San Diego News

It has finally been confirmed, at Comic-Con San Diego, that The War Between The Land And The Sea will begin filming in September, and does indeed feature UNIT and Sea Devils (probably - not mentioned by name).

Two of the UNIT regulars are appearing (Jemma Redgrave & Alexander Devrient), along with two actors who have been in the series before, in quite prominent roles - Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. He was Midshipman Frame, and she Martha's sister. They may well be playing new characters as there's no mention of their previous roles.

Also shown was a lengthy prologue to Joy to the World, the next Christmas Special. This featured the Doctor attempting to deliver food, turning up at wrong places and times (including Manchester in WWII and Mount Everest in 1953) before he finally arrives in a London hotel in the present day. Guest artist Nicola Coughlan has just checked in, and been confronted by a Silurian when the Doctor arrives.

Unlike previous years when Comic-Con material was embargoed, you should be able to find this on the official YouTube channel and elsewhere.

Ysanne Churchman (1925 - 2024)

It has been reported today that actress Ysanne Churchman has passed away at the age of 99. 

She was well known to Doctor Who fans as the voice of the hermaphrodite hexapod Alpha Centauri in The Curse of Peladon (1972), Monster of Peladon (1974), and reprised for a cameo in Empress of Mars (2017).

The costume was operated by Stuart Fell, and the pair collaborated to bring the popular character to life.

Churchman also provided the voice of Lupton's power hungry Eight-Leg in 1974's Planet of the Spiders. 

Primarily a radio performer, the actress came to national fame as Grace Archer in the long-running rural drama The Archers. In 1955, her character was killed off in a fire on the evening that ITV launched in the UK - a deliberate move to sabotage the new channel's ratings.

Other voice work included the puppet show Space Patrol (currently being repeated on Talking Pictures), and TV appearances included cult sci-fi show The Flipside of Dominick Hide and its sequel, and Nigel Kneale's Beasts.

RIP.

What's Wrong With... Kinda

For several years the authorship of this story was questioned by some sections of fandom. In the pre-internet era, little was known about Christopher Bailey. Rumours abounded that the writer was a pseudonym for someone well known who did not wish to be associated with the series. This ranged from playwright Tom Stoppard to pop queen Kate Bush.

Bailey employs a lot of imagery and concepts from Christianity and Buddhism, some of which led to confusion with many viewers. VHS recorders were becoming cheaper and therefore more accessible by the time Season 19 arrived, but many households still did not have them - so there was no opportunity to wind back and review scenes. 

It is doubtful any significant proportion of viewers had studied Buddhism - so the names of the characters in the black void, and what they represented, would have been totally meaningless to the audience.

Quite who these people are is still open to debate. Are they the missing crewmembers? If not, what did happen to them and why are they never mentioned again?

Or are they supposed to be representations of the Doctor, Adric and Nyssa, with the strange object beside them representing the TARDIS?

This is the most common assumption. Two of them are playing chess after all, as we saw Tegan's friends playing draughts earlier.

The painted studio floor is all too obvious for the forests of Deva Loka - and we actually see that some of the vegetation grows in plant pots.

The studio is over-lit - the curse of the programme for much of its classic era - so any chance of engendering mood and atmosphere is lost. We don't even have any sequences set at night.

The Kinda know that the dreaming of an unshared mind can allow the Mara to re-enter this world, so why do they allow the glade of the wind chimes to still exist? Shouldn't it have been dismantled - or at the very least guarded in some way? At one point we actually see some of the tribe come across the sleeping Tegan, but they just look at her for a bit then wander away. If this poses such a danger, why not wake her up?

By failing to take any action they allow this whole chain of events to take place. If it's all to do with fate and "the wheel of time" - so predestined to happen - this isn't made clear.

Was showing a lot of 1980's alarm clocks really the best way to represent the "wheel of time" concept on screen?

