Doctor Who returns on 11th May, but with a difference...

Series 14 arrives on Saturday May 11th, with not one but two episodes - and they're making their debut on BBC i-player first, in the early hours of that morning.

If streaming isn't your thing, the episodes will be broadcast on BBC One immediately before the Eurovision Song Contest.

Subsequent episodes will be shown in the same way - i-player first, then TV later that evening.

For those outside the UK, episodes will stream on Disney+ simultaneously with the i-player.

The first episode is untitled so far (though rumours have claimed it's "The Space Babies") but the second instalment is - appropriately enough for Eurovision night - the musical themed episode The Devil's Chord, which features the Beatles / Abbey Road and guest stars Jinkx Monsoon.

With two episodes on the 11th, the new shorter run will last only seven weeks, unless there are any breaks for sporting events.

NB:As far as this Blog goes, I won't be posting any reviews in the middle of the night (and may just be waiting for the TV broadcast episodes anyway), so won't be putting anything up until the Saturday night or Sunday lunchtime.

The Art of... The Ark

A couple of years ago I nominated my top ten Target Book covers - and my ten least favourite. For the latter category it was either the case of bad likenesses, or misleading and / or irrelevant imagery.

The above cover made it into the bottom ten due to the prominence of the animals on either side of the Hartnell portrait (which is derived from a photograph from The Celestial Toymaker).

Yes, the TARDIS arrives in a biodome at the start of the story, and some of the animals do contribute towards the cure for Dodo's cold - but they really don't symbolise this story at all. 

We do get a little Monoid portrait, but the aliens really ought to have been more prominent.

Maybe one of those images of Dodo posing with a Monoid might have provided a better inspiration.

The novel, by its original writer, was released in March 1987, and the cover is the work of artist David McAllister.

A reissue followed in 1992 with a minimalist cover by Alister Pearson. For a time Target were using this "unfinished sketch" look for their covers - not unlike a Renaissance cartoon. Not my favourite phase of Target artwork.

Pearson includes Dodo on his cover, with a full length Monoid in the central position.

A trio of purple-wigged Monoids appeared on the cover of the BBC Radio Collection soundtrack CD. The Hartnell image originates from this story - for a change. It's taken from a publicity shot of him, Jackie Lane and Peter Purves with Monica the elephant.

This was released in 2006 - the story's 40th anniversary - with linking narration by Purves. He also contributes to a bonus interview.

The Ark came to VHS late in the run of releases, when they were using photomontage covers.

The year was 1998.

The DVD release arrived 13 years later, in February 2011 (or March in the US and Australia).

The artist is Lee Binding, who pretty much took over from Clayton Hickman's photomontage covers around this time.

As is often the case, the Region 1 cover allowed the image space (no pun intended), and works a lot better than the UK cover.

Finally, Pearson's Target Books reissue cover graced the audiobook release, issued in 2018.

M is for... Mr Sin

Ostensibly the grotesque ventriloquist dummy of the Chinese magician Li H'sen Chang, Mr Sin was in actual fact the "Peking Homunculus". This cyborg had been created as a toy for the children of the Icelandic Alliance Commissioner in the 51st Century. It contained a complex of magnetic fields on a printed circuit, but had the cerebral cortex of a pig.

The swinish personality soon came to dominate and it became a ruthless killer, almost causing a fourth world war. It later came into the possession of Magnus Greel, the infamous Minister of Justice known as the "Butcher of Brisbane" for his horrific genetic experiments.

He invented a rudimentary form of time travel capsule and escaped justice of his own by fleeing back to the 19th Century - arriving horribly mutilated in Imperial China. Losing his time cabinet, he brought a local man under his mental control - Chang - and began a hunt across the globe in search of it.

Mr Sin became part of Chang's magic act - the audience little realising that it had a life of its own.

Chang and Greel used it to assassinate their enemies. Its small size enabled it to be easily smuggled into the home of the pathologist Professor Litefoot, after Greel learned that he held the cabinet.

Eventually Greel discovered that even he could not control it due to its homicidal personality.

The Doctor managed to deactivate it when he tore out and destroyed its cortex.

Played by: Deep Roy. Appearances: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977).

• Roy returned to the series (uncredited) to portray the Posicarian Delegate in Mindwarp, wearing an adapted Terileptil mask.
• He is the only actor to have featured in Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Star Trek, Star Wars and The X-Files.
• He doubled for the Yoda puppet for some walking shots in The Empire Strikes Back.

• A lot of his film appearances have been in the role of stunt performer.
• He played all of the Oompa-Loompas in Tim Burton's 2005 film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

M is for... Mr Dread

Leader of a group of Men in Black - cyborgs who were tasked with guarding a trans-dimensional vault in which various alien artefacts were secured. These had arrived on Earth over the years, and the Men in Black gathered them up and concealed them to prevent advanced technology and knowledge of aliens becoming widely known.

Mr Dread had been active for decades, having once been involved in covering up UFO activity in the USA in the 1950's. 

The vault was hidden in an abandoned hospital in West London, and Sarah Jane Smith learned of it when the alien Androvax escaped from the Judoon and returned to Earth. He sought the vault as it contained the last of his race, inhabiting a spaceship in suspended animation. He was dying, and wanted to free the ship so that his people could re-establish themselves on a new home.

Mr Dread and his two underlings defended the vault. However, he eventually used up his power to enable the ship to escape before the vault was permanently sealed.

Rani Chandra's mother Gita had witnessed the alien activity, having been possessed by Androvax at one point. Mr Dread used the last of his energy to wipe her memories. With his mission now at an end, he deactivated himself.

Played by: Angus Wright. Appearances: SJA 4.2 The Vault of Secrets (2010).

• Mr Dread also featured in the animated story Dreamland, voiced by Peter Guinness.
• Angus Wright has voiced Magnus Greel for Big Finish.

M is for... Mr Clever

The personification of the partially converted Doctor when the Cybermen attempted to turn him into their Cyber-Planner on Hedgewick's World. The Doctor had thought himself immune to conversion, being a Time Lord, but the Cybermen had adapted over time. 

As "Mr Clever" - his own ironic name for his Cyber-converted self - he had insight into the Cyberiad, the Cyberman central intelligence. It sought the Doctor's experience to add to its own.

Whilst Mr Clever dominated half of the Doctor's mind, he was able to retain control over the other half.

A battle of wills ensued, and the pair decided to play a game of chess to determine overall control. The Doctor could briefly overcome Mr Clever by using a piece of gold paper applied to his facial implants, and he was eventually able to divert his Cyber-converted half with a chess problem which caused it to direct its full resources away from the attacking Cyberman army to resolve it.

An electric shock was finally used to free him of Mr Clever, and the Cyberman army was destroyed when the planet was blown up.

Played by: Matt Smith. Appearances: Nightmare in Silver (2013).

M is for... Moxx of Balhoon

A small blue-skinned being present on Platform One to witness the destruction of the Earth around the year 5 Billion. He represented the legal firm of Jolco and Jolco. All guests were expected to provide gifts to their fellow VIPs, and the Moxx offered samples of his bodily fluids in the form of saliva.

After the space station's shields had been sabotaged by the Lady Cassandra, the searing heat from the expanding sun broke in to certain sections of the vessel. The Moxx of Balhoon was one of those killed - his body incinerated.

Played by: Jimmy Vee. Voiced by: Silas Carson. Appearances: The End of the World (2005).

• The Moxx provides the very first mention of the phrase "Bad Wolf" in the 2005 series - describing a "Bad Wolf scenario" to other guests.
• Along with Jabe, images of the Moxx featured heavily in the advance publicity for the revived series. 
• Another Balhoonian - the Moxx's brother Jixx - was to have featured as part of the Shadow Proclamation in The Stolen Earth.
• This was Vee's first appearance in the series. It was quickly followed by the "Space Pig" in Aliens of London - filmed first. He would go on to feature in episodes starring David Tennant and Peter Capaldi - the Skovox Blitzer being his most recent appearance to date.
• He has been operating R2-D2 since The Force Awakens.
• Carson is best known on the series for providing the vocals for the Ood. He provided other voices for this story, including the Adherents of the Repeated Meme.

