TARDIS Log: The Aztecs

Where and when:

The TARDIS materialises in a tomb, and Barbara is the first to emerge, closely followed by Susan. The History teacher immediately recognises the burial goods as Aztec, and belonging to their early period - reckoning around 1430.

So we are in Mexico of the mid-15th Century if Barbara is to be believed - and she does claim that she specialised in this culture and its history.

We'll later learn that this tomb was specifically built for the High Priest Yetaxa, and the designer's son - Ixta - is a young man.

The tomb can therefore be no more than a couple of decades old, depending on what age Ixta was when his father disappeared.

This gives us an approximate dating of 1450 for this story.

Had we information about a total solar eclipse in the region around this time, we could have pinned down the date precisely - but the only one in this timeframe I can find is that of 17th June 1433, and totality would only have been observed in latitudes far to the north of Mexico. (Our main eyewitness source for it was in Scotland).

Other than being in Mexico, we have little information to go on as to where, specifically, The Aztecs is set.

What we can say, however, is that this cannot be their capital of Tenochtitlan as there is no Emperor present, or even mentioned. 

Depending on the exact year, this would be either Itzcoatl (1427 to 1440) or more likely Moctezuma I (1440 to 1469) if Barbara is right.

High Priest of Knowledge Autloc, and High Priest of Sacrifice Tlotoxl, seem to run the city between them, with no political figurehead. 

Yetaxa was apparently senior to both - so it is surprising that he hasn't been replaced, despite having died years ago.

Also odd is that Ixta is the intended leader of the army - so who is leading it now? It's inconceivable that there is an army with no leader in this society which prized warriors so highly, so we can only assume that the previous commander has only just died, but there's no automatic right to succeed in place.

Unseen journeys:

None mentioned this time. The Doctor has picked up some strange knowledge along the way, however, such as knowing the soporific properties of a specific plant, and how to exploit it.

The TARDIS:

As we never get to see inside the TARDIS until the story is technically over, it is simply seen standing in the tomb.

We do get a console room scene at the very end, which is the lead-in to the next story. Some time has passed as the companions have changed their outfits.

The Doctor is puzzled, as one instrument on the console indicates that they have landed - but another states that they are still in motion.

It is suggested by his companions that they have landed on top of something, or perhaps inside something. 

We'll later discover that they have materialised inside an orbiting spaceship - but the Doctor's puzzlement suggests that this hasn't happened before. Considering how often the ship will land within different modes of transport in the future, this might indicate that he is not that widely travelled at this point.

The two instruments are next to each other on the console.

The ship's wardrobe gains some his and hers Aztec gear, including Barbara's fancy High Priestess outfit. The Doctor adds a love token from his fiancée to his collection of souvenirs...

Behind the scenes:

As mentioned, the TARDIS interior only appears at the end of the final episode, so only the console and one section of wall is seen.

What we can point out is the way that David Whitaker and the writers have striven to separate the Doctor from his TARDIS up till now. This story, for instance, is entirely about getting back into the tomb to retrieve it, and everything else comes off the back of these efforts.

This will continue for a while but, starting from the next story, the Doctor will begin involving himself in their adventures by choice - as it's the right thing to do - rather than simply act in a way that will allow them to regain access to the ship and leave again.

John Lucarotti novelised his story - and gave a date of 1507. This would make Barbara's estimate way out, and is probably there simply to make the fall of this culture more imminent. Cortes arrived in 1519 (not 1520 as Barbara states) and the Aztecs were conquered within the space of two years.

With this dating, Tlotoxl may have lived to see the fall of his civilisation.

Episode 229: The Krotons (2)

Synopsis:

Thara and his fellow students have been smashing the teaching machines in the Hall of Learning, to draw the Krotons out of their machine. The Doctor and his companions have arrived to try to stop them. An automated system within the machine focuses on the Doctor as the suspected ring-leader and a serpentine probe emerges and homes in on him. As he retreats, he stumbles and falls - and the probe bears down on him...

The probe seems confused when he protectively brings his hands up to his face, and he realises that it works by pattern recognition - the pattern being his features.

One of the students attempts to attack the probe with a stone axe and it lunges at him - dissolving his body with a spray of acid. It then retreats back into the machine. The Doctor explains that the confused probe must have thought that it had destroyed its target.

The booming voice is heard once more, claiming to have killed their leader and demanding that everyone leave the Hall.

Back at Selris' home, the Doctor examines Vana once more and finds she is recovering. Zoe points out that the Gonds are advanced scientifically in some ways, but not in others - having little chemical knowledge for instance. The Doctor suspects these gaps in their knowledge are significant.

He orders Jamie to stay behind and look after Vana, whilst he and Selris return to the Hall so he can investigate it properly. Zoe will accompany him.

On entering the Hall, the Doctor notes a trapdoor set in the floor, and Selris explains that this leads to the under-hall which hasn't been visited for many years.

He and Selris descend and find the foundations of the Kroton machine, resting on three huge pillars.

Coming back up, the Doctor is shocked to see Zoe seated at one of the teaching machines, wearing a metal headset. She explains that she was simply curious. She has taken a test, and states that the Krotons were very pleased with her performance - or so she felt.

The Doctor reminds her that they know the Krotons are not friendly, and she has had an impression planted in her mind.

Selris indicates a dial which shows that she has obtained one of the highest scores he has ever seen. Most Gonds register half of what she has achieved.

Vana wakes from a nightmare, talking about a burning ball. Thara thinks this must be some Kroton weapon she has been exposed to. Jamie decides to go and tell the Doctor.

The Doctor is telling Zoe about what he saw in the under-hall, which resembles a root structure. He believes it to be organic and hopes to get a sample.

A gong suddenly sounds, and Selris receives another document from the hatch in the machine.

Zoe is horrified to learn that she has been selected as a Companion of the Krotons and must enter the machine. Selris warns that there will be a terrible price to pay for the whole community if she fails to do so.

The Doctor has no choice but to take the test himself so that he can at least accompany her. Somewhat flustered, he makes a few mistakes but soon achieves a higher score - though only by answering more questions.

Jamie arrives just in time to see them enter the machine.

They explore inside and find that it appears to be deserted. They come upon two chairs and sit down - and are then gripped by a powerful forcefield which immobilises them, though the Doctor is first able to give Zoe one end of a small metal chain to hold. A device descends from the ceiling above them - appearing like a burning ball - and they are bathed in a bright light. The Doctor hopes that the chain will help equalise the power being exerted against them.

Jamie tries to break into the machine, but without success. 

The Doctor and Zoe pass out momentarily, but wake to find a vat of liquid bubbling away beside them. Zoe thinks that the Krotons have a way of turning mental power into pure energy. They have been used to activate some device.

The Doctor takes a sample of the liquid. He identifies it as being a solution of crystals in suspension, and reminds Zoe that life on Earth began as a form of primordial soup. They see a shape begin to form in the vat and decide it is time to leave.

Behind them, a huge crystalline form has emerged from the vat, linked to it by a hosepipe. A second shape is beginning to form.

Once complete, the two Krotons consult - noting that the Gonds they have just processed should still be here as they have been programmed to obey.

The Doctor and Zoe reach the exit into the wasteland. He uses a piece of mica to trip the door mechanism and they hurry out, jumping down to the side of the ramp to avoid the acid sprays.

The Krotons observe this on a monitor, and identify that the pair cannot be Gonds. They must be captured and brought back - and the Gonds will be used to do this.

The monitor then shows the Hall of Learning, and they note that Jamie isn't a Gond either. They suspect that aliens have arrived on the planet, and assume he is a "high brain" like the other two.

Jamie believes that his efforts to open the door have been successful - unaware that he has been allowed to enter.

He is captured by the Krotons and forced into one of the chairs before having his mind analysed.

