The Seeds of Gloom...

You have probably been reading in the newspapers or on-line that Doctor Who is facing one of its periodic "Cancellation Crises". This originated with tabloid The Sun, which is hardly the most reliable of sources. It was picked up today by other sections of the press - reported simply as rumour in the quality ones, whilst the Daily Mail went further and gave all its perceived reasons for the potential resting of the series (woke casting / woke storylines / woke agenda).

Such is the buzz that the BBC has released a statement that the series is "not being shelved". They point out that Disney commissioned 26 episodes, with nearly half still to air. 

RTD2 himself claims that he was tasked with making the programme "younger and simpler" - no arguments from me on that one, I'm afraid, if Space Babies is anything to go by. He admits that the ratings are disappointing, but then says that the under 16 and 16 - 34 demographics are good.

(For me, any increase in younger viewers shouldn't mean losing older ones. I'm pretty sure the BBC did intend RTD2 to increase some demographics - but never at the expense of the rest).

These statements haven't soothed matters as the BBC also reiterate that any sixteenth series is wholly dependent on how well Series 15 does, and Disney won't be committing any monies until then (meaning certainly no new series in 2025, and no guarantee of another festive special either).

Those 26 episodes are already accounted for - 3x 60th Anniversary Specials, 2x Christmas Specials, 8x Series 14 episodes, 8x Series 15 episodes, plus the War Between Land & Sea spin-off. A lot of people think the latter might be run across a single week, like TW: Children of Earth, so that would account for the final 5 of the 26 episodes.

Muddying the water is talk of Gatwa wanting to leave because he (a) had to turn down a lucrative fragrance contract and / or (b) wants to move to LA to pursue a Hollywood career. No doubt the move is true, but there's no reason why you can't balance both a British TV show, which now only runs 8 weeks, and the odd movie.

Disney are notoriously bad at letting people know the viewing figures for their productions. We know that they have been suffering badly with the various Star Wars series, which ought to have been guaranteed winners. The Acolyte isn't being renewed and, whilst it has been critically acclaimed, Skeleton Crew has failed to make a dent in the Nielsen ratings. Both Andor and Ahsoka are getting one further season each, but these are supposed to be their final outings. The Marvel movies are also showing diminishing returns, so there's a definite superhero-fatigue setting in. Basically, Disney are getting hit financially, and if they're pulling the plug on big names which they pretty much own outright, then what hope for co-productions - especially one that isn't getting high viewing figures?

Apparently there was zero representation from Disney at the recent big Gallifrey One convention, and they didn't mention Doctor Who at all in their "Coming in 2025" trailers at New Year. Hardly confidence inspiring.

As I've said before, for Disney+ the bottom line is subscribers to their streaming service. If Doctor Who isn't adding new subscribers, or retaining existing ones after a series has ended, then they are unlikely to invest further.

Even if a sixteenth series is greenlit come May or thereabouts, we're probably going to have to get used to this on-going uncertainty year by year.

Episode 153: The Macra Terror (1)

Synopsis:

The Pilot, leader of a human colony on an alien world, is enjoying a Drum Majorette display choreographed by a colonist named Barney when he spots his security chief, Ola, pursuing a young man. This is Medok, who had been on his way for treatment when he broke free.

He manages to get outside the colony complex where he sees a strange blue wooden box appear out of nowhere.

The Doctor's companions emerge from the TARDIS. All are wary, with Jamie arming himself with a sturdy stick after having witnessed the savage-looking claw on the time scanner.

The Doctor points out that the creature they glimpsed was large, so they will easily see it approaching a long way off.

Seeing that he seems to be carrying a weapon, Medok lunges at Jamie. Ben instinctively steps in and wrestles the fugitive to the ground where he is seized by the pursuing guards. Ola questions how the strangers came to be in the vicinity of the colony, then invites them to come and meet the Pilot who will want to thank them in person for helping to capture Medok.

The Doctor is concerned that Medok isn't a criminal, but someone who it is claimed is in need of "treatment".

At the colony, they notice muzak and jingles playing, along with frequent encouraging announcements, which appear to help regulate the day for the colonists. They are invited to attend the Refreshing Department, presided over by Barney, which includes make-overs, sun-bathing and other beauty treatments. The Doctor uses a machine which tidies up his appearance - so then uses a rough-and-tumble machine to get back to the way he looked in the first place.

The Pilot appears to have an unseen superior known as the Controller, whose still photograph appears on screens as announcements are made.

Elsewhere, Ola is escorting Medok to the security centre. A friend named Questa urges him not to resist the help he is being offered. He tries to warn everyone that there are creatures which infiltrate the colony at night.

The Doctor is observing nearby. After everyone has gone he breaks into the centre and frees Medok in order to speak to him - asking for more information about the creatures he has seen.

The captive runs off and the Doctor is arrested by Ola, accused of freeing the prisoner. They should all be sent to the mines. Polly argues that they are unfamiliar with their laws, and it was the Doctor who captured Medok in the first place. The Pilot agrees, and suggests that they should visit the colony's Labour Centre to learn more about their society.

On their way there, the Doctor spots Medok hiding in a building under construction on the edge of the main colony complex.

At the Labour Centre, the travellers meet a man named Alvis who is a shift leader. He explains that the colony mines and refines a gas which is vital to their survival. It is dangerous work, but everyone in the colony is willing to work hard.

The Doctor sneaks away and goes to find Medok at the building site, having him tell him more about the creatures he sees at night. He claims they have claws and crawl around on multiple legs like giant insects.

