Episode 214: The Dominators (5)

Synopsis:

Toba orders a Quark to kill the prisoners one by one until they tell him where Cully and Jamie are.

Educator Balan is the first to suffer, and Toba informs the Doctor that he will be next to die...

As the robot confronts him, Rago suddenly returns from his trip to the Capitol. Once again he berates his underling for wasting resources, referring both to the energy levels of the Quarks and the destruction of their labour force. He demands to know progress on the drilling, and Toba announces that the perimeter boreholes are completed, with rockets primed, but work has yet to begin on the central one. Rago warns his Probationer that he will be left to die on this planet if he does not complete the work on schedule. He asks if the atomic seed capsule is at critical mass, and Toba checks an egg-shaped metallic object. He reports it is almost ready, then is sent to ensure the central bore hole is completed, taking the captives with him.

Rago then contacts their Fleet Leader for feedback on the use of the Dulcians as slave labour.

Jamie and Cully are in the bomb shelter, planning their next attack on the Quarks. Through the periscope, they see the Doctor and the others arrive outside the museum, for this is where the central borehole is to be drilled.

They decide to free the prisoners and bring them down here. Jamie takes a sheet off the bed, and slips outside to try to tie up the legs of one of the Quarks. Seeing him, the Doctor creates a diversion and the Quark is overpowered. Everyone escapes into the shelter.

On hearing the alarm, Toba rushes to the scene. He is ordering the Quarks to seek out and destroy the captives when Rago appears and countermands the order.

He points out that the Quarks have barely sufficient power to complete the drilling and cannot be wasted on searches. He tells Toba that the Fleet Leader has advised that the Dulcians would not be suitable as a slave labour force, and so their escaped prisoners will die soon enough along with the rest of their people once their work is done.

The quicker they finish, the sooner they will see them perish.

In the shelter, the Doctor explains the Dominator plan to the others. They know that their spaceships absorb radiation to use as a power source. The outer crust of Dulkis has been found to be at its thinnest here. The Dominators are drilling down into the molten magma, which will trigger a volcanic holocaust into which a powerful source of radiation will be introduced - the atomic seed capsule. The planet will be transformed into a radioactive mass, which will act as fuel for the Dominator fleet. The Dulcians will be wiped out, their planet destroyed.

He points out that the central bore hole, which is the one down which the capsule will be dropped, is the one only a short distance from the museum building.

Jamie suggests digging a tunnel from the shelter to the borehole, using the periscope to align it. The Doctor agrees. They will need time, so the drilling must be disrupted as much as possible.

Once they get the direction, he starts off the tunnel using his sonic screwdriver to burn through the shelter wall.

As the others take turns digging, he and Zoe mix up some chemicals from the medical kit - creating a small explosive. Jamie and Cully will go back on the hunt, now armed, to try to wreck as many Quarks as they can find and so hinder the drilling.

They destroy a small group of the robots. Toba is forced to restrain himself from going off to kill the attackers. When Rago appears, the Probationer angrily claims that he should have been allowed to destroy the Dulcians earlier. Rago indicates that they only have eight remaining Quarks, which is only just enough to complete the drilling. He sends Toba to the museum site.

However, Jamie and Cully then attack Toba's party at the central bore, halting the drilling.

Rago orders him to continue his work, as he will personally deal with their attackers. He organises the remaining Quarks to form a pincer movement which will trap Jamie and Cully. This almost succeeds, and Cully is hit. Luckily, the low energy reserves of the robots means he has only suffered a temporary paralysis in the arm.

Jamie manages to get him back to the bomb shelter.

Through the periscope, they are shocked to see that the central borehole is complete, whilst they have a few more feet to excavate. They see Rago approach the hole with the atomic seed capsule.

The Doctor completes the tunnel just as the capsule is dropped, and he succeeds in catching it. 

He is alarmed to find that it is perfectly sealed, however, and he will not be able to open and defuse it. As it could be detonated at any moment, he realises that they must get it off the planet immediately - and there is only one way of achieving this.

Rago and Toba return to their ship, preparing to contact their fleet to approach the planet for refuelling.

The Doctor rushes out of the museum, running with the capsule towards the Dominator spaceship which is just about to lift off.

The Doctor slips it inside the main entrance, narrowly avoiding becoming trapped with it as the doors close.

The ship takes off.

Rago and Toba spot the capsule too late. Before they can halt the countdown or eject it from the ship, it explodes and the craft is obliterated. The rockets at the perimeter bore holes have been detonated, witnessed by the Doctor and his companions as they reach the TARDIS - the young Dulcians having been sent to use the travel capsule to return to the mainland.

The Doctor explains that there will be a volcanic disturbance, but it will be confined to the island. 

Jamie points out to the Doctor that this is where they are - and they see a torrent of lava bearing down on them...

Next time: The Mind Robber

Data

Written by Norman Ashby

Recorded: Friday 14th June 1968 - Television Centre Studio TC3

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 7th September 1968

Ratings: 5.9 million / AI 53

VFX: Ron Oates

Designer: Barry Newbury

Director: Morris Barry

Critique:

As we said last time, Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman had submitted a script for Episode 5 of this story, only to be told the very same day that Derrick Sherwin and Terrance Dicks had rewritten the fourth instalment and were going to wrap the adventure up in only five parts instead of six. Presumably very little of what we see here is theirs.

The conflict between the writers and the production team extended beyond the troubled writing of the story, however. Originally asked to come up with a new monster which might replace the Daleks as a recurring foe, the prospect of merchandising opportunities was also very much on the minds of the creators of the Quark robots.

With their relationship already strained, you can imagine how the writers felt when they discovered that the BBC had already given permission for the Quarks to appear in the "Dr Who" strip in TV Comic.

This had been agreed on Thursday 23rd May, between the BBC and Polystyle Publications, and allowed the use of the Quarks for up to 12 months in the strip.

Haisman and Lincoln, however, had entered into negotiations with Walter Tuckwell - the man who marketed the Daleks for Terry Nation - in the belief that they owned the Quarks outright, and had even copyrighted the name.