They identify that he is not a "high brain", and state that the power will destroy him...

Data:

Written by Robert Holmes

Recorded: Friday 29th November 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 4th January 1969

Ratings: 8.4 million / AI 57

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post

Designer: Raymond London

Director: David Maloney

Additional cast: Patrick Tull (Kroton Voice), Robert La'Bassiere (Kroton One), Miles Northover (Kroton Two)

Critique:

Two rumours persisted for a very long time about the Kroton costumes. The first was that they were the result of the Blue Peter "Design A Monster" competition; and the other was that due to some miscalculation of Spinal Tap proportions, they were manufactured too short and the rubber skirt had to be added at the last minute to cover this...

Regarding the latter, you can see the rubber skirt quite clearly indicated on the design sketches - as reproduced below in Marcus Hearn's book Doctor Who - The Vault:

As for their real origins, they were designed by Bobi Bartlett, and constructed by Bill King's Trading Post company, who were based in Southall, West London (and not by the Lovells, as DWM's "The Complete History" Vol 13 claims).

The idea, which was in the script, was that they should be crystalline in nature, hence the use of diamond shapes. Ideally they ought to have been transparent, or more glass-like. Instead, they look like metallic robots, as it would have been impossible to have something both transparent and with an operator inside.

Bartlett was generally pleased with the design, especially the rotating head - which didn't feature in Holmes' script - and the fact that they were faceless. There had been a thought to have them glide along on rails in studio, but the need for one of them to move around on location led to the notion of a hovercraft-like skirt. The heads were made by a company which specialised in manufacturing racing cars.

David Maloney himself claimed that the Krotons were built too short, and if anything Bartlett was surprised to find that the upper bodies had been made much larger than she had envisaged, expecting something sleeker. Maloney went on to say that Holmes was not pleased with how his monsters had turned out, hoping for a more humanoid form - "crystal men". In his initial draft for this episode he writes that the Doctor and Zoe see "a man-like form emerge from the tank".

A later version has the Kroton "now solidified into a recognisable humanoid shape... a silver hand and arm, covered in metal pyrites, comes out of the liquid. Kroton One is climbing shakily out of the tank... It gropes for one of the tank pipes and clips it into a socket at its waist...".

The only filming required for this episode was work undertaken at Ealing on Wednesday 13th November. These were scenes set inside the Dynatrope of the Doctor and Zoe being subjected to the mental processing. Maloney distorted the image by using a fish-eye lens, and Catherine Wheels were filmed to be superimposed over the picture in several scenes.

Extra Barry Ashton played the Gond student who is killed by the probe.

Also filmed were the Doctor and Zoe escaping through the exit hatch of the Dynatrope.

The following day, Miles Northover was present to film the sequence where the first of the Krotons is reconstituted from the vat, along with other material of the bubbling tank of liquid. Northover had already played Kroton Two on location earlier in the week, for sequences in the third episode.

Friday 14th saw graphics work undertaken, which included the various test images which would be shown on the teaching machine monitors. These animated sequences were the work of Janet Pimlott of the BBC Graphics Department.

Joining the cast in rehearsals for Episode Two was Robert Grant, who would perform as Kroton One. He requested that he be credited as Robert La'Bassiere on screen (with the unintended result of him sometimes being mistakenly named La Brassiere in some publications).

Publicity photographs were taken on the day of recording, of the Doctor with Vana, and of Zoe using the teaching machine.

The cliffhanger sequence was restaged, though using the same filmed material of the serpentine probe as used the week before.

Recording run-ons rather than breaks were employed to allow cast members to move from set to set.

Reexamining Vana, the Doctor wished for an ETC machine. This ought to have been an ECT, but it's not a mistake by Troughton. Holmes had misspelled it and he was simply giving the line he had read.

Dummy teaching machines had been in studio the previous week, as they would be smashed by the rebellious students, but this time one had a monitor installed on which the Kroton tests could be shown.

The Catherine Wheel superimposition effect was used as Vana began to recall her experiences inside the Dynatrope, and when Jamie comes under mental assault.

Troughton ad-libbed the "great jumping gobstoppers" line, when the Doctor hears the gong sound.

The exit hatch set was not needed in studio, and a couple of photographs had been taken of it the week before - one with the door closed, and another with it open. These could then appear on the monitor in the Dynatrope, as viewed by the Krotons.

Maloney opted not to show too much of the monsters until the very end of the episode.

The Dynatrope interior sections were mostly achieved by use a number of different flats set against black drapes, dressed with props which included items from previous stories - such as a Cyberman spaceship from The Invasion (as can be seen below at right of image).

Last week Jamie had a fight with Axus, but he will have less and less to do in this story as it progresses. This week, after being left behind to look after Vana, he takes on the "damsel in distress" role usually assigned to the female companion, whilst Zoe gets to demonstrate her scientific knowledge, having been paired with the Doctor.

This leads to the highlight of this episode, and probably of the whole story - the sequence in the Hall of Learning involving the Doctor and Zoe sitting the Kroton tests.

It results in some amusing interplay.

The Doctor (to Selris): "Yes, well, Zoe is something of a genius. It can be very irritating at times..."

Then later, when Selris suggests that the Doctor might not be able to answer all the questions on their most difficult machine, Zoe responds: "Of course he can. The Doctor's almost as clever as I am."

There's also the business with the Doctor first sitting his test...

Zoe: "Oh sit down. And put this headset on. And press the button... Press the button!"

The Doctor: "Alright, there's no need to shout. Now go away and don't fuss me. No, come back. What's this? It's alright, I know...".

Robert Holmes originally intended the Gonds to have "gond" as a suffix to their names, such as Eelekgond or Tharagond. This was dropped, though the Krotons use this nomenclature. When the Doctor is summoned to enter the machine he retorts "Doctor-Gond. Idiots!".

The Krotons themselves may not have turned out quite as everyone had hoped, but they are actually impressive - from the waist up. It's that rubber skirt which lets them down as a piece of design, and the fact that they simply resemble robots - despite what the dialogue does its best to state.

David Maloney shows once again that he liked to experiment visually. In The Mind Robber he had employed stop motion animation for Medusa's snakes - a technique he will use again in The War Games. Here, he uses computer animation-style graphics for the teaching machine. Janet Pimlott, who provided these for him, is probably best known for the title sequence to the popular '70's sitcom The Good Life.

Trivia:

• Last week's episode had the highest viewing figure for the entire Troughton era - so it's inevitable that we see a drop this week. However, it's only a small one and the figure remains well over 8 million, and with a strong appreciation figure.
• As it concentrates mainly on the Doctor and his companions, Eelek, Beta and Axus are all absent from this episode.
• Patrick Tull was a character actor who featured in several British TV shows of the 1960's, including Z-Cars, Softly, Softly and soap Crossroads. He moved to the USA, settling in New York, where he had a successful stage career.
• Miles Northover had previously appeared as an IE warehouseman in The Invasion. These are his only acting credits.
• Robert La'Bassiere may well have changed his name to differentiate himself from Bob Grant, famous for playing bus conductor Jack in On The Buses, which was just about to launch on ITV. La'Bassiere also appeared in Moonbase 3 and films including Ken Russell's The Boyfriend, Revenge of the Pink Panther and Arabian Adventure.
• Radio Times used a small photograph of Patrick Troughton from The Power of the Daleks to accompany the day's programme listing for this episode - but only in some regions.

What's Wrong With... Father's Day

My biggest problem with this is the Doctor. 

What on Earth was he thinking of even agreeing to any part of Rose's plan in the first place? This is especially annoying as it comes only one week after he has ditched Adam for potentially tampering with history and claimed that he only takes "the best" as his companions. Adam's only crime was to attempt something - whereas Rose actually messes up the timeline so much that it puts the entire world in danger.

Whilst you can just about imagine him allowing her to see her father on the day he died, his next actions in letting her try again and again, when he knows the potential dangers, stretches credulity.

Later on he'll accuse her of only having joined him in the first place in order to save her dad - yet he still keeps her on as a companion.

The Reapers never act in any consistent fashion, and it's not helped that the Doctor seems confused as to what they are and how they act. At one point he describes them like an infection - "bacteria" attracted to the wound in time. Then he describes them as sterilising agents, cleaning the wound and behaving like antibodies.

One minute they target the new, the next they target the old. They seem to go for anyone and anything which doesn't actually have a bearing on the temporal wound. The Doctor and Rose caused it, and Pete is the resulting anomaly - so why do they not simply target them and ignore everyone else?

If age is a defence against them, why do they take Mickey's mother and not him?

Everyone takes shelter in the church as it is an old building - but it is clearly a Victorian or even Edwardian neo-Gothic structure and probably about the same age as the buildings around it. The Doctor also mentions the doors being a barrier due to their age, but who knows how often they might have been replaced over the last century. We're in South London, which was heavily bombed in WWII, so the church fabric might not even be as old as the late 19th / early 20th Century.

The Reapers also seem to target people only - but attack the TARDIS, leaving only the external Police Box shell. But the TARDIS is ancient, so the idea that the older something is, the stronger, becomes a nonsense once again.

Why did the Reapers only take the interior dimension, and not the whole box?

How can the TARDIS revert to being an ordinary Police Box, when it never was one in the first place - it just looked like one from the outside and would never have had a real Police Box interior.

The Doctor says that the link between interior and external shell has been broken - but we then find out that it hasn't been broken at all, as he tries to use the key to bring it back.

Why does the key wait that long to suddenly heat up and glow, if the link was never properly severed?

The Doctor charges the key using a mobile phone battery, which he has to charge in turn with the sonic screwdriver. Why didn't he just use the sonic directly to charge the key?

The car which keeps appearing and disappearing - the one which killed / will kill Pete - seems to be at the heart of the wound, keeping it open until the timeline can reassert itself - but the Reapers ignore it.

Shouldn't the car be appearing where the accident was supposed to happen anyway?

An early clue that time has been messed up is the first telephone message by Alexander Graham Bell coming through on Rose's mobile phone. But that first call was a series of electrical pulses transmitted along wires - not how modern mobile phones operate.

When Rose holds the baby version of herself, is this a new paradox being created, or just a continuation of the one she already triggered? If the latter, then it shouldn't have the impact on the Reapers which it does. 

We never actually see her make skin to skin contact with the baby, so actually only their clothes touch. We don't get Reapers appearing every time we dig out our old baby clothes, or sort through old stuff for a jumble sale, do we?

History has been changed at the conclusion, if only in a small way - so technically the timeline remains disrupted. Pete has died at a different location, wearing different clothes, and at a different time of day. The accident would have been attended by paramedics and police, and the body would have been dealt with by hospital staff and undertakers, who all interact with other people in their lives - and they with others. Like ripples on a pond, this ought to have had further reaching consequences. Wasn't it the Doctor himself who said that an ordinary man could be the most important person in creation... Not when you want a tidy episode ending, apparently.

Inspirations: The Eaters of Light

Writer Rona Munro had scripted Survival in 1989 - what turned out to be the final story of the classic era.

Since the programme's return in 2005 she had wanted to contribute to it again. Attending an event at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006, she was approached by Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies as they both wished to meet her. She told them how much she was enjoying the revived series - hinting that she might like to write for it again. When Moffat took over as showrunner he recalled the meeting with Munro, but was unsure about approaching her. When he finally did, he discovered that she had been hoping to be invited back.

In discussions about a potential new story, she stated that she would like to write one with a strong historical background, having studied History at Edinburgh University. Moffat pointed out the significant proportion of children who followed the show, and she recalled the 1954 children's novel The Eagle of the Ninth, which she had enjoyed as a child. Written by Rosemary Sutcliff and published in 1954, it told of a young Roman soldier's quest to discover what had happened to his father's legion, the Ninth, which was reputedly wiped out by northern tribesmen.

Munro also took on board the advice about the audience demographic by making all of the main guest characters young people. Other than the TARDIS travellers, adults play no significant role in the story.

Sutcliff's novel was inspired by the disappearance of the Legio IX Hispana, which was recorded as coming to Britain in 43AD as part of the Claudian invasion, but which had vanished from the British records by 117AD. ("Hispana" came from their having served in Spain under Augustus).

Munro had discussed the various theories about this event with her archaeologist brother. She had a local connection as well, as the Ninth Legion was said to have been lost fighting in the Grampian region of Scotland, and she had been brought up in Aberdeen.

This region, in the north east of Scotland, is famous for its association with the Picts.

The name derives from the Latin Picti, meaning "painted people" or "tattooed people". They were said by the Romans to go into battle with their bodies covered in the blue dye woad.

They were formed from a confederation of other tribes, most notably the Caledonii, who came together to fight the common threat posed by Rome. 

The first recorded mention of them isn't until the late 3rd Century, however, so they would not have been contemporaries of the Legio IX Hispana. (Munro was aware of this, and merely used "Picts" as shorthand for her Scots characters).

The other big issue is that the Legio IX Hispana gets mentioned in an inscription found at Nijmegan in the Netherlands after its supposed destruction in Scotland. A list was drawn up of all legions at the time of the Emperor Septimius Severus (193 - 211AD) which doesn't include it - so it had definitely been destroyed, or simply disbanded, before then.

For her monster, Munro was inspired by carvings on Pictish standing stones, which depict strange animals. These "Pictish Beasts" may well be stylised versions of real animals such as wolves, boars or horses, though some of them look like aquatic creatures. When you add the 'Celtic Knot'-style of ornamentation associated with these carvings, you get the notion of an animal covered in tendrils.

Northern Scotland isn't exactly noted for its hours of sunshine, and this inspired the idea to have the Eaters of Light being creatures of darkness which consumed light, absorbing Vitamin D from their victims. 

Scotland is also a country steeped in folklore, myth and legend - a liminal region where the natural and the supernatural dwell closely side by side.

There are many local legends of ghostly sounds emanating from under the ground - often associated with the Devil.

One story tells of a tunnel in which the Devil was said to lurk. A piper said he would enter the tunnel to disprove the myth, telling his friends he would pipe as he went so they could hear his progress. After a few minutes, the sound of pipes abruptly stopped, and the piper never emerged. Ever since then, the sound of his pipes can sometimes be heard coming from under the earth. (Some variations have the person entering the tunnel being found dead, with a look of horror on their faces).

Another version has someone send their hunting dog into a tunnel. It suddenly began barking furiously then stopped with a howl, never to be seen again - and legend says that you can sometimes hear its howls coming up from beneath the ground.

For the mythology associated with crows, see my recent A-Z post "R is for... Ravens".

That the local Scots contingent are led by a young woman, the inspiration is in characters such as Boudicca, who led a rebellion against the Romans around 60AD. Archaeologists have also uncovered a number of Iron Age graves of warriors, judging by grave goods, who have been found to be female. 

Kar's speech about the destruction wrought by Rome was inspired by the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus in his Agricola, referring to the Battle of Mons Graupius in 83AD:

" To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname Empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace", as one translation reads.

Missy had been released from the Vault by Nardole at the end of Empress of Mars, and this episode ends with her in the TARDIS. She cries at the sound of the battling Scots and Romans for what it symbolises - former enemies setting aside their differences and sacrificing themselves to defeat a common foe. This hints at her reformed status, which carries on into...

Next time: Genesis of the Cybermen, or, The Two Masters...

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.