Deva Loka is known to the colonial force as S14 - i.e. the 14th planet explored by Commander Sanders. As with the various bosses of bases-under-siege in the Troughton era, we have to wonder how he managed to achieve his position or to retain it.

Adric mentions that the malfunctioning Total Survival Suit might be responsible for the missing crew members. Sanders agrees - and then sets off alone into the jungle in it. No thought of getting it checked out.

As with Sanders' suitability to hold a senior role in the party, so with Hindle. Apparently some background of how he came to have his mental health issues was included in the script, but dropped for the actual programme. A TV show can only be judged by what actually appears on screen.

As with Ghost Light yet to come, if it has to be explained in an interview after the event then there's been a pretty serious problem with the script-editing. (Christopher Bidmead's decision to quit after one season did lead to this being a bit chaotic, script-wise, behind the scenes, with the involvement of three different script editors on some stories of Season 19 - Bidmead, Anthony Root and Eric Saward).

The final episode underran, necessitating Eric Saward devising an additional scene which was recorded during the making of Earthshock. It's just Tegan and Adric arguing in the base airlock.

Keep an eye on Adrian Mills when Aris' wooden framework is attacked by the real TSS. He's clearly worried about the fact that the fire hasn't quite gone out.

The Mara would have worked a lot better as an unseen force for evil, manifesting only through its possession of others. The decision to have it materialise as a huge, pink, plastic-looking snake is an obvious error of judgement. Preferably it should never have been seen at all, but if it had to be included then something with the look and colouring of a real snake would have been (slightly) better.

The climax is all about evil being unable to face itself - but the snake is never seen to be at the same level of the mirrors. It's looking right over everyone's head, and if it had only shrunk itself it could have escaped through one of the many gaps in the mirrors.

As a psychic force, capable of possessing people, why did it take on this giant snake form in the first place?

Story 296: Revolution of the Daleks

In which the Doctor languishes in prison on a remote asteroid, 79 billion miles out in space... 

Back on Earth, Graham and Ryan have been returning to their old lives, whilst Yaz remains obsessed with seeking a means to find her - making use of the TARDIS which had brought them home from Gallifrey as a base.

Shortly after the lone Reconnaissance Scout Dalek had been destroyed at GCHQ in 2019, its remains had been hijacked so that they could be reverse engineered. The man behind this scheme is millionaire businessman Jack Robertson. He is a friend of politician Jo Patterson, the Technology Minister who has designs on leading her party. Robertson presents his Defence Drones to her at a secret location, and she sees how effectively they deal with a staged civil disturbance. They are in fact purely robotic versions of the GCHQ Dalek. They are solar powered, and run on artificial intelligence, equipped with non-lethal weaponry such as tear gas and water cannons. It was Patterson who informed Robertson of the wrecked Recon Scout's transportation arrangements, enabling him to stage the hijack. He promises to have an army of Drones ready in 12 months - just in time for her to use to help win the next General Election.

Patterson goes on to win the election and commissions the Defence Drones from Robertson. Graham and Ryan have discovered footage of them being tested and identified them as Dalek-based. They notify Yaz. Robertson leaves a meeting with his technical expert, Leo Rugazzi, and is confronted by the Doctor's companions - whom he recalls from the spider incident in Sheffield. His security team chase them off. 79 billion miles away, the Doctor discovers that she has a familiar fellow inmate - Captain Jack Harkness. He had learned of her imprisonment and has allowed himself to be arrested so that he can aid her escape. The attempt succeeds and they teleport to where the TARDIS is waiting.

They materialise in Graham's house, where Yaz is upset with the Doctor for abandoning them for so long. They are shown the material relating to Robertson and Defence Drones. The Doctor and Jack will take action.

Leo informs Robertson that he found some organic material in the wrecked casing, and shows him a Dalek mutant which he has grown from it. Robertson is disgusted and orders it incinerated. However, as Leo attempts to do this, it escapes and latches on to him - mentally dominating him.

The Doctor confronts Robertson and he shows her that the Drones are entirely robotic machines, under computerised control. In Osaka, Leo discovers that the Dalek mutant has been working behind the scenes to create a whole army of its kind. When asked bout the Japanese facility, Robertson is confused and explains that he doesn't have anything in that country. Jack and Yaz travel there and discover the mutant cloning farm.

At Downing Street, PM Patterson rolls out the Defence Drones to the general public and they begin taking up positions at strategic locations around London.

The Doctor brings Robertson to the Osaka factory in the TARDIS, and find Yaz and Jack planting explosives to destroy the Daleks. Leo confronts them, revealing his Dalek master. 

The Doctor suddenly notices that the lighting has changed as they have been speaking - distracted by Leo. The mutants have been brought to life by ultra-violet light. before the facility can be blown up, they teleport away and into the waiting Drone shells. No longer needed, Leo is killed.

The new army of Daleks begin exterminating everyone - beginning with Patterson.

The Doctor is at a loss initially as to how she can stop the Daleks, but then comes up with a highly risky strategy - using fire to fight fire. She allows the Recon Scout Dalek's initial message to its own kind to be projected through the temporal vortex to a Dalek Death Squad saucer. This will bring them to Earth.

She is gambling on the new arrivals to reject the new army as they are not pure Dalek.

The Death Squad will hopefully exterminate the newcomers - but needs a second plan to deal with the victors. Otherwise she has simply replaced one invasion force with another.

The two Dalek forces confront each other and, as expected, begin to battle each other. Robertson, always seeking to ensure he is on the winning side, decides to offer his services to the Death Squad, and they transport him to their spaceship. He is going to tell them about the Doctor's presence on Earth to get on their side.

The original Dalek grown from the Recon Scout DNA attempts to ally itself with the Death Squad, but they refuse to accept it due to its lack of genetic purity. They destroy it, ending the new army. Captain Jack transports himself with Graham and Ryan to the saucer with explosives using his Vortex Manipulator. They abduct Robertson.

The Doctor, meanwhile, materialises the TARDIS above London and intentionally draws attention to herself. She then allows the Dalek force to invade her ship.

However, she proves to be a hologram. This isn't her TARDIS at all, but the other one which had brought her companions to Earth. It has been disguised as a Police Box, and its dimensional controls have been sabotaged. The entire Dalek force is trapped within as it collapses in on itself. Jack and the others transport themselves off of the saucer seconds before it explodes.

A short time later, the Doctor and her companions witness Robertson on TV, manipulating recent events to make himself out a hero and hoping that this will help his Presidential hopes. Jack has left to seek out his Torchwood colleagues. As the Doctor is about to set off, Ryan announces that he has decided to remain behind - feeling he has missed too much of day to life with his friends. Graham elects to stay with him, now that they have a healthier relationship which he does not wish to lose.

Revolution of the Daleks was written by Chris Chibnall, and was first broadcast on New Year's Day 2021. It acts as a direct sequel to the 2019 Special Resolution, and sees the departure of Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole as regulars Graham and Ryan.

Walsh had an extremely busy career, involved in a number of prime time TV shows including The Chase, whilst Cole had the offer to make a series in the US.

Whilst Ryan's departure had been set up earlier in Series 12, Graham's departure comes out of the blue. Indeed, the character is clearly intending to travel on with the Doctor is quite surprised when his grandson makes his announcement. The impression is that he is bounced into making his own decision, and his heart isn't truly into it. As such, it's a disappointing way to write out what has inarguably been the best companion figure of the Thirteenth Doctor's run. The funniest companion, and the better actor of the trio.

We are now left solely with the frankly underwhelming Yaz, who has been the least well developed of the companions. It's very annoying to see her angry with the Doctor when we know that she has been stuck in prison and can hardly be blamed for not getting in touch.

Another annoyance is the latest example of this Doctor's impotence. If Jack hadn't shown up, she'd still be stuck in jail. No previous Doctor would ever have spent that much time locked up. The Doctor should be seen to get round any sort of obstacle, quickly, using their wits and ingenuity.

Yaz won't be travelling on her own with the Doctor, however, as we are granted a brief coda after the episode which introduces Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop as a character named Dan.

The Special also sees the return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, in what has been his final appearance to date. Soon after, a scandal broke relating to his outré behaviour on set during his initial run on the series and on other shows - leading to him being widely "cancelled". Despite his sexually inappropriate behaviour taking place over years, beginning a decade earlier, allegations about him only surfaced in May 2021 off the back of those regarding one-time co-star Noel Clarke.

A similar fate has befallen the actor who returns as Jack Robertson - Chris Noth - last seen in Arachnids in the UK. Despite being a very broad cartoonish parody of Donald Trump - one reason for the story to be so lowly regarded - Chibnall wanted to bring the character back. A number of women have made allegations of sexual assault against him, the first in December 2021. However, no criminal charges have ever been brought, but his career is very much dead at the moment.

The main guest artist for the story is Harriet Walter, who plays politician Jo Patterson. She is one of Britain's most accomplished actors: made Dame of the British Empire in 2011 for services to her art, member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, star of film, TV and theatre, her career goes back to 1974.

She has performed a number of traditionally male Shakespeare roles, including Henry V and Prospero.

More recent TV work includes Ted Lasso, Succession and Killing Eve. She also featured in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Leo is played by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. Prior to getting the role he had appeared opposite Andrew Garfield in the National Theatre revival of AIDS era drama Angels in America. An early TV role for him was as a regular in Misfits.

Sharon D Clarke makes a final cameo as Grace in the closing moments of the episode as Graham and Ryan are seen to go back to where it all began - Ryan practicing his bicycle-riding.

It was always assumed that the unique Dalek design from Resolution could never be used again, being such a one-off, but Chibnall manages it by having new copies made, based on the Recon Scout.

Overall, it's not a bad episode. Always nice to see Daleks en masse, and Captain Jack getting more to do than the mere cameo he had in Fugitive of the Judoon. Even Robertson is more bearable this time round. Only those initial annoyances - and Graham's departure - mentioned above let it down.

Things you might like to know:

• The draft script was pretty close to the finished version. The Defence Drones made their debut in Russia before being brought to the UK by the politician who is already PM, and the threat was more global. The Daleks exterminated most of the world's leaders before being stopped. Graham and Ryan left the TARDIS specifically to help rebuild the Earth after the damage caused by the Daleks.
• To conceal the involvement of the Daleks, the Drones were called "Bobs" in paperwork, with the Death Squad ones called "Nigels".
• Cameo appearances by monsters in the prison include a Weeping Angel, P'ting, Silent, Sycorax, Skithra, Gathering Coil, Thijarian and a Cyberman.
• Filming was able to take place on the Clifton Suspension Bridge near Bristol as it had been temporarily closed for maintenance work.
• Graham and Ryan appear to see Grace's image in the sunlight - but the sun is clearly seen to be behind them when this happens.
• One of the prison escape scenes has obviously been flipped, as the black stripe on the outfits worn by the Doctor and Jack swap sides.
• A few plot queries exist, such as the odds on the driver just happening to stop at the roadside burger van where the hijackers are waiting. What if he had stopped earlier because he had to use the loo? Were agents placed at every potential stop on the route? Also, how does the Dalek mutant, isolated in a tank, manage to set up the whole Osaka facility? If it had been shown that Leo was taken over much earlier and done all this then that might have made more sense.
• Also - whatever happened to the future refugees who travelled back from Gallifrey in that TARDIS? They're simply forgotten about.
• The episode debuted on the BBC i-Player 10 minutes before the TV broadcast.
• It was originally intended that this festive special would move back to Christmas Day, but it was felt to be too dark and violent for that slot.
• Guest star Harriet Walter is a niece of Christopher Lee.

Episode 126: The War Machines (4)

Synopsis:

The War Machine leaves the warehouse as the soldiers retreat, their weapons useless. Everyone runs for cover - apart from the Doctor. He stands his ground as the Machine bears down on him...

It moves to within a few feet of him, then comes to a halt.

The Doctor explains that this is basically a mobile computer, and the attack by the soldiers led to it being activated too soon. It could not have been programmed properly yet.

The army are now able to enter the warehouse and capture Major Green and his men. His mental conditioning broken, he has no memory of recent events. 

The Doctor drops a key which Ben picks up. Distracted by all the activity, he forgets to return it.

News of the incident is soon being reported on TV and radio, with the general public warned that more attacks are expected.

The Doctor is introduced by Sir Charles to his Minister, and informs him of the reason the War Machine failed.

At the Post Office Tower, Professor Brett is in contact with a technician at one of the other construction sites in Battersea. Here Machine No.9 is ready for testing.

Ben is concerned that Polly has not been found at the warehouse. The Doctor has examined the captured Machine and is able to tell Sir Charles and the Minister that there are another eleven War Machines yet to be found, within a 20 - 30 mile radius and all programmed to attack at noon that day.

War Machine No.9 is being put through its paces when it suddenly goes out of control and kills its technician.

It is soon reported that it is loose on the streets, killing and destroying all in its path.

It appears to be heading across the river into West London.

Polly has presented herself at Brett's office for punishment, but the scientist is too busy dealing with this latest malfunction.

The Doctor comes up with a plan to capture the rogue Machine, using a series of electromagnetic fields. Studying a map of the Kensington district, he identifies a place where a trap can be set.

In a cul-de-sac by Cornwall Gardens, three sides of the trap are set up - resembling a boxing ring. Once the War Machine is in position between them, the fourth side will be completed and the power switched on. Ben volunteers to do this.

The plan succeeds, and the Machine is deactivated.

The Doctor announces that he is going to reprogramme it, and send it against WOTAN. It heads for the Post Office Tower - with the Doctor following in a taxi with Sir Charles and the Minister. Realising Polly is there, Ben has gone on ahead to warn her.

He arrives moments before the War Machine and drags her to safety as it fires upon the computer. Professor Krimpton tries to intervene and save WOTAN, but is killed. The computer is wrecked.

When the Doctor and the others arrive, it is to find WOTAN destroyed and Brett unable to remember anything of the last couple of days.

The next day, Ben and Polly hurry to Fitzroy Square to meet the Doctor, whom they see standing next to a Police Box. They inform him that Dodo has recovered and decided to remain in London, which clearly annoys him. Thanking them for the message, he is eager for them to get on their way. 

As they move off, they are suspicious at the way he is lingering by the box then see him open the door and enter. Polly suddenly remembers the key Ben picked up and they go back - despite Ben's worries about missing his transport back to barracks. They unlock the door and enter - and the TARDIS dematerialises seconds later...

Next time: The Smugglers

Data:

Written by Ian Stuart Black

Recorded: Friday 1st July 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 16th July 1966

Ratings: 5.5 million / AI 39

Designer: Raymond London

Director: Michael Ferguson

Additional cast: George Cross (Minister), Kenneth Kendall (Newsreader), Edward Colliver (Technician), John Slavid (Man in Telephone Box), Carl Conway (US Journalist), Dwight Whylie (Radio Announcer)

Critique:

The original storyline would have seen new male companion Rich depart in the TARDIS with the Doctor and Dodo at the conclusion.

Dodo's departure is one of the worst in the history of the programme. She gets ditched halfway through her final story, and it all happens off screen. The Doctor hears about it at the same time as we, the audience, do.

Those actresses who simply failed to return for their next season - Caroline John and Mary Tamm - could be argued to have less satisfying departures. In the case of Liz Shaw, her absence fits the narrative. Time has passed, and she has left UNIT and moved back to academia. Romana I's absence is explained by regeneration. She's a Time Lord, so why not? Well, there really has to be a very good reason for regeneration, and Destiny of the Daleks fails to provide this.

The other famously bad one is Leela's. leaving to get married is a cliché, but narratively acceptable in normal circumstances. But Leela leaves to wed someone she's only just met, and who is hardly of the warrior class, to live in a stultifyingly boring technocratic society. Leaving to go with Nesbin would have just about made better sense.

The cliff-hanger resolution was to have seen the War Machine blow up due to incomplete programming, rather than simply grinding to a halt. This may be why, in the finished version, the Doctor reprogrammes the second War Machine, rather than the one already captured earlier at Covent Garden - in the draft this was destroyed.

The Sir Charles character - Sir Robert - wanted to attack all the mobile computers, which the Doctor had identified as converging on Central London in a circle. He wanted to concentrate on attacking the central computer at the Post Office Tower. Sir Robert was to have kept the military back whilst the Doctor used remote control to send the War Machine to attack WOTAN. Rich had arrived at the Tower earlier to rescue Dodo and been captured by Brett and Krimpton.

In the later camera script, the capture of the Battersea Machine was to have been done in studio. Location footage was to have shown more of the aftermath of the Machine's activities, such as burning motor cars. War Machine No.9 was to have been seen physically tearing WOTAN apart, rather than simply shooting it.

This episode contained a great deal of the location filming which had taken place on Sunday 22nd May (the War Machine on the rampage), and Thursday 26th May (the War Machine capture sequence).

On the first day, scenes were shot on Berners Mews (the couple running away), Maple Street (the arrival of the Machine at the GPO Tower), Charlotte Place (the telephone box scene), and Gresse Street (the Machine knocking through the dustbins).

The high shot of the telephone box attack was achieved by filming from an upper floor of the Duke of York pub.

Most of the publicity shots featuring War machine No.9 were taken during the Thursday location filming in South Kensington. The Machine was pictured with children (see below) and a woman walking a dog.

The main location was Cornwall Gardens and the adjoining Walk. William Hartnell was collected from Bertorelli's restaurant where he was having lunch and taken to the location, after a brief stop at Television Centre for him to get into costume. 

Of the guest cast only William Mervyn (Sir Charles) and Frank Jarvis (Corporal) were required for the scenes of the capture of the War Machine. High shots of the action were obtained from the window of 50F Cornwall gardens, owned by a Mrs Lessing.

The day before the Kensington filming, Wednesday 29th May, Michael Craze provided a vocal recording at Lime Grove Studio R. This was to provide the voice of the police radio car announcement about the War Machine threat.

Joining the cast was Kenneth Kendall who had been a newsreader with the BBC until going freelance in 1961. He had done some acting work and possessed an Equity Card. Kendall had covered a similar role in episodes of Adam Adamant, Mogul and A For Andromeda. He had also presented TV programmes such as Songs of Praise and quiz shows. He would later become even better known for hosting Treasure Hunt with Anneka Rice.

He was recorded on a small news desk set, the material then being shown on a TV in a pub sequence. For another shot of the public listening to broadcast warnings, extras simply stood in front of a photographic blow-up of a radio shop façade.

The same technique was used for the US correspondent, to save on creating a set for one brief scene.

Dwight Whylie was a genuine radio announcer, and his involvement had been requested by Innes Lloyd in early June. He presented the BBC Light programme's Breakfast Special.

Unusually, the episode was recorded out of sequence. First before the cameras were all the War Machine shots, including the opening at Covent Garden and the activation of No.9 at Battersea. It was necessary to swap the numbers during a recording break, as the Covent Garden Machine was No.3.

As well as shots against photographic blow-ups, back projection was also employed - such as when we see the War Machine travelling towards the Tower and the Doctor's group in their following vehicle.

A shot of an empty Great Queen Street in Holborn was also used to illustrate the deserted city.

The final recording break of the evening was to set up the closing scene at the TARDIS.

As far as viewers were concerned, Doctor Who's third season drew to a close with this episode. From a production point of view, however, once again a story from this block was to be held over to launch the next season. As location filming had already taken place for The Smugglers, the BBC was able to show a trailer for the story alongside the announcement that the programme would return in the Autumn.

Season 3 had been a time of great change and experimentation, having seen three producers and two story editors. Peter Purves had provided some consistency in the TARDIS with William Hartnell, but there had been a revolving door of female companion figures - Vicki, Katarina, Sara, Dodo and now Polly. 

The programme had dipped its toe into more fantastical realms with The Celestial Toymaker, but the Daleks had very much dominated, thanks to the 12 week epic The Daleks' Master Plan. We had lots of other strong sci-fi stories, but the writing was on the wall for the Historicals, which were clearly losing popularity as far as the production office was concerned.

Season 4 would continue the experimental trend - including the biggest gamble of them all...

Trivia:

• The ratings see the story end on its highest audience figure, but the appreciation index drops below 40 once again. The AI has fallen by 10 points over the course of the story. With summer's arrival and the start of the 1966 World Cup - hosted by England - you would have expected the viewing figure to fall instead. An action-packed finale would normally see a higher audience score.
• The episode was transmitted earlier than usual as the BBC were broadcasting the Royal Tournament that evening. It took the slot normally occupied by Juke Box Jury.
• The BBC commissioned one of their Audience Research Reports for this episode. Of the 149 respondents, around half claimed to have no interest in the series. The ending was deemed anti-climactic and the War Machines regarded as a poor alternative to the Daleks. One lady thought they looked like something her young sons could have made. Many found the idea of a computer taking people over "preposterous". On the positive side, it was still popular with children and people liked the contemporary setting, which made the story more realistic.
• Two weeks later, the story featured on Junior Points of View which also plugged the second Peter Cushing Dalek movie. The programme was still deemed to be frightening to some children, though one wanted to see the return of the Chumblies - not seen since the very start of the season.
• Television Today on 21st July thought The War Machines "one of the better ones" and highlighted the strong supporting cast. Craze and Wills were also praised as the new companions.
• When you watch this story on DVD or streaming service you might be forgiven for thinking that it's one of those stories which exists in its entirety in the archive. This is not the case, however. Some censor-driven cuts were made and not all of the missing material has never resurfaced. Small sections of other episodes are used to plug the gaps.
• Gerald Taylor is credited only as "Voice of WOTAN" on this episode. In the previous instalments he was simply "WOTAN".
• John Slavid - the man in the telephone box - had previously played an officer in The Massacre.

Inspirations: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

This was one of those stories where the title came first - inspired by the 2006 movie Snakes on a Plane - and the story was then built around it.

The writer handed this brief was Chris Chibnall, who had been responsible for the first two seasons of Torchwood and had written 42 under the RTD regime. For Moffat he had written the two part Silurian story for the previous series, and most recently had been the writer on the five mini-episodes which comprised Pond Life. Having been a lead writer on Torchwood, and run his own series - Camelot and Law & Order UK - he was given a pair of episodes to work on for this series, whilst Moffat was busy juggling Sherlock and Doctor Who.

As well as the title coming from a movie, the story also owed its origins to a discussion between the producers and the VFX company about what they might be able to achieve for the programme. 

The technology to create convincing dinosaurs on a TV budget had been proven a while back, with the landmark series Walking With Dinosaurs. This had led to shows like ITV's Primeval becoming possible, which had a heavy reliance on the creatures in a range of settings.

To make the story as exciting as possible, the spaceship of the title would be on a collision course with Earth - adding additional peril. At the same time, the producer - Marcus Wilson - suggested the use of some large, expensive robot costumes which had only ever been seen on the CBBC series Mission: 2110. Their exposure had, therefore, been limited, and it was felt that they could be included somewhere in the story.

When it came to populating the story with additional characters, Chibnall decided on two things - a look at Rory's family background, and the idea of the Doctor putting together an eclectic gang from his various travels to assist him. The latter had already proved successful in A Good Man Goes To War, which brought together what would later become known as the Paternoster Gang.

The Big Bang had shown Amy's parents, but we hadn't seen anyone from Rory's family. It was decided to incorporate his father into this gang. 

The gang would therefore have a mix of contemporary and historical people - both fictional and factual.

The latter was represented by Queen Nefertiti (c.1370 - c.1330 BC). She had famously vanished from history, her burial place still undiscovered, so any story could be made up about her. She also had a distinctive appearance. thanks to the antique famous bust in the Neues Museum in Berlin.

The fictional figure from the past was a big game hunter named John Riddell. He was based on similar characters from a host of old adventure series set in Africa (such as the Tarzan movies), and Alan Quatermain of H Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885). One particular forebear is the character John Roxton, as played by Michael Rennie in George Pal's 1960 adaptation of The Lost World - another big game hunter confronted by dinosaurs.

This character was added later as he was originally going to be a cowboy, named Buffalo Jones. This idea was dropped when it was decided that a full-blown Western was going to be one of this series' stories.

The villain of the piece - Solomon - was inspired by the Somali pirates who were in the news plaguing shipping in the Indian Ocean, and subject of the 2013 Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips.

Having reintroduced the Silurians to the series, Chibnall saw that it made sense to have them involved. As well as building subterranean shelters to avoid the expected disaster in prehistoric times, first mentioned in The Silurians, some had built a space ark to preserve more of their larger wildlife.

However, this went against established history for the creatures, who had never shown any space-going abilities. You have to ask why they simply didn't relocate their entire civilisation to another planet.

To play the lone representative, seen in ancient recordings, actor Richard Hope was cast. He had previously portrayed Malokeh in The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood, and The Wedding of River Song. Here he plays a character named Bleytal. This continued the trend that Silurians have genetic groupings where multi-generational members are identical in appearance.

(Malokeh's name had been derived from that of their creator, Malcolm Hulke).

At one point the Doctor claims to be a Sagittarian. This is the astrological star sign which covers 23rd November - birthdate of the series.

Next time: The Good, The Bad and the Cyborg...

N is for... Nimrod

A member of the Neanderthal race which became extinct around 40,000 years ago when superseded by Homo Sapiens. Nimrod had been captured by an alien entity known as Light, who visited the Earth in prehistoric times as part of an expedition to catalogue all of its lifeforms.

Held in suspended animation as the last example of his kind, he was later woken up by Josiah Samuel Smith in the early 1880's and employed by him as butler. Smith was a member of Light's crew, who had rapidly evolved into a Victorian gentleman. He had taken over the expedition, intent on reaching the ultimate evolutionary goal of becoming head of the British Empire.

Light was left to oversleep within their spacecraft. Nimrod continued to worship the entity. The Doctor befriended him by offering him the gift of a fang from a cave bear, which was a totem for his tribe.

After Smith's scheme had been thwarted, and the awakened Light destroyed, Nimrod elected to travel across the universe in the space ship, accompanied by Victorian explorer Redvers Fenn-Cooper and Control, another of the original crew. 

Played by: Carl Forgione. Appearances: Ghost Light (1989).

• Forgione (1944 - 1998) had previously appeared in the series as Land, one of Lupton's circle in Planet of the Spiders.
• Neanderthals were named after the discovery of remains in the Neander Valley, in what is now Germany, in 1856.
• Smith has named his butler after the biblical figure Nimrod, a great grandson of Noah who was famed as a mighty hunter and King of Shinar.