P is for... Priests

Diminutive beings who were the corrupted survivors of a super-race which once thrived on the planet Uxarieus. They had developed a weapon capable of destroying whole star systems, but its radiation gradually wrecked the planet's environment and its people retreated into an underground city. 

The civilisation collapsed into superstition and barbarism. Some individuals formed a priest class as they turned their backs on technology and began to worship the weapon and its Guardian - one of their number who controlled it and fed on its energies. The Priests were mute and almost blind due to their subterranean existence, developing telepathic powers instead.

Part of their ritual involved sacrifices to the weapon, by casting their victim into its nuclear furnace. Jo, and later the Doctor and Master, were threatened with this fate.

The Doctor was able to convince the Guardian of the limitless potential for evil which the weapon posed, and it elected to sacrifice itself by self-destructing the device. He tried to help the Priests flee the city but, their telepathic link to the Guardian broken, they simply staggered aimlessly through the complex and were destroyed in the subsequent explosion.

Played by: Stanley Mason, Antonia Moss. Appearances: Colony In Space (1971)

• Mason would return in the very next story, playing Bok in The Daemons.

P is for... Priest Triangles

Crystalline diamond-shaped entities which acted as caretakers in the Temple of Atropos on the planet Time. They carried out routine maintenance and looked after the Mouri - beings who helped control the sentient force of Time itself. They were incapable of carrying out detailed repairs and so awaited the arrival of someone who could fix the damage to the Mouri caused by Swarm and Azure. They mistook Vinder and the Doctor's companion Yaz for maintenance specialists when they were carried to the temple.

Swarm destroyed one of the Triangles and Azure another when it recognised them as agents of Time. 

The Doctor was later approached by a third which enquired if she was the help it awaited.

Voiced by: Nigel Lambert. Appearances: Flux: Once Upon Time (2021)

• Lambert had previously played scientist Hardin in The Leisure Hive. He voiced all three of the Triangles.

P is for... Price, Captain

A UNIT officer in charge of the mobile HQ when the organisation raided the ATMOS factory outside London. This produced a highly efficient catalytic converter for motor vehicles, combined with an integrated GPS system.

Owner Luke Rattigan was a teenage tech genius who had invented a revolutionary new search engine and made his fortune. He was secretly in league with the Sontarans, however, who were going to exploit ATMOS as a weapon against the human race. Rattigan believed the aliens were going to relocate he and his high IQ followers to a new planet.

Captain Marion Price led on co-ordinating the global response to the threat, arranging for a nuclear strike against the Sontaran flagship.

As the aircraft Valiant cleared the toxic air around the ATMOS factory and the battle against the Sontarans turned in UNIT's favour, Price suffered a momentary loss of self-control and kissed her superior officer, Colonel Mace, revealling unstated romantic feelings for him.

Played by: Bridget Hodgson. Appearances: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky (2007)

• Spin-off literature has Price later put in command of the Valiant, at the time when it is shot down by the Daleks in The Stolen Earth.
• Film roles for Hodgson, who previously acted under the name Biddy Hodson, include Wilde (2004) and Hellboy (1997). She appears to have left screen acting after Doctor Who.

P is for... Priam

King of of Troy at the time of its decade-long siege by the Greek forces commanded by Agamemnon. A world-weary figure, he was often disappointed and frustrated by his children. Whilst he admired the bravery of eldest son Hector, he despaired of the cowardly and effete Paris - the man who had led to this conflict after running away with Helen, wife of King Menelaus and sister-in-law to Agamemnon.

Daughter Cassandra usually squabbled with Paris, when she wasn't complaining about being disrespected and having her prophesies ignored.

Paris brought the TARDIS into the city, believing it to be a gift from their god Poseidon, and Cassandra naturally denounced it as an evil omen. Priam reluctantly agreed it should be burned - which prompted the Doctor's companion Vicki to emerge from it. Priam took to her, and had her change her name to the more Trojan sounding Cressida.

When it became clear that she knew Steven Taylor - suspected to be a Greek Spy - Priam had her thrown into jail. She had suggested to the Trojans that she also had the gift of prophesy (knowing as she did of future events) and had to prove herself or face being burned as a witch. Priam's youngest son, Troilus, had fallen in love with her in the interim.

The old king allowed himself to be swayed by Paris when a large wooden horse was apparently left behind by the departing Greek army, and had it brought into Troy - another gift from the gods.

The warrior Odysseus was among those hiding inside - along with the Doctor who had reluctantly proposed the plan - and he slew Priam and Paris, and took Cassandra captive.

Played by: Max Adrian. Appearances: The Myth Makers (1965)

• According to myth, Priam had 50 sons and many daughters. He was killed, aged 80, not by Odysseus but by Achilles' son Neoptolemus.
• Oddly, Priam as presented here does not bat an eyelid when favoured son and heir Hector is killed. In Homer's Iliad he is grief-stricken and goes to Achilles to beg for the return of Hector's body.
• Adrian (1903 - 1973) was a regular collaborator with writer Donald Cotton and had performed in a number of his radio productions. Cotton was therefore able to secure his talents for this story.
• It was often claimed that William Hartnell refused to work with Adrian as he was gay and Jewish, but the Doctor and Priam simply never share any scenes together.
• To many in Britain, Adrian is best known for playing patriarch Ludicrus Sextus in Up Pompeii, opposite Frankie Howerd.
• Horror fans will recall him from the vampire segment in Dr Terror's House of Horrors, opposite Donald Sutherland.
• He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and an original member of the National Theatre, appearing as Polonius in its very first production (Hamlet being played by Peter O'Toole). He played the Dauphin in Olivier's film of Henry V, and Alec Guinness and Olivier read the lessons at his memorial service.

The Movie Re-release

It has been announced this morning that the McGann movie has been remastered and will be released on 4K and Blu-ray formats.

There's only a December 2099 placeholder date so far. The extras don't appear to differ too greatly from the earlier Blu-ray apart from new featurettes on the three main guest artists, and a Matthew Sweet conversation with the director.

As I have never been a huge fan of this, I'll only be ordering if the Blu-ray version has been decently remastered as I don't own a 4K player and have no plans to get one anytime soon.

Many fans have been hoping for a "Wilderness Years" release as part of The Collection sets, which would have included this - but this appears to discount that possibility.

Inspirations: Face The Raven

Sarah Dollard was a Melbourne-based fan of Doctor Who who had written for Neighbours and other Australian series, before contributing to the BBC fantasy dramas Merlin and Being Human.

Her inspiration for this story began when a friend explained to her about Trap Streets. These were small non-existent thoroughfares added to maps by their makers to catch out cartographical copyists - as the only way the street could appear on any other map was if it had been plagiarised.

Dollard envisioned these streets as being real, but unknown to the general public. As such they could offer sanctuary to a group of people. It was Steven Moffat who suggested that these may be alien refugees. The idea that the Doctor and Clara might investigate a murder in one of these zones also came from the showrunner.

In order to get the Doctor and Clara into the mystery quickly, the script editor suggested reusing an established character, and graffiti artist Rigsy from Flatline was hit upon. In that story he had mentioned a mother living in London so it was decided that he had located there from Bristol, and he would be accused of a crime he did not commit - providing the motive for the TARDIS pair to get involved. The episode would therefore become a whodunnit.

Dollard then developed the idea that the isolating community had their own unique mode of dispensing justice - a creature which would be released from a cage to kill an individual who had been marked for execution.

This provided a countdown and a fixed timescale in which the Doctor had to come up with the real killer, so a race against time.

The entrance to the Trap Street was originally going to be through the door of a mural Rigsy had painted of the TARDIS. The Mayor was going to be a beetle-like alien, whose deputy was a Sontaran.

Once the episode was moved to tenth position in the series, leading into the finale, it was later decided to introduce the new character Ashildr / Me into Dollard's story as she played a role in the final episode. She then took on the role of Mayor.

Having already stayed on much longer than anticipated, this would be Jenna Coleman's last series. Moffat debated with himself having her leave in the finale or - for shock value - having her killed off earlier. (In the end, he would manage both).

It would be made clear that her death wasn't some form of self-sacrifice. Rather, she died due to her over-confidence and increasing lust for danger and excitement - a belief that she could match the Doctor's abilities. Me would not be held responsible and the Doctor would not be vengeful.

The raven features in many mythologies. 

Odin is also known as the Raven God. He had two pet birds which gathered intelligence for him and acted as spies.

In the indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest the bird is both a trickster and a bringer of light to the world.

Celtic mythology has them birds of ill omen, especially when it comes to battle.

The ancient Greeks held that they were servants of Apollo, and were originally white. Apollo singed them in a rage after they brought him bad news.

The design of the Trap Street was based on narrow lanes off Oxford Street in London, and The Shambles in York. Many have noted a similarity to Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films though Dollard has said that this wasn't intentional.

Among the aliens we see in the street are a Cyberman, Ood and Sontaran.

Among returning guest artists are Robin Soans as "Chronolock Guy". He had played Consul Luvic in The Keeper of Traken. Me's deputy, Rump, is Simon Paisley Day who, as Simon Day, played the Steward on Platform One in The End of the World.

Next time: the Doctor gets caught up in the works and takes a very long time to extricate himself, in what many regard as one of the greatest Doctor Who episodes of all time...

Episode 196: The Web of Fear (5)

Synopsis:

Two Yeti burst into the fortress, and everyone is horrified to see the missing Professor Travers accompanying them - now possessed by the Great Intelligence...

Through Travers the Intelligence informs the Doctor that he has been brought here deliberately, but not as revenge for what happened in Tibet. The Intelligence has been observing his travels and it wants to acquire his knowledge. This will leave him physically unharmed, but with the mind of a child.

If he refuses to co-operate, it will take what it seeks elsewhere, beginning with his companions. The Doctor must submit willingly. It also lets slip that it has other human agents at its command.

Travers then seizes Victoria and gives the Doctor an ultimatum. He has 20 minutes to agree to what the Intelligence demands, and the girl will be held as hostage until he does so.

Travers drags Victoria out, followed by the Yeti. Jamie insists on going after them, but the Colonel cautions that the Yeti will be waiting outside.

Evans then suggests that they do as the Intelligence wants, and allow the Doctor to be taken.

The Doctor tells them that if he cannot come up with any other solution in the time available then he will indeed hand himself over. He tells Jamie that he and Victoria will have to care for him until his mind develops again. 

They discover that the Yeti have gone, so the Colonel organises a search of the fortress with Jamie and Evans whilst the Doctor and Anne hurry to complete their work in the lab.

The Colonel and Jamie then decide to go in search of Travers and Victoria, leaving Evans to guard the Doctor and Anne. They are working on a means of overriding the control signal to a Yeti sphere, so that they can give it their own instructions.

Jamie and the Colonel get only as far as the main surface entrance when they find a wall of web behind it.

They return to the lab where the Doctor is testing their control box. He is sure they can now block the signal to a Yeti to immobilise it, then replace its sphere with the one that they now control.

Evans is now sure that either Jamie or the Colonel is the Intelligence's agent, but the Colonel dismisses him out of hand. He and Jamie are going to use the tunnel exit to go look for their missing friends.

They, meanwhile, are at Piccadilly Circus station, guarded by a Yeti. The Intelligence has released its hold over the professor and he is trying to comfort Victoria. They attempt to slip away - only to be confronted by a second Yeti as it emerges from the tunnel.

As time ticks away, the Doctor and Anne have completed their work, but the control box only has very short range. They will at least have voice control over their adapted sphere but will have to get very close to one of the Yeti to use it.

Jamie and the Colonel find a handkerchief of Victoria's in the tunnel and realise she has dropped it as a clue to the direction they have taken.

As they sit on the platform by the tunnel entrance, Travers and Victoria hear a whispered call. Hiding in the shadows is a bedraggled Staff Sergeant Arnold. They ask him to return to the fortress to tell the others where they are being held.

After testing out their sphere on an alarmed Evans, the Doctor sets off to find a Yeti to capture - and Anne insists on accompanying him. The cowardly driver refuses to come with them.

The Colonel and Jamie encounter Arnold, who tells them about finding Travers and Victoria. All he can recall about his earlier disappearance with the trolley party was becoming smothered in web then blacking out.

The three head for the fortress to find the Doctor, only to learn that he and Anne have already left. They then see that the web is continuing to close in on them, moving inexorably down the Northern Line. Warren Street falls, and Goodge Street is next.

At Piccadilly Circus, the Yeti move Travers and Victoria away from the platform.

The Doctor and Anne encounter a Yeti and are relieved to find their device works. The Doctor removes its control sphere and replaces it with the adapted one. 

The robot now obeys his verbal commands.

Evans is tending to Arnold's wounds when they see the wall of the ops room begin to bulge inwards. Within seconds it cracks open and a mass of glowing web pours into the fortress...

Data:

Written by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln

Recorded: Saturday 10th February 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 2nd March 1968

Ratings: 8 million / AI 55

VFX: Ron Oates

Designer: David Myerscough-Jones

Director: Douglas Camfield

Critique:

The only changes from the draft script for this episode were that Victoria would leave an item of jewellery on the tracks for her friends to find, instead of her handkerchief, and the nervous Evans placed a dummy in the ops room as a decoy should the Yeti return to the fortress.

Later, Derrick Sherwin made some additional changes, one of which was the Colonel's speculation that Arnold was somehow immune to the web-like fungus. After having immobilised the single robot, the Doctor also realised that his control box might be made to block the signals to all of the Yeti, if he could get back to the fortress in time to perfect it.

A well known convention anecdote from Frazer Hines derives from camera rehearsals for this episode. It's the scene where Jamie finds the hankie belonging to Victoria, so he knows they are (literally) on the right track. During rehearsals he produced a pair of ladies underpants and held them up claiming "These are Miss Waterfield's. I'd know them anywhere!" - thus embarrassing Debbie Watling in front of her dad.

One of the visitors to the studio that day was Justin Richards, who would go on to write a number of original Doctor Who novels and edit the range.

For the scene in which the Colonel and Jamie tried to get through the door to street level, a physical prop was used to represent the web. This was made from transparent plastic with a light source behind, manipulated from the rear by stagehands.

The radio-controlled sphere which had first been used in The Abominable Snowmen was utilised again.

Only two Yeti were required in studio, played by John Levene and Gordon Stothard.

The episode opened with a re-enactment of the final scene from the previous instalment.

The climactic scene of the web bursting through the wall of the fortress was model work filmed on Monday 8th January. Two small sets were created - the ops room and a corridor - with firefighting foam representing the web.

It's the penultimate episode, so this week is mainly concerned with getting everyone into position for the finale. The Doctor has developed his device which he hopes to use against the Yeti, and the fortress finally falls to the web - so we won't be revisiting it again. The action has to move elsewhere.

This episode is interesting in that once again we see the Doctor spending a considerable amount of time with a more mature female character. We saw this previously with Astrid in the previous story, and will do so again before the season is out. Troughton seems to work well when he has adult characters to work with, and not just interacting with the juvenile companions.

One problem with this episode is the timeframe. We are told only a minute or two into it that the Doctor has 20 minutes to surrender himself. Yet towards the end of the episode, just before he and Anne set out to use their control device, only 8 minutes have elapsed. The episode, with a running time of 24' 19" ends with some of the 20 minutes still remaining, as we'll see when we get to the final instalment. Unless we have been viewing scenes which have actually been overlapping with each other, the timing is out.

It's a minor irritation, but once you notice it you can't un-notice (sorry). It could so easily have been avoided if the Intelligence had stuck to the good old "one hour" deadline. Besides, it would take more than 20 minutes to walk from Goodge Street to Piccadilly Circus - so the Doctor would almost have had to set off before the Intelligence had even issued his ultimatum!

(This timing business isn't unique to this story - just watch any story where the Daleks have a countdown).

We know the identity of the Intelligence's human agent, but viewers at the time would still have been pondering.

As far as they would have been concerned, further suspicion grows for it to be Evans - keen to see the Doctor hand himself over and thus let the rest of them go free. Or is this just his cowardly nature? Chorley is still missing, and now Arnold turns up out of the blue - unharmed save for some minor wound whereas everyone else has been killed by contact with the web, or the Yeti which lurk within it. As for the Colonel, he seems increasingly unlikely to be the agent - mainly because neither the Doctor nor Jamie seem to be treating him like a suspect.

Trivia:

• The ratings had peaked for this story the week before but remain healthy at 8 million viewers, whilst the appreciation figure increases.
• Radio Times featured another small item on the series this week, this time looking at the Watling family, as Debbie's sister Dilys was also appearing on TV: