the Cybermen - ghostly forms emerging out of a snowstorm, with their dead black eyes - really ought to be even more iconic than their later descent down the steps outside St Paul's.

Trivia:

• The ratings see a considerable upswing, with one million extra viewers on the closing instalment of The Smugglers. The appreciation figure also rises sharply, after languishing in the low 40's for a long time.
• Whilst ABC showed the talent contest show Opportunity Knocks, the rest of the ITV network scheduled professional wrestling opposite the programme.
• Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis used to meet regularly at a fish & chip shop to discuss the development of the story - The Contented Sole in Kensington.
• Anneke Wills became good friends with Pedler, inviting him to dinner with her husband Michael Gough and fellow guest Jonathan Miller - actor, director and satirist.
• The story is given unique opening titles, as name, writer and episode number come up amongst "computer code" lettering - N, XX, D, ZZ, N, XX or variations thereof.
• From this story onwards, the series' official titles font changed to Eurostile. Since 1963 it had been Stephenson Blake Grotesque.
• Tito is seen reading a 1965 issue of DC Comics' Sgt. Rock.
• We see from a calendar that it is December 1986, but aren't told the exact date. I suspect that it is the 1st December. If stuck in an underground base at the South Pole for months at a time, you would be very likely to want to count down the days to getting home again - usually done by drawing a line or X through the date on the calendar. This calendar is untouched, so it may have only just been turned to the new month.
• December is actually a summer month at the South Pole, so the weather really ought to be better. Blizzards are not entirely unknown during this season - as Scott of the Antarctic found to his cost. In his case, the clear season ended earlier than expected.
• The Sergeant played by John Brandon, who had a successful acting career spanning nearly half a century on both sides of the Atlantic, is never given a name - despite being a significant speaking role.
• Pedler featured in the Illustrated London News on the day of broadcast - but in a feature concentrating on his medical work. There was a small prompt to watch that evening's Doctor Who episode included at the close, however.
• The Morning Star, four days later, expressed concern at the prospect of "moronic, trigger-happy Americans" being in charge of a scientific establishment in the near future.
• It was during the Ealing filming, on Thursday 1st September, that Patrick Troughton was announced to the world as the new Doctor. Today we have had whole TV programmes dedicated to Doctor reveals, and all the subsequent handovers were deemed newsworthy - but back in 1966 some newspapers barely mentioned the change...

• Radio Times previewed the new story as usual. The image they used, of a group of Cybermen walking through the snow, is clearly a rehearsal shot (from Episode 3) as you will see that one of them (extreme right) isn't wearing his headpiece.