Episode 108: The Plague

Synopsis:

The time travellers have been locked up, accused of being spies and saboteurs - agents of Refusis II. Zentos, Deputy Commander of the Ark, wonders if all their efforts to save the human race might not have been in vain...

With the Commander incapacitated with the new fever, Zentos claims that he can summarily execute them by ejecting them into space, but it is decided that a trial must be held. he will preside as judge.

A Guardian named Baccu will prosecute whilst Manyak, a friend of Mellium, will act as their defence. Steven insists on speaking up for his friends, despite falling victim to the fever himself.

His impassioned pleas fall on deaf ears as the frightened Guardians are stirred up by the far from impartial Zentos. 

The case goes against the time-travellers and Zentos decrees that the Monoids will be allowed to dispose of them, having been the first victims of the illness.

The Commander has been observing proceedings and now intervenes - overruling his deputy.

The Doctor has claimed that, given the right facilities, he could find a cure for the fever. The Commander points out that by killing the one person who might be able to help them, they will be dooming themselves.

The Doctor is to be given access to a laboratory and allowed to gather whatever he needs. Any cure he devises must be tested on Steven first.

The Doctor is joined by medic Rhos, who has been caring for the Commander, and he instructs that tissue samples be taken from many of the animals in the biodome - recalling that a cure for the common cold had been derived from animal membranes.

He finds the Monoids to be of invaluable help, and notes that the Guardians really do not appreciate their fellow travellers.

The cure is developed and Steven recovers. Zentos has come to realise how unreasonable he had become and asks for the Doctor's forgiveness - but he is content to see that the Deputy Commander has learned a lesson about being more open-minded.

The great spaceship begins its departure from Earth's orbit as the planet starts to burn.

As the Ark embarks on its 700 year voyage, the TARDIS departs...

The ship materialises a few minutes later and the Doctor is shocked to find themselves in familiar surroundings. They are exactly where they left from, in the biodome of the Ark.

They set off to see Mellium and Manyak, but find the command deck deserted. The vessel's systems appear to be automated now. 

They realise that they have travelled forward seven centuries to the end of the Ark's journey, as the great statue has now been completed.

However, the humanoid sculpture now has the head of a Monoid...

Next episode: The Return

Data:

Written by: Paul Erickson & Lesley Scott

Recorded: Friday 25th February 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 12th March 1966

Ratings: 6.9 million / AI 56

Designer: Barry Newbery

Director: Michael Imison

Additional cast: Michael Sheard (Rhos), Ian Frost (Baccu)

Critique:

As mentioned last week, Michael Imison claimed to have developed the Monoids beyond their rather nondescript appearance in Erickson's original storyline, where they were simply described as "reptilian servants".

With their single eye, it was the director who named them "Monoids" in the first place, and he hoped that they might be marketable like the Daleks.

Eight costumes had been made, only four of which featured the moveable eye. This was simply half of a ping-pong ball, painted, with a peg attached at the back. The artiste playing the alien could manipulate the peg with their tongue to make the eye move around.

To get away from the human form, the lower half of the body saw the legs bound together so that only their feet could move - giving them a rather (unintended) humorous waddling motion.

The costumes were one-piece with a padded chest, which could be stepped into and then zipped up at the back. It was impossible to hide the join on the skull, which is why they were given wigs. These Beatle-like mop-tops were blond, ginger and brunette and made from yak-hair.

Three of the costumes would be used by principal Monoid actors, who would go to play speaking aliens in the second half of the story, with the others going to extras.

Joining the cast for this episode only was Scottish actor Michael Sheard, playing the medic Rhos. This was the first of six appearances in the programme, seeing him work with five of the seven original Doctors.

His next story would be The Mind of Evil, playing another doctor, followed by two very different appearances during Tom Baker's tenure in the TARDIS - as the tragic Lawrence Scarman in Pyramids of Mars, and as the possessed Lowe in The Invisible Enemy. He was yet another medical man in Peter Davison's first story, Castrovalva, before a final role as the unnamed Headmaster of Coal Hill School in Remembrance of the Daleks. The school setting would have been familiar to Sheard, having been a series regular on Grange Hill, playing the hated Mr Bronson.

Sheard was seen by millions in The Empire Strikes Back, as Imperial Admiral Ozzel who falls foul of Lord Vader just before the Battle of Hoth; and another blockbuster role was as Adolf Hitler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The Nazi Fuhrer was a part Sheard returned to again and again, playing him five times in total (including a Tomorrow People story). He also played Himmler on three occasions.

At the time of this episode being recorded, he had a regular role on the BBC sitcom The Likely Lads.

All of the jungle sequences for The Plague had been pre-filmed at Ealing - including the Monoid collapsing by the TARDIS, the Monoids collecting animal tissue samples, and the departure and subsequent return of the TARDIS at the conclusion.

This meant that the studio only had to feature Newbery's huge command deck set (above), along with two smaller rooms - the Commander's chamber and the prison cell. Both were fitted with small monitors so that the various cast members could be seen to observe the trial.

The Commander's room was designed in a Japanese style.

One aspect of the main set which irritated William Hartnell was the electric buggy. This was merely a piece of BBC studio equipment used by the scenic crew, redressed. Hartnell did not like travelling on it, and his unease is evident on screen.

There were five recording breaks planned for the evening. Two were for Peter Purves to move back and forth for his trial appearance, a third for Hartnell to move from cell to Commander's room, and a fourth to allow for the model shot of the burning Earth to be inserted.

This had been filmed on Friday 4th February, and comprised a globe full of dry-ice which could escape via a number of small holes. This was then filmed whilst a wind machine was directed at it, to make it appear as though smoke was streaking into space.

The final recording break allowed for the redressing of the command deck set, to show the passage of time.

There's a problem underlying this episode, and that's the suspicions concerning the planet Refusis II. Zentos is convinced that the TARDIS crew are agents for the "intelligences" which inhabit that world, and he has little trouble whipping up the other Guardians into accepting this accusation. 

If they think its inhabitants so hostile, why are they going there in the first place? Why pick an inhabited planet at all?

How can they know anything about the planet or its people if it is a 700 year voyage away? Describing the Refusians as "intelligences" even hints that they already seem to know that they are invisible, insubstantial beings - as we'll see to be the case in due course.

Other stories tell us that there are a lot of Earth-like planets a lot closer to Earth than Refusis. We've already seen Earth people visiting the Sense-Sphere, for instance. The previous two Dalek stories have also shown how easily people can travel across the galaxy to inhabitable worlds in relatively short spaces of time.

When considering this episode, it should be borne in mind that the audience had no idea how long any Doctor Who story was going to run. The production team might have decided on a standard four episode length for non-Dalek stories - they getting six weeks instead - but previously the story durations had ranged from two to seven weeks, with the last Dalek story being a double length twelve-parter.

With the deadly fever cured, viewers will have assumed that this was only a short two-parter as they saw the Doctor and companions get into the TARDIS and leave, with only a few minutes left of the programme.

Initially, because of this similarity of set dressing, it would have looked as if the TARDIS had simply gone wrong. The (slow) reveal of the statue's head hints at a mystery to be resolved in the next instalment - a classic cliff-hanger ending.

It would have been a huge surprise to see the ship then rematerialise exactly where it had been (a bit of a gaffe as the jungle could not possibly look identical, down to the individual plants, over the course of seven centuries). 

We've mentioned it before but, for a series about time travel, the concept was rarely ever exploited significantly for a story.

Mention had been made of the potential consequences of time travel in The Aztecs and The Reign of Terror, and The Time Meddler had revolved around an attempt to alter history, but this was the first time we would get to see the Doctor actually confront the consequences of one of his travels...

Trivia:

• The ratings bounce back this week, rising by 1.4 million viewers. The appreciation figure rises as well, though only by a single point.
• Once again, the incidental music mostly derived from The Daleks, though a library percussion piece - Drumdramatics No.11 - was used for the Monoid funeral sequence.
• John Wiles took Jackie Lane aside to complain that Dodo had not looked sad enough during this sequence. She responded that it was difficult to conjure up emotions when dealing with "a heap of wrinkled rubber".
• Ian Frost returned to the series some seven years later, playing a Draconian messenger in Frontier in Space.
• A few days after broadcast, on Wednesday 16th March, the BBC youth series Whole Scene Going featured an interview with director Gordon Flemyng on the set of Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD.