Episode 213: The Dominators (4)

Synopsis:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rago then enters with his Quark escort, demanding information.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone watches in horror as the old man dies. 

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

Data:

Written by Norman Ashby

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

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 31st August 1968

Ratings: 7.5 million / AI 51

VFX: Ron Oates

Designer: Barry Newbery

Director: Morris Barry

Critique:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trivia:

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

The Art of... The Dominators

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The DVD release had the censored scenes reinstated.

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

R is for... Ramo

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

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

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

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

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

R is for... Rakweed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Appearances: SJA 3.6 The Gift.

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

R is for... Rakaya

Rakaya was an ancient god-like figure who had been imprisoned in a cell suspended between two stars. She was able to reach out with her mind to connect with the Doctor's companion Graham O'Brien. Because of this, the Doctor decided to mount a rescue mission. As well as Graham, the Doctor's other companions and their friends and family members were being subjected to nightmares, which always featured a sinister figure whose fingers could detach from his hand. These inserted themselves into the victim's ear and induced their dreams.

This was a fellow immortal named Zellin, who had tricked the Doctor into freeing Rakaya. They were both Eternals, who fed on the dreams and nightmares of ephemeral beings, having long ago exhausted their own imaginations.

An ancient race blighted by Rakaya had succeeded in capturing and imprisoning her - but she was now free to cause the human race to have nightmares on which she and Zellin would feast.

The Doctor was able to put her back in her cell, along with Zellin - trapping them forever with a savage creature - a Chagaska - created in the nightmares of a young woman named Tahira, who came from 14th Century Aleppo.

Played by: Clare-Hope Ashitey. Appearances: Can You Hear Me? (2020). 

• The Eternals were first introduced in the 1983 story Enlightenment. 
• Ashitey has appeared in the movie Children of Men, and TV series Doctor Foster.

R is for... Radnor

Commander Julian Radnor was a senior official on the T-Mat matter transportation project. He had previously been involved in rocketry, working alongside the pioneering scientist Professor Daniel Eldred. Earth turned its back on space exploration and concentrated entirely on the new T-Mat system to transport people and goods across the planet. Radnor had foreseen this and moved over to join the project, which caused a rift between him and Eldred.

When the moonbase which housed the vital T-Mat relay station was invaded by Ice Warriors, the system was brought to a halt - causing widespread chaos. In desperation, Radnor turned to his old friend, whom he knew to be working on a secret project to build a new rocket. This would be used to get a team to the Moon who would be able to solve the issues - which were thought to be purely technical at this point.

Initially resistant, the Doctor was able to help Radnor convince Eldred to co-operate. Too old to pilot the rocket himself, the Doctor and his companions volunteered to fly it.

Based in London's T-Mat Control, Radnor had to contend first with alien seed pods arriving, which could suffocate and kill when they germinated, and then with the appearance of an Ice Warrior - sent to ensure that the seeds could establish themselves on Earth and so change the climate to suit the Martian invaders.

Having more of a political role on the project, Radnor had an uneasy working relationship with the ambitious Gia Kelly, senior technician for T-Mat.

Played by Ronald Leigh-Hunt. Appearances: The Seeds of Death (1969).

• Leigh-Hunt would return to the series in 1975 to play another commander - Stevenson - in Revenge of the Cybermen.
• He had earlier played King Arthur in the TV series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, which had starred William Russell in the title role - one which very much influenced his casting as Ian Chesterton.
• He would work again with Wendy Padbury in The Freewheelers, and can be seen in The Omen, which also featured Patrick Troughton.

R is for... Racnoss

The Racnoss were an ancient race of giant arachnids, who plagued the universe in its early history - a period known simply as the Dark Times. They had a voracious appetite for flesh, and were said to be born hungry. 

As they rampaged through the universe, destroying many early civilisations, the Time Lords of Gallifrey decided that something should be done to stop them. They were very much an interventionist race at this point, determined to use their great powers to shape the cosmos and bring order out of chaos. They went to war with the Racnoss and eventually wiped them out - or so they thought. The Racnoss Queen went into hiding whilst one of her spaceships - a Webstar - had wandered into what would become the Solar System. Still forming at this point - some 4.5 billion years ago - gravitational forces caused a new planet to form around the Webstar. This particular Webstar contained millions of the Queen's progeny, which were in a dormant stage. The new planet became the Earth.

In the early 21st Century, the Torchwood organisation began drilling operations beneath the Thames, to the east of London. The Thames Flood Barrier was constructed at the same time, to mask their activities. Torchwood had detected something buried here - which proved to the Webstar.

The Racnoss Queen had also slept through the millennia, but she now returned to resurrect her species by reanimating her children. Torchwood had fallen, and she engaged a human agent named Lance to help her. He worked for a company named HC Clements, which had been a front for Torchwood. 

In order to reanimate her children, the Queen required Huon Particles - an energy source now extinct in the universe, eliminated by the Time Lords as harmful to humanoid life. The Queen had retained some of this energy source and Lance was to secretly dose a co-worker with the particles. The energy would be released, and the host fed to the waking children. The worker selected was a secretary named Donna Noble.

The Doctor became involved with the Racnoss scheme when the Huon Particles in Donna's body caused her to be transported onto the TARDIS, drawn to the ship like a magnet.

The Racnoss Queen had employed the robot Santas, previously used by the Sycorax, to abduct her

Donna was later captured by the Queen but the Doctor was able to rescue her. Instead, the Queen dosed Lance with the particles and used him instead. To stop the newly wakened children from getting to the surface, the Doctor flooded the drilling chamber - draining the Thames - and the Racnoss offspring were drowned.

The Queen fled back to her Webstar - but it was blown out of the skies over London by the army on the orders of politician Harold Saxon (really an incarnation of the Master).

In an alternate timeline experienced by Donna, the Doctor himself drowned achieving the destruction of the Racnoss children.

Played by Sarah Parish. Appearances: The Runaway Bride (2006).

• Parish had previously acted opposite David Tennant in the dramas Recovery and Blackpool, and joked that the pair would eventually end up doing a sitcom together like George and Mildred.
• Other roles of note have included appearances in Merlin, Cutting It, W1A and detective series Bancroft, in which she starred as the title character. She was also a regular in BBC's Atlantis.
• She is married to Primeval star James Murray (who also featured in RTD's Cucumber), and the pair received MBEs in 2025 for their children's charity work.