Episode 227: The Invasion (8)

Synopsis:

The Cybermen have turned on Vaughn, after accusing him of betraying them due to the destruction of their invasion fleet. They announce that they are going to drop a Cyber-Megatron bomb, which will destroy all life on Earth.

The Doctor angrily rounds on Vaughn, demanding to know if this is what he wanted - to be master of a dead world...
This has been overheard by Corporal Benton on the UNIT transport aircraft, picked up from the radio the Doctor is carrying. He contacts the Brigadier at Henlow Downs missile base, where everyone is congratulating Zoe. They will return to the mobile HQ, leaving Major Branwell to monitor for any further spaceships - and the approach of the bomb.

In his office, Vaughn continues to argue with the Cyber-Director, unwilling to accept that his partnership with the Cybermen is at an end. He tries to point out that they will be destroying their own kind if they drop their bomb, but the machine counters that this is a small sacrifice to pay for complete victory.

Losing control over his emotions, Vaughn aims the Cerebratron Mentor at the machine and destroys it.

The Doctor argues that they are now both on the same side, and their priority is to deactivate the radio homing beacon, as the Cybermen will use this to target their bomb. Vaughn tries to call Packer - only to see a Cyberman appear on the internal cameras. Packer rushes in, announcing that the building is being overrun. 

A Cyberman enters and Packer shoots it, with no effect. It kills him.

The Doctor has taken cover behind the desk, and uses the Mentor to destroy the Cyberman.

He then calls on the Brigadier to discuss the situation. They must either shut down the beacon, or destroy the Cybership which will deliver the bomb. However, Captain Turner reports that the Russian rocket would take too long to reach it.

Vaughn tries to justify his actions by claiming that he would have brought order to the world, but the Doctor gets him to agree to help. UNIT will send a helicopter to collect them from the roof and take them to the compound where the homing beacon controls are located.

Vaughn warns that it will be heavily guarded, but he will bring the Mentor with him.

The Brigadier and Zoe arrive at the aircraft and it is ordered to take off and land as close to the compound as possible.

The Russian rocket lifts off.

The Doctor contacts the Brigadier to inform him that they are about to land at the compound. He is advised to wait until a UNIT assault platoon can join him - but he argues that there is no time. He and Vaughn are going in alone.

Isobel and Zoe insist on joining the Brigadier as he leads the platoon.

The Doctor and Vaughn are confronted by a number of Cybermen as they make their way through the compound towards the building where the radio beacon is housed. Vaughn despatches them with the professor's machine.

The Brigadier and his men are also encountering stiff opposition. Only bazookas have any effect on the Cybermen. 

The Doctor and Vaughn reach their goal. Vaughn manages to destroy some of the guards, but is shot and killed. 

The Doctor flees, but manages to run into the Brigadier's platoon. He points out the beacon control room which they must destroy - before posing for some of Isobel's photographs.

A short time later, the Brigadier is updating the rest of UNIT and the missile base crew with the current situation. The beacon has been destroyed, but the Cybermen are still out in space sending their hypnotic signal to the Earth, and preparing to drop their bomb.

Sergeant Peters informs Branwell that a large object has just appeared on their radar, so he interrupts the Brigadier to notify him. It can only be the Cybership, moving in closer to drop its bomb now that it no longer has the beacon to guide it. It is beyond their missile range, however.

The Brigadier contacts Turner, who will have the Russian crew divert the missile. It is now some twelve and a half minutes from the target - long enough for the Cybermen to drop their bomb and move away.

After a tense wait, the Cyberman bomb appears on radar and Henlow Downs are able to destroy it with their missiles.

The Russian rocket then blows up the Cybership.

Soon after, Zoe finds herself once more being called upon to model for Isobel. Thanks to her photographs from the compound battle, she has been offered a big magazine contract. Turner arrives to take Zoe and the Doctor back to the field where the TARDIS landed, picking up a recovered Jamie on the way. Isobel will accompany them.

She and the Captain are bemused to see the Doctor and his companions wandering around the field with their arms outstretched - until they see the Doctor appear to vanish. The TARDIS is made visible again as he replaces the now-repaired visual circuits. Jamie and Zoe bid their new friends goodbye and enter, and they look on in amazement as the Police Box dematerialises...

Next time: The Krotons

Data:

Written by Derrick Sherwin (from a story by Kit Pedler)

Recorded: Friday 8th November 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 21st December 1968

Ratings: 7 million / AI 53

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Douglas Camfield

Critique:

After completing work on The Invasion, Derrick Sherwin temporarily stepped away from his script editor role to basically become co-producer of Doctor Who - working alongside Peter Bryant (who hoped to move on) and allowing Terrance Dicks to take over his old duties full time. This meant he would be given no on-screen credit for the next two stories, despite his heavy involvement behind the scenes.

Several sequences for this episode were reworked during the summer of 1968. The helicopter pilot who took the Doctor and Vaughn to the IE compound was a named character (Love), so this sequence may have been intended to be filmed, rather than audio only.

The scene with the Brigadier being informed about the Cyber-Megatron bomb was also amended.

It was originally planned that the battle at the compound would end with the Brigadier throwing a grenade into the building housing the homing beacon controls. A Cyberman would have staggered out and fallen over the railings - narrowly missing Isobel who was photographing the Doctor below.

UNIT troops used captured Cyber-guns during the battle.

One big change was to the scene where Vaughn turns on the Cyber-Director. It was intended that it would open up, and the Servo Robot from The Wheel in Space (1) would emerge. Vaughn destroyed this using the Cerebratron Mentor, before turning the device on the Director itself.

The Brigadier was also due to accompany Captain Turner and Isobel to the field at the conclusion to the story.

The battle at the compound is obviously the highlight of the episode - meaning that the episode rather runs out of steam with some time still to go. Camfield tries to raise the tension for the later scenes, as everyone nervously waits for the rocket to reach its target. The actual conclusion to the action takes the form of more of that ropey stock footage - and the poor model work, filmed at Ealing on Friday 30th August. Camfield supervised this himself, and was disappointed with the results.

He was also unhappy with the destruction of the Cyber-Director, when only a few bits fell off the prop, and so opted to have the screen white out with a video effect for broadcast.

The battle itself was filmed over two days - Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th September - at the premises of TCC Condensers in Ealing. Work was scheduled from 8.30am to 5.30pm, and a photocall was arranged for the first day. The filming was also covered by the BBC's in-house magazine Ariel.

Six Cybermen were present, with three stuntmen playing UNIT soldiers - Alan Chuntz, Terry Walsh and Billy Corrigan.

This is the only episode in which the Cybermen are seen to fire their new guns, provided by Bill King's company, as they couldn't be used in studio due to the flame they produced.

The Ministry of Defence provided two Land Rovers and a lorry, as well as a platoon of the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, who were based at St James Barracks. Their commander was the appropriately named Major Courage. They wore their own uniforms, but added UNIT badges to their berets. Obsessed with all things military, Camfield was in his element.

One of the soldiers asked the Major if they should salute Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier. Courtney himself had never risen above the rank of Private during his time in the army on National Service, and was delighted to later be invited to dinner at the barracks alongside their overall commander, Second-Lieutenant Lord James.

The crew returned to the same venue on Thursday 12th September to film further Episode 8 sequences, including the Doctor and Vaughn moving through the compound towards the homing beacon building. Vaughn's death was filmed on this day, and another photocall was arranged for Troughton and Kevin Stoney.

The only other filming for this episode had taken place on Tuesday 3rd September, at Williamstrip Farm, Gloucestershire, when the TARDIS departure scenes were filmed - with Sally Faulkner and Robert Sidaway also present. A metal pole was set up in the middle of the field to act as a guide for Troughton to indicate where the TARDIS would be for the invisibility effect (split screen).

The final studio recording day was Friday 8th November. Frazer Hines was on holiday - Jamie's only contribution to the episode being on film for the episode's final sequence.

James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters) is conspicuous by his absence, and it has been stated by John Levene in several interviews that Benton was given a bigger role after one member of the cast was consistently late for rehearsals and so was dismissed by Camfield. Putting two and two together I think we can safely assume that this was a reference to Thornhill.

Only one Cyberman was required in studio and this was played by Pat Gorman, for the scene in which Packer is killed.

The episode was recorded out of sequence based on sets - first Vaughn's office, then the Henlow Downs command centre, then the UNIT aircraft ops room, and finally the living room at Watkins' home.

For this, a number of photographs were taken of Sheila Dunn to pin to the walls, as those of Sally Faulkner from the opening episodes had gone missing.

One of the evening's recording breaks was to replace the complete Cyber-Director prop with the damaged version.

A wrap party was held after recording, at which Peter Halliday read a poem he had composed about Terrance Dicks, which he performed in a Cyberman voice. Peter Bryant approached Nicholas Courtney about becoming a regular in the next season, since UNIT was to feature prominently in the planned revamp of the series. Having just started a family, Courtney accepted immediately.

The Invasion was sold to Australia, Hong Kong, Gibraltar and Singapore, who screened it in the early 1970's. New Zealand opted not to purchase any Season 6 stories. In Australia the story was broadcast with a number of cuts, including the killing of the policeman in the sewers and Watkins firing Packer's gun into Vaughn's chest.

The story was scheduled for wiping by the BBC in May 1971. As previously mentioned, Episodes 1 and 4 are currently missing from the archives.

Courtney filmed video links for the VHS release of the story, whilst Cosgrove Hall animated the missing instalments for the DVD.

As I've said, the final episode is let down somewhat by the anti-climactic conclusion to the action, once the Cybermen at the compound have been dealt with. The aliens appear to have only ever landed in the south of England - despite IE being a multi-national corporation. One wonders why they didn't establish troop assemblies in other cities around the world. There's also that business of them being unable to target the Earth without the aid of a homing beacon, despite their spaceship being on the near side of the Moon. (The Ice Warriors will shortly have the same problem).

That said, overall The Invasion is one of the best Troughton stories, for a number of reasons. They may only appear in significant numbers in three of the eight episodes, but the Cybermen are used effectively when they do feature - with the climax to Episode 6 and this week's big battle being stand-out moments.

When it comes to Cybermen of the B&W era, I'm often reminded of Christopher Lee's Dracula. He doesn't show up until the half way mark, and does less and less in each subsequent appearance, but when he does appear he dominates the screen.

Then we have the return of Nicholas Courtney's Lethbridge-Stewart, and the creation of UNIT. If the Doctor is to spend a lot more time on present day Earth, and he's encountering various alien or home-grown threats, then an outfit such as this is essential. If the Quatermass serials are a template, then he allied himself with the police and the military at times also. To fight invaders on his own, or with only his companion(s), every week would never have been sustainable.

It is a pity that we didn't get to meet Professor Travers one more time, and his daughter Anne. Isobel is too much of a stereotype (and more than a little bit annoying) and I just can't picture her as the companion for Season 7, which had been considered as a possibility. I think that the comparisons with Adam Adamant would have been too great had she been partnered with the flamboyant Third Doctor instead of scientist Dr Liz Shaw.

Next, there is Kevin Stoney's Tobias Vaughn, one of the great villains of the classic era. He and Mavic Chen - Stoney again - are arguably the best villains of the B&W era. (This is undoubtedly helped by the fact that both performances appear in the two longest stories to date, with Stoney appearing across 19 episodes and so really able to develop the roles).

We finally get to learn more about Vaughn's motivations, as well as the fact that this invasion has been in the planning for five years. We've already seen how his offices look identical and heard that he favours functionality and efficiency. He sees the Earth as a mass of conflicting social and political ideologies, and seeks to bring order to the chaos by imposing his own ideals on everyone. He isn't simply out for power for its own sake.

We earlier described him as a Bond-style villain, but there is one other inspiration which was topical at the time. Both ITV and the BBC ran popular series in the 1960's based around the machinations of Big Business. The Beeb had Mogul, which starred Geoffrey Keen (well known both for Bond and one of those Hammer Dracula's), whilst ATV had The Plane Makers and its sequel The Power Game. Both starred Patrick Wymark as ruthless business tycoon John Wilder. Innes Lloyd was desperate to get him into Doctor Who, and he was even considered as a potential Doctor. (Wymark appears alongside Wendy Padbury and Anthony Ainley in the folk-horror classic Blood on Satan's Claw).

The contemporary, mostly urban, setting, with the spy-fi trappings of the first half, also help the story stand out. 

The Web of Fear may have planted the seeds for the future direction of the series, but The Invasion is the actual trial run for what would follow in Season 7. It is very much a bridge between '60's and '70's Doctor Who, featuring elements of both eras.

Trivia:

• The ratings end pretty much where they started. As with last week, festive activities might have led to some potential viewers being away from home that evening.
• This was the longest of the eight episodes, running to just over 25 minutes.
• This episode marks Kit Pedler's final contribution to Doctor Who. Frustrated at only being used as an "ideas man" of late, he and Gerry Davis would soon collaborate again on their own series Doomwatch, which ran for three seasons. Later in life he became interested in ecological matters as well as showing an interest in parapsychology - writing books on both subjects. In May 1981 he was working on the TV series Mind Over Matter, which dealt with the paranormal, when he suffered a fatal heart attack, aged only 53.
• Kevin Stoney would have another encounter with the Cybermen in his final appearance in the series, when he played Councillor Tyrum in Revenge of the Cybermen.
• Vaughn manages to survive, according to the 'New Adventures' novel Original Sin - having downloaded his consciousness into a number of cybernetic bodies at the point he is blasted by the Cybermen.
• The TCC Condensers site will appear again soon, as the premises of "Auto Plastics" in Spearhead From Space. Some of the exact same locations will be used, almost shot for shot, only with UNIT fighting Autons instead of Cybermen. It also features in The Ambassadors of Death (the warehouse battle). The BBC bought the derelict site, upon part of which the famous "Acton Hilton" rehearsal block was built. The VFX Department were also based here for a time, as well as the BBC wig and costume stores and the offices of Children in Need. It was all demolished around 2010 and is now residential.
• Other than brief cameos in The War Games, The Mind of Evil and Carnival of Monsters, The Invasion was the only appearance for this particular design of Cybermen. The image of them marching down the steps near St Paul's inspired their depiction on the two sets of Weetabix figures (1975 and 1977), as well as a Doctor Who Top Trumps card. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who turned a duplicate 1975 figure into a Cyber-Leader using a black felt-tip pen...

• The Top Trumps card adapts publicity images to reflect their recent appearance in Revenge of the Cybermen, with the thicker ribbed handles and piping. It is also worth pointing out that the 1975 Weetabix figure, whilst striking a pose from the St Paul's photoshoot, is actually based upon the hybrid Cyberman costume put together for Radio Times, appearing on the wraparound cover of its Doctor Who 10th Anniversary Special:

• The Invasion featured prominently in a double page photo spread titled "Dr Who and the Robots", which appeared in DC's Giant Superman Album:

• And finally - my favourite of the two movie-style posters from Oliver Arkinstall-Jones:

What's Wrong With... The Long Game

Generally regarded as the weakest story of the first revived series, The Long Game proves important for the season finale - but of course we only know this in hindsight. At the time of broadcast, it was simply regarded as being rather dull. Following Dalek probably didn't help.

Nor did the introduction of a new, male, companion in Adam Mitchell. He proves to be quite an interesting character in this, after failing to make much of an impact in his debut episode. Having a flawed companion in the TARDIS for a while might have been a good idea, had they handled it better than they did with Turlough, or Adric to an extent. A big problem is that this potential is squandered and he is never properly developed - ditched very quickly after just this story.

One problem, for me, is RTD's insistence that this series would not venture far from Earth - arguing that the audience would not be able to relate to "Zogs, from the planet Zog". Whilst we have some impressive sets here, and nice CGI of the space station, everyone looks far too normal. We're thousands of years in the future, and everyone looks like it's 2005. You can argue that fashion travels in cycles, but it just looks cheap. Dialogue does mention the lack of aliens, and a handful are said to be no longer visiting Earth, but you would have expected at least some different species. What about ones who had actually settled on Earth, or home-grown creatures such as Silurians?

The station uses news broadcasts to deliberately isolate the human race from the rest of the universe, but does so by fairly mundane, actual news items. Why not simply create one big false news item like a massive galactic plague?

If everyone has a chip implanted in their head, which the Editor can access and monitor, why doesn't the Jagrafess simply use these to achieve its aims? 

Then there's the monster, which seems to be there purely to have a monster. RTD is clearly having a pop at the corpulent media mogul Robert Maxwell, but you just can't equate this slab of fat with the complex scheme it is carrying out. A human villain would have worked a lot better, and you've even got one there in the shape of the Editor. As the Jagrafess doesn't have dialogue, the Editor actually makes its presence redundant.

The Jagrafess has lots of sharp teeth, suggesting a carnivore, but it doesn't appear to eat anyone or anything. Its victims are merely rendered frozen zombies.

If terrestrial biology is anything to go by, the species with the longest life spans tend to be cold-blooded and so need heat to function.

Satellite 5 sits in space, so you would have thought that the Jagrafess would have sorted out this overheating business a lot more efficiently than simply pumping it through the station - instead of, say, channelling it into space?

Floor 500 is freezing, yet Suki doesn't react to the cold when she first arrives there, wearing nothing heavier than a blouse. And no-one's breath mists.

The satellite is monitored closely by CCTV, yet the sudden materialisation of a Police Box on Floor 39 goes unnoticed.

In the series finale, heavy sunspot activity cuts off all transmissions from the station. This episode is set a century before then, but the reported heavy sunspot activity (as seen on the "Bad Wolf" channel) doesn't seem to have the same effect - despite this being much older technology.

Going back to Adam, the Doctor thinks he will simply keep his head down and not cause trouble, otherwise he will find himself a laboratory specimen. But what happens if he has an accident or illness and has to go to hospital? What happens when he dies? The technology he has in his skull will eventually be found out, at a point in time when it shouldn't exist, and so the Doctor is tampering with human technological progress by leaving him in 2012 - doing the very thing he has accused Adam of doing.

Answerphones of 2012 employed a tiny magnetic tape cassette, so quite how Adam intended to use this to retrieve all the information about future technology he's acquired is anyone's guess.

Actually, the first big new development in computing is only a few years away from 2012. Who's to say it isn't Adam himself who is behind it? At the very least he could make a fortune on the stock market with the knowledge he has in his head.

The little forehead hatch opens at the sound of a click, and is said to be the default setting. In an advanced technological society you would be surrounded by clicking sounds, so it's a pretty stupid thing to have as the default. (It may be that users can train themselves to override this, but if that's the case then it is never stated).

Finally - hindsight again - the Daleks are simply going to bomb the Earth when they get there, so what was the point of playing the long game anyway?

TARDIS Crew

The BBC released the first image of the new pre-school animated series yesterday. As it's definitely not aimed at someone like me, it's not something I'll be covering here, though I will probably watch the first one just to see what it's like. Certainly looks far too cute for my tastes.

It's not due until sometime in 2027.

R is for... Ravon

Mocked by the Doctor as a "Boy General" Ravon was an overly zealous Kaled military commander on the planet Skaro. The Doctor, with companions Sarah and Harry, had been diverted by the Time Lords to the planet at a time just as the Daleks were being created by the Kaled scientist Davros - his mission to avert their creation or at least ensure they would not pose so great a threat to the entire universe. After a gas attack in the wastelands which lay between the domed cities of the Kaleds and Thals, the Doctor and Harry were captured by Ravon and his men and taken for interrogation to the bunker where Davros and his scientific elite worked.

They later escaped and made their way to the Kaled dome so that the Doctor could try to convince their leadership of the threat which Davros' creations posed. Ravon was present at this meeting, and gave the Doctor information as to how he could get into the Thal city to rescue Sarah and attempt to speak with their leaders.

Ravon perished when the Kaled dome was destroyed by a Thal rocket, after Davros had given them information on how to breach it - prepared to see his own people wiped out rather than allow them to interfere with his Dalek project.

Played by Guy Siner. Appearances: Genesis of the Daleks (1975)

• Siner is best known for playing the camp Lt Gruber, he of the little tank, in wartime comedy 'Allo, 'Allo!. (In 2007 he reprised the role for an Australian stage version, which co-starred Katy Manning).
• He is one of a small number of actors who have appeared in both Doctor Who and the Star Trek TV franchise, having played Malcolm Reed's father in ST: Enterprise.
• He also played a Minbari religious leader in Babylon 5.

R is for... Ravio

One of the last surviving humans at the end of the Cyber-Wars. She had originally been a nurse. The Doctor and her companions met her on a planet which was about to fall to the Cybermen, led by Ashad, who retained emotions and saw himself as the saviour of the Cyber-race who would purge them of the remnants of their previous humanity.

In fleeing the planet in search of a sanctuary world known as "Ko Sharmus", the Doctor's party became separated. Ravio joined Graham and Yaz on a stolen Cybership. They came across a seemingly derelict Cyberman transport ship. It proved to be full of Cyber-Warriors awaiting activation.

Ashad followed, and at one point the group had to disguise themselves as Cyber-Warriors.

It transpired that Ko Sharmus was actually a person, an old man who guarded a space / time barrier known as the Boundary. This led to a place which was free from Cybermen and to where many human refugees had fled. However, the Master diverted it to lead to Gallifrey, which he had recently destroyed.

Embittered by her wartime experiences, Ravio was initially somewhat hostile towards the Doctor's group, but soon warmed to Graham.

After the defeat of the Master and Ashad on the Time Lord homeworld, Ravio and the remaining survivors escaped to present day Earth in a fully-operational TARDIS, which materialised as a house. There they could start a new life.

Played by Julie Graham. Appearances: Ascension of the Cybermen / The Timeless Children (2020)

• This wasn't Graham's first involvement with the world of Doctor Who. In 2010 she had played alien villain Ruby White in Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith - the final story of the fourth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

R is for... Ravensworth, Lord

Lord Ravensworth was a progressive landowner whose estate in North East England included the mining village of Killingworth. He had a passion for science and engineering, and employed George Stephenson. He conceived a plan to convene a meeting which would be attended by as many of the greatest minds of the Industrial Revolution as he could muster, so that they could share ideas.

Unfortunately for him, the rogue Time Lord the Rani was active in the village, posing as the local bathhouse keeper. She was harvesting chemicals from the brains of miners who frequented her establishment, those that promoted sleep. This was in order to pacify the inhabitants of the planet Miasimia Goria which she ruled. She had tampered with their brain chemistry so that they would need less sleep and so work work more - only to find them becoming ungovernable.

Her tampering with the miners led to an outbreak of Luddite-like activity, which distressed Ravensworth as it seemed to affect hard-working, loyal men whom he knew personally. One was the father of Luke Ward, who assisted him and Stephenson.

Purely by coincidence, the Master also visited the region - intent on sabotaging Earth's industrial and scientific progress through an attack on Lord Ravensworth's proposed meeting. He lured the Doctor here so that he could destroy him. The Doctor advised Ravensworth to postpone his meeting until the threat from the two rogue Time Lords had been dealt with.

Played by: Terence Alexander. Appearances: The Mark of the Rani (1985)

• Based on a real historical figure - Thomas Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth and 6th Baronet (1775 - 1855). He employed Stephenson at Killingworth in 1804 and encouraged him in his work on developing steam powered transport so that his coal could be more easily carried from the pits to the ports on the River Tyne. His grand-niece was Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.
• Alexander had a hugely successful career as a character actor in film and television spanning five decades, but is best known for playing Charlie Hungerford - father-in-law to Bergerac.
• He played multiple guest characters in series such as The Avengers and The Persuaders!
• As Major Rupert Rutland-Smith, he was one of The League of Gentlemen (1960) - the movie which gave the comedy troupe their name.
• Amongst the many other actors considered for the role in The Mark of the Rani were Peter Cushing, Patrick Stewart and Michael Gough.

R is for... Ravens

 

Corvus Corax - the raven - has played a significant role in the lives of the Doctor and his companions on several occasions.

Leonard de Vries, who owned Boscombe Hall in the south west of England, had a pet raven. He was the leader of a Druidic sect which worshipped the Celtic witch-goddess Cailleach. The bird was one of her symbols and they acted as her eyes and ears. Romana was troubled by the sight of the bird as it perched on the roof of the TARDIS.

Alien criminal Cesair of Diplos, posing as local Vivien Fey, had taken on the role of the Cailleach whilst donning a bird-like costume.

The Tower of London is famed for its raven population, and legend states that England will fall should they ever leave (which is why the ones kept there have their wings clipped). Kate Stewart of UNIT revealed to the Doctor that they were actually artificial, running on batteries.

Quantum Shades were creatures which could kill anyone at a designated time and space location, and so could be used as assassins or executioners. The immortal Ashildr, now known simply as Me, used one in the form of a raven to enforce the rules of the London Trap Street of which she was mayor. These were small pockets of space / time cut off from the rest of the universe which could be used as refuges for various alien species.

The intended victim was marked with a chronolock - a tattoo which counted down the minutes until their death. Once branded in this way, the only way someone could escape their fate was if another person willingly took it on themself. A young man named Rigsy, who was a friend to the Doctor and Clara Oswald, found himself marked after being accused of murdering an inhabitant of the Trap Street. Clara decided to take his chronolock due to her over-confidence that the Doctor would save her.

However, the whole set up had been a trap for him and he was powerless to stop it killing his companion. On attacking, the Shade would assume the form of smoke and pass through the body, killing the victim.

Appearances: The Stones of Blood (1978), Face the Raven (2015).

• Ravens feature in a number of mythologies. Odin had a pair named Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory) which flew across the world every day to spy on his behalf.
• In Native American tradition, the raven is seen as both a creator spirit and a trickster. They brought the sun, moon and stars to humanity.
• The Celts believed that Morrigan, the goddess of war and death, transformed herself into a raven to fly over battlefields, and the sight of a raven before battle could indicate a warrior's fate.
• Greek god Apollo was angered when a white raven delivered bad news, so he scorched its feathers and so all ravens are now black.
• The Japanese have a legend of a three-legged raven, Yatagarasu, which symbolises the sun.
• And a raven was the first bird which Noah is said to have sent out from the Ark to see if the flood had abated.
• Some of these legends refer to ravens and crows equally. The crow features prominently in The Eaters of Light (2017), and its call is even supposed to echo the name 'Kar', a young woman who sacrificed herself alongside some Roman soldiers to imprison the monsters in another dimension.