Episode 212: The Dominators (3)

Synopsis:

Zoe and Cully have just arrived back at the survey unit by travel capsule, seeking proof of the invaders to show to the ruling council. It has just been visited by the Quarks, who are now ordered by Toba to destroy the installation. 

The building begins to collapse around them...

The attack is halted by the arrival of Rago, who is angered that Toba is wasting resources on wanton destruction. The Quarks have limited energy supplies, and they are needed for their drilling operations. Rago orders that any survivors inside be taken alive.

Zoe and Cully manage to open the outer door of the unit - only to be confronted by one of the robots.

The Doctor and Jamie arrive at the Capitol and are granted an audience with Senex and the council.

Rago has been examining Teel more closely and is concerned that the Dulcians may be too physically weak to act as a slave labour force. He instructs Toba that the three prisoners, along with the two from the survey unit, be sent to work on one of the drill sites - their progress to be observed and collapse time noted. 

One of the Quarks is sent back to the unit to capture any others who might arrive there.

The Doctor and Jamie are concerned to learn that Zoe and Cully have returned to the island. They struggle to convince the council that the Dominators pose a threat. If they want something on Dulkis, Senex states, then they will simply give it to them. Senex and Bovem also point out that the Dominators let them go - so what can there be to fear from them? Jamie is alarmed to hear that the Dulcians have no armies to defend themselves, being pacifists.

Cully and Zoe are waiting by the museum, where one of the drill sites is located. Discussing a means of escape, Zoe recalls the laser weapon which she saw inside.

Teel, Kando and Balan are sent to join them, accompanied by Quarks.

In the council chamber, video contact is established with the survey unit, and everyone is shocked to see it damaged - and a Quark visible on the screen. Only now does the council begin to accept what Cully and the Doctor have been trying to warn them about. The Doctor and Jamie realise that Zoe and the others are in danger, and insist on returning to the island immediately.

As they set off in a travel capsule, Jamie points out to the Doctor that they know there will be a Quark waiting for them at the survey unit. The Doctor decides that they must make a landing elsewhere on the island - and this will mean overriding the automatic guidance system. He opens a hatch and begins rewiring the controls, much to Jamie's consternation as they are still in flight.

The prisoners are put to work clearing rubble away from the drill site outside the museum, guarded by a pair of Quarks. Whilst Zoe and Cully want to escape and fight back, they find Balan and Kando unwilling to take any action - though Teel begins to accept that it would be wrong to submit.

Rago is surprised to learn that of all the prisoners, it is a female who is proving the strongest - Zoe.

As Balan collapses and has to be moved to the side, Zoe attempts to slip into the museum to seize the weapon - only to find another Quark inside.

His rewiring completed, the Doctor warns Jamie to prepare for a landing.

The Dulcian council has called upon Tensa, Chairman of the Emergencies Committee, to attend them. He usually has to deal with natural disasters and accidents, and has never had to consider a threat of this nature. He informs Senex and the others that they have three options to respond: fight, flight, or capitulation. The Director is shocked. They cannot fight as they have no weapons or armies; they cannot flee as they have nowhere to go; and the idea of submission to some unknown aggressor is unthinkable. Tensa advises that for now they must simply wait, since they do not know for certain that the new arrivals on the island are hostile.

The travel capsule has landed on a hillside near the museum. The Doctor and Jamie set off to look for Zoe.

The prisoners are discussing what they should do next, if they do manage to get the weapon and destroy their guards. Teel recalls that the museum contains a bomb shelter, though he is not sure where the entrance is.

They are being observed from the hillside above by the Doctor and Jamie, who split up to try to make their way down to them.

It is Cully who manages to slip away from the work party into the building, and finds the weapon. He takes aim at one of the Quarks, but cannot get a clear shot. Just he gets one in his sights, he is interrupted by the arrival of Jamie.

The robots note that one of the party is missing.

The Doctor stumbles into Toba and is captured. The rest of the prisoners are being escorted along a path back to the spaceship and the Doctor is forced to join them. On hearing that Cully is missing, Toba returns to the museum with a trio of Quarks.

When Cully refuses to surrender, they begin to open fire on the building. Jamie takes aim and destroys one of the robots, which infuriates Toba.

The Quarks continue to bombard the museum building, with Jamie and Cully trapped inside...

 

Data:

Written by Norman Ashby

Recorded: Friday 31st May 1968 - Television Centre Studio TC3

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 24th August 1968

Ratings: 5.4 million / AI 55

VFX: Ron Oates

Designer: Barry Newbery

Director: Morris Barry

Additional cast: Brian Cant (Tensa)

Critique:

Technically, this is the final episode of Doctor Who to have been written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln - for reasons we will go into next week...

As previously mentioned, all the location work involving pyrotechnics was filmed on the same day at Gerrards Cross - Thursday 25th April. This included the partial destruction of the survey unit - a forced perspective model - and the Quark which is attacked by Jamie in this episode. A single dummy Quark was blown up, filmed from different angles so that the footage could be used to show different attacks in more than one episode.

Wendy Padbury was not free in the morning and so attended filming after lunch, including the sequence where Zoe and the Dulcian prisoners are escorted back to the spaceship, with the Doctor being forced to join them. It can clearly be seen that this is not Patrick Troughton, but his stand-in Chris Jeffries.

The next day had seen the travel capsule model footage filmed for this and the previous episode at the Puppet Theatre in Television Centre. A still photograph of the crash-landed capsule, its nose partially buried in the sand, was taken - to be inserted into this episode as a caption.

Joining the cast this week was the legendary Brian Cant, playing Chairman Tensa. For generations of children he was known as the presenter of series Play School and Play Away, as well as the voice of Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley. As with many of the cast, he had previously worked with Morris Barry on Compact.

The Dominators was once again recorded at Television Centre but moved into Studio TC3 this week, where it would remain for the rest of the story. 

Earlier on the day of recording, Troughton and Padbury recorded the brief exchange which would act as voice-over introduction for the repeat screening of The Evil of the Daleks.

This episode was allocated an extra 15 minutes recording, taking it up to 10pm. It was also recorded onto 35mm film, taken from a 625-line video monitor, for ease of editing.

The "Episode 3" caption was mistakenly omitted from the opening credits, which rolled over a filmed reprise of the cliff-hanger to the previous week's episode.

Senex's chair was now seen to have a TV monitor built into it, so that he could view the scenes from the damaged survey unit - fed from a camera on that set.

The first recording break was to allow Troughton and Hines to move from the council chamber set into the travel capsule. Its erratic flight was indicated simply through camera movement.

Camera masks were used to show the telescope view of the working party, as seen by the Doctor and Jamie, and to show the cross-hairs on the gun sight as Jamie and Cully tried to aim the laser weapon at a Quark.

Wendy Padbury suffered some wardrobe malfunctions throughout recording as the zip on the back of her dress often came loose.

The final recording break of the evening was to set up flash charges on the museum set to show it being blasted by the Quarks. The end credits ran over this attack, as the charges were detonated.

One small cut to the episode was made during the editing. This had the Doctor and Jamie pause as they left the council chamber to discuss the fact that there would be a Quark waiting for them when the got back to the survey unit - dialogue already covered in a travel capsule scene.

This week we start to see some action, though characters are still mainly going backwards and forwards, and men are debating in rooms. The lack of incident was the main issue of concern for Derrick Sherwin throughout the story, and would be the reason why it was eventually truncated.

The war museum, full of functional weapons, is a "Chekov's Gun" - i.e. if you show a revolver sitting on a table in Act One, then someone will have to have fired it by the end of Act Three. 

Unless you really want to include something as a 'red herring', the narrative shouldn't include anything you don't intend to use.

The war museum exists here to show that this island was once the site of a nuclear bomb test, and an initial source of radiation - but the fact that it has working laser guns has to mean something for the plot.

(It's odd that there should be a museum dedicated to the Dulcians' warlike past, as a reminder to cherish their current peace-loving society - but located in a place that only a few students ever visit. And why does it contain working weaponry? Would an energy weapon still have power after 172 years? It is claimed that it is self-charging - though you saw a power cable at one point in Episode 2).

Chairman Tensa is introduced, head of the Emergencies Committee. Despite only having the information given to the council by Cully and the Doctor, plus the video of the Quark in the survey unit, he does initially appear to accept the fact that they are under threat. His advice? Fight, Flight or Surrender. That he should even advocate fighting as an option might show that this society isn't entirely pacifistic. In cut dialogue, Cully had said that one of his father's roles was to maintain their peace-loving existence - which might imply that their pacificism does not run very deeply.

However, Tensa then spoils things by reverting back to the threat only being hearsay at present, and they ought to simply wait and see what happens.

Certainly Balan and Kando are unwilling to get involved in any escape attempt which might involve attacking the Quarks - though it looks like she is simply bowing to the older man's advice. Balan's advice is simply that violence begets violence. 

Teel, on the other hand, is beginning to stand up for himself and admits that it would be wrong to capitulate, though he isn't prepared to go quite as far as the rebellious Cully for now.

There's more visual comedy on show from the Doctor and Jamie. First of all there's the clowning around in the travel capsule as the Doctor dismantles the controls and does a spot of mid-air rewiring. At one point he falls head first into the workings and we see his legs waving in the air.

Later, there's the business with the telescope as Jamie snatches it away before the Doctor has a chance to use it. A little moment, but one indicative of the way Troughton and Hines worked together, and are one of the most popular Doctor / Companion combinations.

Apart from these scenes, the Doctor and Jamie have little to do in this episode - until the latter decides to go on the attack right at the end.

In the council chamber, Jamie gets increasingly frustrated by the attitude of the Dulcians, whilst the Doctor actually finds himself being distracted by some of their arguments:

The Doctor: "Because they are aggressive, callous and unfeeling. Don't expect them to act and think as you do. They're alien, from another planet"

Senex: "Well so are you, Doctor"

The Doctor: "Oh dear, you've got me there..."

As for Zoe, well it's nice to see her getting more to do. She gets captured and put on a work party - but immediately starts planning an escape, encouraging the others to contemplate helping. She also takes care of the weaker members of the party, and proves to be the strongest of the lot. This despite her academic background in the City and on the Wheel. The story is trying to say more that the Dulcians are physically rather weak through their indolent lifestyle, rather than that she is particularly strong.

Trivia:

• The ratings drop even further this week, to what will be the lowest figure for this story. The appreciation score remains constant however.
• Brian Cant had previously played Kert Gantry in the recently rediscovered The Nightmare Begins - the opening instalment of The Daleks' Master Plan. His son Richard will appear in the series in 2007, playing Kathy Nightingale's grandson in Blink.
• Now synonymous with the Fourth Doctor, the Second Doctor here enjoys a bag of jelly babies in the travel capsule. He favoured lemon sherbets in the last story.
• In the early spaceship scene where Kando wants the Dominators to leave Teel alone, a camera can just be glimpsed creeping into shot.
• Radio Times included a photograph of Jamie and Cully on the day's listings page in some regions. Note Dee Time at 6.15pm, presented by Simon Dee. Frazer Hines was desperate to appear on this chat show, but they were only interested in getting him along with Troughton - and the latter refused point blank to do TV interviews at this time.

Story 318: The Interstellar Song Contest

In which the Doctor and Belinda visit the Harmony Arena, in the year 2925. This vast space station is about to play host to the 803rd Interstellar Song Contest - a future incarnation of Earth's Eurovision Song Contest. The TARDIS has materialised inside one of the VIP Pods. One of the presenters is Rylan Clark, who has been taken out of cryogenic suspension for the event. The Vindicator has been set up and the readings taken - but, on seeing Rylan, Belinda wishes to stay and see the show, and the Doctor agrees.

She enjoyed the contest as a child, and the Doctor recalls being present in 1974 when ABBA won with Waterloo. It is announced that the show is going out live to some 3 trillion viewers across the western galactic arm.

Their arrival has been noted by Mrs Flood who is also in the audience - observing them through a pair of opera glasses. She too decides to stay and see the show, as she has managed to record the Vindicator readings. This is the final one required.

As the Doctor and Belinda wonder who should be in this Pod, the actual ticket holders - Gary and Mike Gabbaston - are locked out. They are barred from entering by a robotic Droneguard, which simply states that "Phase One is completed" before moving off. 