His companions are searching for them when Ola announces that it is time for the night-time curfew, and they must report to guest quarters. The Doctor reappears and goes with them. Ola warns them that anyone caught outside after curfew can be shot on sight.

However, the Doctor then later sneaks out again after everyone has gone to bed, intending to rejoin Medok and witness the creatures for himself.

Ola is still searching with his men, and they find that they will have to leave their hiding place as they approach. 

They are about to slip into another empty building when they see a dark shape moving towards them through the gloom - a huge crab-like creature with glowing eyes...

Data:

Written by Ian Stuart Black

Recorded: Saturday 4th March 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 11th March 1967

Ratings: 8 million / AI 50

Designer: Kenneth Sharp

Director: John Davies

Guest cast: Peter Jeffrey (Pilot), Gertan Klauber (Ola), Terence Lodge (Medok), Graham Armitage (Barney), Ian Fairbairn (Questa), Alvis (Anthony Gardner), Drum Majorette (Maureen Lane), Chicki (Sandra Bryant), Graham Leaman (Controller), Denis Goacher (Voice of Control), Richard Beale (Broadcast Voice), Robert Jewell (Macra Operator).

Critique:

Ian Stuart Black had contributed two scripts for the latter part of William Hartnell's third season as the Doctor - The Savages and The War Machines, the latter based on an idea from Kit Pedler.

Black had moved on to other projects, including Adam Adamant Lives!, which had for its hero a Victorian adventurer displaced through time to the present day. Story editor Gerry Davis approached him to contribute a further four part story for Doctor Who.

Davis brought the idea of a seemingly happy and idyllic setting - such as a holiday camp - harbouring a dark secret, with sinister things going on in the background. There were thought of some subterranean creatures which only emerged at night - like the Morlocks in HG Wells' The Time Machine.

Seeking a monster to place in this story, Davis referred to a noticeboard he had set up in the production office. This held brief synopses of every story broadcast to date, with an accompanying photograph. This had been initiated by Davis to ensure there was no repetition of story ideas or concepts. 

They noticed that spiders had never been used in the series.

Black commenced his first draft of what was then known as "Dr Who and the Spidermen", emphasising that the monsters needed a gas to survive which was toxic to humans.

The story was originally scheduled to take place third in the new Doctor's run, immediately following William Emms' "The Imps".

Director John Davies had worked for Innes Lloyd before, whilst designer Ken Sharp had spent the last six months working on children's variety show Crackerjack!. 

The story title was briefly amended to "Dr Who and the Insect-Men", then became "Dr Who and the Macras".

This came about because Davis had gone off the idea of basing a story around spiders, having seen the Zarbi in The Web Planet. It was decided now that the monsters should be based on crabs. Sharp and Davies visited the Natural History Museum in London where they studied a number of crabs through a microscope. The name chosen for the new monsters derived from macrocheira kaempferi - the Japanese spider crab which can measure up to 12 feet.

The construction of the Macra prop was, as usual, farmed out to Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge.

The change from spider-based creatures to crab-like ones resulted in scripting discrepancies, as some pieces of dialogue in the finished episodes still referred to insects. 

BBC Enterprise's synopsis of the story referred to the creatures as "Macras", "crab-like Macra-Men" and "insect men" at different points.

Lloyd had decided that the series should have a new title sequence, which he had hoped would be introduced during Troughton's first story, The Power of the Daleks. Plans were made with graphics designer Bernard Lodge and engineer Ben Palmer to film this on 26th November at Riverside Studios, as part of the recording of the Dalek story's final instalment. 

The session finally took place in Television Centre's Studio 2 on Friday 9th December.

The new titles would include the Doctor's features for the first time. This had been attempted back in August 1963 but experiments using a live image of technician Tony Halfpenny fed into the howlround mix were deemed too scary to use by Verity Lambert - the face taking on a demonic appearance.

Lodge would use a photograph of Troughton's face, lit from the top, as a basis for the new graphics. Roughened polystyrene would be used for the mix from image to image. The text font was changed to Times New Roman.

It had been intended that a new arrangement of Ron Grainer's theme music would accompany the new titles, but this was deferred until the following story.

During the second week of January 1967, Lloyd took a holiday and assistant story editor Peter Bryant was placed temporarily in charge of the series. Costume designer Sandra Reid was still in hospital and was now replaced by Vanessa Clarke, after Daphne Dare had covered the previous few episodes.

Composer Dudley Simpson worked closely with Brian Hodgson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop on the music cues for the story, creating 11 minutes of highly distinctive music for the story.

Delia Derbyshire created the Chromophone Band track, which tops and tails the story.

Some of the muzak heard in this story had been featured previously in the science fiction anthology series Out of the Unknown.

Filming on The Macra Terror got underway on Wednesday 15th February with scenes of Terence Lodge being pursued across a wasteland by Klauber's Ola and some guards, who included John Caesar. He had played a Monoid in The Ark. Lodge was cast as Davies had employed him previously. Danny Rae, playing another guard, sprained his ankle running over the rough ground. A handheld 16mm camera was employed as well as the fixed 35mm one. The regular cast were not required, their scenes being reserved for the TV studio. The TARDIS prop was taken on location and seen to materialise. It had been intended that its departure in the fourth episode would be filmed at the same time, but this idea was dropped.

It was so cold that the budget included a bottle of brandy to warn cast and crew up. 

The location was the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd quarry near Dunstable.

For many, many years, Doctor Who Magazine persisted with the claim that the footage of Patrick Troughton, viewed by the Time Lords in the first episode of The Three Doctors, came from this story.

Friday 17th saw Graham Leaman photographed at Ealing for his stern Big Brother-like appearance as the Controller, shortly before filming his scenes as the older, unkempt character for later in the serial.

On the same day Davies filmed the detached Macra claw, to be seen on the TARDIS Time Scanner at the conclusion of The Moonbase.

On Monday 27th February publicity photos were taken of guest stars Peter Jeffrey and Klauber in costume as the Pilot and Ola. This was earlier than usual in the production process, but Radio Times argued that with only a one week gap between recording and broadcast the publication could no longer wait for the camera rehearsals, on the day of recording, when publicity shots were usually taken.

Rehearsals began the following day, with John Davies complaining about the catering facilities at St Helen's Church Hall, North Kensington. The situation would deteriorate further...

Frazer Hines missed the last day of rehearsals to do some filming at Gatwick Airport for the following story.

Recording got underway at Lime Grove on Saturday 4th March with the new title sequence. This was supposed to be followed by the opening credits playing over shots of the Drum Majorette band, but this was changed at the last minute to a close-up of Medok's face.

Both the Refreshing Department and Labour Centre sets featured large back projection screens on which could be shown photographs of Leaman as the Controller.

The TARDIS was set up on a cliff-face beside the entrance gateway to the colony (pictured above).

The first break came after the Refreshing Department sequence, to allow the regulars to change out of the costumes they had been wearing. Anneke Wills donned a wig to give Polly much shorter hair, whilst Hines and Craze wore tunics with shorts. Troughton briefly donned a smartened up version of his costume.

The second break allowed Klauber to move from the security section set, and the final one was scheduled following the Doctor's first visit to Medok in the empty building which is under construction.

Closing captions ran over a shot of the Macra prop, recorded in darkness and surrounded by dry ice.

We'll save our look at the Macra itself until next time.

Inspirations for Black's story, other than those originally offered by Gerry Davis, might include the Patrick McGoohan spy series Danger Man, which the writer contributed to. It has been theorised that the main character - Drake - is the person who later becomes The Prisoner when he tries to resign from his role. Black was involved with the cult classic as well. The latter's Village is a holiday camp-style setting which harbours dark secrets, being a type of prison in which people are brainwashed amongst other things. One episode of Danger Man featured a holiday camp which turned out to be a mock-up behind the Iron Curtain, designed to train Soviet agents.

The mind control aspects of The Macra Terror we will also come back to.

For such bleak subjects, there's a considerable amount of humour in this opening episode - mainly involving the discomfort felt by the Doctor and his companions as the colonists attempt to involve them in their enforced jollity.

Sadly, the producers of the animated episodes elected to remove entirely the Refreshing Department sequence. It might not add to the overall storyline, but it is illustrative of this society's need for everyone to conform, with seemingly innocent, fun activities actually masking an invidious mental conditioning process. 

The sequence also has some lovely character moments for the regulars - the last time we will really see them as a group of friends who travel together, though that wouldn't have been known at the time. 

There are some humorous exchanges in these scenes:

Ben (looking at the Doctor's 'refreshed' shoes): "Oh they're fantastic! You can see your face in them".

The Doctor: "Precisely. Who wants to see their face in a pair of suede shoes?".

And earlier:

Jamie: "Hey mister, would you call the ladies off. I'm frightened what they might do to me".

Barney: "Oh but you look charming, sir. Charming".

Jamie: "That's what I'm frightened of".

Trivia:

• The ratings remain healthy, despite the minimal publicity. As you can see below, publicity images concentrated on a couple of men in uniforms - visually uninteresting - and there was no trailer made for this story. The new monster was hardly promoted at all, with only a couple of newspapers running the single photograph of the prop.
• The day before broadcast, Junior Points of View showed mostly negative views about the programme, though one young fan thought that the story editor should be replaced, or forced to write better material for such a good actor. The show as also described as being intended for "intellectuals".
• At the weekly programme review meeting on 15th March, BBC Controller of Programmes, Television - Huw Weldon - described this episode as "an agreeable kind of terror".
• Ian Fairbairn was originally going to be cast as a guard, but got the better role of Questa. He will return to the series as one of Douglas Camfield's repertoire of favoured actors, appearing in The Invasion, Inferno and The Seeds of Doom.
• Graham Leaman will go on to play Time Lords in Colony in Space and The Three Doctors, as well as featuring in Fury from the Deep and The Seeds of Death.
• Richard Beale had previously voiced the Refusian in The Ark, and had played Bat Masterson in The Gunfighters. He'll return in The Green Death.
• Gertan Klauber had played the galley-master in The Romans.
• Sandra Bryant had been seen in The War Machines, when she played Kitty, manager of the Inferno nightclub. On the day before recording she requested through her agent that she be released from later episodes due to another job offer. Davies would recast another actress as Chicki for Episode 4.
• Peter Jeffrey's best known role in Doctor Who is as Count Grendel in The Androids of Tara. He was the first ever actor to go on record stating that he took a role in the series specifically to please his children - claiming they wouldn't have forgiven him had he turned the part down.
• Many years later, when Gerry Davis visited the production office to discuss a "Genesis of the Cybermen" storyline with Eric Saward and JNT, he was pleased to see that his story synopsis noticeboard idea was still in use.
• Radio Times previewed the story with a brief synopsis and one of the images of Jeffrey and Klauber: 

Story 301: The Star Beast

In which the newly regenerated Fourteenth incarnation of the Doctor arrives at Camden Market, where he runs into an old friend...

It is the winter of 2023 and the market is getting ready to close up when he meets a young woman named Rose. She turns out to be the daughter of Donna Noble, who is also here. Nearby is husband Shaun, who is a cab driver.

Following the shock of his return to an earlier incarnation, the Doctor is intrigued by the coincidence of meeting Donna again - especially after the events of their last meeting. They suddenly see an object pass overhead, which crashes somewhere in the London suburbs. The Doctor recognises it as an alien spaceship. He sets out to find it. 

It has come down on a steelworks, which has already been locked down by UNIT. He is able to break in, but encounters their new scientific adviser, Shirley Bingham. She declines to give his presence away to the UNIT troops, who report that an escape pod was seen to detach before the crash and they are still looking for it. The Doctor departs to try to find it first.

Wheelchair bound, Shirley is unable to ascend to the entry port of the spaceship, which is relatively undamaged. AS the hatch opens, a strange light emerges which affects the soldiers.

A friend of Rose named Fudge tells her that he has seen the pod in a field nearby - a small spherical craft - and soldiers have now arrived at the scene.

When she goes into her shed, she discovers a white furry creature hiding inside. When Donna comes out to speak to her, she also sees the creature.

The Doctor arrives, shocking Donna's mother Sylvia who knows that her daughter will die if she recalls her time with him. 

UNIT troops arrive on the street, just as it comes under attack by huge green-skinned insectoid creatures - Wrarth Warriors.

The Doctor meets the creature from the pod - the Meep - and he and Donna's family are forced to flee with it as the Warriors appear to be hunting for it. They battle the UNIT soldiers.

Everyone escapes in Shaun's taxi, and they take refuge in an underground car park.

Here the Doctor announces that he knows that things aren't what they seem. He summons two of the Warriors, who reveal that they have come to arrest the Meep. It is a notorious criminal, its entire race turned homicidal after exposure to a psychedelic sun. They were once a meek, gentle race. It is light from this sun which has affected the UNIT soldiers who accessed the spaceship.

Its secret exposed, the Meep shows its true colours by killing the Warriors and taking everyone hostage.

They are taken to the steelworks where affected soldiers are preparing the ship.

The Meep reveals that its engines employ a Dagger Drive, which will destroy London when activated. Shirley helps free them.

The Doctor and Donna escape into the ship, where he is forced to make her remember their travels together, even though it will kill her. He is surprised when this does not happen.

It transpires that the meta-crisis was shared with Rose, which has diluted its effects.

The Meep activates the ship's engines, which cause fiery cracks to spread out across the city. Donna is able to recall when she was part Time Lord and can use the ship's technology to disable its drive, whilst Rose is able nullify the effects of the psychedelic sun on the UNIT soldiers - having inherited the Time Lord knowledge through her mother.

The Wrarth Warriors turn up and arrest the Meep. It will be sentenced to thousands of years imprisonment. Before departing, it warns the Doctor that someone known as "the Boss" will hear of these events.

Rose and Donna eject the meta-crisis energy. Donna is invited to see the newly regenerated TARDIS, which now has a vast multi-level outlay.

Unfortunately she spills coffee into the console and the TARDIS dematerialises, out of control...

The Star Beast was written by Russell T Davies and first broadcast on Saturday 25th November 2023. It is the first of a trilogy of episodes which make up Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary.

To say "written" isn't entirely accurate, as he actually adapted an old Doctor Who Weekly comic strip written by Pat Mills and John Wagner, with art by Dave Gibbons. This ran in the magazine from issue 19 to 26 in early 1980.

On his return to the show-runner role, RTD (who will henceforth be called RTD2, since this was his second time in charge) elected to do something different with the anniversary. Most fans had been expecting another multi-Doctor story, as with the 10th, 20th and 50th celebrations. RTD2 opted for a trio of linked episodes which would see the return to the show of fan favourites David Tennant and Catherine Tate.

The origins for this lay in the COVID pandemic. A series of Twitter watch-along's were held, one of which was a Tennant-Tate story. She enjoyed the experience so much that she suggested a return, and RTD2 ran with the idea. Tennant was happy to reprise the Doctor, if only for a short time.

RTD2 would be preparing for his next full series, which would see a brand new Doctor in the TARDIS, to be introduced at the conclusion of the anniversary trilogy.

Tennant agreed to play a new incarnation of the Doctor who just happened to look and behave like the Tenth, but was actually the standalone Fourteenth.

With the return of Donna, we would also be seeing her mother Sylvia (played by Jacqueline King) and husband Shaun Temple (Karl Collins). He had been introduced in The End of Time. 

An addition to the family would be Rose - their trans daughter. She is played by Yasmin Finney who came to fame through the Netflix series Heartstopper. Obviously Rose got her name through the Doctor's memories of Rose Tyler, bleeding through the meta-crisis mental barrier. She makes crochet toys, which on closer inspection appear to be versions of Doctor Who aliens.

It would be revealed that Donna and Shaun had given away all the money they had won on the Lottery (the Doctor having giving them a winning ticket as a wedding present, paid for by her late father Geoff).

Again this is due to the meta-crisis leakage, as this was doing something that the Doctor would have done.

Joining the cast are Ruth Madeley, who plays UNIT's latest scientific adviser Shirley Bingham. She had featured in Davies' Years and Years.

The lead UNIT soldier is Colonel Chan, played by Jamie Cho. He has Batman connections, having featured in Batman Begins in 2005 and The Dark Knight in 2008.

Fudge is played by Dara Lall.