The writers also claimed that the actual design was theirs, or near enough to take legal action over. When DWM covered this story in their 'Archives' feature (Issue 262), they published a drawing of the Quark as the writers had envisioned it. This wasn't contemporary with the production, however, but drawn much more recently from memory. 

We see a square box with a dome covering the top - not a globe - and which has a pair of eyes to the sides. Two tiny caterpillar tracks can be seen on the bottom of the box, and emerging from the sides are a pair of spindly metal arms. The writers did specify that these were intended to accept different attachments of weapons or tools.

Other than the box-like body, there's no similarity between their design and Martin Baugh's final version, which Sherwin also claimed to have had a hand in. 

A meeting was held in July with John Henderson of the BBC's Copyright Department, to discuss the conflicting opinions over ownership. As well as the writers and Bryant and Sherwin, present at this meeting were Baugh and Dicks. Baugh claimed never to have seen the sketch put forward to the production team, and Sherwin stated that he had come up with a rough draft based around the Servo Robot from The Wheel in Space, adding the arms which folded into the body. Both Sherwin and Bryant explained that the writers had been asked to incorporate a new monster, so the idea came from them originally.

Henderson agreed that the writers could have 25% ownership.

There was also confusion over the TV Comic deal, which the writers had hoped would include both the Dominators and the Quarks. The meeting ended with the 25% offer, whereas Haisman asked for a lump sum rather than a percentage. This was refused.

The following Monday, the writers came back with a request for a lump sum of £5000 and 65%, plus a deal with Tuckwell, whilst the BBC countered that there would be no commercial exploitation of the Quarks, or the Yeti, unless the 25% offer was accepted.

The arguments continued until the writers threatened to pull the story entirely, as well as barring the use of the Quarks in the comic strip, by seeking an injunction. The BBC then settled for an undisclosed sum - but it was the last time the writers were involved with Doctor Who, permission already having been given back in May for the reuse of the Lethbridge-Stewart character from The Web of Fear in a forthcoming Cyberman story. "The Laird of McCrimmon" - a third Great Intelligence / Yeti story, which would have written out Jamie - never got beyond the outline stage.

In a later interview, Haisman claimed that Henderson had come down fully on their side and reprimanded the production team, but what paperwork survives disputes this.

Whilst the robots were allowed to appear in TV Comic, the Dominators would be nowhere to be seen. The comic strip Quarks now operated as an independent and autonomous hostile force - as we'll see in the next "Episodes: Afterlife" post...

Much of the location filming we see in this episode was conducted between the Gerrards Cross and Kent sandpits between Thursday 25th April and Friday 3rd May. It was on the final day at the Gerrards Cross location that Artur Cox sustained an injury to his ankle, requiring his leg to be put in plaster.

Hines and Cox were filmed running around the locations as they first attacked the Quarks, and then began to be hunted down by them. At one point Hines seems to slip out of character as Jamie apologises to Cully for having stumbled on the sandy surface, so probably an ad lib by the actor to his colleague.

The filming at Gerrards Cross on Thursday 2nd May was in place of a day's work originally scheduled for Ealing, which the director sacrificed in order to get all the location material he wanted.

A second extra day was then organised for Friday 3rd May, when only the Quarks and actors Ronald Allen and Kenneth Ives were required.

We know that Chris Jeffries was present at Gerrards Cross on the very first day of filming, so the sequence where the Doctor runs towards the Dominator ship with the seed capsule was presumably filmed on that day. It is noticeable on screen that Troughton is being doubled in this scene.

The model filming for the final episode had taken place on Friday 26th April, at the Puppet Theatre in Television Centre. The lift-off of the Dominator ship was simply the film of its landing in Episode 1 reversed. Its explosive destruction was filmed during this session.

The burning of the wall with the sonic screwdriver was filmed at Ealing on Tuesday 30th April.

 

The final studio recording on the story began with a filmed reprise of Balan's death. An extra then stood in for Johnson Bayly for the remainder of the scene.

A camera inlay was used to indicate the view through the bomb shelter's periscope.

This is the earliest surviving episode to feature the sonic screwdriver, and here we see a pen torch being used as the prop - identical to one which William Hartnell had used in The Brink of Destruction, where the Doctor employed it to demonstrate to Susan what had gone wrong with the Fast Return Switch.

An overhead mirror shot was used to show the Doctor sketching out the Dominator plan on a table top with a chinagraph pen, as used to mark film reels for editing.

The Doctor describes the pills from the shelter medical kit as "No. 9 Pills". This probably comes from Troughton himself as an ex-Royal Navy man. During the First and Second World Wars, the British military issued these to troops as a laxative...

A small flash charge was rigged to be detonated when Troughton threw the homemade bomb behind him.

Recording breaks were mostly to allow cast movements from set to set, and to set up the chaotic scene after Toba and the drilling party have been attacked.

The end credits ran over stock footage of a volcanic eruption - that of Surtsey Island, off Iceland, in November 1963.

There were two small cuts to the ends of scenes made in editing. The first was the Doctor hurriedly telling Cully to give his regards to his father, and the second featured Toba vainly trying to stop the countdown for the seed capsule's detonation.

The Dominators was sold as 16mm film prints to a number of territories, one of which was Australia where a number of sequences, mostly from the fourth and fifth instalments, were cut prior to broadcast. These included the deaths of Tensa and Balan, and the torture of Teel. The BBC Film Library had retained 16mm copies of all but Episode 3. The British Film Institute held the censored Australian copies, plus a 35mm copy of Episode 3. An uncut version of Episode 5 was later loaned to the BBC by a private collector for copying, and the Australian censor cuts then turned up in 1996. The complete unedited version of the story was only to be found on the DVD release, as the earlier VHS release did not feature the cut scenes.

The paperwork accompanying the overseas sales of the story still had Haisman and Lincoln listed as the writers.

I'll make a confession here, and that is that I actually rather like The Dominators - but in the sense that I adore cheap 1950's sci-fi and horror B-movies. They're a guilty pleasure.

I certainly don't agree with the political sentiments of the original writers, but this is a perfectly okay adventure. Far from classic, but serviceable.

We have aliens who are threatening a peaceful planet with a sound motivation - not just invasion for no real reason. There's the complication of the native population being pacifists, without weapons or armies to use them. The Doctor and companions arrive, and fortunately meet one local who thinks differently to the societal norm. Together, they decide to take action on their own. We also see Teel, who is initially as committed to pacifist principles as the rest but - through contact with the friendly alien visitors - comes to see their point of view and is prepared to take up the struggle. Haisman and Lincoln may have had a negative view of the younger generation, but hopefully this story ends with people like Cully and Teel representing that generation on Dulkis, ready to shake up their dithering elders.

One thing which does concern, obviously, is what does the Dominator fleet do next? There's a very good chance that they'll simply turn up and obliterate the planet in revenge for the destruction of their ship.

The one silver lining I can see is what I've mentioned a couple of times already. Are the Dominators really as hard as they like to make out? Are they really masters of ten galaxies? If it's all bravado, they might think the Dulcians aren't as weak as Rago stated, and Dulkis is capable of defending itself - so simply steer clear.

We also have to wonder if all Dominator spacecraft have crews as dysfunctional as this one...

Another concern, probably due to the way the story was truncated, is what happens to Cully, Teel and Kando. Hopefully they can all squeeze into that little travel capsule, and Rago hasn't sabotaged it to stop his much needed labour force escaping in it - assuming they have time to find it before the molten lava reaches them. We don't see the Doctor give them any specific directions to find it, assuming he even knows where it is considering it was Rago who used it last. He simply tells Teel to take Cully and Kando to the capsule and return to the Capitol.

A rushed ending is the price to be paid for the condensing of the story's second half into just two episodes.

As well as having a soft spot for the story, I've also loved the Quarks ever since the first Weetabix promotion, and that was long before I ever saw them on screen and heard the malicious child-like voice they were given.

The regulars are also very good in this, with Jamie taking up the action and Zoe, in what is her first proper story as a TARDIS traveller, joining forces with the Doctor to use their scientific knowledge to work out what the Dominators want here. This will be the template for the remainder of the Troughton era: Hines getting the action and Padbury the more cerebral contribution in concert with Troughton's Doctor.

We also get some more Doctor / Jamie humour after the latter suggests digging the tunnel:

The Doctor: "But Jamie, it's a brilliant idea! It's so simple only you could have thought of it".

If the story has a problem, beyond the writers' mean-spirited intentions, it's that it is rather slow to get going - so the idea of cutting it back by an episode was a very good one - even if this was very messily done (more off screen than on). A pity in some ways that Sherwin and Dicks didn't intervene with the narrative sooner.

We also have to lament the loss of a third Yeti story due to the breakdown between the writers and production team, which sounded like a promising one judging by its brief synopsis. The Great Intelligence would have to wait until 2012 to make its return.

Trivia

• The ratings for this story end with a steep drop of more than 1.5 million viewers, though the appreciation figure rallies a little.
• The Doctor was originally to have caught the atomic seed capsule in his woolly hat, as worn in Fury From The Deep - something added by Sherwin.
• A BBC Audience Research Report was prepared on 19th September, looking at the opening instalment of The Dominators. Whilst Troughton and Hines were praised, some felt the series had now ceased to hold any interest or appeal, the Quarks were just "square Daleks", and stories were too fantastical now that there were no more purely historical stories. It was generally felt to be an "unrewarding" story.
• This would prove to be Morris Barry's final contribution to the series as a director. He would go on to produce a number of BBC dramas, including the excellent 1977 adaptation of Dracula, which starred Louis Jourdain as the Count. It was this production which led to Horror of Fang Rock being hastily written to replace Terrance Dicks' vampire story, which would eventually be resurrected as State of Decay. Barry did have one final encounter with Doctor Who after returning to acting late in life, when he played engineer Tollund in The Creature From The Pit. He can also be seen in the Blake's 7 episode "Killer", The Day of the Triffids, and an episode of sitcom Are You Being Served?
• The September issue of Recorder and Music Magazine featured an item about Troughton's playing of the instrument in the programme, mentioning letters to Radio Times about whether it was a left-handed version or not.

• Frazer Hines held a press call on the evening of 4th September to announce that he would soon be leaving the programme, under pressure from his agent to move into feature films. This made the following day's newspapers - such as this from the Daily Mirror:

• Finally, another excuse to show an image of the replica Quark from the 2025 exhibition at Peterborough Museum:

What's Wrong With... The TV Movie

Another of those cases where it might be quicker to list the good points?

Let's start at the beginning, with that pre-credits sequence. It's narrated by Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor - despite the fact that we won't see him for another half hour. We go from him talking to McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, so this probably confused the casual viewer.

The dialogue mostly concerns the Master, and we know that actor Gordon Tipple, playing the "Old Master", did record a version - only for them to go with the McGann version instead.

Then there's the narration itself...

The Master has been captured and put on trial by the Daleks, on their homeworld of Skaro. His last request is for the Doctor to be allowed to collect his remains and return them to Gallifrey.

Lots to unpick here. 

Last time we saw it, Skaro was being destroyed by the Hand of Omega (Remembrance of the Daleks). Even if this is a new Skaro, or the planet at an earlier time before its destruction, since when did the Daleks have any sort of judicial system, especially one pertaining to inferior alien races? The Master would simply have been exterminated on sight.

The idea that they would honour any kind of request from any other species is another nonsense - and that they would allow their greatest enemy to visit the planet and collect the remains and freely depart an even bigger one.

We don't even get to see the Daleks. They're just noises-off and sound terrible. The voices on Day of the Daleks are great in comparison.

How exactly does the Master survive being blown to bits? One theory is that he was in league with the Daleks all along, which is how he survived - and also might go to explain their extraordinary behaviour in allowing the Doctor to turn up and leave again without killing him. 

If this was the case, it certainly isn't mentioned. A single line of dialogue might have gone a long way to explain some of the problems above.

Assuming there was one, and this isn't all just improvisation, what was the Master's plan if the Daleks had refused his final request?