In the production gallery, the Droneguards there repeat the same phrase. In charge here, directing the broadcast, is Nina Maxwell. She is surprised when a young man from the planet Hellion enters - given access by one of her crew, Wynn Aura-Kinn. His name is Kid, and Wynn is his girlfriend. He is armed, and announces that he has taken over the Droneguards.

On stage, Rylan improvises to cover the loss of instructions from the gallery, as the contestant representing Trion takes to the stage. She is Cora Saint Bavier. Everyone in the gallery has now been locked out, apart from Nina. Wynn interrupts the broadcast and replaces it with the recorded dress rehearsal, so that the viewers will be unaware that anything is wrong. However, Rylan was not present for this.

The Doctor spots the discrepancy between the broadcast, which can be viewed in the Pod, and what they can see on stage. He leaves the Pod to investigate.

Nina is forced to give Kid access to the arena's systems. He sends a message to Rylan, before shutting down the arena's air shield. Everyone in the auditorium is ejected into space - including the Doctor, the TARDIS, and Mrs Flood. They become frozen, but a gravity field prevents them from floating away - and Nina tells Kid that they could all still be saved. The Pods have an emergency override which seals them, so Belinda is safe. These were activated by Wynn. Those in the corridors and rooms outside the main arena are also unharmed.

Kid has no interest in saving anyone, telling Nina that he has been called a monster all his life due to being a Hellion. He orders the Droneguards to bring in a delta wave generator for the final phase of his scheme.

A panicking Belinda leaves the Pod and meets Cora, who attempts to calm her. She also explains that the station is in a communications lockdown, to prevent people betting on the contest, so no-one will be able to come to their aid until after the show has ended. They encounter a man named Len, who is a member of the tech team. He is examining the computer systems and finds that something is rewriting them.

Nina realises that she cannot reason with Kid, but she noted that Wynn saved those in the Pods. She therefore tries to speak to her. This fails to work. What they are doing, they are doing for Hellia.

In space, the rapidly freezing Doctor has a vision of his granddaughter Susan, standing in the TARDIS, urging him to go back and find her...

He spots a confetti cannon floating nearby and grabs it - using it to blast himself towards one of the station's airlocks. He is given access by Gary and Mike. The latter is a nurse, and he is able to use a first aid medi-kit to fully revive him.

He explains that he was able to increase the strength of the gravity field outside, just before being ejected, so everyone outside can indeed be saved. They are in a form of cryogenic suspension at present.

Kid rigs the delta wave generator to activate on reaching a specific song. The Doctor breaks into the computer system and discovers this. If broadcast, it will destroy the brains of all 3 trillion viewers. It is currently 70% ready.

The computer script is recognised as Hellion. This race had a beautiful world, but is now an ecological wasteland. This has always been blamed on the Hellions themselves, who have a terrible reputation across the galaxy. Cora, however, tries to defend them.

The Doctor, Gary and Mike come to a museum dedicated to the contest, where there is a computer access panel. Gary is a technician, specialising in hologram systems. To demonstrate his expertise, he operates a hologram of Graham Norton.

The Doctor then experiences another vision of Susan...

In the gallery, Kid detects that the computer is being tampered with and appears on the machine being worked on by the Doctor. Elsewhere, Belinda and Cora are also able to see the exchange between Kid and the Doctor, though they cannot be seen by them. Belinda is pleased to see that the Doctor has survived - whilst the Doctor is still unaware of her fate.

The Doctor and Kid threaten each other, with Kid stating that he will open all the airlocks and kill the survivors throughout the station. The Doctor, in turn, tells Kid that he will track him down and throw him out into space. Belinda is shocked to hear him speak like this. Wynn appears to tell Kid that the generator is now at 95%, and she is recognised by Cora.

Kid terminates the conversation and sends Droneguards to the museum to kill the Doctor, after tracing his location.

Cora admits to Belinda that she knew Kid and Wynn as children. He got his name as his mother was killed before she could tell anyone his real one. She confesses that she is actually a Hellion, and removes her wig to show the stumps where her horns used to be.

She tells of how Hellia was home to a unique poppy which was used to flavour a type of popular honey, marketed by the Corporation, who had bought out the planet and its people. After stripping Hellia of its poppies, the Corporation then ensured that none could ever be grown again and so become a source of competition for them. They ruined the planet, and helped spread the terrible reputation of its people - to the extent that someone like Cora had to hide her true identity. The Corporation sponsors the song contest - which is why Kid is targeting it. She thinks that Kid might listen to her, so she must get to the gallery - and Belinda assumes that is where the Doctor would also make for.

Kid and Wynn see generator power reach 99%, as Nina continues to try to talk them into stopping their scheme.

The Doctor suddenly appears. Kid shoots at him, only to find that he is a hologram being generated by Gary. He destroys the generator and disarms Kid. He has adapted this hologram so that it has some physical substance, and uses a control glove to begin torturing Kid with electric shocks. Wynn and Nina try to get him to stop, but he only does so when Belinda arrives in the gallery with Cora - and he sees another vision of Susan imploring him to stop. Cora tries to speak to Wynn, but she refuses to listen as Cora ran away and abandoned her people - doing nothing to expose what happened to their world.

Nina takes back control of the Droneguards and Kid and Wynn are taken away to face justice.

There is still the issue of the thousands of people frozen in the gravity field. The Doctor has Gary adapt the hologram generator to turn it into a tractor beam, whilst Mike will adapt one of the VIP Pods to turn it into a revival booth, to process groups at a time.

The contest soon resumes, and Cora takes to the stage to sing as a Hellian one of their songs, highlighting the ruination of the planet.

The TARDIS has been found and placed in the museum. The hologram of Graham Norton is triggered, which tells the history of the original contest. He states that it ended with the destruction of Earth in May 2025. They take to the TARDIS and set the controls for 24th May 2025, but the TARDIS responds badly and the doors explode inwards...

When Gary and Mike restore Mrs Flood, she begins to regenerate. Instead of changing body, however, a second figure emerges from her, for this is a bi-generation.

Mrs Flood is revealed to have been the Rani all along...

The Interstellar Song Contest was written by Juno Dawson, and was first broadcast on Saturday 17th May 2025. The timing wasn't random, as this was the evening on which that year's Eurovision Song Contest was to be shown. 

This was a gamble as there was live football on that afternoon, which may have gone to extra time / penalties in the event of a draw - in which case Doctor Who would almost certainly have been postponed as the song contest was a live affair being coordinated by multiple international broadcasters.

Juno Dawson had written a number of Doctor Who spin-off stories - both books and audios - and had been earmarked to write an episode for the second season of Class had it gone ahead.

If there's an earlier story from which this has drawn its inspirations, then that would be Bad Wolf / Parting of the Ways. In both we have an evil but never seen corporation behind popular entertainment, current TV celebrities cameo as themselves despite a far future setting, a pastiche of current popular TV shows, and use of a delta wave weapon is threatened.

The episode will mainly be remembered for four things: the return of Susan, as played by Carole Ann Ford; the appearance as themselves by certain celebrities; the return of the Rani; and that earworm that is Dugga Doo...

Ford had last been seen in the programme proper in 1983, when she joined the cast of The Five Doctors. She later featured in the CiN Doctor Who / EastEnders special Dimensions in Time, and has continued to play Susan on audio. Susan's return had been anticipated by fans for some time, with hints that she might have been in the Vault in Series 10, or that Susan Triad might be a later incarnation of her in the previous series.

The Rani had been introduced in The Mark of the Rani opposite the Sixth Doctor and had returned to face the newly regenerated Seventh Doctor in Time and the Rani. She too featured, as the main villain, in the Children in Need affair. Throughout she had been played by Kate O'Mara, who had died in 2014.

Like Susan, her return had been anticipated often - with just about every enigmatic female character about to be exposed as the Rani.

Fans had actually sussed that Mrs Flood was the Rani the year before.

Playing themselves are Graham Norton and Rylan Clark, who are both associated with Eurovision itself.

As for Dugga Doo, it was simply a pastiche of the irritatingly catchy melodies many countries come up with for the competition. The song is "performed" by a black and orange puppet.

How much you like this episode really depends on your level of interest in Eurovision. I used to watch it in the 1970's, but have no interest in it at all these days. Even people who have never watched it know what it is about, however, as it often makes the news anyway. Turkey never votes for Greece and Greece never votes for Turkey because of Cyprus, the UK gets nil points, and a number of countries boycotted this year's contest because of Israel's inclusion. The winner is someone you will invariably never hear of ever again. That's it in a nutshell.

Despite my ambivalence towards its source material, I was actually enjoying this episode but it all went wrong for me half way through. The image of the floating bodies in space, lit by a hellish red glow from beneath, was one of the most striking images I've ever seen in the programme - not just because of what it looked like but because of what it represented. I thought that maybe this time someone had made the brave decision to show a massacre of innocent bystanders. A really shocking moment.

But then they suddenly announce that the people aren't really dead, and all can be saved - and you just know that this is exactly what is going to happen before the end of episode. Narrative cowardice in my view.

There are other problems. We have a very stereotypical contemporary gay couple - Gary and Mike - who are obsessed with the contest. Between them, they just happen to have the exact skill sets needed for the plot. Gary knows all about holograms, and Mike is a nurse. It's like "Plot Writing For Beginners". There's something lazy about the writing, what with its stereotypes and fairly unimaginative storyline.

Another problem is the presentation of the Doctor. In this he becomes someone else entirely and begins to threaten to get even with the villain, and then goes on to torture him. I could well see this coming from Capaldi's Doctor, but Gatwa has been such a lightweight in the role that it simply doesn't ring true. The Twelfth was dark and unpredictable, but Fifteen has always been too shallow a characterisation.

Kid is made out to be a monster - he admits as much himself - but one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter, and when you learn his backstory and that of his planet, you can begin to see some reasoning behind his actions - even if you abhor the way he intends to go about achieving his revenge. The episode seems confused on the issue. If Kid really was a monster, killing for no reason, then we might have sensed why the Doctor reacts the way he does. But we get to see that, in his own mind at least, Kid has justification for taking the actions he does - making the Doctor's reaction an aggressive knee-jerk one, leaping in without gathering facts or making any informed decision. This is something we rarely see from him. He makes mistakes, but doesn't resort to this kind of cruel behaviour.

It's an attempt to make this incarnation of the Doctor more threatening - but just doesn't work. We too used to seeing him burst into tears over everything that upsets him by this point.

Belinda says she's shocked to hear the Doctor threaten Kid, and fears what he would be like if left unchecked - but she's only known him five minutes. It's a watered down version of Donna Noble's "You need someone to stop you" in The Runaway Bride.

My final criticism is the bi-generation. It was made out to be something pretty unique when used for the Fourteenth / Fifteenth Doctor, but now looks like any old Time Lord can do it. At least it let us use "The Two Ranis" joke (and I've a sneaking suspicion that this is exactly why RTD2 did it).

The main guest artist is Freddie Fox, who plays Kid. He's a member of the well-known British acting dynasty - his father is Edward Fox, and mother Joanna David. His sister is Emilia Fox, and his uncle is James Fox. Cousin Laurence Fox, ex-husband of Billie Piper, is infamous for his right wing politics these days. Freddie appeared in an episode of Lewis opposite him.

Freddie previously featured in RTD's Cucumber and Banana, and has played Lord Alfred Douglas on stage, and featured in the film adaptation of Wilde's An Ideal Husband. He also appeared in the 2023 "Ghost Story For Christmas" - Lot 249 - and GoT prequel series House of the Dragon. 

Wynn is Iona Anderson, who is relatively new to television. She recently appeared opposite John Simm in crime drama Grace.

Playing Cora is Miriam Teak-Lee, who is best known for stage musicals.

Ex-Coronation Street regular Charlie Condou plays Gary, opposite Kadiff Kirwan as Mike. He has appeared in Black Mirror, Slow Horses and Inside No.9. Condou is at time of writing appearing in RTD's latest drama Tip Toe, which stars Alan Cumming and David Morrisey.

Nina is played by Kiruna Stamell, whose first film role was in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge. She was a regular in daytime medical soap Doctors.

Also amongst the cast is Christina Rotondo, playing singer Liz Lizardine. Rotondo had previously played Janis Goblin in The Church on Ruby Road.

Joining the series as the new incarnation of the Rani is Archie Panjabi, star of The Good Wife. She has guested in many of the British detective dramas, as well as comedies such as Still Open All Hours and The Thin Blue Line. Film roles include East is East and Bend It Like Beckham.

Overall, it could have been so much better had they allowed it to go darker - but tying it in with the lightweight Eurovision Song Contest meant that was never going to happen. The terrorist / hijack scenario might be ten a penny in US crime shows and movies, but it's rare for Doctor Who, and maybe should have been saved for another time and another context. Biggest disappointment will be one of hindsight, as we now know Susan's reappearance is going to lead absolutely nowhere...

Things you might like to know:

• Dawson's first idea was for a disaster movie set-up, similar to The Poseidon Adventure. Not only was this deemed too expensive, it also had obvious similarities with The Voyage of the Damned. Instead, RTD2 suggested "Die Hard meets the Eurovision Song Contest".
• Dawson and Davies contributed lyrics to some of the songs, though Dugga Doo was entirely the work of Murray Gold, who wrote four new compositions for the episode.
• Bucks Fizz's Making Your Mind Up can be heard in the episode. This won the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest for the UK.
• Rylan Clark wasn't in the original version of the script. In his place was a blue-skinned being named Xylan, presumably based on him.
• Freddie Fox was named after Fred Zinnemann - director of the original The Day of the Jackal, which starred his dad.
• The bi-generation scene was recorded later, once production on Wish World had got under way.
• The Droneguards will be back in the next story, based in the Rani's Bone Palace.
• The song performances had to be filmed first, so that they could then be shown on screens in scenes shot up to 10 days later with the main cast.
• The planet Trion gets a mention. This was homeworld to the Fifth Doctor's companion Turlough, and has recently featured again in the ancillary material for the Season 21 - The Collection box set. The Doctor and Tegan visit the planet in the comic strip which concluded the events of the specially made trailer.
• The aforementioned Liz Lizardine is, in appearance, potentially a member of the same race as Malpha, one of the Planetarians in Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks' Master Plan. Or maybe not.
• Alpha Centauri and Trenzalore are also mentioned. One of the performers is also said to be a Zygon.
• Susan's earrings were based on the signet ring worn by her grandfather.
• It was Ncuti Gatwa who had suggested that the Rani return, though I suspect that RTD2 did not need much persuading.
• Gatwa was to have been the UK's voting spokesman for Eurovision on the night, but dropped out very late in the day, replaced by Sophie Ellis-Bextor - daughter of a Doctor Who guest artist.

Who, What, When...?

"One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. But until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties..."

I can't let today's big news pass without comment, so here goes...

To those of you who were there with me in 1989 / 90, you'll be feeling a sense of deja vu. 

The series is very important to the BBC... It will be back bigger and better than ever... We're looking for an independent producer to take it on, and we'll let you now when the right partner is identified... 

All that sort of talk is what we got in the months (then years) following the end of Survival when, for the first time ever, there was no announcement about a new series returning in the Autumn.

At least this time we have actually been given a definitive statement to say that the programme is suspended, whereas back then the BBC simply strung the fans along hoping that they would eventually get the message that the show wasn't coming back and go away. Some hope!

There's some contradictory comments today. RTD2 claims that the 2026 Christmas Special never existed. We were simply told there was one as a placeholder statement until they worked out what they were going to do next. However, Murray Gold, in a recent interview, said that there was more than one version of the script already written...

The one thing we all knew was that Billie Piper would not be playing the new Doctor, though she might be used purely as a bridge to whoever the new one was. Piper was only brought in as RTD2 had to cobble something together when Gatwa quit early.

In recent weeks we had someone claiming that the Special had already been filmed, all in studio in secret, whilst "an insider" claimed that they could not get anyone to play the next Doctor as the role had become a "poisoned chalice" for actors...

We now know that, following criticism from fans and apathy from the general public, accompanied by an unhappy co-producer for whom the promised benefits failed to materialise, Doctor Who has ended for the time being.

When it comes back - and it is 'when' (we just don't know how long) - Bad Wolf and Davies won't have anything to do with it. Looking back at the last two series, most will be glad about that. 

Things started off promisingly enough with the 60th Anniversary Specials, bringing back David Tennant and Catherine Tate; adapting a popular DWW comic strip, and resurrecting a villain from the classic era in the shape of the Toymaker.

Disney pumped quite a few $$$ into the show, and it looked great. And we had also managed to rid ourselves of Chris Chibnall who, let's not forget, was responsible for the show needing rescuing in the first place.

But things went wrong rather quickly, and we could debate for ages what the problems were - and it's interesting to compare them with the things that the independent fan publications like DWB were saying about JNT back in the late 1980's. (Maybe the programme needs to steer clear of producers / showrunners who tend to be known by their initials...).

My criticisms of the series of late are all there in my reviews, and I'll be talking about them again soon as my look at each story in turn is about to finally come to its conclusion in a couple of weeks.

Rather than look back, let's see what the future might hold...

Whoever takes on the series will have a number of options:

1. Carry on from where RTD2 left off.

2. Start with a new Doctor already in place, as with Rose, but have them clearly a new incarnation of the character first portrayed by William Hartnell in 1963, with all the continuity available.

3. Ditto, but simply ignore what has gone before. It's the same character, but keep continuity to the absolute minimum to avoid alienating new viewers (and the fans know it all anyway).

4. Have the Twelfth Doctor wake up in the TARDIS and tell his companion about the horrible nightmare he's just had...

5. Reboot - as in start again from scratch. How many origins stories have Spider-Man and Superman had in the last few years?

6. Prequel series, but certainly not any "Time Lord Academy" YA nonsense - just look at how well Starfleet Academy did, or Class for that matter.

7. Ignore a new TV series all together and look to films. A series could always follow later if successful.

Option 1 would be the least popular, I'm sure. The series has ended in a complete mess and I don't think it's salvageable.

Option 2 is probably most likely, as any new producers would want to access all the old monsters / characters.

Option 3 would be my own favoured choice. I like sitting on fences.

Option 4 - if only...

Option 5 might not be as drastic as one might think. As I've said, everything gets remade these days. It would provide a clean slate for whoever takes the series on, and you could remake some of those classic stories with the technology we now have available. We could simply draw a line under the series which began in 1963, and go right back to basics.

Option 6 - probably too limiting. 

Option 7 is possible, as the partnership with Disney is going to complicate matters when looking for the next partner. Other streamers will have seen how they failed with the series, so may not want to touch the property. There's also the added complication of the BBC. Most companies such as Netflix would want some sort of exclusivity, but the Beeb would want to show it on the telly if licence payer monies are involved.

Going down the movie route might also make the total reboot option more likely.

As of today, I think there are only two things we can take as certainties. We are going to have a long wait before any new Doctor Who is shown, in whatever form it takes - and a bit of a gap would probably do the series some good to be honest; and whoever takes the series on really has to get back to the fundamentals of the series if they want to make it a success. (Look at what Chibnall and RTD2 did - then run in the opposite direction, as fast as you can...).

Anyone want to buy a TV series?

It has been announced today that the BBC are putting Doctor Who out to tender, so it is basically the end of the RTD2 / Bad Wolf era. 

This also includes the news that there will not be a Christmas Special this year after all. 

The animated CBBC series is still ongoing.

I don't think many people will mourn the passing of this particular phase of the programme.

What's Wrong With... Survival

Not a lot actually. The plot is really quite sound, structurally. There are some production issues, but on the whole it doesn't have all that much wrong with it.

It wasn't the last story to go into production - that was Ghost Light - but it was the last to be broadcast before the series was cancelled, so it can sometimes be looked upon negatively just because of this, which is quite unfair.

One thing I would say about Ace's story arc, which in hindsight ends here as the Doctor returns her to her native Perivale, is that I thought the events of The Curse of Fenric might have had more of an impact. She still hates her mother and makes no effort to go visit her, despite her encounter with baby Audrey and a new understanding of her family history. She doesn't even ask after her, even if she doesn't want to actually see her. The previous story just isn't referred to. 

(This is possibly down to the stories of the McCoy era often being reordered prior to the season being broadcast - but if you're going to do story arcs then you really ought to be on top of this).

The thing is, Ace has specifically asked the Doctor to bring her here, so that she can catch up with her old gang. But what if she bumped into her mother in the street? It's a bit risky going to a place where you stand a good chance of meeting someone you wanted to avoid.

We start the story with people being abducted from the streets in broad daylight by human-sized Cheetah People on horseback. Even if this is a Sunday morning - and it must be for Paterson to be running his self-defence class - it's obviously summer and so the streets of Perivale ought to have had a lot more activity. People would be coming and going from church, or popping to the shops for the Sunday papers. Others would be doing a spot of gardening, and more would be washing their cars - a Sunday Morning Suburban Ritual. And where are the dog-walkers? Using the dog as an excuse to stop off at the pub for a Sunday lunchtime drink is another ritual.

We see one woman looking out of her window just because the Doctor is crawling about in her garden - so a giant cat on a horse causing people to shout out in shock and alarm would most certainly have drawn more attention.

As mentioned, the weather is lovely - yet a children's playground is empty on a sunny weekend morning. There aren't even any bored teenagers hanging about.

The animatronic cat obviously disappoints. Fitting the necessary mechanics into a larger animal, such as a human or even a dog, is relatively easy, but the equipment of the day struggled to adapt it to such a small skull size. It looks fake, especially when you also have a real black cat in some shots to compare it with.

The Cheetah People themselves disappointed everyone on the production. Andrew Cartmel and Rona Munro wanted them to be still human, but with a few cat-like elements in their appearance, rather than actual cat people.

And Squeak's dead pet cat looks very much like one of those things you kept your pyjamas in.

Isn't it a bit of a coincidence that one of Ace's friends, out of all the people in Perivale, should be one of those targeted by the Kitlings / Cheetahs? Or was it the Master's doing? He is deliberately sending the Cheetah People and Kitlings to Perivale - presumably meaning he knows the Doctor will turn up there. But if so, how does he even know about Ace? It is clear that she doesn't know him as the Doctor has to explain to her who he is.

An issue missed in the editing is when Ace walks away from the Doctor - only to be seen standing beside him in the next long shot as the Master spies on them.

The Doctor works out how they can get back to Earth and announces this to Ace, without first checking that the Master isn't listening in and so now also knows the secret.

The climax to the story takes place on Horsenden Hill, where the Doctor and Midge play chicken on motorcycles. Both bikes and riders appear to vanish as if by magic at the point of impact - which results in a fireball. Yet neither rider is even slightly singed. Midge dies, but the Doctor is conveniently sent flying onto a handy sofa.

The Master then has him at his mercy, but doesn't so much as give him a punt up the posterior, despite it being presented to him...

We know that some of the Cheetah People survive the destruction of the planet, as one comes to take away Karra's body. But if they are so much part of their planet - created and nurtured by it - where else can they go to? 

And the Doctor returns to the TARDIS as the planet perishes - his home. But where is home to the Master these days?

Episode 211: The Dominators (2)

Synopsis:

The Doctor and Jamie have come across the Dominator spaceship. They look around, and the Doctor wants to venture inside - but they suddenly see Toba, flanked by a pair of Quarks, on a nearby ridge. 

The Quarks ask if they should destroy...

Toba resists the urge to kill them, as his commander Rago has instructed that captives be taken for examination.

The Doctor and Jamie are brought into the spaceship, where the Quarks are used to molecularly bond them to a wall. Jamie is then given a physical examination which, apart from signs of recent rapid learning, show him to be relatively weak in comparison to a Dominator, having only one heart. Rago declines to carry out a similar examination of the Doctor, arguing that it would be a waste of resources as he is likely to be the same.

At the survey unit, Zoe continues to impress Cully due to her questions. He has tried to contact his father, Senex, but video reception is poor. Unable to communicate properly, Senex arranges for the two young people to travel to the Capitol by travel capsule. Balan sets the destination control on the small, two-seat, rocket-like craft.

Cully and Zoe arrive at the Capitol in only a few minutes, and enter the council chamber. Councillor Bovem is disputing with his colleagues when they arrive. On hearing that Zoe and her friends come from another world, this sparks a debate about life on other planets, and Zoe can see that the Dulcians are a bureaucratic people who debate issues endlessly.

Bovem accuses Cully of being a troublemaker, who is allowed to get away with things only because his father is their Director. At that moment Senex arrives. He dismisses the council in order to speak with his son and his friend privately.

Zoe tries to back up Cully's claims of spaceships and robots on the island - but has to admit that she hasn't actually seen these for herself. She is sure that the Doctor and Jamie will be along shortly to confirm what Cully has said.

They, meanwhile, are being subjected to a number of relatively simple tests in the Dominator spaceship.

The Doctor quickly realises that to appear intelligent might actually work against them. Best to pretend stupidity. He asks his companion if he can manage this... 

In each test, therefore, the pair deliberately perform badly. 

The survey team continue their work, and Balan explains away the lack of radiation here as indicative that its effects only last 172 years. He is becoming irritated that Teel and Kando are preoccupied with what Cully claimed to have witnessed.

The Doctor and Jamie are next taken by Rago to the war museum, where they are asked to explain the weaponry on display. Again they feign stupidity and ignorance.

Rago is suspicious, and so the Doctor claims that there are others on this planet cleverer than he and Jamie. It is they who know about the weapons. Rago notes that there must be two different species on Dulkis, and they must find representatives of the superior race to examine.

In the meantime, the Doctor and Jamie are allowed to go free so long as they do not interfere with their mission - their lack of intelligence making them no threat.

Frustrated that no-one believes them, Cully decides that they must get back to the island and find proof. In order to secure a travel capsule, they will have to use subterfuge. Zoe must change into Dulcian clothes to get past the capsule operators.

The Doctor and Jamie arrive back at the survey unit to learn that Zoe and Cully have already gone to the Capitol. They will follow, as they can now confirm Cully's story. 

After they have gone, Balan realises that they will get no work done until his students have seen this spaceship and its robots for themselves, so they set off to find them.

Rago and Toba are working on their drilling calculations when they see the three Dulcians approach their ship. Toba wishes to send the Quarks out to destroy them, but Rago orders they be taken for examination.

The trio are permitted to wander inside before being captured.

Teel is given the same physical examination which Jamie underwent, and this time differences are noted. Dulcians have two hearts for instance. The Doctor appeared to have been telling the truth about the two races, and these other Dulcians may well prove a suitable slave labour force.

Rago and Toba split up to search the island for more people like Teel, taking some Quarks with them.

Toba soon comes across the survey unit. He orders the Quarks inside, to scan and record all technological data.

Cully and Zoe land back at the unit only moments after the Quarks have withdrawn to the hillside nearby, where Toba gives the order to destroy the building.

The pair find themselves trapped inside as the unit begins to collapse around them...

Data:

Written by Norman Ashby

Recorded: Friday 25th May 1968 - Television Centre Studio TC4

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 17th August 1968

Ratings: 5.9 million / AI 55

VFX: Ron Oates

Designer: Barry Newbery

Director: Morris Barry

Additional cast: Walter Fitzgerald (Senex), Alan Gerrard (Bovem), Ronald Mansell, John Cross (Council Members), Freddie Wilson (Quark).

Critique:

Small travel capsules featured in the scripts even when the survey team were originally to have arrived on the island in a much bigger craft, as this would have contained one of them. They were described as cigar-shaped, with two seats, one behind the other. The curved door opened upwards on hinges.

Three Quarks were constructed by the freelance father and son team of Jack and John Lovell to Martin Baugh's design. The sketch had them in gold, but they were made from fibreglass in a gunmetal grey colour. The head was made from frosted perspex. 

All three were operated by boys from a drama school, who were pleased to be featuring in the series. They were chaperoned throughout the production. 

They wore box-like boots on their feet, and could see through an aperture just above the gun arms. Manipulating these was the main task for the boys. It was intended that whenever the Quarks were called upon to carry out any tasks, such as recharging or employing their molecular force, the arms would wave in and out.

Despite the difficulties of walking around in the suits in the middle of a sand and gravel pit, they did so without complaint.

In studio the Quarks were often bodily lifted, to quickly move them from set to set.

It is never clear just how many Quarks are on the ship. It appears to be 12, but try counting them as you watch the episodes.

As with the Servo Robot in the last story, there is something rather endearing about them, with their short stature coupled with the child-like voice. But then that was the intention - cute, but deadly.

It had been decided to film all of the explosive effects on location for the entire serial on the first day - Thursday 25th April - at Gerrards Cross. This included the attack on the survey unit building, which in this instance was a forced perspective model. Whilst the script stated that Toba employed only two Quarks to attack the unit, all three were filmed doing so.

Also filmed on this day were Balan, Teel and Kando approaching the Dominator spaceship, with a high shot taken, to be seen on the scanner inside the ship as viewed by Rago and Toba.

The following day, the travel capsule model was filmed at the Puppet Theatre in Television Centre. The same footage would be used in the third episode. A close-up image of the underside of the spaceship model was taken, to be viewed by the survey team.

Filming at Ealing on Tuesday 30th and Wednesday 1st May included the close-up of the Doctor's foot as he is given an electric shock from the floor. This was actually Chris Jeffries' foot as Troughton was not present.

Frazer Hines was required, as both he and Giles Block had to be filmed being bonded to the wall by the Quarks. This was simply filmed in reverse with the actors pressing themselves up against the wall then moving forward. The wall going from vertical to horizontal was achieved later in studio through tilting camera angles alone.

Joining rehearsals on Monday 20th May were Walter Fitzgerald, playing Senex, and Alan Gerrard, playing Bovem. Fitzgerald had worked with Patrick Troughton on a number of productions, both on TV and in film, whilst Gerrard would play four different roles in Coronation Street as well as appearing in series such as The Avengers. He had previously been directed by Morris Barry in soap The Newcomers and in Z-Cars.

Originally cast as statues were four young actresses, who would appear in the background of the council chamber. This was dropped just before recording. It has been claimed that these were to have moved very slowly, but they were simply to have stood motionless.

Last minute alterations were made to the script to reduce the council chamber scenes, including Cully claiming to have found a pile of travel passes in his father's chambers, and he only had to forge his signature to use them.

There was a visit to the studio on Friday 24th May by some of Troughton's family, as his daughter Jo wanted to meet Ronald Allen.

Of concern to Troughton was the sequence where Rago has Jamie fire a ray gun in the Doctor's direction. He never liked being too close to explosives such as flash charges, and the first attempt had already gone wrong when the charge failed to ignite. On the second attempt, the charge detonated with a bigger blast than expected and damaged the museum wall.

Three new sets debuted this week. Most impressive is Newbery's spaceship interior. He made use of reflective materials which appeared to create moving patterns when light was shone on them in a certain way. One side had a black drape against which white ropes and canes were suspended on wires, to simulate a navigation star-chart. There were also small illuminated panels depicting Quarks, which would flash in later episodes to indicate when one of the robots was under attack, and the light would go out when it was no longer functioning.

The travel capsule was simply a tube with two seats, built onto the side of the survey unit set. It had a small opening at the front to allow camera access. The hatch now slid to the side instead of opening outwards. This jammed at one point and almost crushed Arthur Cox's hand.

To indicate the capsule taking off, an inlay effect of a white iris opening up from blackness was employed. This could be reversed to show it landing at its destination.

The other new set was the Dulcian council chamber, which employed a background cyclorama depicting futuristic buildings, one of which - the broken egg-like sphere - is oddly reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch. The set was dressed simply with comfortable chairs and TV monitors built into pedestals.

Three recording breaks were planned for the evening. Two were to position the examination table for Jamie and then for Teel, and the third was to allow Wendy Padbury to change into her Dulcian costume.

One of the Quark performers tripped over and the head fell off.

Flash charges were detonated around the survey unit set and lightweight debris was dropped from above for the climax to the episode.

A number of scenes were cut for timing reasons - mostly those involving Zoe and Cully. These included a couple of scenes in the travel capsule, where Zoe worked out their speed - 90,000 miles per hour - from the planet's circumference and their travel time to the Capitol. Cully also stated that the travel capsules had a manual override control, but it was so long ago that anyone had used it that people had forgotten where it was.

In the council chamber, he also told Zoe that his father was employed simply to maintain the old order established by previous Directors - to prevent aggression and suppress the yearning for adventure.

On approaching the spaceship, Balan was to have suspected that it was some new form of travel capsule designed by their own people, and Kando thought that, if so, it must have made a forced landing here.

If the second episode of The Dominators has a problem, it is lack of incident. Naturally we get an exciting cliffhanger, as Zoe and Cully arrive back at the survey unit just as Toba is blowing it up, but prior to that we have people going back and forth, and people talking in rooms.

It is the scenes between the Doctor, Jamie and the Dominators which are the most enjoyable - but they hardly move the plot on.

The Doctor and Jamie spend almost the entire episode as captives, undergoing a variety of intelligence tests. These start off in the spaceship - a wonderful Barry Newbery design - and then move to the museum.

These tests do allow for some humour to be displayed. The Doctor quickly realises that an intelligent enemy is going to be seen as more of a threat to the Dominators, so decides that he and Jamie should play dumb:

The Doctor: "Just act stupid. Do you think you can manage that?"

Jamie: "Och aye, it's easy" - then realises he's just been insulted.

The scene where the pair have to get off the central dais, only to find the floor electrified, provides a bit of clowning as they shock each other when they hold hands.

We also have a bit of sexual innuendo when Rago states that he is going to "probe your physiological make-up", to which the Doctor responds, alarmed, "Do what?".

But Rago isn't so easily fooled. 

Rago (to the Doctor): "Are you such a fool? You have intelligent eyes...".

The Doctor, of course, is following his usual special technique - of keeping his eyes open and his mouth shut, as he once told Eric Klieg on Telos.

He takes careful note of Rago's message to their fleet commander about "Materials being readily accessible" on the planet...

We are introduced to the leading council of Dulkis, and can see what Cully was talking about last time - his people really are bureaucratic and unadventurous.

When Teel reports that communications have been switched off at the council's end, he retorts: 

"Typical Dulcian behaviour. Something strange, something you don't understand and you switch off - " taps his head - "up here".

Balan simply accepts as fact that, as the radiation has disappeared, its effects must last only 172 years. The phrase "facts are facts" crops up over and over again from the survey team members.

We join the council as they debate the use of a piece of land for recreational purposes, and Bovem makes it clear that this has been discussed over and over for a considerable time, and so declares that they need to come to a decision. Then, when Zoe arrives claiming to be from another planet, this sparks off another debate.

Last week there was mention of a "new type of robot". This suggests that the Dulcians have robots of their own, and the debate about recreational land suggests that they have little need to work on this planet. It may be peaceful, but it is a somewhat indolent society, resting on its scientific achievements.

Trivia:

• The ratings fail to improve, slipping below the 6 million mark. Launching a new series in August was clearly proving a bad idea.
• Walter Fitzgerald was an accomplished character actor of the 1940's and '50's, appearing in movies such as The Winslow Boy, Around the World in 80 Days, The Cruel Sea, In Which We Serve and The Pickwick Papers, which also featured William Hartnell. The two also appeared together in Strawberry Roan and The Ringer. He had previously appeared on TV opposite Patrick Troughton in Paul of Tarsus, and the 1950 film adaptation of Treasure Island.
• Senex was to have been named Somex - from the Latin for sleep.
• Bovem's name derives from his bullish temperament.
• It's a great pity that Rago didn't begin with the Doctor when he conducted his physiological probing, or studied him as well as Jamie, as it would have helped resolve the continuity issue of the Doctor's second heart. We only hear of it for the first time in Spearhead From Space, and the Doctor just underwent a thorough physical exam from Dr Gemma Corwyn in the previous story which failed to note it. In The Sensorites he mentions a heart, singular, and Ian listens to his heartbeat in The Edge of Destruction without comment - all of which would suggest that he does not have a second heart in either of these incarnations.
• Two-hearted species can't be all that common, yet here we have a planet of twin-hearted aliens, who just happen to be visited by two different twin-hearted species on the same day - the Doctor and the Dominators. It's implied the latter have two hearts, as they see Jamie's single one as a weakness. 
• Radio Times featured artwork of the Quarks on the programme listings page this week, and Walter Fitzgerald was named first in the guest cast:

Anthony Head (1954 - 2026)

It has been announced today that actor Anthony Head has died, aged 72.

He is best known for his role as Giles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer but first came to notice through a series of romantic coffee adverts.

In Doctor Who he played headmaster Hector Finch in 2006's School Reunion, and also narrated Doctor Who Confidential. His name frequently came up when the starring role was due to be recast.

RIP