O is for... Odysseus

The Doctor encountered the Greek hero Odysseus on the plains of Troy. Intensely cynical, he refused from the outset to believe that the Doctor was an earthly incarnation of Zeus until he had proof of his divinity. The Doctor had been invited to the Greek camp by Achilles, who had thought him Zeus in the form of a beggar. 

Odysseus was the king of Ithaca, and was a great rival of the younger Achilles. He employed a spy known as Cyclops, because he had only one eye, to monitor the Trojans as well as root out possible enemy agents. Steven was caught near the Greek camp and assumed to be a Trojan spy, and the Doctor fell under Odysseus' suspicion when it became clear that he knew him.

He challenged the Doctor to devise a scheme to capture Troy within three days. Thinking the Wooden Horse an invention by Homer, the Doctor at first suggested tunnels and then launching soldiers into the city by glider. All were dismissed by Odysseus and he was eventually left with the Horse.

The Doctor then discovered that Odysseus expected him to accompany the party who would hide within the Horse under his command.

Troy fell, and Odysseus slew King Priam and his son Paris during the carnage. The prophetess Cassandra was taken as a spoil of war, and she cursed Odysseus that he would not get home until the same number of years as the Greeks had laid siege had passed. He ignored this, then confronted the Doctor who managed to slip into the TARDIS. It dematerialised - leaving the Ithacan to wonder if he hadn't been Zeus after all.

Played by: Ivor Salter. Appearances: The Myth Makers (1965).

• Second of three appearances in the series by Salter. The first was the Morok Commander in The Space Museum, and the last was the police sergeant in Black Orchid.
• Odysseus (Ulysses or Ulixes to the Romans) did get home the long way round as Cassandra had prophesied, or so Homer tells us in, spoilers, The Odyssey. He and his crew had adventures with the Cyclops Polyphemus and the Lotus Eaters amongst many others, and didn't get back to Ithaca for 10 years. His Queen, Penelope, was being courted by several suitors as he was thought to be dead, but she procrastinated for years. A series of challenges were set up, the winner to wed her, and an incognito Odysseus joined this competition - ultimately winning the hand of his own wife.

O is for... Odin

Leader of a Mire raiding party who impersonated the Norse deity in order to manipulate a small Viking community. Like the mythical figure, he wore an eye-patch. The war-like Mire preferred to let their reputation for bloodshed overpower a target population, to avoid actual conflict. Warriors were their chosen victims as they thrived on certain male hormones such as testosterone. 

After a huge projection of his face appeared in the sky above the Norse village, a party of Mire descended from their orbiting spacecraft and lured the best warriors up to it - claiming they were being taken to Valhalla. Once aboard, they were vapourised and their hormones harvested. The ship was about to depart when a girl named Ashildr challenged the Mire to a fight. Odin was forced to accept, conscious of their reputation, but also because their advanced weaponry would make short work of the remaining villagers.

However, the Doctor was also aware of their reliance on reputation and so set up a trap - tricking Odin and the Mire into thinking they were being attacked by a dragon when in fact they were only being confronted by a wooden mock-up. This was filmed, and the Doctor threatened to release the footage galaxy-wide to shame Odin and his warriors - forcing them to depart.

Played by: David Schofield. Appearances: The Girl Who Died (2015)

• Schofield stepped in late in the day to play Odin when the original actor fell ill - Brian Blessed.
• Usually cast as policemen or criminals, one of his best known roles involves neither side of the law. He is the patron of "The Slaughtered Lamb" - the country pub in An American Werewolf in London - who is prepared to tell the psychiatrist (John Woodvine) what really happened to the two US hikers.

Story 297d: Flux - Village of the Angels

In which the Doctor and her companions have escaped from the Temple of Atropos, only to discover that a Weeping Angel has taken control of the TARDIS...

This Angel had previously been interfering in their timelines.

In the Devonshire village of Medderton, Professor Eustacius Jericho is conducting experiments with a young woman named Claire who has been suffering terrible visions. It is November 1967, but she claims to have been born in 1985. Sure enough, the Doctor and Yaz had met Claire in present day Liverpool - just before she encountered a Weeping Angel. Claire is somehow aware that an Angel has taken control of the TARDIS.

In the ship, the Doctor performs a reboot which ejects the Angel, but leaves the TARDIS powered down on landing. They have arrived in Medderton, 1967.

The TARDIS has been mistaken for a real Police Box by an elderly couple named Gerald and Jean. Their grand-niece, Peggy, has gone missing - though Gerald is more angry that concerned. The Doctor picks up strange signals on her sonic screwdriver and goes off to investigate by herself, whilst Dan and Yaz elect to join the search for Peggy. An elderly villager named Mrs Hayward warns that an event from recent history - 1901 - is going to repeat itself, and warns the local vicar to count the headstones in his graveyard. He discovers one extra - a life-size angel...

The Doctor traces the signals to Prof. Jericho's home where she meets Claire, whom she recognises from Liverpool in 2021. Feeling ill, the young woman goes to the bathroom where she is shocked to see stone wings on her back when she looks at her reflection.

The Doctor meanwhile tears up Claire's drawings of her visions as they contain Weeping Angels - knowing that the image of an Angel can become one.

Dan and Yaz are walking across a field when they discover that the scarecrow ahead is actually an Angel. Their torches begin to fail, and then the Moon goes behind a cloud. They are attacked.

Meanwhile, far across space and time Bel continues to search for Vinder in her captured Lupari spaceship. Arriving on the planet Puzano she meets a man named Namaca, who tells her of a gathering where refugees can be taken to places of safety away from the Flux.

The Doctor, Jericho and Claire discover that the professor's home has now come under siege by an army of Angels. Claire tells them both that she has been having visions of the creatures since she was a child. She knows that the entire population of Medderton is about to disappear - just as it had done in 1901.

After their encounter with the Angel, Dan and Yaz have found themselves elsewhere in Medderton - but in broad daylight. They find the village to be deserted except for a young girl, who proves to be the missing Peggy. They are shocked to learn from her that they have been thrown back in time some 66 years. I 1967 Gerald and Jean have discovered that the village has been cut off - quite literally. At the end of a country lane they find themselves on the edge of space. An encounter with an Angel throws them back to 1901 as well. They come upon Peggy, Dan and Yaz, and the girl warns them not to go near another Angel which appears. They ignore her - and are reduced to dust. One touch from an Angel can send you back in time, but a second is fatal.

Dan and Yaz also discover that the village seems to be floating isolated in space, and Peggy recalls a phrase which an Angel placed in her mind - "quantum extraction".

Professor Jericho finds his home under attack from both within and without. Angels are breaking down the doors and windows, whilst Claire's drawings, even when burned, can become Angels. A rudimentary CCTV system put together by the Doctor allows another Angel to emerge from the TV screen.

Claire is convinced that the Angels are coming for her, due to her lifelong visions of the creatures. In order to learn more, the Doctor decides that she must make a psychic link with her to discover the truth.

Jericho will have to keep the creatures at bay as the Doctor links minds with the young woman.

She finds herself on a remote, windswept beach. Claire is here, accompanied by an Angel. It explains through her that it is an outcast from its kind - a fugitive being hunted by the others. It has possessed Claire in order to hide and now intends to use her to keep her pursuers at bay. If they let it go free, it will give them something which they are even more desperate to obtain - the Doctor.

It was this Angel which infiltrated the TARDIS, as it actually wanted the Doctor's help. It has been hiding from the main force of its kind, who want to capture the rogue as it was part of an Extraction Squad employed by the Division.

On Puzano, bel discovers that the person helping refugees flee the Flux is actually Azure, who is accompanied by a Passenger form. People are not being rescued - they are being imprisoned.

Bel manages to escape the collection field, taking Namaca with her. He is distraught at being left behind.

In 1901 Medderton, Dan and Yaz discover that the village is slowly being reduced in size as the boundary falls away into space.

Jericho is forced to break the mental link between the Doctor and Claire as the Angels are about to break into the basement where the professor's laboratory is situated. He tells them of a tunnel from this area to the open countryside. They enter this - only to find that there are Angels here as well which they will have to avoid - including stone arms emerging from the rock walls.

Peggy tells Dan and Yaz that a stone age monument on the edge of the village only appeared in 1901. They go there and discover a temporal barrier - with 1901 on one side and 1967 on the other. They cannot pass from one to the other. Mrs Hayward appears, and reveals that she is Peggy, grown-up. She had been spared by the Angels in order to stand witness to their actions.

Jericho is touched by an Angel and transported to 1901 where he joins Dan and Yaz, whilst Claire manages to stay in 1967. They have exited the tunnel at the monument.

When the Doctor emerges she is confronted by the whole Angel force, who capture her. She has fallen into a trap concocted by the Division, which is recalling her. her companions are horrified to see her transformed into an Angel...

Village of the Angels was written by Chris Chibnall and Maxine Alderton, and was first broadcast on Sunday 21st November 2021. It is the only instalment of Flux to have a co-writer credit.

It's also the best episode of the season-long story.

Other episodes might have Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and spectacle, and ultimately feel shallow for it - but this instalment has mood and atmosphere and a sense of substance.

It also has a cracker of a cliffhanger as the Doctor is transformed into a Weeping Angel.

There's actually a final sequence featuring Namaca and Vinder / Bel but it rather dilutes that cliffhanger as, for me, I'm really not at all interested in the couple.

Alderton had previously written The Haunting of Villa Diodati - another stronger episode of its particular season. The rustic setting of Medderton would not be out of her comfort zone, as she has written extensively for both Emmerdale and the revived All Creatures Great And Small.

The other thing of note is the appearance of Kevin McNally as Professor Eustacius Jericho. He had previously featured in the series as Lt Hugo Lang in The Twin Dilemma - from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Another returnee from the 1980's is Vincent Brimble, who plays Gerald. There's no way you would have recognised him, however, as he played the Silurian Tarpok in Warriors of the Deep.

You will recognise both his brothers - Nick and Ian - from many UK TV series and movies.

Playing Jean is Jemma Churchill. She is best known for school drama Waterloo Road and the revamped Upstairs Downstairs. 

Mrs Hayward is Penelope McGhie who is also a freelance drama coach. She appears in the final two Harry Potter films, in which she is one of the Death Eaters.

Peggy is Polly Polivnick. 

Already introduced briefly in The Halloween Apocalypse, we finally get to spend some quality time with Claire, who is played by Annabel Scholey. One of her many credits is providing voices for the Final Fantasy video games.

Also appearing in this episode is Blake Harrison, playing Namaca. he is the second of The Inbetweeners to be cast during Chibnall's spell in charge, following James Buckley's turn as Nevi in Orphan 55. Harrison clearly got the better deal.

Overall, probably the best single episode of the Whittaker / Chibnall era. The better ones are often those not written exclusively by the showrunner, which should have rung alarm bells had he not stood down the following year. 

Things you might like to know:

• The closing credits are split in two, with the Namaca / Vinder scene inserted.
• This is the only episode of Flux in which Karvanista, Joseph Williamson and Swarm are absent.
• This is the second instalment of Flux to be set of the date of transmission, though unlike The Halloween Apocalypse it's just the day and month - 21st November - in this case.
• Jemma Churchill and Vincent Trimble have a Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin connection. He featured in the classic BBC comedy, whilst she is the daughter of Pauline Yates, who played Reggie's long-suffering wife Elizabeth.
• Annabel Scholey was in the running to play both Amy Pond and Clara Oswald.
• The Doctor utters a couple of phrases better associated with previous incarnations: "When I say run, run!" and "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".

Episode 136: The Power of the Daleks (2)

Synopsis:

Having entered Lesterson's laboratory at dead of night, the Doctor has opened an inner compartment in the space capsule found in the mercury swamp. He introduces Ben and Polly to a pair of inert Daleks within - but then they see a small tentacled creature scuttle across the floor.

It disappears through a narrow gap in the wall.

Exploring, the Doctor notices a dust-free area on the floor - the exact shape and size as the base of a Dalek. It is obvious that Lesterson has already been inside this part of the capsule and has removed one of the occupants.

When Ben points out that the creatures are dead, the Doctor explains that they are only as dead as his torch - before switching it on. These Daleks are simply dormant, awaiting power to reanimate them.

Back at their guest quarters, Quinn attempts to enter but is stopped by a guard. Bragen arrives and explains that no-one is permitted to see the Examiner until morning. The two argue and come to blows. They then discover that the quarters are empty.

Lesterson enters the laboratory and is angered by the Examiner's presence, though the Doctor points out that his status gives him carte blanche to investigate any part of the colony. 

He accuses the scientist of having removed a Dalek. Bragen soon arrives and the Doctor demands to speak with Governor Hensell. He plans on demanding that he order an immediate halt to Lesterson's work. However, Bragen refuses to disturb the Governor.

From him they learn that there have been some problems in the colony - acts of sabotage and other disturbances, including an underground opposition group spreading dissent.

Back in their quarters, the Doctor discovers that apartment has been bugged - presumably by the security chief.

In the laboratory, Lesterson and Janley are assisted by colleague Resno in their experiments with the Dalek which was removed from the capsule. Lesterson believes it to possess a positronic brain and to be purely robotic. By reactivating it he hopes it may prove a useful tool for the colony.

As power is fed into it, Resno is alarmed to see that it appears to be looking at him. His superior dismisses the idea that it possesses any form of intelligence.

Unable to talk to Hensell because of Bragen, the Doctor decides to go to the Communications Room to warn Earth authorities directly of the Dalek threat. He finds the equipment wrecked, and the technician in charge unconscious, with Quinn bending over him. 

Bragen arrives with armed guards and they immediately arrest the Deputy Governor, who claims that he had walked in only seconds before the Doctor.

In the lab, the Dalek opens fire on Resno - killing him instantly. Janley realises what has happened but keeps quiet - telling Lesterson that Resno received an electric shock from the Dalek and is merely injured. She removes the Dalek's gun.

An inquiry into Quinn's actions gets underway in the morning, presided over by Hensell. The Deputy is accused of being involved with the rebel group, and of trying to kill the Examiner. It was one of Quinn's buttons which the Doctor found in the mercury swamp.

The Doctor seems oddly reluctant to speak up for Quinn, despite Polly's belief that he is innocent.

The proceedings are interrupted by the arrival of Lesterson and Janley, who have something important to show the Governor.

The Dalek glides in after them.

As the scientists argue about how useful such a machine might be, the Doctor tries to alert everyone to the great danger it poses.

The Dalek homes in on him, and everyone is shocked to hear it speak.

"I am your servant", it claims - repeating the phrase over and over again, drowning out the Doctor's warnings...

Data:

Written by David Whitaker

Recorded: Saturday 22nd October 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 12th November 1966

Ratings: 7.8 million / AI 45

Designer: Derek Dodd

Director: Christopher Barry

Additional cast: Edward Kelsey (Resno)

Critique:

In the original version of this episode, Ben continued to question the Doctor's identity. The line about the Doctor "always going on about Daleks" is given more emphasis - that the Doctor is deliberately focussing on the creatures to convince his companions that he really is the Doctor.

(Of course, we have to wonder just when it was that the Doctor told them all about the Daleks, when Ben and Polly only had two trips in the TARDIS with the 'old' Doctor - stories which very much link one into the other).

At one point the Doctor stated quite emphatically "I am Doctor Who". He talked about the destruction of his home planet, though he and Susan left before the final end. The suggestion is that it was the Daleks who attacked his world. He claimed that he couldn't remember where he last saw his grand-daughter.

Ben teased Polly about her standing up for Quinn, claiming she had a crush on him ever since he carried her away from the mercury swamp.

The location of Vulcan is placed very much within the Solar System, though not where early scientists hypothesised it to be: mention is made of the "Plutovian night" - so Whitaker was actually positioning the colony in the outer Solar System, on a moon of Pluto.

Joining the cast for rehearsals was actor Edward Kelsey, who had previously appeared as the slave buyer in the opening episode of The Romans. This had also been directed by Christopher Barry, and the pair were good friends. Barry would use him often (casting him as Edu, one of the bandit gang in Creature From The Pit, for instance).

The "Lesterson Listen" tongue twister was an ad-lib worked out in rehearsals between Patrick Troughton and Anneke Wills.

Episode two opened with a shot of the two inert Daleks, covered in cobwebs. A third Dalek, operated by Gerald Taylor, was used for the laboratory scenes. This was one of the original 1963 props. Peter Hawkins provided the Dalek voice for the closing scene.

A circular camera mask was used to give Dalek POV shots.

Troughton played a tune titled Mr Sludge the Snail on his recorder - a piece written by a BBC Schools radio producer. The actor had first taken to the instrument in 1960.

Neither Taylor nor Hawkins were credited on the episode, and Tristram Cary's musical contribution was once again omitted, the titles for Episodes 1 and 2 having been compiled at the same time. The BBC continuity announcer had to add the credit verbally on broadcast.

A small cut was made to the opening of the first laboratory scene in which Lesterson and his colleagues worked on the Dalek.

The Dalek space capsule throws up a few questions. Firstly, how can anyone know that it has been in the mercury swamp for  200 years? Mercury cannot be dated, unless it's one of two isotopes of the element. The most commonly occurring is stable and does not decay - so where Lesterson got 200 years from is anyone's guess. The capsule could not have been found with other artifacts as there's no reference whatsoever to any previous civilisation on Vulcan, and the colony certainly isn't that old.

The second question concerns the cobwebs covering the inert Daleks. The capsule has to be perfectly sealed to travel through space and then to survive in the swamp, so were there spiders already living in it when it left Skaro?

Lastly, we've already seen that the capsule appears to be really quite roomy - and we'll shortly see that can hold an entire production line. The Doctor and companions might be familiar with the concept of transcendental dimensions - but why does Lesterson fail to comment on this astounding aspect of the capsule?

Nowadays, Earth colonies on alien worlds are a bit of a cliché in Doctor Who. Certainly since 2005 there was a deliberate policy to ensure that people on alien worlds would be "relatable" for viewers. RTD insisted that the audience would be turned off by the "Zogs from planet Zog", and this is why everyone in the far future or on alien planets looks pretty much like a contemporary Earthling.

The "Earth Colony" concept took quite a long time to establish itself in the series. Vulcan is actually the very first seen on screen. The Daleks' Master Plan had mentioned Bret Vyon's birthplace as being an Earth colony on Mars, and Desperus was being used as a penal colony by Earth authorities. Had the Doctor stuck around longer we might have seen a colony being established on the planet Refusis. But an already established settlement as the backdrop to a story had not yet been done until The Power of the Daleks. It will very much open the floodgates, and there will be another along in just four stories time.

Interestingly, some fans theorise that every alien society which looks human is human - colonists from Earth in the far future, as dates are rarely ever given.

Trivia:

• The ratings see only a very small drop, but the appreciation figure begins a generally stable trend.
• Several short clips from this episode exist as 8mm off-air recordings, including the "Lesterson Listen" tongue-twister.
• Edward Kelsey is best known as the voice of Joe Grundy in radio soap The Archers - a role he performed for 34 years.
• After very much ignoring him last week, Radio Times did publish a small photograph of Troughton in the TARDIS to accompany the episode listing.
• At the weekly programme review meeting following this episode, Troughton's performance was praised - but it was also claimed that this tended to show up weaknesses in less experienced cast members.
• Television Today, on 17th November, was positive - liking the clownish new Doctor with his "bizarre clothes and 500 Year Diary". The feeling was that, after only two episodes, the character was already established and well defined.
• Last week we mentioned the theorised planet Vulcan which was supposed to lie between Mercury and the Sun. Scientists had more recently identified a new Vulcan, but this time it was an exoplanet orbiting the star Eridani A. This is where Star Trek fans have placed Mr Spock's homeworld - hence the name. It's just been announced, however, that the fluctuations in light emissions from Eridani A (the main way exoplanets are identified) aren't due to the passing of an object in orbit, but some feature of the star itself.
• The Communications Room made use of the Snowcap Base radar screen (left), seen only a couple of weeks before in The Tenth Planet. The upper part of the main control unit was filled with lava lamps, as can be seen in the colour image above. These had been very popular with the Daleks in their movie incarnation.

"Into the Vortex" Bookazine

DWM is publishing a new bookazine (magazook?) titled Into the Vortex. It had a publishing date of 26th September, but you'll be hard pushed to actually find it in a shop - so probably best order from Panini or some other on-line seller. (It's on e-bay already).

Still waiting for mine to arrive but it appears to act as very good beginners guide to the series. There's a brief word about every single story up to the S14 finale.

Other chapters consider the popular monsters, whilst others cover genres of story - making recommendations as to where you might want to dip in if new to Doctor Who. 

As a bookazine, rather than one of the occasional Special Editions, it is more expensive - RRP £19.99 - but it has more than 200 pages. 

Expect all the best stuff to be crammed into the first 100 pages, with far too much emphasis on more recent material. Sadly, that's what we get from officially sanctioned publications these days. Was horrified to see that the 2025 Official Calendar forces Hartnell / Troughton and Davison / C Baker to share months, whilst the Fourteenth gets a whole one to himself, despite only appearing in three episodes.

Inspirations: The Snowmen

Before we get into the actual episode itself, a word about the two prologue mini-episodes. One shows Madam Vastra wrapping up one of her criminal investigations - a convoluted tale which is clearly inspired by one of the more complex Sherlock Holmes stories, or more likely one of Dupin's (Edgar Allan Poe's detective from The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) and others).

The other is the one where the Paternoster Gang attempt to lure the Doctor out of his self-imposed exile.

They each tell him about a potential threat which might pique his interest. These are all inspired by the fantasy works of Jules Verne / HG Wells / Edgar Rice Burroughs / Arthur Conan Doyle.

Strax talks about the "Moonites" - as in the Selenites from The First Men in the Moon (Wells, 1901), or George Melies' film A Trip to the Moon (1902), based on Verne.

Vastra mentions a meteorite shower, hinting at possible UFO activity - Wells' War of the Worlds (1898).

And Jenny warns of a scientist who is going to drill into the centre of the world and possibly split it apart. As well as a nod to Prof. Zaroff of The Underwater Menace, this also points towards At The Earth's Core (Burroughs, 1914), or When The World Screamed (Conan Doyle, 1928) - in which Professor Challenger attempts to drill into the Earth but wakes up a vast monster dwelling deep beneath the surface. 

Jenny also mentions a man in Praed Street who has an invisible wife - referencing Wells' The Invisible Man (1897).

The obvious starting point for The Snowmen is that this is a sequel to two highly regarded stories of the Patrick Troughton era - though it come in the form of a prequel.

In Season 5 of Doctor Who we were introduced to the Great Intelligence - a malignant, disembodied entity which sought to build a bridgehead in a remote part of the globe (Tibet). It psychically possessed a human being to act as its agent on Earth, and used deadly robot copies of local wildlife to keep anyone who might interfere away - or indeed to dispose of them all together.

These creatures were the Yeti, who became known in the West as "Abominable Snowmen" purely thanks to a mistranslation by a journalist.

So pleased were the production team with The Abominable Snowmen that they commissioned a sequel before the initial story had even broadcast. This moved the Intelligence to present day London, where it used the Underground system as part of its plan to create a new, isolated bridgehead.

This story was The Web of Fear.

In the early days of fandom, monsters were ranked - by appearances rather than popularity, though there was an element of that as well. The first Target Doctor Who Monster Book was laid out: Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Yeti, then Autons and Sontarans -  the latter three having featured twice in the series, but the Yeti were first to achieve that. (Of course this was published before the Sontarans made their third appearance in Season 15).

When it came to bringing back the old monsters in the revived series, a lot of people hoped to see the Yeti / Intelligence revisited. It took until Christmas 2012 to do it - and then only the Great Intelligence made it back into the series.

You might have thought that a monster with "Snowmen" in their title might have been an obvious choice for a festive special - and Steven Moffat did bemoan the fact that there were no Xmas traditions left to subvert, in a Doctor Who sense - but the writer opted to go with actual Snowmen. 

Men, made with snow.

The original Yeti had been a problematic costume - many children finding them cuddly rather than scary.

This is why director Douglas Camfield redesigned them with sleeker bodies, glowing eyes and guns, and transplanted them into the darkness of the Tube.

This was probably what was at the back of Moffat's mind in deciding not to resurrect them.

By making this a prequel to the first Great Intelligence story - set supposedly circa 1935 - there was no reason to have the big shaggy creatures anyway. The Yeti robots were created specifically to scare people away from Tibet.

The Snowmen is set in Victorian England, so why would the GI make Yeti?

Whenever it snows, everyone - young and old - makes a snowman. They are very easy to create - balls of snow, placed one on top of the other (three spheres if you're American, just the two if British). A carrot for a nose and small stones or bits of coal to make the eyes and mouth. Sticks for arms, and perhaps a real hat and scarf. 

The first written record of a snowman hails (no pun intended) from the Netherlands in 1380. He might be better known as one of the greatest genii of the Renaissance, but Michelangelo was also asked to create one for the Medici in 1494.

In 1511 the city fathers of Brussels launched a snowman contest, to distract the populace from a winter food shortage. They were not best pleased when everyone made pornographic snow sculptures. 

Don't say you never learn things on this blog.

With The Snowmen, as an alternative to Yeti, Moffat gave us scary looking title monsters - with Hallowe'en pumpkin-style evil-looking features.

