Episode 228: The Krotons (1)

Synopsis:

In a subterranean chamber on an alien world, a ceremony is taking place. One wall of this chamber differs from the others, in that it is made of metal, with a hexagonal doorway set in the centre, at the side of which is a small circular hatch. 

Selris, leader of the Gonds, receives a document from this hatch which lists two names. These are Abu and Vana, a pair of their brightest young students. They have been chosen to become Companions of the Krotons. 

Thara, son of Selris and boyfriend to Vana, objects as this will take her away from him forever. He is restrained by his father and Eelek, one of the ruling council. Both argue that the Krotons can never be disobeyed. They were once, and the result was a desolate wasteland which lies beyond their settlement.

It is here that the TARDIS materialises. The Doctor and his companions emerge, and are immediately assailed by a sulphurous smell. The Doctor has his umbrella with him, as this world has twin suns.

Abu is given a ceremonial robe and medallion, then enters through the hexagonal doorway.

As the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe explore, they come across an identical doorway set into the rocks.

They conceal themselves as it opens, and witness a young man stumble out. Short nozzles emerge from either side of the doorway, which emit a cloud of highly acidic vapour. The man - Abu - is killed, his body disintegrated.

They soon discover the settlement, comprising a number of squat buildings surrounding a huge spherical structure. They find their way into the underground chamber where they are captured by Eelek and a young man named Axus, whom Jamie overpowers when he tries to attack them.

They see the robed Vana enter through the doorway and the Doctor informs the assembled Gonds that they have just seen someone dressed like her killed in the area nearby. The Gonds are horrified to learn that they have been in the wasteland, as it is supposed to be toxic.

The Doctor and his companions rush back to the other doorway, accompanied by Thara.

They arrive just in time and try to block the nozzles with pieces of mica as the door opens and Vana stumbles out, dazed.

The Doctor uses his umbrella to shield her from the vapour jet and they pull her to safety - at the cost of his favourite umbrella.

She is taken to the home of Selris where the Doctor's examination reveals that she has been drained of mental energy. 

From the Gond leader, he learns something of this society. Generations ago, "silver men" arrived on the planet. They laid waste to a great area with acid rain, which is now supposedly a deadly forbidden zone - the region where they saw Abu killed.

The visitors were the Krotons, who live within a great machine around which the chamber - the Hall of Learning - is built.

Also here are teaching machines, and every so often the two brightest students are invited into the machine, to become Companions of the Krotons.

The Krotons determine what knowledge the Gonds may possess. They are never seen, with messages relayed through the small hatch only.

Selris cannot believe that every student has been secretly disposed of out in the wasteland all these years. The Krotons have always been their friends and benefactors. 

The Doctor has realised that the Gonds are being manipulated into a form of self-perpetuating slavery, and determines that it must be stopped.

The hot-headed Thara has no problem believing the Krotons to be malign, and he gathers a group of student friends together to mount an attack on the Hall of Learning - determined to draw them out of their machine. They accost the Hall's Custodian. He is unable to tell them any more about the Krotons than they already know, so Thara and his friends begin smashing the teaching machines.

Beta, the settlement's chief scientist, arrives at the home of Selris to warn him of what his son is doing.

Selris joins the Doctor and his companions as they rush back to the Hall, arriving just in time to hear the booming voice of the Krotons ordering the Gonds to leave immediately. They are being monitored on an automated system within the machine, which focuses on the Doctor.

As he tries to warn Thara and his friends that they are in grave danger, the small hatch opens and a long serpentine probe emerges, equipped with a camera eye.

It extends further into the Hall and concentrates on the Doctor, bearing down on him as he trips and falls to the ground...

Data:

Written by Robert Holmes

Recorded: Friday 22nd November 1968 - Riverside Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 28th December 1968

Ratings: 9 million / AI 59

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post 

Designer: Raymond London

Director: David Maloney 

Guest cast: James Copeland (Selris), Philip Madoc (Eelek), James Cairncross (Beta), Gilbert Wynne (Thara), Madeleine Mills (Vana), Richard Ireson (Axus), Maurice Selwyn (Custodian), Bronson Shaw (Student), Terence Brown (Abu), Roy Skelton (Kroton Voice)

Critique:

It was a troubled time for Doctor Who on the scripting front in late 1968. Of the seven stories which make up Season 6, only four were planned from the start. Even then, The Dominators lost an episode, The Mind Robber gained one, and The Invasion was expanded to eight episodes. And The Seeds of Death was heavily rewritten by Terrance Dicks. 

Other stories fell by the wayside, sometimes at a very advanced stage. One of these was "The Prison in Space", by Dick Sharples.

This story saw the Doctor and his companions arrive on a future Earth, now an oppressive matriarchal society ruled over by a dictator known as Chairman Babs. Women dominated their male counterparts. The police were leather-clad "Dolly Guards". Zoe was brainwashed into joining this society, whilst the Doctor and Jamie ended up consigned to the titular prison and helped lead a revolt. At one point Jamie would have disguised himself as a "Dolly Guard". Zoe was snapped out of her support for the regime by being spanked by Jamie...

Just think of The Two Ronnies' 1980 serial "The Worm That Turned" and you'll have some idea of what this sexist nonsense might have looked like, if it hadn't been scrapped late in the day.

It had been intended that this story might also write out Jamie, to be replaced by a new young male companion named Nik.

Frazer Hines had been under pressure from his agent to capitalise on his prominent TV role and get into movies. In the end, Hines was talked into holding back his departure for a few months by Patrick Troughton, so they could both leave the series together. Additionally, Hines had just lost his father and so was the sole breadwinner for his family, so a regular role with steady income was beneficial at this time.

Robert Holmes had lived an interesting life before turning to writing. He was the youngest commissioned officer in WWII thanks to lying about his age, and after the war became a police officer. He began his writing career through attending court cases, noting the drama they generated. This led to a move into journalism and then onto script writing. He had contributed to the soap Market on Honey Lane - a forerunner of EastEnders - amongst other things. His first brush with science fiction was with scripts for the ITV series Undermind. He also wrote the screenplay for the film Invasion, elements of which he would later use in Spearhead From Space.

He had submitted, unsolicited, a story called "The Space-Trap" to the BBC for its sci-fi / fantasy anthology series Out of the Unknown, only to be informed by Shaun Sutton, Head of Serials, that they had all the scripts they needed, and the series was likely to be discontinued. He was, however, going to pass it onto the Doctor Who production office. The Story Editor at the time was Donald Tosh, and he and John Wiles saw some potential in it - though the robots were a little too close to the Mechonoids. 

In the original Doctor Who version of the story, the Doctor was travelling with Ian, Barbara and Vicki. Landing on an alien world, they were subjected to an amnesia gas and captured by a pair of robots which took them into their spaceship. There they were set a number of intelligence tests, being rewarded with food when successfully completed. The actual crew of the ship were a trio of humanoids, who had been in suspended animation for thousands of years after crashing here. They needed three more people to pilot the ship home, and so the robots had been set to work on finding new crewmembers of sufficient intelligence, first to reanimate the surviving crew and then to join them. The travellers quickly realised that only three of them were needed, who would be press-ganged into making the long journey, and the other one would be disposed of. The Doctor sabotaged the ship and they escaped.

It was hoped that the story might be developed for Season 3, but Holmes secured a job on another series and so had no time to do further work on it.

Later, Holmes came across the script during an office clear out and decided to resubmit it to the Doctor Who team, adding a note that if they weren't interested then they should simply bin it as he didn't want it back.

It wasn't binned, as Terrence Dicks had a look at it and, like Tosh, saw some potential.

Derrick Sherwin was not so sure, so Dicks asked if he could develop it as a project of his own since he was due to take over the Script Editor role from Sherwin.

When "The Prison in Space" collapsed, Dicks was able to put forward as a replacement "The Space-Trap", which he had been working on with Holmes. Retitled simply "The Trap", and then The Krotons, it headed into production. 

There were few substantial changes between the first draft and the broadcast version. Eelek was named Avrik, and Selris received the names of the chosen students in a crystal casket which was taken from the hatch in the Hall of Learning. The Dynatrope was named the Dynatron, and was described as toroidal in shape. Instead of an image composed of dots, the Doctor's face would have appeared on the scanner like an identikit picture. The Gond settlement was said to lie in a green and verdant valley, contrasting with the wasteland. The Doctor used a rolled up item of Thara's clothing to try to block the acid jet, instead of a rock, when rescuing Vana.

On hearing of "silver men", Zoe was to have asked the Doctor if it could be Cybermen again. Beta was to have been a much younger man - a contemporary of Thara.

David Maloney, who had only recently directed The Mind Robber, had been given the task of making "The Prison in Space". Whilst happy to see this abandoned, he was less than impressed with its replacement. The Doctor's use of an umbrella as a prop was one of his ideas. (It was supposed to be an antique, whalebone-handled one, but self-opening brollies had just come on the market and one of these would be used instead).

Bobi Bartlett continued to be responsible for the costumes, whilst designer Raymond London had previously worked on The War Machines.

Filming commenced on Sunday 10th November at the Pyx Granite Quarry near Malvern, the spa town in Worcestershire. This would represent the wasteland region. Footage was captured on 16mm film, though 35mm film was also used for some zoom shots.

Wendy Padbury wore a new outfit, red and black in colour, which was made from a strengthened type of paper, and she hoped to keep it after completing the story.

Filmed the first day were some establishing shots and the TARDIS arrival, as well as the travellers' initial exploration of the planet. Troughton hummed the English folk song The Lincolnshire Poacher, which he had learned to play on the recorder. The model of the Gond settlement was filmed on location.

At one point it looks like Hines has slipped and pushes against Wendy Padbury as they descend a rocky slope - but this was simply a bit of business they worked out between themselves at the location.

The following day, the crew moved to another quarry south of Malvern. Only one sequence for the opening episode was filmed here - when the Doctor and his companions first emerge from the TARDIS.

Filming then moved to Ealing for the rest of the week. 

On the first day, Terence Brown filmed his scenes where Abu merges from the doorway in the wasteland, to be attacked by the acid jet and killed. Dry ice was used for the acid cloud. The dispersion nozzles were actually inserted into cake tins at the side of the hexagonal door.

The sequences involving the serpentine probe came next. This was made and operated by a puppetry firm named Chimera.

The final day of filming, Friday 15th November, included the shot of the planet's twin suns. Various computer-style graphics were also put together, including the formation of an "X" on a monitor.

The main guest artist for the story was James Copeland, whose acting career began in 1953. One of his first film roles was one he is best remembered for - the comedy ensemble piece Innocents in Paris. Other film roles included Rockets Galore! and The Maggie. He had given up acting temporarily prior to being cast in The Krotons, to become a continuity announcer for Grampian TV. Doctor Who was one of his first jobs after resuming his old career.

Roy Skelton had pre-recorded his Kroton vocals on the Wednesday prior to recording the first episode, basing his performance on a South African accent.

It was decided that the opening instalment would be captured directly onto 35mm film, rather than the usual 625-line video tape as with the other three episodes. The opening captions were shown over a shot of the circular hatch opening - and unfortunately this became stuck for a few seconds.

A recording run-on allowed Troughton to swap his umbrella for a tattered version, after it had been doused in acid.

One recording break allowed the main cast to move from the exit doorway to Selris' home.

The computerised "X" appeared on a monitor in the machine's control room, along with an image of the Doctor's face composed of black and white dots, and camera output showing the Hall of Learning. 

The attack of the snake-like probe was a mixture of Ealing filming and use of the prop in studio. Maloney used POV shots to show it homing in on the Doctor.

I'll confess it from the outset, but The Krotons is another guilty pleasure of mine. We'll talk about the monsters themselves when they finally make an appearance, though they are one of the things people use to knock the story. Some of the acting is a trifle stagey, and we have some less than impressive production values on display. (That little hatch getting stuck in the very first scene, in close-up, does get it off to a poor start).

It is a cheap story, designed to offset more expensive ones this season, but I don't think you should hold that against it. Unlike something like Time-Flight, it doesn't try to do too much and deliver beyond what it knows it can achieve. As a four part space filler between eight weeks of invading Cybermen and the return of the Ice Warriors, it stands up reasonably well.

The basic premise is the old one of alien visitors being taken for gods by a more primitive society, but Holmes avoids much of the sci-fi cliché by having the Gonds know that the Krotons are aliens from the outset. The whole false gods bit, which the Star Trek franchise will work to death, isn't necessary for the story to work. The "alien astronauts" concept is merely the framework on which to hang a story about exploitation and colonialism -  a more technologically advanced race, with superior weaponry, dominating another. Instead of exploiting natural resources, the Krotons harvest mental energy. 

The Gonds are an enslaved people - they just don't realise it as it's done in such an insidious way. They think that their cleverest students are simply entering the machine to become servants to the Krotons, whom they describe as "friends and benefactors", and the suppression of their technological progress is disguised by them only concentrating on what they are taught - not on what knowledge is being withheld.

There are some serious flaws in the Kroton plan, but we'll get to them in a later episode. A quick question here, though. If the metal medallions worn by the students aren't dissolved by the acid, shouldn't the ramp area be covered with them, if this has been going on for generations? Also, how can it be a Kroton speaking, if the creatures haven't been reanimated yet? If the Dynatrope is programmed with their voice pattern, why is it only now that it decides to speak to the Gonds?

Holmes will revisit elements of this story in his final completed story for Doctor Who, The Mysterious Planet - namely the pair of bright young things who are taken from a primitive society to serve a robotic being which has become semi-mythical to the society they have left behind, lurking in its high-tech lair and never being seen.

Inspirations appear to have come from The Tripods novels, by John Christopher. These began in 1967, and depict a non-technological community ruled over by alien machines, which process young people when they reach a certain age as a form of mental enslavement.

The Machine Stops, by EM Forster, is another possible inspiration. First published in 1909, it tells of a subterranean human society whose every need is served by a great machine. One of the inhabitants decides to break free and see what lies beyond - despite the machine's warning that only a toxic wasteland lies outside. This short story was dramatised for the second season of Out of the Unknown. As Holmes wanted to write for the series, he must surely have watched it.

Rebellious students were a thing seen regularly in the news in 1968 - most notably in May of that year in Paris. Protests against the Vietnam War, military dictatorships, Apartheid and racism in general were global, however. Those in Eastern Europe, such as the "Prague Spring", were a protest against Communist oppression.

Trivia:

• The ratings start off very well indeed. In fact, this is the highest rated episode of the Troughton era, both in terms of viewing figures and audience appreciation. No doubt falling in the weekend between Christmas and New Year helped - generally a quiet pause for people between the major festivities.
• An Audience Research Report was commissioned by the BBC for this episode, comprising the views of 186 respondents. Many found the episode intriguing and it was popular especially with younger viewers. There were some who found it boring, and missed the purely historical stories. Criticisms were voiced about the sets, costumes and some of the acting - including the opinion of some that Troughton didn't take the role of Doctor seriously enough.
• First appearance in the series of Philip Madoc, who is best known for his role as Mehendri Solon in The Brain of Morbius. He will be back later in this season to play the War Lord in The War Games, and his final role in the series would be as Fenner in The Power of Kroll. In 1966 he had featured as black marketeer Brockley in Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150AD.
• James Cairncross had previously played Lemaitre / James Stirling in The Reign of Terror.
• Gilbert Wynne would later appear in Torchwood, featuring in Miracle Day: The Gathering. He was well-known at the time as a regular on police drama Softly, Softly.
• Richard Ireson had worked on the series only a few weeks before, when he had played one of the Clockwork Soldiers and (uncredited) the Minotaur in The Mind Robber.
• Roy Skelton voices his fourth lot of aliens, after the Monoids, Cybermen and Daleks. He had also been the voice of the base computer in The Ice Warriors.
• James Copeland is the father of actor James Cosmo (Highlander, Braveheart, Game of Thrones, His Dark Materials amongst many others).
• "The Prison in Space" was itself a replacement story. Originally intended for this slot was "The Dreamspinner", by Paul Wheeler. This was written off at an early stage, and was one of the reasons that The Invasion was extended from six to eight episodes.
• On his real age being discovered, Robert Holmes wasn't censured by the Army. One General praised him, stating he had done exactly the same thing in the last war.
• Other than the usual daily programme listing, Radio Times opted not to cover the debut of the new serial with any additional feature.

TARDIS Log: The Keys of Marinus

Where and when:

The TARDIS materialises on a small island, which is dominated by a huge pyramid structure. Exploring, the travellers discover that the sea surrounding the island is highly acidic. They are not the only visitors, as they come upon a number of one-man submersibles capable of moving through acid.

They later meet Arbitan, who resides alone in the pyramid, and from him learn that this is the planet Marinus. 

He is the Keeper of the Conscience machine, which generates a pacifying influence over this world. A figure named Yartek, leader of the Voords, has found a way to protect himself and his followers from the machine, and they now pose a danger to the entire planet. It is they who have come to the island in the submersibles.

Arbitan is now ready to upgrade the Conscience so that it will once again be universal, but to do this he requires all five microcircuit keys which operate it.

He has retained one, but the other four are scattered across Marinus. He then deploys a forcefield around the TARDIS to coerce the Doctor and his companions into fetching these for him. They will journey using special wrist-mounted travel dials, pre-programmed for each of their destinations.

From a map we can see that Marinus seems to comprise one huge elongated continent, with Arbitan's island off its southern coast.

Judging by the defences which the Keeper employs, the acid surrounding this is probably artificially generated and extends only for a certain distance around the island. 

The key locations are as follows:

The city of Morphoton. Here everyone seems content, provided with whatever they wish for. The reality is that they are all mentally enslaved by the Morpho - disembodied brains with eyestalks, which require a special environment in which to live within glass containers. Barbara destroys these, killing the creatures and thus freeing the populace. The travellers collect two new temporary companions here - Sabetha, daughter of Arbitan, and her boyfriend Altos.

The second key is guarded by an elderly botanist named Darrius in a compound built at the heart of a densely forested region. His experiments with growth accelerator have resulted in the local vegetation growing rampantly and aggressively, and Darrius himself falls victim to it.

The third location is a mountainous area, the key being guarded by Ice Soldiers within a block of ice in a cavern. The Doctor has jumped from Morphoton to the final destination, so it is left to his companions and their new friends to cope with the ruthless fur trapper Vasor, as well as the reanimated Soldiers, to retrieve the key. There are also wolves in this region, which resemble those of Earth. Vasor speaks of a village a few miles from his cabin.

Other than the Morpho, everyone on Marinus appears to be humanoid. We don't know if the Morpho are alien interlopers, or if they evolved naturally here. The origin of the Voords is also unclear. They may simply be men in suits, though Yartek at one point describes them as his "creatures". There is no indication that they are alien to Marinus.

Everyone is reunited at the final key location - the city of Millennius. This is a well ordered society, though one with an unusual legal system. Those accused of crimes are automatically deemed guilty and must prove conclusively their innocence - as Ian discovers when he is accused of murder and the theft of the key from the city museum.

He is defended by the Doctor, and the real criminal is exposed.

The travellers return with the keys to the island - only to find Yartek and the Voord have seized control of the Conscience machine after killing Arbitan. However, Ian gives Yartek a fake key prepared as a decoy by Darrius, and the invaders are destroyed when the machine explodes. Sabetha and Altos elect to settle in Millennius.

It is clear that that no-one in Millennius seems to be aware that another city has been taken over by monsters, or that there is a rapidly growing threat to the continent from Darrius' experiments. These are obviously very insular societies. There does not appear to be any form of conventional transport. (Had there been, the need to protect the travel dials wouldn't have mattered quite so much).

As for when this takes place, the travel dials take people to different locations within the same time period, as everyone is aware of Arbitan. 

With humanoid inhabitants and wolves resembling those of Earth, there is a possibility that this might be an Earth colony. If it is, the fact that the Conscience machine was built a thousand years ago would suggest that this is the far distant future. (There was an unwritten convention in the early days of the series that stories set on alien planets were also set in the future).

Unseen journeys:

The Doctor advises Guardian Tarron to study Pyrrho, which he claims would be of benefit to an investigator like him. Pyrrho founded the philosophical school of Scepticism, in which people were encouraged not to simply accept what they saw or were told, but to challenge and question deeper. He lived in Greece and died c.270 BC, and was a contemporary of Alexander the Great. When told it was lucky he had studied his works, the Doctor retorts that he actually met him. This is another contender for the occasion when the TARDIS took on the form of an ionic column.

As Ian is still wearing his Chinese silk outfit, it appears that the TARDIS has come straight from 13th Century Peking, with no intermediate landings.

The TARDIS:

The console appears to be very close to the external doors. Everyone stands with their backs to these, looking up at the scanner opposite.

We learn that the scanner doesn't show colour images. The Doctor describes this as "temporarily hors de combat" - roughly translating as "out of action". (In a deleted portion of script, the Doctor claimed that this was one of the things he was looking into whilst based in London, 1963 - visiting the BBC where he couldn't get their colour signals to mix).

The radiation meter seems to have been fixed as Ian asks about the reading, and the Doctor replies that it is hardly registering anything. The meter must now be facing the doors, whereas before it was to the right of the console as you came into the ship. This suggests that the console can rotate.

The Doctor makes reference to the "time mechanism" being faulty, and it would take days to repair. He thinks the fully equipped laboratory promised by Altos may help. This may mean that the failure to get Ian and Barbara home might be more to do with the ship itself, and less to do with the Doctor's grasp of the controls.

Arbitan is later able to place an impenetrable forcefield around the ship (which he must take down the instant the travellers depart on their quest - as he is murdered only moments later).

The TARDIS is seen to materialise for the first time, having only been seen to depart up until now.

Sabetha makes a gift of the surviving microcircuit key to the Doctor as a souvenir.

Behind the Scenes:

A single wall - the one with the double doors - and the console were all that were required in studio on 20th March 1964 for The Sea of Death. This was the TARDIS interior's only appearance in the story.

For the materialisation of the TARDIS on the island, a model of the Police Box was used for the first time.

Famously, designer Ray Cusick hated this story as he was called upon to come up with completely different sets each week due to its quest scenario. He simply didn't have the time or budget to do what he wanted to do, and found the director, John Gorrie, somewhat disinterested in his work.

The Velvet Web featured two different versions of the reception area of Morphoton - one looking luxurious and the other decrepit. Cusick was reprimanded by his superiors for using expensive materials for the former. He had wanted to use dead rats for the run-down version.

During rehearsals for The Snows of Terror, the ice-bridge collapsed with Carole Ann Ford on it.

This is a classic example of the "Terry Nation Naming Convention" phenomenon.

Marinus is so called because it has a distinctive ocean.

It doesn't just apply to planets. Arbitan is an arbiter - a judge who, through the Conscience machine, determines right from wrong on this planet.

Morphoton and the Morpho get their name from Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams (son of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and Pasithea, goddess of the night). It is whilst asleep that newcomers to the city are mentally processed and enslaved.

Nation has a thing about the name Darren, hence Darrius. In The Dalek Book the home continent of the Thals on Skaro is Darren.

As for Tarron, Nation will come up with all manner of permutations of names based on "Terry N" in both Doctor Who and Blake's 7.

Millennius derived its name from the idea that the next millennium, only a few decades away in 1964, might prove to be one of technological advances and fewer social ills.

For his next Doctor Who script, Nation was actually working on a historical adventure set around the Indian Mutiny, provisionally titled "The Red Fort". With issues continuing with Malcolm Hulke's "The Hidden Planet", he was instead asked to write another sci-fi story and came up with this series of mini-adventures after discussions with David Whitaker.

Episodes Afterlife: The Invasion Cyberships

If you've read the Episodes themselves, you'll know that two different designs of Cybership feature in The Invasion. Most look like a pair of drums with a large illuminated globe between, which we'll call warships. Then there is the bigger vessel covered in rectangular boxes at either end, which we'll take to be a transporter ship.

With budgets tight on the final season of the 1960's, one of these would feature as a prop in the very next story...

With some additional wheels attached, one of the warships appears as a piece of equipment which the Doctor and Zoe run past inside the Dynatrope in The Krotons.

Bill King & Trading Post were handling the VFX on both stories, so it was only natural that they might reuse items.

(This wasn't the first time a Cybership model had been reused as a prop, of course. The saucer from The Moonbase could be seen hanging above the inner door of the Dulcian war museum in The Dominators, from the same director, Morris Barry).

The larger transporter ship then turns up as a prop in a couple of Pertwee stories...

For its first appearance, it is standing upright in the background of the UNIT laboratory in Spearhead From Space, just beside where the TARDIS has been placed. The cargo containers are blue. You can see that it has the basic warship model as it's core. (The lab also features the Morok Freezing Machine prop, in its final appearance in the series).

With the containers now repainted silver, the same model makes another appearance amidst the alien technology of the planet Uxarieus, in Colony In Space. It appears in the room in which the Doctor, Jo and the Master are held prisoner.

The room also contains one of the warship models.

The Cyberships seen in Silver Nemesis were inspired by The Invasion design, being bulky (diamond shaped rather than circular) at both ends but narrow in the middle.

If there are any more appearances in Doctor Who - or in any other series / movie - of these Cybership models, do let me know.

This particular design of Cyber warship was popular with Steven Moffat, as it made two appearances during the tenure of the Eleventh Doctor...

One took centre stage in the skies above Stonehenge in The Pandorica Opens...

And they then formed the fleet of the Twelfth Cyber Legion in A Good Man Goes To War.

Episode 227: The Invasion (8)

Synopsis:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Russian rocket lifts off.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Russian rocket then blows up the Cybership.

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

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

Next time: The Krotons

Data:

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

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

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 21st December 1968

Ratings: 7 million / AI 53

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Douglas Camfield

Critique:

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

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

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

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

UNIT troops used captured Cyber-guns during the battle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trivia:

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

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

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

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

What's Wrong With... The Long Game

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TARDIS Crew

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

It's not due until sometime in 2027.

R is for... Ravon

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

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

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

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

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