The Meep is realised partly as a CGI creation, and partly as an actor in a costume - Cecily Fay. It is voiced by Miriam Morgolyes. She previously voiced a Blathereen in The Sarah Jane Adventures, but her link to Doctor Who goes back to the late 1970's when Tom Baker stated that she would make a great new companion.

Overall - hardly original since it's an adaptation, and RTD2 doesn't make any major structural changes. We all liked the comic, so pretty much like this. Tennant and Tate slip effortlessly into their old roles, as though they'd never been away. 

• The episode aired 13 months after The Power of the Doctor - the longest ever gap between episodes since the relaunch.
• This is the first episode to fall under the new co-production deal with Disney+.
• The steelworks is named "Millson Wagner", after the writers of the comic strip. Mills and Dave Gibbons visited the set during production.
• Mills and Wagner came close to writing for the series in the 1980's, with a story known as "The Song of the Space Whale", which involved a group of people who lived inside the titular creature. It would have introduced the character who became Turlough.
• The comic ran for 8 issues, so had a lot more room to develop characters and sub-plots. The spaceship lands in a northern town named Blackcastle, and the Meep is discovered by a schoolgirl named Sharon and her friend Fudge. The latter has more of a part to play than in the TV adaptation. The main plot beats are there, but the comic finds time to visit the Wrarth Warrior spaceship and the creatures at one point plant a bomb inside the Doctor to kill the Meep. Sharon would become the first Marvel comic strip companion - the Doctor's first black companion in any media (though the Pertwee Doctor had a young black man helping him, but just for a single story).

• The Wrarth Warriors are really underused compared to the comic strip, and the costumes have a rather plasticky appearance. 
• Foreign dubs of the episode call him the 10th Doctor rather than the 14th.
• The Doctor produces a barrister's wig from his pocket - just as the Fourth had done in The Stones of Blood.
• The Doctor and Donna being separated by a glass screen is designed to mirror the Tenth Doctor and Wilf at the climax to The End of Time.

Inspirations: Nightmare in Silver

After his highly successful contribution to Series 6 - The Doctor's Wife - it was only natural that Neil Gaiman would be invited back. Steven Moffat asked him the question: "... would you like to make the Cybermen scary?".

Gaiman took the bait, as he was a big fan of the Cybermen, favouring them over the Daleks. He could recall having watched The Moonbase as a child - especially the Cybermen kidnapping people from the sickbay, which he had found creepy. This is what he wanted to bring to a new story.

The writer discussed ideas with a friend and one of these included a setting of the Cyrrhenic Alliance - previously mentioned in The Ribos Operation.

Moffat decided that the time was right to have the Cybermen undergo a change of design. They were well-known for this throughout their history, with constant redesigns from story to story - sometimes minor, like footwear, sometimes major, like the addition of the "earmuffs" in The Invasion or the radical changes seen in Earthshock.

Gaiman thought that the Cybus versions might have interacted with the Cybermen from this universe and swapped technology. He and Moffat also looked at the way technology was evolving rapidly, symbolised by the mobile phone.

There were concerns that the RTD versions were too slow-moving and noisy. The new ones were to be capable of stealth and speed.

The Cybermats, first introduced in Tomb of the Cybermen, were the inspiration behind the Cybermites.

Cyber-Planners (or Directors) had been seen in The Wheel in Space and The Invasion, and Gaiman wanted to bring this concept back.

A 1950's fairground setting was considered, and Gaiman had an image of thousands of Cybermen emerging from the ocean and marching up a beach.

The "freak show" would house beings who were actually aliens. This was the group threatened by the Cybermen, which morphed into a military unit, which in turn became the punishment unit - meaning that these were people not really suited to dealing with a Cyberman army.

This then became the story of a small human outpost under threat, but the funfair element persisted.

Early drafts (when the story was called "The Last of the Cybermen") featured the character Beryl, a Victorian governess who would later evolve into Clara. As a child-minder, this introduced the idea that her young charges would be involved in the episode.

Worried that he hadn't got much for the Doctor to do, Gaiman came up with the idea of him competing against himself as the embodiment of the Cyber-Planner after he is partially converted.

The Doctor had previously claimed that Time Lords couldn't be converted in Closing Time, but part of their upgrade is that they can now use any species.

Design wise, their Valkyrie (named from Norse Mythology / Wagnerian opera) owes a lot to Tomb of the Cybermen. Just look at the half-moon shaped hand and foot holds.

The Cyberman playing chess was inspired by "The Turk" - an automaton created by Wolfgang von Kempelen in 1770 for the Empress of Austria. It turned out to be fake, with someone hiding underneath.

Chess as a motif was to run through the story, with the Doctor later playing a game against the Cyber-Planner.

"Natty Longshoe" got her name from Pippi Longstocking, from Swedish children's stories written by Astrid Lindgren from 1945.

Next time: Call me by my name...

Episode 152: The Moonbase (4)

Synopsis:

Hobson scans the lunar surface and spots a large force of Cybermen marching towards the base...

They break into the base radio frequency and demand that the main entry port be opened. Nils tries to call Earth for assistance but they find that their radio has now been blocked by the Cybermen. They are destroying the antenna on the surface nearby.

Hobson and Benoit discuss the relief rocket and agree that it is probably already on its way. They order that the scanner be trained on the rocket flight path. The vessel has been detected by the Cybermen, however.

In the sickbay, the control unit used on Dr Evan is activated remotely, and the medic once again falls under Cyberman mental control. He is ordered to slip into the Gravitron control chamber, where he knocks out the technician on duty and takes his place.

The relief rocket appears on the scanner, approaching the Moon. The base personnel are shocked to see it suddenly break away and speed off into space - heading in a direct course for the Sun.

The Doctor realises that only one thing could have caused this - the Gravitron - and they see that Dr Evans now has control over it.

Ben and Jamie are sent to barricade the sickbay to prevent any other conditioned men emerging. Within, a couple of them are stirring.

As Hobson attempts to reason with Evans, the Cybermen once again demand access to the base - otherwise they will destroy everyone.

There is a loud bang and the oxygen level suddenly plummets, causing oxy-masks to drop  from panels above the controls. The Cybermen have used a powerful laser cannon to blast a hole in the base's protective dome beside the Gravitron.

Hobson and Benoit are able to make a temporary repair by placing a plastic tray over the hole.

The loss of air has led to Dr Evans collapsing, and they are able to regain control of the Gravitron. The Doctor switches this on and lowers its gravitational field before the Cybermen can fire their laser cannon again. This results in the laser beam being deflected into space.

The Cybermen give up this attack but begin to close in, intent on breaking in by force.

The Doctor has Hobson disable the Gravitron safety cut-out, which prevents it from being directed horizontally across the Moon's surface - to stop it from affecting the base itself.

It can now be used on the Cybermen and their spacecraft. All are sent flying off into space.

Hobson and his men celebrate their victory, and straight away set about getting the Gravitron back in normal operation again. The Doctor encourages his companions to slip quietly away.

Out on the lunar surface, just before they re-enter the TARDIS, Polly sees a shooting star and wonders if this is the Cybermen and their ships.

His companions complaining that they never know where they are going to end up next, the Doctor explains that there is device on the TARDIS which can give them a glimpse of what they may see at their next destination - a component known as the Time Scanner. The superstitious Jamie cautions against "second sight" as the Doctor operates a control on the console and the scanner activates. They see a huge crab-like claw emerge from out of a dense mist...

Next time: The Macra Terror

Data:

Written by: Kit Pedler

Recorded: Saturday 25th February 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 4th March 1967

Ratings: 8.1 million / AI 58

Designer: Colin Shaw

Director: Morris Barry

Critique:

As we mentioned when looking at the opening instalment of this story, Innes Lloyd wanted a story set on the Moon due to the topicality of the Cold War Space Race. Whilst countries like Britain had dabbled in space research, launching rockets from the Outback of Australia, the race was very much led by the Soviet Union and the United States.

In 1986, the Snowcap Space Tracking Station at the South Pole had been commanded by an American General, and at least two of the military guards were American, though the scientists appeared to be British and only one of the three astronauts we saw were from the US (the American one being the son of the base commander). 

By 2070, we have a base on the Moon, controlling the Earth's weather - including that of the United States - but there isn't a single American crewman present (unless it's a non-speaking background character, but we certainly don't see any Stars & Stripes badge on any crewman's tabard in the surviving episodes). The Moonbase is 

What has happened to the US between 1986 and 2070, for its involvement in space technology and exploration to be so curtailed? It may be a situation like the one presented in Moonbase 3, the drama series created by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks just before they left Doctor Who. In this, each major political power bloc had its own base, so the Americans will have been off somewhere else. The problem with this is that we still have non-Americans controlling their weather. It may just be that the alliance between the US and Europe at this time is so strong that they can be trusted to do this, whilst the Americans are tied up doing something else. Another fan theory is that some great catastrophe befalls the USA in the first half of the 21st Century, leading to them no longer having a significant role to play in international events.

The main filming for this episode took place on Thursday 19th January 1967, when a grand total of 11 Cybermen assembled on the lunar surface set at Ealing.

The press were invited to take photographs of the new design, most of which were taken outside the studios at a number of locations around Ealing Green. Cybermen posed at bus stops and telephone kiosks, and were seen turning up for work at the studio gates. A pair were pictured walking along with 10 year old Anthony King.

The principal Cybermen on this occasion were portrayed by John Wills (Maxim), Sonnie Willis, Peter Greene, Keith Goodman and Reg Whitehead (who had played Cybermen in The Tenth Planet). 6 extras were also hired to bring up the numbers, and amongst them was a young man who would go on to play a significant role in Doctor Who.

John Woods (then using the name Levine) was attempting to get into the acting profession after being spotted in the West End gent's outfitters where he worked by Hollywood star Telly Savalas. The future Kojak star was in England making The Dirty Dozen and thought that Woods might make a good extra or stuntman due to his physique. Levine would amend his name to Levene and, after mentoring from director Douglas Camfield, would go on to become famous as Sergeant Benton of UNIT.

Filming included the massed ranks of Cybermen marching across the lunar surface and spreading out to take positions overlooking the base. Sequences with them using their laser cannon were also filmed. These shots allow us to see the forced perspective employed to depict the Moonbase model in the background with actors in the foreground.

Some photographs show the saucer-like Cyberships at their feet, as these models were filmed or photographed at the same time.

Some of the more gimmicky publicity shots appeared in the newspapers the following day.

In the week leading up to studio recording, Morris Barry wrote to the principal Cyberman actors to tell them to remain on standby as another story featuring the metal giants was in the pipeline, which he had been asked to direct. He also wrote to Peter Hawkins, expressing sympathy for the discomfort he had experienced with the throat microphone in providing their voices, but asking him to take care of the equipment as he would soon be using it again.

Saturday 25th February saw the series return to its original home of Studio D at Lime Grove. Despite their limitations, the antiquated Lime Grove studios would remain the programme's main base for the next couple of years.

Four Cybermen were required for studio recording - Willis and Greene, along with extras Ronald Lee and Barry Noble. They were shot on a small lunar surface set, for group close-ups.

