My next DWAS event...

Just booked my next DWAS event - a return to Riverside Studios at the end of May for an afternoon spent in the company of four of the 1960's companions, as you can see from the poster.

I'm very glad I didn't hang about as the event sold out within four hours of tickets going on sale. These events usually take a few weeks to sell out, so I suspect the calibre of the guest list has made all the difference.

The four episodes being shown alongside the Q&A panels are The Daleks (3), Galaxy 4 (3), The Faceless Ones (1) and The Dominators (2).

Jean Marsh (1934 - 2025)

Sadly it has been reported today that Jean Marsh has passed away at the age of 90. She made three memorable appearances in Doctor Who, one of her characters being regarded as a companion.

Her first role was as Princess Joanna, sister of King Richard the Lionheart in The Crusade.

This was followed the next year with her best known role in the series - Space Special Security agent Sara Kingdom. 

Despite being confined to a single story - The Daleks' Masterplan - Sara is regarded by most fans as a companion, as well as being classed as such in official publications.

She would go on to gain a reputation for portraying witch-like characters (in films like Return to Oz and Willow) and Doctor Who offered a similar role for her last appearance in the show - Queen Morgaine in 1989's Battlefield.

Marsh was also at one point married to Third Doctor Jon Pertwee.

Beyond Doctor Who, she is best remembered for co-creating the popular Edwardian drama Upstairs, Downstairs, in which she also featured as maid Rose.

RIP.

Episode 157: The Faceless Ones (1)

Synopsis:

The TARDIS materialises in the middle of the runway at Gatwick Airport, south of London, causing an aircraft to abort its landing. As the Doctor and his companions emerge they are spotted by a policeman and forced to split up and run for cover.

The Airport Commandant is notified of the incident and initially assumes that someone is playing tricks. he orders the Police Box removed.

The Doctor is reunited with Jamie, whilst Polly hides inside one of the hangars belonging to an airline - Chameleon Tours. There, she witnesses a murder - the shooting of a man by one of the airline staff.

She flees. The killer, Spencer, has seen her and he tries to shoot her but is interrupted by a passing policeman. He returns to the hangar and reports the incident to a colleague, Captain Blade.

Outside she finds the Doctor and her friends and tells them of what she saw. They all go to the hangar where the Doctor examines the corpse, and he realises that the weapon used must have been of some advanced technology. They are unaware that they are being observed by Spencer and Blade - from a small control room hidden in an adjoining office.

Blade is concerned at the Doctor's knowledge. The dead man is a detective named Gascoigne.

The Doctor decides that they should notify the authorities but, as they walk towards the main airport building, Spencer abducts Polly and takes her back to the hangar.

Whilst Ben wanders around the airport, the Doctor and Jamie attempt to pass through Passport Control, which is being manned by staff member Jenkins. He refuses to give them access as they don't have passports to show. He summons the Commandant, and they tell him of the murder. The official refuses to believe them.

They insist he comes with them to the hangar to see for himself, but find the body gone and Blade denying having seen anything. After they have gone, he and Spencer prepare to assist a figure who has been concealed in a special cabinet, unable to cope with the atmosphere.

Back at the immigration desk, the Doctor and Jamie see Polly walk through along with passengers from a newly landed flight. However, she claims to be a woman named Michelle Lueppi from Switzerland, and has never met the Doctor or Jamie.

Spencer and Blade bring the mysterious figure into the airport, hiding him under a heavy coat and hat. He is taken to the medical centre. 

The figure is not human...

Data:

Written by Malcolm Hulke & David Ellis

Recorded: Saturday 1st April 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 8th April 1967

Ratings: 8.0 million / AI 51

Designer: Geoffrey Kirkland

Director: Gerry Mill

Guest Cast: Colin Gordon (Commandant), Donald Pickering (Captain Blade), Victor Winding (Spencer), George Selway (Meadows), Wanda Ventham (Jean Rook), Christopher Tranchell (Jenkins), Peter Whitaker (Gascoigne)

Critique:

Malcolm Hulke's involvement with Doctor Who went right back to the beginning, when he had been approached by original story editor David Whitaker to submit ideas for the series' first year. The one selected - generally known as "The Hidden Planet" - was scheduled as the third story, following two contributions from Anthony Coburn. This would have seen the TARDIS appear to land back in the England of 1963, only for the time-travellers to discover that it was really a mirror-Earth on the far side of the Sun, ruled by a woman who looked just like Barbara, and where everything was backwards or inverted.

Various issues arose and the story was held back for rewrites, and it remained in limbo until finally written off.

Hulke was an established screen writer, having written early episodes for The Avengers amongst other things. He had often collaborated with other writers like Eric Paice and so, when he met David Ellis at a writers' awards function at London's Dorchester Hotel in the spring of 1966, the pair discussed possible collaborations. One of these was for Doctor Who, an idea known as "The Big Store".

This involved aliens infiltrating a big London department store, some of whom disguised themselves as mannequins. There were two groups of aliens, some identified by letters and others by numbers. The letters were crude, faceless beings called Chameleons.

The idea was accepted, but Hulke and Ellis were asked to rethink the location for their story.

This was the era of Harold Wilson's "white heat of technology", and story editor Gerry Davis and producer Innes Lloyd wanted the series to reflect modern concepts. The package holiday was still novel at this time, and people did not regularly visit airports, so they were exotic locations for many.

Lloyd and Davis had been trying to bring the series into contemporary times ever since The War Machines, and it would later transpire that this story is actually set during the exact same timeframe as that earlier adventure.

Another change requested was to expand the four part story to six episodes. Lloyd had decided to reintroduce these as a budget-saving measure - reducing costs for costumes, sets and props.

The producer was also looking to make changes in the line-up of the regular cast. It had been decided that Ben and Polly would be written out during the subsequent story, and this was brought forward so that it would take place at the end of the Hulke / Ellis story. We'll look at this further when we get to Episode 6.

As "Doctor Who and the Chameleons" developed, a few changes were made. The airline was originally to have been called Pied Piper Tours, and Blade was named Quinn. The setting was London Airport - now Heathrow - rather than Gatwick.

The first episode cliffhanger would have been Ben and Jamie meeting Polly and she claiming not to recognise them.

The writers were very careful to minimise the number of times the real and alien versions of any character were in the same place at the same time throughout their six scripts.

As the story was approaching production, the team was joined by Peter Bryant as Associate Story Editor. He had co-starred in The Grove Family as the eldest son, before leaving acting to go behind the scenes, being employed by BBC radio as both script editor and producer. Keen to move over to television, he asked if there were any vacancies. Lloyd was, at this point, keen to move on from Doctor Who, and Bryant was seen as a potential replacement for him.

It was decided that he would shadow Lloyd for a couple of stories, beginning with The Faceless Ones as "The Chameleons" was now titled.

The director chosen to helm the story was Gerry Mill, who had been a production assistant on The Massacre, where he would have met Chris Tranchell. The designer, Geoffrey Kirkland, had previously worked on The Highlanders.

Production got underway at Gatwick on Friday 10th March 1967, with filming around the exterior of the complex. Further location filming took place the following Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

Scenes for the opening episode included the arrival of the TARDIS and the time-travellers hiding amongst grounded aircraft and moving around the hangar and workshop areas. Indoor material covered Blade and Spencer escorting the Chameleon through the terminal building. Victor Winding was present, as he was also filmed stalking and then abducting Polly, but Donald Pickering was absent. As Blade was only to be seen in long shot, he was doubled by extra Terence Denville, obscured by coat and pilot's cap. Of the regular cast, only Frazer Hines had been needed the first day, for filming on the second episode. Hines had been released from rehearsals on The Macra Terror. The others were present on Monday 13th March, when they were given a guided tour of Air Traffic Control, and again on Friday 17th.

The freezing gun prop used by Spencer was dropped and broke. It was returned to Shawcraft Models for repair, and took three days to be collected, fixed and returned. This was just one of several issues with the props company, which we'll look at in a later episode once their model work comes into play.

BBC photographers were present on the final day of filming, taking images of Troughton and Hines hiding beneath an aircraft. Other than a portrait shot of a Chameleon, these would be the only photographs depicting the story.

Joining the cast for rehearsals at St Helen's Church were Colin Gordon and Donald Pickering. Gordon was well known for many comedic roles in British film and television, generally playing pompous and stuffy authority figures.

Recording on Saturday 1st April ran between 8.30 - 9.45pm.

There was an early recording break to allow for the visual effect of Gascoigne being shot (a bright light shone on him with an electrical crackle overlaid) and to allow the actor to change into a scorched version of his costume and have make-up applied.

Silent 35mm library footage was used to depict passengers disembarking and aircraft - Vickers VC-10's - as well as airport buildings, including a rotating radar dish. The opening credits were shown over this footage, whilst the closing credits ran over a shot of the back of the head and shoulders of one of the Chameleons, keeping their true appearance hidden until later in the story.

The two main sets were the Chameleon hangar and the Commandant's control area. This included a large illuminated map.

The office, off the main Chameleon hangar space, had two TV monitors which could show live feeds from different cameras and allow Blade and Spencer to communicate or observe intruders.

Mill dispensed with specially composed music, relying instead on Brian Hodgson's radiophonic sounds. A piece of library music - Nigerian Drums - was used for chase sequences.

Appropriate background sound effects of aircraft taking off and landing were piped into studio.

The Chameleon was an extra, wearing a tunic and tabard and with a bald, veined, latex mask. This was then covered with vaseline to make it glisten.

During the week between recording and broadcast the production team was informed that there would be a fifth season, but a request to move back to Riverside Studios was turned down.

Trivia:

• The ratings get off to a healthy start, consistent with the previous story's figures.
• Around the time he was working on this story, Hulke also wrote the pilot script for a Dr Who radio series. A 23 minute pilot was recorded, starring Peter Cushing, but it never made it to series and the pilot is now lost.
• David Ellis had been trying to write for Doctor Who in his own right. One idea was set on an ocean liner, and another involved a mysterious clock. Gerry Davis rejected both.
• Donald Pickering and Wanda Ventham would be reunited in 1987 when they both appeared as Lakertyans in Time and the Rani. He had previously played the corrupt Prosecutor, Eyesen, in The Keys of Marinus, whilst she would also go on to play Thea Ransome in Image of the Fendahl.
• Christopher Tranchell had previously featured as Roger Colbert in The Massacre, and would return to the series as Commander Andred in The Invasion of Time.
• Geoffrey Kirkland would go on to gain an Oscar nomination for The Right Stuff, and win BAFTAs for Children of Men and Bugsy Malone.
• Radio Times provided its usual piece for the opening instalment on the Thursday before broadcast, using one of the very few publicity photographs taken for the serial:

The Robot Revolution - Review

Spoilers ahead, so don't read until after you've seen the episode...

The second series of the second RTD era gets underway with an episode that is far from original.

Like previous RTD openers, The Robot Revolution is a fairly lightweight story, designed to introduce a new companion as well as provide a run-around adventure with a bit of action. Unlike previous openers, this one does have a bigger death count, as we see a few humanoid rebels getting disintegrated.

There's also a cat that gets zapped. which might upset the kiddies.

Long term fans of the series (and its spin-offs) will have spotted quite a few elements from previous episodes.

Like Martha Jones, Belinda Chandra is a nurse, and we get the montage of her her at work just as we saw with Martha. Also similar to Martha is the fact that Belinda is related to someone whom the Doctor has met before, and is a blood relative.

The Doctor is intrigued by this connection and wants to investigate what this connection is - just as he had with Clara and Donna.

The titular robots look very similar to ones we've seen in the series before - in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, The Husbands of River Song and the SJA story The Empty Planet - big bulky things with no heads. They do have faces - but these are just like the screens we saw on the Emojibots in Smile.

That SJA story also comes to mind when we consider that this involved robots arriving on Earth to seize the ruler of their planet.

The villain of the piece looks like the Metalkind from another SJA story - Sky.

It looks like this story is going to be yet another one of those well-meaning AI's gets confused over some seemingly trivial thing and causes harm - in this case the fact that Belinda's ex-boyfriend bought her a Star Certificate, naming a star after her.

Luckily it does go beyond this by giving the robots a specific reason for their actions. That is the ex-boyfriend, who we initially think is just a throwaway character from Belinda's past. 

What happens is that there's a time fracture and she has blamed him on her predicament and suggested the robots abduct him instead, because he bought her the star cert. They actually do this, but he ends up on the planet orbiting the star at a much earlier date and so sets up the whole Robotaucracy in the first place.

Turns out Belinda jilted him as he's a control freak and a prime example of misogynistic toxic masculinity - because, let's face it, all Doctor Who writers these days have to shoehorn some sort of message into their episodes. This week it's Incels, but Adolescence this isn't.

The problem with messaging in this sort of adventure series is that it comes across as trivialised or marginalised within the context of the story. If you want to dramatise a serious subject then dedicate a proper piece of writing to it - look at the media buzz generated by the aforementioned Adolescence, or dramas like Mr Bates v the Post Office, which has influenced government.

Of the cast, the rebels are only barely sketched-in characters and there appears to be less than ten of them.

Varada Sethu gives a great performance, and promises to be quite a strong companion. She's a far better actor than Gatwa who, to date, only plays characters based on his own personality. I know a few fans who bemoaned the number of times the Doctor burst into tears in the last series, and he barely gets half way through the opener when he's at it again. Problem is, we've only had about three lines of dialogue from the person responsible for triggering these waterworks, so we have had zero opportunity to invest in her emotionally. 

As far as any season-long story arc goes, we're back in Terra Cognita, as we've seen a lot of it before. There's a significant date when the world / universe is going to end - which just happens to be the date of the scheduled final episode of the season and, as mentioned, the Doctor knows of some, as yet unexplained, connection with the new companion. Someone has told him to seek her out, but we don't know who this is, other than it's a he. The TARDIS "bouncing off" a particular destination was first introduced in the Moffat era, as do fractures (cracks) in time, which I'm sure will prove to be significant.

Mrs Flood is living next door to a companion - again - and is breaking the fourth wall - again.

Overall, it's a good episode for Sethu, so-so for Gatwa and - if this isn't damning with faint praise - a whole lot better than some of the offerings we got last year. Visually impressive, though the planet does look a bit Star Wars Prequel-ish. (There's a little Star Warsy robot as well). In the accompanying Unleashed instalment, RTD mentions wanting a 1950's vibe in the design, as can be seen in the robot gun and some set designs and especially the rocket, which resembles an old tinplate toy. There's a cartoonish look to the scenes in the robot palace.

Question 1: Why doesn't the Doctor try going back to 23rd May then hanging around a day? He stuck about a hotel for a year the last time.

Question 2: How did Belinda know that the Police Box is called a TARDIS?

Next time we are in the actual 1950's, as Lux sees the Doctor visit Miami where a cartoon character comes to life...

What's Wrong With... Resurrection of the Daleks

First of all, Eric Saward himself has been saying almost from day one that he doesn't think much of his own story - despite it doing well in polls at the time. It's generally felt that there are too many subplots, like the whole "Assassination of the High Council of Time Lords" plan.

The Daleks have hidden their samples of Movellan gas in 1980's London, in a building which is sure to be investigated by workmen - and indeed this is exactly what has happened. Workmen find the blue cannisters, and promptly call in the army as they think they're probably unexploded WWII bombs. The Daleks have time travel capability and are actually hiding the cannisters in time as well as space, as they're based in the far future.

Surely that warehouse isn't a terribly safe location for such important objects - they need Davros to examine the samples to find an antidote as they're being thrashed in their war with the Movellans - and surely they could have checked how secure their hiding place was at this point in history. Or was it always the plan that people would find the cannisters? If so, why?

Apparently it's all a deliberate ploy to trap the Doctor - but how would the Daleks know that he would fall into their time tunnel? It happens when he's in their far future.

Tegan is left prisoner at the warehouse. Why not transfer her to the Dalek ship as she's also be duplicated? Stien specifically states that the Time Lords - who they want to assassinate, remember - would be suspicious of the Doctor without his companions. When they do finally despatch her there, she's left free to wander around. No Daleks, or even one of Lytton's men, waiting for her, despite her apparent importance.

Why use Lytton and his mercenaries if the Daleks can create their own duplicates, who look exactly like the people copied?

The duplicates have to be mentally conditioned - so why not just do that to the originals?

Why do only some people fall down when the time tunnel is operated? Why would you have a device which knocked people out every time you switched it on?

The Daleks fail to properly guard the self-destruct chamber, so serves them right for getting blown up when they hang about the space station instead of just grabbing Davros and flying away. Davros claims he needs to be near his cryo-chamber, but the Daleks ought to have (a) thought about providing such a thing themselves on their ship, or (b) just ignored him as they don't trust him anyway.

How did Davros manage to get that mind-controlling drug dispenser installed in his chair if he's been frozen / imprisoned / tried / frozen for the last 90 years? Was it always there? If so, why not use it earlier on Skaro?

He appears to be surprised to hear about the stalemate between his creations and their robotic foes - even though he saw it in action in Destiny of the Daleks.

Not something wrong as such, but the actors playing the duplicate soldiers compete to have the most dramatic death when exterminated. They really milk their deaths for all they are worth.

Dalek death rays don't always appear on screen in the final episode.

Leela doesn't appear on the flashback sequence of companions - a mistake, or has the Doctor deliberately blocked her as she's on Gallifrey and might be able to foil that assassination plan? 

Probably a mistake...

Capitol Cutaway Pics

Just a few pictures of the panels at last Sunday's DWAS event in London, before normal service on the blog resumes...

Inspirations: The Time of the Doctor

 

The Time of the Doctor is a regeneration story, bringing the TARDIS tenure of the Eleventh Doctor to a close. It also brings to a conclusion the entire Moffat era up to this point, in that it draws together elements which first appeared back in The Eleventh Hour and which have run throughout Series 5, 6 and 7.

In some ways you could argue that the story really begins with Rose, as it includes a postscript to the Last Great Time War.

That is potentially going to be reignited if the Time Lords return to the Universe - last seen being saved by being deposited in a pocket time zone by the multiple Doctors in the 50th Anniversary story.

The mechanism by which the Time Lords seek to find out if it's safe to return just happens to be the crack in Space / Time which the Doctor first spotted in Moffat's first story in charge, the one in Amelia Pond's bedroom and through which people and things disappeared - the story arc for Series 5.

The thing which will let them know that is safe is a certain code - the Doctor's real name, which has been the arc for Series 7.

Along the way we meet old foes, as well as yet another of those long-term friends of the Doctor whom we have never actually met - something which Moffat has been introducing ever since gathering his Demons Run gang.

The main location for the story is Trenzalore once more, which has been referred to since The Wedding of River Song and was finally seen in The Name of the Doctor.

Then, we saw the planet devastated after the events of this story, but in an alternate timeline in which the Doctor failed.

As well as a regeneration story, this is also a Christmas Special, so the village setting is a town called Christmas, and it's permanently snowy and festive looking.

If we go back to Dorium's words in the Series 6 finale, there's reference to no living soul speaking falsely - and that's covered by the crack emitting a truth field. This is because the Time Lords want to make sure that it really is the Doctor giving his name.

The new / old friend is Tasha Lem, who is basically a surrogate River Song - old friend who is flirty with the Doctor, that kind of thing.

She is in charge of the Papal Mainframe - the militaristic Clerics having been introduced in Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone. She provides a hefty info-dump which explains a lot of leftover bits of Series 5 and 6. 

We learn that the Silents are the way they are because they are confessors - you'll happily tell them your sins because you'll forget about reliving them once you're done. 

Kovarian (Series 6 arc) was head of a schismatic breakaway faction who wanted to prevent the Doctor giving his name on Trenzalore, because it was claimed that silence would fall if he did (i.e. the Time War would start up again as there are Cybermen, Daleks etc waiting to either prevent this or recommence hostilities). One of her schemes was the destruction of the TARDIS (Series 5 arc).

As well as them, we also see Sontarans and Weeping Angels (despite the Sontarans never having been involved in the War, as clearly stated in The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky). Other aliens get name-checked and we recognise some of the spaceships such as Judoon and Silurian.

These enemies are all there basically to provide cameos for Smith's finale.

Nods to the classic era include the Doctor using the Seal of Rassilon (confiscated from the Master by his third incarnation in The Five Doctors) to translate a message emanating from the crack.

The whole fixed regeneration idea introduced by Robert Holmes in The Deadly Assassin is addressed her. Pre-Timeless Child, there is a 13 lives limit, and thanks to the War Doctor and a controlled regeneration by Ten, the Eleventh is actually the Thirteenth.

It turns out at the conclusion that Time Lords can issue a new regeneration cycle (as offered to the Master in The Five Doctors), but Moffat wisely declines to let us know how many new lives the Doctor has. We assume at this point that it's another 13, which should keep the series going for another 50 years (or 39, if actors keep quitting after 3 series).

One of the entertainments which the Doctor lays on for the children of Christmas is a puppet show, and one of these is modelled on a Monoid, from The Ark. He has obviously recounted many of his adventures as the kids have made lots of drawings, and we see creatures from both era of the series.

All of the aliens get beaten until only the Daleks are left. They employ converted human drones as introduced in Asylum of the Daleks.

When he first goes aboard their spaceship, the Doctor is dressed in a cloak - a reference to the Harry Potter franchise.

Karen Gillan makes a cameo appearance just before the regeneration. Interestingly, both she and Smith are wearing wigs thanks to filming on movie projects (Gillan shaved her head for her role as Nebula in a Guardians of the Galaxy outing). We don't get to see Caitlin Blackwood as Amelia, as the actress had grown too old and no longer resembled her younger self.

Drawings in the TARDIS are of creatures from Amy specific stories, like Saturnynes.

Clara sees the TARDIS phone dangling  - which we'll learn about next time.

That will be when we take a deep breath and launch into the adventures of the Twelfth Doctor and the second half of the Moffat era...