The episode instead concentrates on the Great Intelligence, and it uses snow as a physical medium with which to give it corporeal substance. This can fashion itself into the Snowmen, the first of which latches psychically onto a lonely little boy. He grows up to be Richard E Grant - an actor who had actually played two different incarnations of the Doctor previously, one of which RTD2 has attempted to canonise recently.

He's the forerunner to Padmasambhava and Sergeant Arnold - the human puppets from the Troughton stories.

Another link back to The Web of Fear is the lunch box which the Doctor uses to smuggle the Memory Worm into the Institute. This is a souvenir of the London Underground and the Doctor gives its date as 1967 - actually the year of the first Yeti story, though production on its sequel fell into that year.

The Doctor is basically giving the Great Intelligence the idea to exploit the Tube as a potential weakness for the city.

The other big thing about this story is the return of Clara. However, like the first appearance in the series of Jenna-Louise Coleman (as was) this is a false start. She's not the person who is going to become his new companion (sort of, it gets complicated) and is a guest character only, who once again gets killed off.

One of the children she looks after is called Digby, which has prompted fandom to think that he grows up to be the absentee owner of the big country house in which last year's Christmas Special was partly set.

Next time: the Doctor and Clara, spooning at the Shard...

What's Wrong With... Time-Flight

It would probably be quicker and easier if I actually ran though "What's Right With..." for this story...

You do not arrange for a story such as this to be made by a relatively new director, at the end of a season when the money has run out, right after you've just brought back a hugely popular old monster not seen for seven years, and killed off a companion.

Cheap - and it looks like it - and anti-climactic.

To be honest, even had this story been made at the start of a season, it would have struggled. 

We have the basic concept of not one but two Concorde supersonic airliners transported back to prehistoric Earth. You are being allowed to shoot the actual aircraft at Heathrow Airport - but everything else, including the prehistoric landscape, is going to have to be done in studio.

One of the issues is that Time-Flight was written by a director (Peter Grimwade) who obviously worked in visual imagery terms. The trouble was, his imagination was far more suited to a multi-million pound movie than a relatively cheap BBC drama series.

Kalid...

If Peter Grimwade was aware that the running arc of the season was the Doctor trying to get Tegan to Heathrow, and the Master needed TARDIS components to fix his own ship, then it would have made sense for him to have deliberately set up the time contour to the Heathrow flight path, and donned a disguise for when the Doctor fell into it.

But the story doesn't say that. 

We are left wondering why the Master really needs the Concorde passengers and crew (does he really need all that physical labour?), and why he has disguised himself as a weird magician figure. The latter simply makes no sense as it stands.

Is it a physical disguise, or something else? He throws it off as if it is a disguise - but what is it with all the green slime then?

He wants to gain the knowledge of the Xeraphin. That's a race who managed to get themselves almost wiped out in cross-fire - not even their own war - and then they crash-land on a lifeless planet, and then they allow themselves to become enslaved by a crazy disguise-fetishist. Hardly a race you might actually learn anything from.

The Doctor finds some shrunken Xerpahin - obviously killed by the Master. But how did he manage that before he's broken into their sarcophagus?

The use of the time contour is problematic. It relies on an aircraft with lots of people on board just happening to stumble across it. What if it had gone to a more remote bit of airspace, hardly used by larger 'planes? And why does it only ensnare Concordes? Why no Jumbo Jets or small private 'planes?

Nyssa comments on how cold it is - alerting the Doctor that what looks like Heathrow might not be. But we've just seen snow on the ground at the real one...

How exactly did the crew and passengers of two Concordes get in and out of the aircraft if the airport is only an illusion. No steps. And how did the TARDIS get out of the cargo hold without lifting gear? Did the hypnotised passengers form some sort of human pyramid? You can mess with someone's mid with hypnosis and make them think they're Superman, but you can't actually make them physically stronger.

The wheel unit we see is far too small for a real Concorde.

Why does the Doctor run away so quickly at the end? He may have lost one of the Concordes, but he's brought the one back with all the rich, influential passengers, plus both flight crews. The airport authorities know who he works for and that he has top security clearance - so why the panic?

Why does Tegan wander off and act like she's never seen the inside of an airport before? She flew to the UK from Australia, and wouldn't she have trained at one?

If you're going to end a season on a cliff-hanger, best not to advertise the fact that Janet Fielding will be back next year anyway.

And a Time Lord really ought to know the difference between an era and an epoch.