As it is, the Master does make it - but how does he know what the Doctor is going to do with his remains? How does he know he will be in a position to break free and infiltrate the TARDIS? Do all Time Lords have their remains stored in caskets which the Master is able to work out in advance how to break out of?

It all starts to look pre-planned - but, as I've said, there's absolutely no evidence of this on screen.

Read any fanzine or Doctor Who Monthly of the early 1990's and you'll see a common theme in the letters pages, once talk got out that Spielberg was showing an interest. That was the dread of the series being "Americanised". It would be all car chases and shoot-outs.

These letters from UK fans were always accompanied by some from t'other side of the Atlantic actually agreeing. The reason they liked the programme was because of its quirky and eccentric "Britishness", and they certainly didn't want to see this element reduced.

What do we see happen about ten minutes in? Teenage gang members involved in an urban gunfight, straight out of any derivative brain-dead action series / movie. And later on we get the chase. It's not cars, but it has the same function.

This TV movie is clearly aiming itself at the average US viewer who has little or no knowledge of the series, instead simply serving up stuff they are used to.

No doubt this is also why the hero of the show has to, at some point, kiss the heroine. Usually, it goes further than that - they actually couple up, but mercifully we don't see the Doctor and Grace jump into bed together. There are two kisses between them. The first is when the Doctor is ecstatic about remembering who he is, which is pardonable under the circumstances. The second time, after the Master has been defeated, is more of a romantic snog and harder to justify. He's only just met this woman after all.

Going back to the shooting of the Doctor, why didn't he check the scanner before opening the doors and stepping outside?

Why does the gang not carry on and kill Chang-Lee, who appears to be their main target as they mention him specifically by name. They've just killed two men so the man from the blue box's death shouldn't put them off their stride. They only run away when they hear a siren - which isn't even coming for them as we never see any police arrive. If they are that jumpy, why did they not run away when a box materialised out of thin air in front of them?

A young man is found down a dark alley standing beside the corpses of two other young men of similar background - plus a badly wounded man who doesn't appear to be local - and yet we never see the police take any action regarding Chang-Lee, like dragging him downtown to headquarters for questioning.

Four paragraphs in, and I've hardly got beyond the opening section of this story...

The Doctor gets taken to hospital, and we've heard ambulance driver Bruce say that you need to be rich to go there. The Doctor is a John Doe found in an alleyway, victim of a gang feud judging by the other bodies found with him - but no-one checks if he has money or credit cards.

Talking of not checking, the Doctor's X-ray shows an anomaly - but no-one seems to confirm if the image is right by taking a pulse or using a stethoscope, or studying the ECG print-out?

For such a wealthy hospital, it also seems to be semi-derelict.

Would a group of presumably wealthy patrons / potential donors of the hospital really be getting shown around in the middle of the night?

Why did Grace not simply go home that night? If she had done, she would have seen her boyfriend magically moving out of their home taking big items of furniture like the sofa with him, all in the middle of the night if he stayed to see the end of the opera.

Grace leaves the hospital at 3.40pm, but it's 3.20pm when she gets home...

That isn't the only problem with Time here, for it appears to be midnight across the entire planet simultaneously at the climax. 

Was San Francisco only chosen as a location for this story because Vancouver can pass for it? A story about the Millennium really ought to have been set in London, home of the Greenwich Meridian, and home from home for the Doctor.

And everyone knows that the new Millennium didn't start until the following year. We only went daft about this because the numerals changed from 19-something to 20-something.

The new TARDIS looks great, but the destination things on the console are wooden rollers that would only fit a handful of times / places on them.

And just what is the "Rassilon Era"? Does this mean that the TARDIS can go back into Gallifrey's own history? That could surely mean the creation of all manner of paradoxes. And does the "Humanian Era" simply mean Earth history, or anytime in the universe after the human race has evolved?

The biggest issues revolve around the Eye of Harmony.

In The Deadly Assassin this was buried deep beneath the Panopticon and even the Time Lords had forgotten all about it, despite it being their power source. Just tampering with it, let alone opening it up, causes serious damage to the Capitol.

Here, however, the Eye is inside the TARDIS, and is seen to open a couple of times. What opens it is the eye-print of a person - and seemingly any old human being can do this. Indeed, it looks like only a human eye can do it...

Why? Because it responds to the Doctor's eye, and he's half human (on his mother's side).

They've already referred to the TARDIS as having a Cloaking Device, no doubt because some viewers might not know what a chameleon is, or how it relates to camouflage.

Therefore, go down the Star Trek route of explanations. 

Having the Doctor half-human instead of fully alien is probably done for similar reasons. He's just like Mr Spock.

Did they think that the audience simply wouldn't accept a hero who is an alien? Hard to believe, as all the principal characters throughout the Star Wars franchise hail from a galaxy far, far away. 

I can't think of any other reason, however, for making this change. Luckily it has never been revisited - and, indeed, later developments totally discount it being true.

So, is this the Eye of Harmony, or does every TARDIS have one of its own?

The other thing about the human eye opening the Eye is that the Master assumes any human can do it - which is why he uses Chang Lee in the first place. It's only after he does this that he realises / remembers the Doctor's parentage.

A problem which the Master really ought to have thought about, and not for the first time either - destroying a planet that you happen to be on at the time. Does he not remember what happened to him the last time he tried to mess about with the Eye of Harmony?

The new Doctor has developed the sudden gift of knowing little details of random people he meets on Earth. He tells Gareth what questions to answer on a future exam, and advises Chang Lee to be elsewhere the following year. And yet he doesn't know that Grace will turn down his offer to travel with him in the TARDIS?

This new talent may be down to his knowledge of future events, but it seems unlikely he would know such tiny details as how Gareth came to pass that exam, even if he does go on to become a noted scientist. Has he simply cheated and looked up Chang Lee's future before leaving the TARDIS? Is his advice to Chang Lee specific to him, or is something bad going to happen to San Francisco in 2000? If so, shouldn't he do more than warn one person? 

Did he always know that Grace would turn him down, and is just being polite in asking her?

Or does he somehow have the hitherto unseen gift of foreseeing people's individual futures?

It's a terribly unlikely coincidence that there just happens to be a clock component nearby which the Doctor needs to fix the TARDIS - and he's met a woman who's on the board of the place which houses it. 

The TARDIS can move backwards, forwards and sideways in Time - but can it really alter time within itself, and so bring dead people back to life? Just because it goes back a day, Grace and Chang Lee should still be dead within its confines. The Doctor's age doesn't vary every time he travels back and forth. He doesn't suddenly grow a beard if he goes two days into the future, or revert to being a baby if he goes back a few centuries.

Why does the Master care what he looks like - dressing up for the occasion - if he's about to steal the Doctor's body and discard Bruce's?

The Master is a skilled hypnotist, so why did they resort to having him spew up some weird gloop to possess people?

Grace is a surgeon who claims not to be able to set an alarm clock, so how was she able to rewire an alien space / time machine, using alien tools?

And finally, why does Grace turn him down at the end? She's lost her job, her boyfriend and half her furniture, and she's just met a man who can bring her back from the dead. What's not to like?

Doctor Who - The TV Movie has its problems, lots of them, but at least they are self-contained problems. In purely television Doctor Who terms, so long as you don't mind someone looking like Paul McGann turning up in flashback sequences every so often, you could just jump from Survival (3) to Rose and be none the wiser - as just about everything we see here gets discarded in the revived series.

Inspirations: Thin Ice

The phrase "on thin ice", meaning to be in any potential danger, first appears in an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1841.

As a story set around a particular historical event, that's our obvious starting point.

As already mentioned, new companions tended to get the same trio of introductory story types, with the third one being a trip into the past.

Steven Moffat had been impressed with Sarah Dollard's previous story - Face The Raven - and asked her if she had any other ideas. 

A friend of hers had done a lot of research on the last great Frost Fair on the Thames for another project, which had also intrigued Dollard. 

Originally the Doctor was to have taken Bill to visit it deliberately, but this was later amended to be a random visit by the TARDIS.

The river Thames used to freeze over frequently, with the first ever recorded mention back in Roman times.

Henry VIII is said to have used a sleigh instead of his usual barge to travel between Westminster and Greenwich in 1536.

The river used to be slow moving, the climate colder thanks to the Little Ice Age, and London Bridge's 19 piers interfered with the flow of the Thames - ideal conditions for it freezing over during particularly severe winters.

Staging a fair on the ice, in the centre of London, took place for the first time in 695. Others followed in 1608 (the first time the setting up of stalls and entertainments on the ice was actually called a Frost Fair), 1683-84, 1716, 1739-40, 1789, and finally in 1814.

The freeze of 1683-4 was notable for lasting nearly two months. An entire street was built across the Thames from Temple to Southwark, with hackney coaches running its length. When the thaw finally came, a ship moored against a riverside pub broke free and pulled the building down, killing 5 people.

The last time a significant section of the Thames froze over was the winter of 1962-63, in the upper part of the river.

These Fairs ended due to climate change and the demolition of London Bridge in 1831, followed by the building of the Victoria and Albert Embankments which channelled the river quickly through the city.

It is the Frost Fair of 1814 which interests us, however.

The previous episode - Smile - had ended with the Doctor and Bill emerging from the TARDIS to find themselves not where they expected to be - back at St Luke's University. Instead, they had seen ice, and an elephant wandering towards them from out of the fog.

This was one of the most famous events of the 1814 Fair - the ice so thick that an elephant could be led across it by Blackfriars Bridge. The freeze began just after Christmas, 1813, and lasted until 7th February 1814.

As well as food and drink stalls, there was dancing and nine-pin bowling, and a dozen or so printers set up their presses on the ice to print souvenir pamphlets about the Fair.

When the thaw came, a number of people drowned.

The Doctor fails to mention to Bill that he visited this very event with River Song, when he got Stevie Wonder to sing to her for her birthday - as mentioned by her in A Good Man Goes To War.

The Big Finish audio "Frostfire" claims that the 1814 freeze was caused by an alien, whilst different Doctors and companions had visited earlier Fairs in novel and comic adventures.

Whilst the setting for Thin Ice might be the Frost Fair, the actual story revolves around a gigantic serpentine creature trapped beneath the ice in the Thames, which is being exploited by a ruthless peer of the realm during the Industrial Revolution.

The idea for a serpentine entity came from Steven Moffat observing that the Thames, as it appears in the opening credits to EastEnders, looks like a giant snake.

The showrunner was also interested in doing a story involving a sea monster, thinking of movies such as The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and The Giant Behemoth (1959).

Lord Sutcliffe is the villain of the piece, and he has somehow discovered that the creature's excrement can be processed to become a fuel source, capable of providing great heat.

In a nutshell, the Industrial Revolution came about in Great Britain due to the coming together of several key components - readily available resources of water, wood, coal and iron ore, plus the men (and it was mostly men) who had either the vision or the money to exploit them. These were the inventors, and the businessmen / land owners who were wealthy enough to commission the ideas of the former and put them into money-making practice.

Wood, coal and charcoal could only burn to a certain temperature, and to create certain metals this wasn't high enough. New methods of producing power were invented, in the hope that greater, more sustainable, temperatures could be achieved, and so stronger metals could be produced.

There's a lot more to the Industrial Revolution than that, of course, but this is the key element as it relates to this story.

On top of his exploitation of the creature, Sutcliffe plans to bring about the destruction of the ice whilst the Fair is in full swing, as a means of feeding it and so increasing its "output".

And he's a racist to boot.

Whenever a new companion makes their first visit into the past, they often speak about two issues - the "if I step on a butterfly will it change the future?" scenario (as in Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder short story of 1952); and - if they are Black - will they be carted off as slaves. 

We saw this first with Martha Jones on her visit to Elizabethan London in The Shakespeare Code, and it gets a mention again here. In both cases, the Doctor points out that the city has always been more cosmopolitan than people think, and we see a wide range of ethnicities amongst the background cast.

The Doctor here talks about the "whitewashing" of history, though the danger is that the programme is actually presenting an idealised version of the past which ignores the racism of the time.

