G is for... Greel, Magnus

A notorious war criminal from the 51st Century, Greel was Minister for Justice at the time of the Fifth World War, when he earned the nickname of the Butcher of Brisbane. He was a scientist who conducted experiments on life-force extraction on prisoners, killing thousands, but his main focus was on the Zigma Experiment - an attempt to devise a form of time travel. As his allies faced defeat he used a Time Cabinet to flee into the past, taking a murderous cyborg creature known as the Peking Humunculus with him. The Experiment was only a partial success, however, and he arrived in 19th Century China horribly disfigured. he was found by a peasant named Li H'sen Chang, who hid him from Imperial forces. They captured the Cabinet and gave it to the Emperor, who in turn gifted it to the mother of future London pathologist Professor Litefoot. Chang believed Greel to be the god Weng-Chiang. The scientist helped him develop powers of hypnotism, then the pair set off to locate the Cabinet. Chang became a renowned stage magician, which allowed him to travel around Europe in search of the machine. The Peking Humunculus was disguised as his ventriloquist dummy - Mr Sin. The Time Cabinet was finally traced to London, where Litefoot now lived. He thought it merely a decorative piece, as no-one had ever been able to open it - Greel possessing the only key.
Greel established a base in the cellars beneath the Palace Theatre.

The effects of the Zigma beam on his genetic make-up meant that he was forced to extract the life force from a number of people in order to survive, so Chang was frequently sent out to abduct young women for him. Greel believed that if he were to use the Cabinet again his body would be repaired. However, the Doctor knew that the machine was unstable and could destroy London if operated again. As the Doctor, Litefoot, and theatre owner Henry Gordon Jago closed in on him, Greel abandoned Chang due to his failures to kill the Doctor. He was able to retrieve the Cabinet from Litefoot's home and move it to his new base in the Limehouse district of the city. He discovered that Mr Sin's murderous instincts were becoming too strong for even him to control, as the creature was prepared to kill him as well as the Doctor and his friends. Greel perished when he fell into his own life essence extraction machine, and the Doctor smashed the Cabinet's key to prevent it from ever being used again.

Played by: Michael Spice. Appearances: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977).

• Spice had previously given voice to The Brain of Morbius.

G is for... Great Intelligence

A malevolent, disembodied being which drifted through space until it came across the Earth. In the form of ice crystals, it arrived on the planet in the winter of 1842. It created for itself the form of a snowman, which could communicate telepathically with a lonely young boy named Walter Simeon. It manipulated his life so that by the year 1892 he had become a rich and powerful scientist, head of the Great Intelligence Institute. The Intelligence required a body for itself on Earth. A children's governess had drowned in a pond full of Intelligence ice crystals, and it was able to study her form before the body was removed. A crystal version of her form began to grow in the pond. Simeon's activities were being investigated by the Paternoster Gang - the Silurian Madam Vastra, her maid Jenny Flint and their Sontaran butler Strax. The Doctor was in London at this time, but had retired following the loss of companions Amy and Rory. He became involved through the intervention of Clara Oswin Oswald, who was the children's new governess. Clara appeared to be the same person whom the Doctor had met in the far future when he visited the Dalek Asylum.

The Intelligence was contained in a huge globe of ice crystals in Simeon's Institute. He employed vicious snowmen to dispose of his enemies. Once the Ice Governess was fully formed, the Intelligence would use it as a template to create more bodies for itself, and take over the planet as it plunged the Earth into a permanent winter. Clara's death prompted salt-laced rain to destroy the snowmen, whilst the Ice Governess was smashed to pieces in a fall. The Doctor took the remains to Simeon in a tin decorated with a map of the London Underground. The Intelligence had now taken over his body fully. However, the tin really contained a Memory Worm which bit Simeon - causing him to forget. The psychic link to the Intelligence was broken, and it was ejected back into space.

The Intelligence had earlier managed to forge a link with the master of Det-Sen, a Tibetan monastery - Padmasambhava. he had encountered the Doctor in the 17th Century, when the Time Lord had saved the monks from bandit raids. The Great Intelligence gave the master prolonged life. He was compelled to construct robot versions of the Yeti creatures which lived in the mountains above Det-Sen. These would be used to keep people away from the area whilst the Intelligence prepared its invasion plans. Its essence was contained in a pyramid of silver spheres, hidden in a cave in the mountains and guarded by a Yeti.

Its plan reached fruition in 1935, but coincided with the return of the Doctor to Det-Sen. The Intelligence used the Yeti to attack the monastery and force the monks to retreat, whilst the pyramid of spheres in the mountain cave burst open and began to disgorge vast quantities of glowing material - the host for the entity which would expand to cover the planet. The Doctor fought a mental duel with the possessed Padmasambhava, which distracted him whilst Jamie and a young warrior monk destroyed a similar pyramid of spheres hidden in the inner sanctum. The Intelligence was once again ejected back into space, and the ancient master of Det-Sen was finally able to die.

30 or so years later, the Intelligence was ready to attempt another conquest of the planet. To prevent the Doctor from interfering, it ensnared the TARDIS in a web-like substance - its new host form - and tried to force it to land in its lair, which was in part of the London Underground system. It had remembered the map on the tin and realised that this could be a strategic weakness. Professor Travers, who had earlier assisted the Doctor in Tibet, had managed to reactivate a Yeti control sphere, which made its way to a host body in a small private museum. The creature had come back to life, and soon afterwards the web substance had begun to appear in the Underground, whilst central London was smothered in a dense fog. More Yeti patrolled this, killing people with suffocating web-guns. The Doctor joined forces with Travers and his daughter, and was to encounter someone who would become a life-long friend - Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart. At one point Travers was taken over by the Intelligence, but its main puppet was an army Staff Sergeant named Arnold. The Intelligence intended to capture the Doctor and absorb his mind. The Doctor sabotaged the equipment so that it would absorb the Intelligence instead - but his friends smashed the device to rescue him - sending the Intelligence back out into space once again.

However, around this time it took over the body of a young girl named Kizlet. It manipulated her in the same way it had Walter Simeon, so that by 2013 it could take over control of the Wi-Fi network to absorb the consciousness of people who operated a particular link on their computers. One of its targets was Clara Oswald, who was to become the Doctor's new travelling companion. She looked exactly like the Clara whom he had met when he last encountered the Intelligence, as well as that spaceship crew member on the Dalek asylum planet - something which intrigued him. The Intelligence remained hidden within the internet, but used the appearance of Simeon to interact with Miss Kizlet. This time the Intelligence employed robotic "Spoonheads" - mobile computer interfaces - as its tools. The Doctor reprogrammed one of these to mimic himself and used it to attack Kizlet's base in London's Shard Tower. He forced her to release those more recently trapped, such as Clara, and the Intelligence elected to retreat - resetting those whom it had taken over. Miss Kizlet reverted to having the mind of the child she had been when first possessed.

The Intelligence then decided to attack the Doctor directly. Assuming Simeon's likeness once again, it laid a trap for him, using its latest weapons -the faceless Whisper Men - to send a message to the Paternoster Gang via a criminal whom Vastra had helped capture. Vastra contacted Clara and River Song to warn the Doctor that the Intelligence had discovered the whereabouts of the Doctor's final resting place. This was on the planet Trenzalore, where the Doctor would in future die after a great battle, and be buried in his TARDIS. The Doctor, Clara and the Paternoster Gang travelled to the planet, where they found the Intelligence and its Whisper Men waiting for them. River joined them, though she only existed as a psychic link. The Doctor discovered that his past lives were beginning to unravel, as the Intelligence planned to enter his time stream and undo all the good he had ever down throughout his existence. This would destroy the entity, but it was prepared to kill itself to wipe out the Doctor's work. It was ultimately unsuccessful, as Clara followed it into the Doctor's time stream - causing facets of her to appear throughout the Doctor's life who were there to help him.

Played by: Wolfe Morris (Padmasambhava), Jack Woolgar (Staff Sgt. Arnold), Richard E Grant (Walter Simeon) and Sir Ian McKellen (voice of the Intelligence). Appearances: The Abominable Snowmen (1967), The Web of Fear (1968), The Snowmen (2012), The Bells of Saint John (2013), The Name of the Doctor (2013).

• The Great Intelligence also appears in the unofficial spin-off production Downtime, where it once again possesses Professor Travers (Jack Watling). Directed in 1995 by Christopher Barry, it features Lis Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield, and Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier, and it is the first production to feature a daughter for the Brigadier named Kate. Prefiguring The Bells of Saint John, it has the Intelligence using the internet as a weapon.

Inspirations - The Invasion of Time

The Invasion of Time was the first of two Doctor Who stories to be written by David Agnew. Quite a feat for someone who doesn't exist. Movie buffs will be aware of the name Alan Smithee, attached as the director credit for a number of films. It was a name used when the real director decided to take their name off the movie for various reasons (mainly thanks to tampering of their work by studio executives). 1997 saw the release of a movie called An Alan Smithee Film, which was so bad that its director actually opted for the Smithee credit himself. The BBC used the name David Agnew as a pseudonym for when a writer wanted to take their name off a production, or - as in this case - some breach of the Writers Guild guidelines was being made. The Guild was basically a writers' trade union, and fought to uphold the rights of its members. It frowned upon producers and script editors commissioning stories by themselves, as this denied its members work.
Doctor Who's script editor Anthony Read had managed to secure the writing services of an old colleague of his - David Weir. He would be given the six part season finale to author. Graham Williams loved the Time Lords and wanted to explore their society further, so a return trip to Gallifrey was asked for. Weir had worked with Read a number of times, especially on a series called The Lotus Eaters, set in Greece.
Weir's story revealed that the Time Lords didn't actually come from Gallifrey - they just lived there. The planet was really the home of a race of cat people, who allowed the Time Lords to set up their citadel there. By way of paying the rent, as it were, the Time Lords gave the cat people some technology so that they could bring aliens to the planet to fight in gladiatorial games. The story has been referred to as "Killers of the Dark" or "Killer Cats of Geng Singh".
Read and Williams quickly saw that Weir's story was totally unworkable. There would have been a huge amount of expensive night filming required, plus scenes set in a stadium the size of Wembley filled with hundreds of extras in cat costume. Read was quite upset that his old friend had let him down so badly. The decision was made to scrap the story, but there was little time for another writer to come up with a new six part story.

Robert Holmes was approached, but he had no wish to return to the series so soon after leaving it, and was busy on a Blake's 7 script anyway. He did at least offer some advice around the structuring of the longer six part stories - splitting them into four and two part sections to give the story some fresh impetus when it might begin to flag. The Seeds of Doom, for instance, had an almost self-contained two episodes set in Antarctica, before relocating for the remainder of the story to an English country house.
With time running out, Williams and Read decided to write the story themselves, with the script writer doing the bulk of the work and the producer throwing various ideas into the mix. This is why they selected the name of David Agnew to be the on-screen writer's credit.
Both men rewatched Holmes' The Deadly Assassin and decided to make a sequel of sorts. Inflation was still running high and to keep costs to a minimum it was realised that they could reuse sets and costumes from that story. The Deadly Assassin had seen the Doctor put himself forward as a candidate for the Presidency of the High Council of Time Lords, as a means to buy time and get himself off a capital treason charge by finding out who really assassinated the outgoing President. This turned out to be the only other contender - Chancellor Goth - who was later killed. The story therefore ended with the President role vacant. Read and Williams picked up on this and had the Doctor return to Gallifrey and take up the position, after first making a secretive rendezvous with an alien spaceship.
The audience would be led to believe that the Doctor had gone rogue and had allied with these aliens - the Vardans - to allow them to invade his homeworld. Even Leela would be made to suspect his motives.
To make things interesting, following Holmes' advice, it would be revealed after four episodes that the Vardans were really just the front for another set of alien invaders who would turn up for the last two episodes.

Williams and Read both liked the Sontarans, and Holmes gave his blessing for them to be used. Thinking about cost again, there were existing costumes to be used.
Another huge problem was looming for what was already a troubled production. Last time, we mentioned how Williams was asked to contemplate scrapping Underworld and adding its budget to the season finale. It soon became apparent during the making of the fifth story that industrial action would hit the series whilst The Invasion of Time would be in production. Williams was also asked by his boss Graeme McDonald to consider scrapping the finale instead and using the money to finish Underworld with decent sets. As we have said before, Williams was insistent that his first season as producer would be completed as originally planned, with a full run of six stories covering 26 episodes. Anything less he would take as a personal failure.
The decision was therefore taken that Invasion would have only a single three day studio recording block - quite unheard of for a two and a half hour story. Everything else would be filmed on location, and this would include the extensive TARDIS interior scenes planned for the last two episodes. A hospital was found in Surrey which had a mental health wing which had been decommissioned. Some of its rooms and corridors would appear as parts of the TARDIS, whilst some of the studio sets which they were unable to film on at Television Centre would be shipped down and set up on location.
The studio recording concentrated on Gallifreyan scenes, especially the large Panopticon set, which had been built for The Deadly Assassin and which would be too large to relocate. The second large chamber where the TARDIS materialises is just the Panopticon set redressed. Kelner's office was also in studio, but when you see the same set redressed as Rodan's workplace, it is being filmed at the hospital site.

Sontaran Commander Stor's make-up changes drastically throughout the last two episodes. At times, when he is wearing his helmet, it is apparent that actor Derek Deadman isn't wearing any mask at all underneath. In other scenes he has distinct black make-up around the eyes and mouth, which vanishes in other sequences as the make-up was refined on location.
This unusual production schedule led to another problem. Usually, scenes which were to be shown as inserts on video screens would naturally be filmed first, and dropped in by the production gallery as needed. On this occasion this wasn't always possible - which is why the Vardans always seem to be seeing weird geometric designs on the view screen even when they are commenting upon what the Doctor is up to. The footage simply wasn't available to be inserted.
The Deadly Assassin had featured a number of relics from the time of Rassilon. To these we add here the Coronet and the Great Key.

One notable inspiration we cannot fail to mention is the opening sequence of the story where a huge spaceship appears at the top of the screen and we see the underside glide over us. This was a wholesale steal (or homage as they would have insisted on putting it) from the opening moments of Star Wars, which most of the audience would have seen by this point, it having hit UK cinemas in December 1977. (This story started broadcast on February 4th of the following year).
Just to add to Graham Williams' headaches during the making of this story, Louise Jameson had already informed him that she was intending to leave at the end of the season. She had told him of her plans right back when The Sun Makers was in production. Williams hoped to make her change her mind up to the very last minute, but she had already accepted theatre work - which is why Leela's departure is so unsatisfying. She basically announces that she is staying on boring old Gallifrey to marry a man she has barely said two sentences to. (Had she said she was going to marry Nesbin and hunt with him in the wastelands of Outer Gallifrey we might just have accepted it). Williams had been so convinced that he would get Jameson to change her mind that her departure was never properly set up.
K9 also decides to leave, intent on staying with Leela. However, in the closing seconds it is revealed that the Doctor already has K9 Mark II waiting in the wings. This was because the VFX team had created a new prop which worked a lot better than the one introduced during The Invisible Enemy.
Next time: Graham Williams finally gets to make the series he originally wanted to do, with an overarching story arc. The Doctor is a man on a mission, and he gets an ice maiden for a new assistant - which is appropriate for the wintry setting of Ribos...

Torchwood: Children of Earth

In which children across the globe are momentarily paralysed - staring into the sky. They all speak in unison. Their message is revealed one word at a time - "We are coming back tomorrow". At the same time, Captain Jack Harkness is approached by Dr Rupesh Patanjali, who has seen a strange pattern of illness amongst the local South East Asian community. In London, a scientist named Dekker announces to the government that he has picked up a message from an alien race which last made contact in the 1950's. They are known only as the 456, as this was the frequency they broadcast on. A civil servant named Frobisher is ordered to eliminate everyone who was involved in the earlier incident with the aliens - and this includes Jack. Dr Patanjali is really working for a government agent named Johnson. He drugs Jack at the hospital, and Johnson has a bomb implanted in his stomach. She then kills the doctor. Jack is unaware of this until he returns to the Hub. He has his friends evacuate before the bomb goes off - completely destroying the Hub.

Gwen, Ianto and Rhys go on the run, and make for London. Johnson has Jack's remains collected up, knowing that he will regenerate. His body is encased in concrete. The team trace where he was taken and rescue him. One adult has been affected along with the children - a man named Clement McDonald, who resides in a mental hospital. Gwen goes to interview him. She learns that back in the 1950's a number of children from a care home were taken out into the countryside one night by Jack, where they were given to the 456. Clement managed to run away. Jack reveals that the aliens gave the British government the cure for a lethal flu strain, and the children were demanded in payment. It is to cover this up that the current government has employed Johnson. Frobisher is tasked with preparing an environment tank at Thames House, to accept one of the aliens. A junior civil servant named Lois Habiba is on Frobisher's team, and  she is approached by Torchwood to help them. She agrees to wear the special contact lenses which Martha Jones once wore to allow the team to spy on events inside the Pharm research centre. One of the 456 materialises inside the tank, and Frobisher goes inside to communicate with it. He discovers that the aliens have kept the original children alive so as to feed off their body chemicals. They have returned because they have become addicted to these chemicals, and now want more children - many more.

They want 10% of the world's children, otherwise they will destroy the planet. Across the globe, the children begin chanting a number equal to 10% of their country's child population. Jack and his team make their presence known to Frobisher and tell him that they will reveal what is going on to the general public if they are prevented from trying to stop the 456. Jack and Ianto go to Thames House to confront the alien. Its response is to flood the building with toxic gas. Dekker survives by donning a hazmat suit, but Ianto and everyone else is killed. The British government, led by Prime Minister Brian Green, comes under pressure from the United Nations once it is known that the UK knew about the 456 but kept it secret. Plans are made up to hand over all the children - with some in government wanting to target children from poorer areas. It will be announced that there will be a random selection for special inoculations. Frobisher is told that his daughters will be part of this selection, as it would look bad to the public if they weren't. He goes home and kills his children, before turning the gun on his wife and then himself.

When some parents refuse to hand their children over, Green calls in the military to remove them forcibly. Gwen and Rhys return to Cardiff to rescue Ianto's niece and other local children. Jack, meanwhile, works with Dekker and Johnson to find a way to defeat the 456. They realise that the frequency they use is a potential weakness. If a signal could be sent along it, it could stop the aliens. In order to do this, one child would have to act as a transmitter - and Dekker warns that this would be fatal. Jack elects to sacrifice his own grandson, Steven. The signal damages the 456 and causes them to retreat, but Steven is killed. Jack's daughter Alice refuses to have anything more to do with him. Lois has informed Frobisher's assistant Bridget Spears about the Torchwood contact lenses. She uses them to get evidence of Green planning to blame the crisis on the United States. Angered about her boss's death, she forces Green to resign otherwise she will release the evidence. Jack goes into hiding. Six months later he contacts Gwen and she and Rhys meet up with him. She is now pregnant. Jack tells them that he still cannot face up to what he has done in killing his grandson. Gwen gives him his Vortex manipulator, salvaged from the ruins of the Hub. Jack uses it to leave the Earth, unsure if he will ever return...

Children of Earth was written by Russell T Davies, John Fay and James Moran, and was first broadcast over five consecutive evenings on BBC 1 from Monday 6th July, 2009. Davies wrote the first and last sections, co-writing the middle episode with Moran. Fay covered the second and fourth installments.
The story comprises the whole of the third season of Torchwood. Each episode is subtitled as Day One, Day Two etc. Fans don't use these subtitles as the episode titles, as the series already had a story in its first season called Day One - the episode about the sex-gas alien.
The story arose from budget cuts at the BBC, when the government refused to allow a licence fee rise. Another 13 episode run was out of the question, so Davies decided to tell a single story over the shorter series length. At the time John Barrowman was angered by this reduction of episodes. The BBC had broadcast a highly successful police drama called Five Days, which covered a criminal investigation in real time over - you guessed it - five consecutive days. Davies decided to use this format. Torchwood had fared reasonably well on BBC 3 for its first series - earning it a promotion to BBC 2 for the second run. It would now feature in prime time on BBC 1, but many thought that it would not be popular due to a summer evening broadcast slot. They were to be proven wrong, as it got very good ratings and great reviews.
The most unpopular aspect of the production was the decision to kill off fan favourite Ianto Jones. The story allows some character background, as we learn about his relationship with his father and meet his sister and her family. The writers were bombarded with pleas and demands for his return, as well as a few death threats. A shrine to Ianto soon appeared on the Cardiff Bay boardwalk close to one of the Hub's secret entrances...

I used to pay my respects every time I went to Cardiff to visit the Doctor Who Experience.
The guest cast is headed by future Doctor and one-time Pompeian marble merchant Peter Capaldi, who plays Frobisher. Fans may have been expecting Emmerdale's Rik Makarem (Dr Patanjali) to have been Owen Harper's replacement on the Torchwood team, but he doesn't make it past the first episode. Someone else who looked like they were being set up for a regular role was Cush Jumbo, who played Lois Habiba.
Other guest artists include Ian Gelder as the creepy Dekker (who you expect to get bumped off but doesn't), Peter Copley who is excellent as Clement McDonald and Nicholas Farrell as dodgy PM Brian Green. Liz May Brice is Johnson (another one you expect to get their comeuppance and doesn't), whilst Bridget Spears is played by Susan Brown. Jack's daughter Alice is Lucy Cohu, and grandson Steven is Bear McCausland. In a small role as a government adviser is Nick (voice of the Daleks) Briggs. Tom Price also makes an appearance in the Cardiff set scenes, playing his regular role of PC Andy Davidson.

Two people who were supposed to have prominent roles in Children of Earth were Freema Agyeman and Noel Clarke. Their joining of the Torchwood team was set up at the end of Journey's End. Agyeman had been offered a starring role in Law & Order: UK. This was a guaranteed 13 episodes, against Torchwood's five, so she naturally went with the legal drama. Much of her role went to the new character of Lois. Martha's presence was retained as a short cameo, but this was also cut when she became totally unavailable.  Clarke was only supposed to be in the last two episodes, but he also had to pull out due to film work.
At the time, everyone pretty much believed that this was the end of Torchwood - but there would be one further series, so far at least, which again opted to tell a single story over its entire run.

Inspirations - Underworld

Underworld is the first story for many years not to have any input from Robert Holmes. He had stepped won as Script Editor with his own story, The Sun Makers, and now his replacement, Anthony Read had fully taken over. he had been offered a producership by the BBC, but had turned this down as he had already carried out that role. Graeme McDonald then offered him the Script Editor post with Doctor Who - and Read jumped at the chance, though he only intended to stay for a year. he had been trailing Holmes for some time. If you look at that cast and crew photograph from Image of the Fendahl, you'll see Read at the front left.
The inspiration for this story is fairly straightforward, as Read wanted to concentrate on stories which derived from literature rather than from the movies. Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin were pointed towards the Greek myths, and selected the story of Jason and the Argonauts. If you've never actually read this tale, then I'm sure you are familiar with the Ray Harryhausen film adaptation from 1963. The main source for the story is the Argonautica, a 3rd Century BC epic poem by Apollonius of Rhodes.
Jason is the rightful heir to the throne of Iolcos, and is related to Hermes - messenger of the gods - on his mother's side. His father's half-brother Pelias stages a coup when Jason is a baby, and he is saved by being sent off to be reared by a Centaur named Chiron. Pelias later learns that he will be overthrown by a man wearing one sandal. Jason returns to Iolcos to reclaim his birthright, and saves Pelias from drowning - losing one of his sandals in the process. Realising who this newcomer is, Pelias sends him on a quest - to retrieve the golden fleece, which hangs on a tree at the end of the world. If he brings the fleece back, Pelias will give him the throne. Of course, he only offers this as he believes the quest to be impossible. There are many dangers to be faced, including six-armed giants, harpies and clashing rocks which smash passing ships to pieces. The fleece itself is guarded by a dragon. Jason manages to succeed in his quest, helped by the sorceress Medea once he gets to Colchis where the fleece is to be found.

Jason's ship is called the Argo. Amongst his crew are Heracles, Orpheus and Atalanta.
Underworld sees the Doctor, Leela and K9 arrive on a spaceship called the R1C, which is piloted by a crew from the planet Minyos. They are on a centuries-long quest to discover the whereabouts of a lost Minyan ship called the P7E, which contains their people's race banks.
R1C derives from "Argosy". P7E comes from Persephone - who was the queen of the Underworld in Greek myth. The ship's captain is named Jackson, from Jason, whilst his crew comprises Herrick (Heracles), Orfe (Orpheus) and Tala (Atalanta).
Like the Argonauts of myth, they are on a quest.
The Minyans of Minyos derive from Minyas, the founder of the Greek city of Orchomenus. He claimed descent from the Minyan people, who were a prehistoric peoples who settled around the Aegean.
The Minyah crew have some of the attributes of their inspirations. Orfe uses a pacifying ray to subdue Herrick and Leela, as Orpheus could play music which soothed wild beasts. Herrick is brave, strong and prone to anger.
The P7E is found in a region of space where new planets are forming, and the vessel is at the heart of one of these. The R1C starts to be smothered by rocks as it exerts a gravitational pull on them - which derives from the clashing rocks episode in the Argonautica.

The R1C escapes this fate thanks to a power boost supplied by K9, only to crashland on the P7E planet, sinking down into a network of tunnels - the Underworld of the title. The P7E's computer now rules this society. It is called Oracle, and is served by a pair of cyborgs called Seers. This derives from the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, where seers like the high priestess Pythia were said to be able to foretell the future, or otherwise offer advice to people who came seeking answers to their questions. A team of priests would interpret the Oracle's cryptic utterances. It is now known that the Oracle's temple was built over volcanic fissures, which emitted hallucinogenic gases. In Underworld, the computer Oracle is deranged. Many of the Minyan descendants are enslaved, forced to mine the tunnels. They are known as Trogs - from Troglodytae, a race of cave dwellers from the Red Sea region.
The Doctor and Leela befriend a young Trog named Idmon, whose father Idas has been captured by the Seers and their soldiers. In the Argonautica, Idmon is also a seer and a member of Jason's crew. Idmon means the knowledgeable one. Idas was another of the Argonauts.
At one point the Doctor and Leela break into the P7E to rescue Idas by hiding in a truck full of rocks - an allusion to that other famous Greek myth of the Trojan Horse (which was actually the Doctor's idea in the first place - see The Myth Makers). Idas is to be sacrificed by Oracle and the Seers, by being tied down under a sword which will fall on him when the cords suspending it burn through. This is an allusion to the Sword of Damocles. Damocles was an official at the court of King Dionysius II of Syracuse, a city state in Sicily. He thought he could rule better than the king and so Dionysius offered to swap places with him for a day so he could see what it was really like. Damocles felt his life to be constantly under threat from people who might want to usurp him - as though he had a sword hanging over his head the whole time. He urged the king to take back his throne, now realising what pressure monarchs lived under.
The way to the P7E is found when K9 creates a map of the tunnels, and this looks like a tree - inspired by the location for the golden fleece. The route is said by Idmon to be guarded by an invisible dragon, as with the fleece, but here really automated laser defences.

Underworld is significant for Doctor Who mythology in that the Minyan backstory gives some insight into the history of the Time Lords. In their earlier days the Time Lords had used their powers to help other races, and one of these was the Minyans, who believed the Gallifreyans to be gods. The Time Lords helped them advance scientifically, but this just led to them ejecting the Time Lords after they had developed weapons which they used to almost destroy themselves in a civil war. Minyos was rendered uninhabitable, and the survivors had to settle on a new homeworld. The P7E was one of the refugee ships. It was their experience with the Minyans which led to the Time Lords adopting their policy of non-intervention - something which would ultimately lead to one Gallifreyan and his granddaughter stealing a TARDIS and running off to explore the universe...

Underworld very nearly never got made, which some people think might have been a good thing. It has never been very popular, thanks to some very poor production values and some woeful performances by its guest cast.
The problem was that it was made at a time of very high inflation - coupled with the fact that the series' budget had been cut following Philip Hinchcliffe's reckless decision to massively overspend on his final story. The story has some great VFX when it comes to the spaceships. This was the first story that would be broadcast after people would have had the chance to see Star Wars, and producer Graham Williams was worried that audience expectations would now be much higher when it came to VFX.
Williams had taken a short holiday and on his return had discovered that there was not enough money to build the sets for Underworld. Money had been spent on the R1C spaceship set, but there was nothing left for the cave scenes, which took up much of episodes 2 - 4. One economy was to redress the R1C set to also portray the P7E one, as Minyan spaceships would be of similar design.
Williams was told by Graeme McDonald that he ought to consider scrapping Underworld, and using the money on the series finale - The Invasion of Time - instead. With the annual round of industrial action looming, an alternative was to scrap the final story and use the money to complete Underworld. Williams, however, was determined that his first season in charge should be completed in its entirety.
Earlier in the season The Invisible Enemy had made extensive use of model sets, with actors superimposed using CSO, for scenes set inside the Doctor's body. It was decided that models could be made of the caves for Underworld, with CSO used to place the actors in them. The Production Assistant on Enemy had been Norman Stewart, so he was given the chance to direct Underworld due to his experience with handling this sort of work. CSO work generally yielded about one minute of screen time per hour, but for Underworld Stewart manged to get around ten minutes worth per hour.
Next time: not one but two invasions of Gallifrey, after a close shave with Killer Cats. The interior of the TARDIS turns out to be, quite literally, a madhouse...

Season 10 on Blu-ray

I recently read that the next two Blu-ray box sets to be released after Season 18 would be numbers 10 & 26. This seems to have been spot on, as Season 10 has now been confirmed for release in the UK on Monday 8th July, which is the day after the centenary of Jon Pertwee's birth. So hopefully they'll actually manage to get this one out when they said they would, and not be moved back at least twice as with the last three releases. I frequently pre-order DVDs and Blu-rays, and I have found that the BBC are the only people who never manage to get the things out on time.
This time, the story to be given new CGI visual effects is Planet of the Daleks - just as I suggested when I posted recently on what stories might get this treatment. There's a glimpse of the Dalek arsenal in the trailer for this release, but I have to admit that it did not look all that impressive. There was also a shot of the TARDIS in space, which looked worse than the model.
"Behind the Sofa" this time will be Katy Manning, Richard Franklin and John Levene. I had hoped for Terrance Dicks. Levene only appears in two stories in this season, and Franklin only showed up half way through the last story, so it will be interesting to hear what they have to say about material they never worked on. The other sofa-based panel comprises RTD era producer Phil Collinson, and Series 11 writers Pete McTighe and Joy Wilkinson. As much as I like Janet Fielding, I am glad she is sitting this one out as she does tend to dominate.
As you are no doubt fully aware, the stories in Season 10 are The Three Doctors, Carnival of Monsters, Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks and The Green Death. Three of the five have already had Special Edition releases, so for me this will be the fifth time that I have bought The Three Doctors - twice on VHS, twice on DVD and now a Blu-ray.
Jo Grant's last appearance to date - SJA's Death of the Doctor - is also included in the set. There's also a documentary about director Lennie Mayne, and Katy and Stewart Bevan revisit Llanfairfach locations.
Presumably Season 26 will be following sometime in the Autumn. I have also read that Season 17 might be coming along soon as well - though I'd prefer it if they gave us a Hartnell or Troughton set next.

Inspirations - The Sun Makers

Since he took over as Script Editor, Robert Holmes has written half a dozen stories himself. Half are in his own name, and the other half bear pseudonyms. One is credited to someone else, whose original script was virtually rewritten by Holmes. Of the remainder, many will have been heavily revised by Holmes.
It is no wonder, then, that this led to problems with the Tax Man. During Season 14 Holmes had written two stories (one third of the series) himself, whilst drawing his Script Editor salary, and this double income led to the Inland Revenue looking into his accounts.
By the mid-point of Season 15, which is what we have now reached, Holmes was ready to leave Doctor Who. He had intended to leave with Philip Hinchcliffe, but had been persuaded by Graham Williams to stay on for 6 months to ease the transition. Anthony Read had been shadowing him for some time. Ironically, Holmes' final story as Script Editor is one that he also wrote - and it is inspired by the tax problems arising from this very set-up.
What Williams wanted Holmes to write was a story about colonialism, but the taxation satire took over. On the face of it, The Sun Makers should be a bleak, dystopian serial, but it is full of black humour. Holmes was in a bit of an end-of-term mood, and he was urged to add more satire by the director, Pennant Roberts.

Holmes decided to set his story on the planet (as it still was then) Pluto. This is because he envisaged the society as being a plutocracy - a society ruled by a wealthy elite. The inhabitants of Pluto are people who originally came from Earth. They dwell in vast cities called a Megropolis, of which there are six. Being so far from the Sun, artificial satellites are required, and each Megropolis maintains its own - hence the story title. Holmes had just read Adrian Berry's 1977 book The Iron Sun: Crossing the Universe Through Black Holes, which was about artificial suns.
The planet is under the control of an individual called the Collector, who works for some faceless intergalactic corporation known only as The Company. The Collector derives his title from the fact that his chief function is to collect taxation, and to increase the Company's profits. Under the Collector is an official known as the Gatherer, because he is the one who actually gathers the tax. The Collector's personal guard is known as the Internal Retinue - a play on Inland Revenue. One of the corridors in Megropolis One is designated the P45 route. A P45 is a tax summary document people receive on leaving a job. Another corridor is called TP1. This is another UK government tax document, relating to transfer of property.
Everything on Pluto is taxed - even death. It is his inability to keep up with the tax increases which lead a lowly D-Grade work unit named Cordo to contemplate suicide when he can't afford his father's death duties - by throwing himself off the roof of the city. He is saved by the arrival of the Doctor and Leela.
Cordo takes them to the undercity, where they fall into the clutches of a criminal gang led by a man named Mandrel.

The naming of the Plutonian cities as Megropoleis, where a wealthy elite live in the upper levels and everyone else toils beneath them, naturally makes us think of that classic silent Sci-Fi movie Metropolis. Directed by Fritz lang, it was released in 1927. In the film, the rich live in skyscrapers, whilst the mass of the poor live in an undercity. The work they must undertake is repetitive and monotonous and soul-destroying. The son of the city's leader discovers this world which is kept hidden from the elite, and falls in love with a young woman named Maria who is campaigning for a better life for the workers. Her crusade is corrupted when a mad scientist named Rotwang creates a robot duplicate of her and uses it to foment rebellion. Star Wars' C-3PO was directly inspired by the Maria robot. The Sun Makers's plot has little to do with Metropolis - but some of the imagery certainly derives from it, as well as the basic set up of the Megropolis society.
Holmes originally intended the Collector's race to be called Usurers, but Williams objected that this was a little too blatant an inspiration - so they became Usurians instead. Usury is the practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest. The Romans were the first to introduce limits on what could be charged for loans, and later the early Church banned it outright for clergymen - later extending this to everyone. Jews were unable to practice many occupations and so were forced into work which others shunned - and this included moneylending. In Medieval England there were massacres of Jews in York and London - mainly means by which those who owed money no longer had to pay it back. A number of monarchs got out of debt by borrowing money, then promptly launching pogroms against the lenders.

Gatherer Hade's language is based on the sort of terminology you get in letters from the Inland Revenue. His costume was based on a humbug - a striped sweet whose name is also synonymous with hypocrisy and sycophancy. The Collector was given a pin-striped kaftan - inspired jointly by City of London bankers and rich Arab oil sheikhs. The Collector's defeat sees him revert to his natural form and slide down the plug-hole in the base of his mobile throne - suggesting liquidation (the selling off of a company's assets to pay off debts when it goes out of business). I'm no economist, but someone else has written that the Doctor's growth tax would not have had the effect it has here.
The designer had originally intended to base the Megropolis on Aztec themes, but only the Sun symbol remains of these initial ideas.
Pennant Roberts decided to change the gender of two male characters - something he regularly did on his Doctor Who stories. The Gatherer's assistant Marn, and the rebel Veet were scripted as male.
Louise Jameson was desperate to leave the show by this point, and it was seriously contemplated that Leela would be killed off in this story - apparently in the scene where she walks into the booby-trap guarding the Collector's vault.

With scenes set on the roof of the Megropolis to film, Roberts looked at a number of locations in London - but the horizon was always difficult to obscure. Roberts then realised that it wasn't necessarily a high roof he needed, but a very large one. This is why they went to the Wills tobacco factory in Bristol. The building also had a massive, featureless corridor linking two halves of the site, which became the P45 route.
Other location work included the Camden deep shelter, where the crew got locked in one night.
As Holmes was one of the first to know that K9 was going to be retained after The Invisible Enemy, The Sun Makers is the first story where the character is fully integrated into the plot.
Next time: Anthony Read is well named, if his tenure on the programme is any indication. He starts with a story inspired by Greek myth. It's written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, so there's sure to be a catchphrase...