A circular mask was used for the sequence where two of the Cybermen smash the radio antenna. 

If you look closely at the graphic showing the relief rocket approach, you can see that its escape route is already evident, curving up towards the top right.

Other captions included the Cyberman saucer and an image of the night sky with a transparency showing a shooting star passing across it, as seen by Polly at the conclusion of the episode.

The regulars, returning to the TARDIS, had been filmed with material for Episode One on Tuesday 17th January.

The episode closed on the material shot at Ealing by John Davies on Friday 17th February, of the Macra claw seen on the TARDIS scanner. 

This episode sees the very first use of filmed optical effects in the series. A strip of film depicting the beam of the laser cannon was combined with original footage of the Cybermen handling the prop, using an optical printer to blend the two film components together.

When he came to edit the episode on Monday 27th February, Barry discovered that there was a considerable amount of talkback on the soundtrack. This occurs when the microphones pick up the voices of the gallery from the crew's headphones on the studio floor. He tried to edit this out as much as possible. Unfortunately, this was a known problem with Lime Grove Studio D. It had previously led to the remount of The Dead Planet.

The new claustrophobic format of base-under-siege, requiring only one large central set and smaller casts, had proven to be successful once again, and so Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis planned several more stories of this type for the next season.

The Cybermen had also proven their popularity, and would be back.

Before the final episode of The Moonbase had been broadcast, Gerry Davis commissioned Kit Pedler to write their third story - tentatively titled "Dr Who and the Cyberman Planet".

Trivia:

• The main thing to notice about the ratings is that appreciation figure, the biggest seen since Desperate Measures - the second instalment of The Rescue back in January 1965.
• Junior Points of View on 10th March was largely negative about Doctor Who. Troughton did have some fans who liked his "top hat and flute" - neither of which had been seen in this story. It was already decided that the hat would not be returning.
• 29th March saw a BBC audience research report on this episode produced. The climax was criticised, with some thinking that the Cybermen had been defeated far too easily. Some thought the conclusion lacked credibility, and that the heroes winning by accident was unsatisfactory. Futuristic stories were favoured over historical ones, and the sets and props were praised. One scientist thought the use of solvents to attack the Cybermen had been silly. There were concerns expressed that the "extra-sinister" Cybermen might be too frightening for children.
• The ending has come under some criticism by fans as well. It's all very well unruffled Yorkshireman Hobson demonstrating the typical British "stiff upper lip", but the way in which the Moonbase crew simply shrug off recent events and get on with their job is taking this imperturbability a little too far.
• According to Kit Pedler, Hobson was inspired by the British explorer Sir Vivian Fuchs (1908 - 1999), who led the first overland crossing of Antarctica in 1958.
• Barry Noble had a successful pop music career, enjoying a 1968 hit with I've Got My Eyes On You. Previous appearances in Doctor Who had included an Egyptian soldier in The Daleks' Master Plan, a Parisian citizen in The Massacre, and a patron of the Inferno nightclub in The War Machines.
• Episodes 1 and 3 of The Moonbase are missing, and have been since 1974 when it was last put forward for overseas sale. For the story's DVD release these instalments were animated. The company made good use of telesnaps of the missing material, so that sets, costumes and likenesses closely match what viewers would have seen in 1967:

• Titbits magazine published one of the January publicity shots of the Cybermen posing at a bus stop on Ealing Green along with a bit of humorous dialogue. Interestingly, they give the Cybermen monosyllabic names - just as Pedler had originally planned.

What's Wrong With... The Five Doctors

Bullet points for this one I think...

• The Eye of Orion looks just like North Wales, and the atmosphere is similar to Earth after a thunder storm. What's so special about it if North Wales offers everything it does?
• All the monsters in the Death Zone are out in the open, apart from the Dalek. Why is it in a separate metal-walled chamber when the place is a wilderness, and why only one of them?
• How can a Yeti be wandering around if they're simply robots which require the Great Intelligence to animate and guide them?
• The Cybermen wander into the hall of the Dark Tower whilst the First Doctor and Tegan are standing in the middle of it talking to the Master - yet they fail to see them both.
• There are different groups of Cybermen but relatively small numbers in each - so why does every group need its own Cyber-Leader?
• What makes the prepped Cybermen think a bomb can destroy a TARDIS - and why do Turlough and Susan think it can harm them?
• The Doctor fails to react to Susan (and she to him) as one would expect if she was his grand-daughter whom he hasn't seen for many, many years. At least she sort of smiles at the Fifth, but she doesn't even acknowledge the Second and Third.
• If she's a Time Lord, she should react equally to all of the incarnations of her grandfather, not just the Doctor who looks like the one she used to travel with.
• So he only recently saw the Brigadier again, but the Fifth Doctor also fails to react in any expected way to seeing best friend Sarah Jane Smith again.
• (Later we will have to ask the question why none of this story gets referred to in School Reunion, where Sarah talks as though the last time she saw the Doctor was when he left her at the end of The Hand of Fear).
• The current Doctor tells the First that he has regenerated four times, so the latter says "So there are five of me now!". But how does he know that this is the current? Numbers Six to Twenty might be kicking around the Death Zone somewhere for all he knows.
• Why does everyone treat the First as the oldest and wisest when he's the youngest and only looks older? (Same thing happened in The Three Doctors).
• Just why does Borusa put so many hazards in the Doctor's path if he wants him to deliver something as important as immortality to him?
• Two Time Lord councillors we don't see are Thalia and Zorac. Where they the ones Borusa sent into the Death Zone first? Thalia and Zorac?! Why not an army of Chancellery Guards?
• The Doctor is suspicious of the Harp of Rassilon as Borusa doesn't play music - yet he couldn't in his First incarnation but could in his Second, as Time Lord skills change with regenerations.
• How does the Second Doctor know what happened at the conclusion of The War Games if he was forced to regenerate straight after? Him working out that Jamie and Zoe are phantoms depends entirely on knowledge that he shouldn't have.
• How does he know that they haven't simply been removed from an earlier timestream just as he and others have been?
• How does the Second Doctor know that he's bending rules by visiting the Brigadier when he could simply turn up at any point in his life whenever he felt like it? Is the Brigadier's life somehow interconnected with his own as with the Master and other Time Lords, so that they always meet up in order?
• And why does the Third Doctor not twig straight away that he's also facing phantoms, as he ought to know that Mike Yates resigned from UNIT?
• If Time Lords could get new regeneration cycles all along, why didn't the Master simply go after this instead of the whole convoluted Deadly Assassin / Keeper of Traken schemes?
• And why does Borusa need immortality if he can just regenerate all over again for another twelve times?
• And why does he keep speeding through regenerations these days anyway?
• Why does everyone simply shrug off the destruction of the Black Scrolls if they've been preserved since the Dark Times?
• Flavia seems remarkably well-informed about what has been going on in the Dark Tower. She just wanders in and confers the Presidency on the Doctor moments after Borusa has been defeated.
• Surely she must know he's not going to suddenly turn politician and stay behind in the Capitol?
• As originally broadcast, the first three Doctors all depart in versions of the TARDIS at the end. That's the TARDIS - not other Gallifreyan TT capsules. As they already have their own back where they were abducted from, doesn't that mean they've now got two each?
• And if the Fourth got picked up from a punt on the Cam, what's he doing lying under a fence miles away? And why does he seem so happy about it?
• So, is Rassilon dead or isn't he?
• I'm sure there are many more, so feel welcome to comment!

O is for... Osgood (2)

Petronella Osgood became UNIT's Scientific Adviser shortly before a bizarre incident took place at the National Gallery in London. A number of paintings appeared to have had their glass broken from the inside, and several marble statues had been smashed. 

Osgood was a big fan of the Doctor and often wore items of clothing based on his own tastes. On meeting the Doctor at Trafalgar Square she was wearing a scarf similar to the one he had worn in his Fourth incarnation. Left alone with a colleague to investigate the Gallery, Osgood was attacked by Zygons. It transpired that thousands of Zygon refugees had arrived on Earth in Elizabethan times, and had hidden themselves within stasis cubes - used by some races such as the Time Lords to create living three-dimensional art, in which the viewer could physically immerse themselves.

The Zygons had now emerged into the Gallery, with some of their number hiding under sheets, after having first smashed the statues which they were covering.

One of the Zygons then took on her form, but Osgood managed to escape. In their efforts to forge a peaceful alliance between UNIT and Zygon, a trio of Doctors used an amnesiac gas to make both sides forget who they were - human or alien. Osgood was the only person able to know as she required an inhaler for her asthma. As part of the peace process, they elected not to tell anyone which was which.

Osgood remained on the Zygon repatriation scheme, with her duplicate and together they devised the "Osgood Boxes". One was said to contain a virus which would destroy every living Zygon - developed by Harry Sullivan at Porton Down - whilst the other would expose all the disguised Zygons, as the scheme agreed with UNIT involved the aliens living incognito amongst humans.

Some younger sections of Zygon society resented their having to live hidden lives, and a militant group wanted to simply reveal themselves and take over.

The Doctor and Clara were reunited with Osgood when UNIT laid a trap for Missy at St Paul's Cathedral in London. The female incarnation of the Master was working with the Cybermen to unleash an army across the Earth. Missy was captured, but whilst being transported on a UNIT aircraft managed to escape her bonds. She killed Osgood - but it was never known of this was the original human one or the Zygon duplicate.

When the young Zygon militants finally began to take action against their elders, Osgood was abducted by them. Their leader - Bonnie, who had taken on Clara's form - wished to gain control over the Boxes - intending to use the one that would eliminate their human identities. 

The Doctor rescued her, and at one point the pair had to parachute from a crashing aircraft, shot down by Bonnie.

The Doctor refused to say which Box was which, so that Bonnie would be forced to choose. It transpired that the Boxes were fakes - designed simply to maintain the peace as there was an equal chance of killing them all as of exposing their true identities. Realising the futility of her actions, Bonnie elected to take on Osgood's appearance, so that once again there appeared to be two of them - and still no-one would ever know if they were both Zygon, or human and Zygon. 

When the Grand Serpent attempted to assassinate Kate Stewart after taking over UNIT, it was Osgood whom she called on for help.

Played by: Ingrid Oliver. Appearances: The Day of the Doctor (2013), Dark Water / Death in Heaven (2014), Invasion of the Zygons / Inversion of the Zygons (2015).

• Oliver auditioned for the role wearing her boyfriend's thick-rimmed spectacles. She was asked to retain them as they fitted the "nerdy" nature of the character.
• As mentioned under "O is for... Osgood (1)", Steven Moffat intended that she would be the daughter of Sergeant Osgood from The Daemons, though he chose not to make this explicit - but spin-off literature has messed this up.
• Oliver first came to fame as one half of the comedy duo Watson & Oliver. The pair had met at school.
• She's the partner of the host of Richard Osman's House of Games. They met when she guested on his celebrity game show.