The idea that Sutcliffe is somehow atypical of early Victorian Britons, of any class, in his attitudes is a bit of a nonsense.

The children whom the Doctor and Bill encounter are orphaned street-urchins who make their living scavenging and stealing - which naturally makes us think of the juvenile pickpocketing gang recruited by Fagin in Oliver Twist or, The Parish Boy's Progress, by Charles Dickens (1838). One of the gang - a boy nicknamed "Spider" - steals the sonic screwdriver and is subsequently killed after being pulled under the ice, eaten by the creature. This is an extremely rare instance of a child being seen to die in the series. His bright red hat stands out, which is presumably a directorial nod to the girl in the red coat in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List.

The Doctor tells the children the story of Der Struwwelpeter, or Shock-Headed Peter - an 1845 German children's book. Written by psychiatrist Heinrich Hoffman, this comprised ten stories which each had a cautionary element, where naughty behaviour has a nasty consequence for the children involved.

Steal sonic screwdrivers - get eaten by sea monsters...

Pie Men were a common sight in Georgian and Victorian London, walking the streets with a tray of freshly baked pies - usually meat but often eel - on their head or strapped to their waist. The best known example in literature is the one met by Simple Simon in the nursery rhyme. Unfortunately, the quality of the contents of the pies varied considerably - hence their cheapness.

Not perambulatory, another famous fictional pie seller is Mrs Lovett, who made her wares from the victims of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street...

Next time: Who's there? The series' oldest gag gets an airing as the Doctor helps Bill move into her new accommodation. No jokes about wooden acting, please...

Episode 213: The Dominators (4)

Synopsis:

The rebellious Cully has escaped from his work party and taken refuge in the old war museum. He has been joined there by Jamie, who uses one of the weapons displayed there to destroy a Quark. Dominator Toba orders other Quarks to destroy the building when Cully fails to surrender...

The rest of the prisoners, including the Doctor and Zoe, have been taken to the Dominator spaceship.

Toba arrives soon after and reports to Rago what he has done. The Navigator is furious - once again accusing his Probationer of wasting valuable energy reserves on wanton destruction. When Toba counters that he had to act as a Quark had been destroyed, Rago points out that they are on an island with no means of escape, so the escapee would have been caught and killed soon enough.

The prisoners are to be sent back to the central drilling site, except for the "inferior species" - the Doctor and Zoe. They are to remain on the spaceship.

The Doctor then witnesses an argument between the Dominators. Rago threatens to report Toba's actions to their Fleet Leader - wasting resources on unnecessary destruction and failing to obey his orders to the letter. He is accused of being rash and impulsive, lacking the qualities of ruthless detachment necessary to succeed. Toba counters that they have been made fools of by primitives, who have even managed to destroy a Quark. Things come to a head when Toba tries to order a Quark to secure Rago - but the superior officer easily countermands this and threatens the Probationer with the same fate. He reluctantly backs down, and is sent to supervise the work party.

Rago then begins questioning the Doctor and Zoe, wishing to know more about this planet and its people.

Jamie and Cully, meanwhile, have survived the attack on the museum - having found the entrance to the bomb shelter at the last minute. Rubble has fallen and is stopping them reopening the hatch, and they also discover that it has blocked the ventilation shaft. They will suffocate if they cannot clear it or open the hatch.

Rago has been told about Senex and the ruling council based in the Capitol. He decides to visit them and asks about the travel capsules. Intent on exploiting the rift between the pair he saw earlier, the Doctor points out that Toba destroyed the survey unit from where the capsules could be launched. Rago instead decides to pilot this spaceship to the city. The Doctor does not want this to happen as he wants time to investigate it, so tells Rago about the capsule he and Jamie used, which he thinks can be repaired.

Rago has the Doctor take him to it, and summons Toba to inform him of his plan to visit the Capitol. He will go alone, accompanied by one Quark for protection. Toba is in charge in his absence - but he wants to see the same number of prisoners working on his return.

Zoe is able to tell the Doctor about the bomb shelter in the museum, and that Jamie and Cully may have survived.

They, meanwhile, have managed to force open the hatch. They have lost the laser weapon, but Jamie still wants to go on the attack - pointing out that the Dominators are relatively weak without their robots. They decide to scout out the area, and see Balan alone with two Quarks at one drill site.

They realise that this work must be important, so decide to disrupt it.

The Doctor and Zoe are back in the spaceship where Toba is monitoring the drilling. The Doctor wants to know what they are drilling for - the "materials readily available" mentioned earlier. The Doctor hopes for a diversion so they can find out more.

After throwing stones at the Quarks guarding Balan, Jamie and Cully roll a huge boulder down the slope, which wrecks one of the robots.

This is flagged up by an alarm on the ship, and Toba rushes out to investigate - giving the Doctor his opportunity. He and Zoe guess this to have been Jamie's handiwork.

They begin by investigating the spaceship's power source - and discover that it absorbs and stores radiation. This is why the radiation disappeared from the island.

Toba questions Balan about the attack, and then orders the Quarks to search the island and destroy the hostile force he believes to be concealed here. Balan is sent back to the spaceship.

The Dulcian council, with Tensa still in attendance, are continuing to debate what should be done about the visitors on the island. Senex refuses to believe that a civilised race would stoop to violence.

Rago then enters with his Quark escort, demanding information.

Appalled by his lack of respect towards their Director, Tensa begins arguing with him. Rago has no time for this, and expects primitives to bow to superior force. He orders the Quark to kill Tensa - shocking the council members.

Rago then informs Senex that he requires slave labour. He seems to imply that those not fit for work have no future, then departs.

Toba is questioning Teel and Kando about the attack on the Quark, and the young man is forced to admit that it could only have been Cully who was responsible, as there is no-one else on the island. Toba then recalls that Jamie hasn't been seen recently. He orders everyone back to the spaceship.

Balan is telling the Doctor and Zoe about the destruction of the Quark when Toba returns with the others.

He orders them to tell him where Cully and Jamie are, and threatens to kill them one by one unless they co-operate.

Balan attempts to protect his students, but is the first to be killed - shot down by a Quark.

Everyone watches in horror as the old man dies. 

Toba then tells the Doctor that he will be next...

Data:

Written by Norman Ashby

Recorded: Friday 7th June 1968 - Television Centre Studio TC3

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 31st August 1968

Ratings: 7.5 million / AI 51

VFX: Ron Oates

Designer: Barry Newbery

Director: Morris Barry

Critique:

I mentioned last week that Episode 3 was the last to be written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. This is why...

Peter Bryant had gone on holiday on the 3rd of March, returning on Sunday 17th. The writers had submitted their fourth episode on Friday 15th. Derrick Sherwin had already found problems with the third instalment, which he felt lacked action. The writers seemed to be more interested in the discussions amongst the Dulcian council members, which they felt satirised the peace movement. A pacifist group would spend all their time debating what to do, rather than be able to react and take any action against an aggressor - an obvious weakness in their view. As Ian Chesterton had once said: "Pacifism only works when everybody feels the same".

Sherwin found the writers to be overly protective of their work, and every change requested was a struggle to get through.

Bryant called a meeting for the day after he got back from leave, which annoyed Haisman and Lincoln. Already behind schedule for submitting their scripts, this would entail the loss of half a day's writing.

Later that week - Thursday 21st - Episodes 5 and 6 were requested. The fifth instalment was delivered the following morning at 10am. At noon, however, the writers were once again summoned to meet with Bryant and Sherwin - a meeting called for 3pm that same day. At this meeting Haisman and Lincoln were told to drop the sixth episode.

Sherwin was unhappy with the lack of action in the fourth episode as it stood, and now Morris Barry had been assigned as director - and he was very unhappy with what he was being asked to work with. He felt that the scripts were inferior to his previous Cyberman ones. Also, a lot of location filming had been allocated to the story, which the producer wanted to see used effectively on screen. Men talking in a council chamber was certainly neither his nor Sherwin's priority.

It then transpired that Sherwin and his assistant, Terrance Dicks, had been busily rewriting the fourth episode without the writers' knowledge - and the plan was to condense the second half of the story into just two episodes - making it now a five-parter.

Haisman and Lincoln were informed that they would be paid for all six scripts, but they left the meeting deeply disappointed. They decided to take their names off the story, as the new fourth and fifth episodes would not be their work. They decided on a pen-name of "Norman Ashby" - derived from their respective fathers-in-law.

There was one other major bone of contention between the writers and the production team - but we'll talk about that rather convoluted business next time...

Thursday 24th April saw Frazer Hines and Arthur Cox at the sand and gravel pit at Gerrards Cross, to film scenes of Jamie and Cully roving about the island as they begin attacking the Quarks. These sequences would be used throughout the fourth and fifth instalments.

This work continued on Sunday 28th at the story's other location - Olley (Wrotham) Ltd Sand Pit at Trottiscliffe in Kent, not far from Maidstone.

This included the sequence where Cox rolls a lightweight prop boulder down a slope to destroy another Quark. The boulder was then simply placed across a Quark prop to suggest that it had been crushed.

More filming back at Gerrards Cross took place the following day - after a session at Ealing Studios had been sacrificed in favour of more location work to complete all the exterior scenes required for the story.

The episode opened with a filmed reprise of the previous week's closing scene, whilst the credits were shown over a shot of a Quark in the Dominator spaceship.

Some dialogue between Jamie and Cully regarding the bomb shelter's periscope was dropped just before recording. The first recording break allowed the two actors to move from the shelter set to the war museum one, which was raised on a rostrum to allow them to be seen emerging from the hatch in the floor.

Other breaks were arranged to set up the deaths of Tensa and Balan, as smoke was pumped up through their costumes - a simpler process than the one used for the killing of Tolata (see below).

The travel capsule was set up on a small landscape set. The front left hand side of the capsule prop was removed to allow for shots of Rago, the Doctor and Zoe standing outside its hatch looking in.

The end credits began to roll over a shot of the Doctor, isolated from the others and facing a Quark as Toba gave the order to kill him next.

There were three cuts to the episode made during the editing stage. The first of these was a scene between Jamie and Cully in the shelter as they discussed their situation. The second was a film sequence, with Toba arriving to see the Quark that had been crushed by the boulder. The final cut followed the death of Tensa, as the councillors reacted to the incident - never having seen someone die by violence before and finally realising that they had no means of dealing with such a threat to their society.

As we said right at the start, The Dominators isn't terribly well regarded - but we do have to wonder what the full six part Haisman-Lincoln version might have looked like. Probably a lot duller, featuring more scenes of debate amongst the council members.

From what I can gather, from interviews given by both Haisman and Sherwin, the writers' plan was to juxtapose what was going on on the island - the Doctor and his friends fighting back against the invaders - with what the council were doing, which was nothing at all since they could do aught but debate every little thing. 

There is probably a bit of their work in this fourth episode, which was submitted but then rewritten. We know that the big confrontation between Rago and Toba, where they almost come to blows, was added by Sherwin and Dicks to pad out the episode, at the expense of some of those council scenes.

What we have been left with is a salvaged version, which includes more location-based action. As it happens, the Dulcian council simply disappears after this instalment.

Things do take a darker turn this week, as first Tensa and then Balan are cruelly shot down by Quarks.

A number of scenes were cut by the Australian censors, and it was this edited version which first appeared on VHS. One section cut to a minimum was the death of Balan. It is quite a horrific sequence, as he stumbles around the spaceship moaning for several seconds before collapsing, with smoke billowing from his costume.

The death of Tolata had been handled quite differently, however, as that had been achieved on film. Within the confines of the TV studio, with limited editing opportunities, this simpler technique was employed - the same one Barry had already used on both of his Cyberman stories.

The Doctor is now paired with Zoe, whilst Jamie allies himself with Cully and they decide to go on the offensive, finally raising the action quotient of the story which is what Sherwin was looking for.

The Doctor and Zoe use their scientific expertise to investigate the Dominator spaceship, learning that its engine acts like a huge battery, sucking up and storing radiation. However, the Doctor still hasn't worked out how this relates to the drilling activity going on around the island.

Previously I mentioned that the claim by the Dominators to be 'Masters of the Ten Galaxies' might just be braggadocio. Toba mentions it again this week in his confrontation with Rago: "Was it by softness that the Dominators became Masters of the Ten Galaxies...?"

However, when Rago visits the council he tells Senex: "We control an entire galaxy. Our war mission is spreading to colonise others...". Not quite Masters of Ten then.

The contradiction might well be down to the troubled development of the episode, with four pairs of hands involved in its writing.

Trivia:

• The ratings suddenly see a big upswing, of more than 2 million viewers on the previous week's instalment. This was despite the fact that the industrial action affecting ITV had now come to an end. The appreciation figure drops significantly, however.
• Earlier in August, jazz musician and critic George Melly had commented favourably on the series in The Observer, comparing it with Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel which he found to be "a four star bore". He claimed Doctor Who's "quirkiness, bad temper and a respect for the individual more than compensate for the occasional cut-price monster".
• For the fourth week running, Radio Times had a feature on the programme to accompany the day's TV listings. This time, it was a brief piece on Wendy Padbury, accompanied by one of the publicity photographs taken in Hammersmith Park on 14th March. (I see that Vincent Price was guest starring in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. that week...):

The Art of... The Dominators

The Dominators was novelised by Ian Marter, and first published in hardback in July 1984, with the paperback following a few months later. The artist is Andrew Skilleter. Whilst the image of Ronald Allen as Rago, and the Quark by the drilling machine come from publicity photographs, the main Quark image is entirely of the artist's own devising.

There had been a three year gap since the last Troughton story had been novelised - The Enemy of the World, also by Marter, who of course is best remembered for playing companion Harry Sullivan.

The writer elected to rename Cully as "Kully", and made the Quarks gold in colour - as their original design drawing by Martin Baugh. He also made them two metres tall, and gave the Dominators bright green eyes. The survey unit was described as a portable building and, rather than have it blown up, it simply falls down a ravine after being attacked.

Despite the TV story's poor reputation, its novelisation was voted third best release for the year by fans.

In 1989, the book was repackaged by Star Book alongside The Krotons, using Skilleter's artwork on its front cover.

The novel was reissued in 1991, this time with a cover by Alister Pearson. This new artwork was a tie-in with the recent VHS release of the story. As well as the Doctor we get both Rago and Toba, taken from a single publicity photo in which they face each other (see below), and between the Quarks we can see one of Barry Newbery's graphic designs which featured on the walls of the Dulcian survey unit.

The soundtrack was released in May 2007 with the usual colourful photomontage cover. The narrator was Wendy Padbury, who also provided an interview. A Quark head forms the backdrop to some familiar publicity images, though it's an unusual portrait of Troughton that is used, taken from a screen grab (unless someone knows otherwise?).

The VHS release came in September 1990. One of the photographs on the back cover was that one I mentioned, with Rago and Toba facing each other, showing exactly where Pearson got his inspiration. This was an edited version of the story, with certain scenes from episodes four and five censored - most notably the prolonged death of Balan.

The DVD release followed in July 2010 (January 2011 in the US), with a cover designed by Clayton Hickman. Once again we get that same side-on image of the Dominators flanking the Doctor. The spaceship model also features this time. 

The DVD release had the censored scenes reinstated.

Skilleter's artwork was used for the audiobook release, read by Michael Troughton. This was released in September 2018.

R is for... Ramo

Ramo was one of the High Priests of the Temple of Amdo in Atlantis. These were the 20th Century descendants of the original city state, which sank beneath the ocean in antiquity.

He hated Professor Zaroff, who had come to Atlantis promising to return the city to the surface to become a great power once more. He distrusted his scheme to achieve this, and was disdainful of his blasphemous opinions about their deity. The Doctor was able to see in him a potential ally - someone who might have the ear of King Thous and who might be able to persuade him that Zaroff's plan would destroy the entire planet. However, the monarch was too much under Zaroff's sway and eager to see his kingdom revived. Ramo was discredited, and sent to the temple to be sacrificed to Amdo along with the Doctor.

Ben, Polly and Jamie were able to rescue them both. Later, Zaroff had been kidnapped by them to stop him putting his scheme into its final phase. The wily scientist feigned illness to escape - killing Ramo with a trident before fleeing.

Played by: Tom Watson. Appearances: The Underwater Menace (1967).

• Watson was a well-known face of stage and screen in Scotland. He is best known for playing the boss of Chief Inspector Taggart - Superintendent Murray - for the first three years of the long-running series.

R is for... Rakweed

When Sarah Jane Smith, Luke, Rani and Clyde were menaced one day by Slitheen, they were rescued by a pair of Blathereen named Leef and Tree. These were a rival clan from Raxacoricofallapatorius, orange in colour, who despised the Slitheen.

Leef and Tree had come to Earth to offer a gift - a flowering plant known as Rakweed, which grew profusely on their home planet. It could be processed to create a highly nutritious foodstuff which could alleviate famine on the planet.

That night, the plant given to Sarah as a sample began to germinate, producing hundreds of spores. Breathing them in, Luke fell dangerously ill. The spores spread out through an open window, and soon the plants were beginning to sprout up everywhere.

Clyde had to sit a science test the next day, and decided to smuggle K-9 into the classroom in advance to help him. Rakweed had established themselves in the lab, and these began to emit more spores.

Sarah was able to use super-computer Mr Smith to work out what was going on. The parasitic Rakweed would soon destroy all life on Earth, as the spores were programmed to eliminate any lifeform which might threaten its existence. 

It transpired that Leef and Tree were actually cousins of the Slitheen, harbouring the same genocidal intent. It was discovered that the plant was susceptible to high frequency sound - noticed when the spores shrank from the school bell. K-9 and Mr Smith were able to replicate and broadcast this frequency across West London to destroy the Rakweed and save Luke.

Blathereen were addicted to the plant and, after gorging themselves on it, Sarah used the frequency to destroy what Leef and Tree had just eaten - blowing them up.

Appearances: SJA 3.6 The Gift.

• Leef and Tree were voiced by Miriam Margolyes and Simon Callow respectively.