TARDISMusings Is On Holiday...

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm off on back-to-back holidays after today and won't be posting regularly until the beginning of October. The Invasion (6) is scheduled to post automatically this Sunday (13th).

I do have a couple of other things ready to go, but am saving them for when I get back so that the first week or so is already covered.

TARDIS Log: Marco Polo

Where and when:

The TARDIS has materialised on the Plain of Pamir in the snowy foothills of the Himalayas. As the Doctor informs his companions of the predicament they are in - the complete failure of the ship's electrical systems - they decide to look for fuel for a fire. They encounter instead a Tartar warlord named Tegana and his men. Fearing they are evil spirits, Tegana is on the point of having them killed when they are saved by the intervention of a European man - whom Barbara recognises as the Venetian explorer Marco Polo.

The year is 1289, and Polo is returning to Cathay from a diplomatic mission. He is bringing Tegana to meet with his employer - the mighty Kublai Khan - so that a peace agreement can be reached between him and Tegana's liege Noghai. Polo is also escorting a young girl from Samarkand - Ping-Cho - for an arranged marriage to one of the Khan's elderly councillors.

Polo wishes to leave the Khan's service and return home to Venice, but isn't having much luck persuading him to let him go. He has become too valuable a servant. On learning of the "flying caravan" of the strangers, he hits upon the idea of presenting it to the Khan as a gift - one which will finally secure his release from duty.

The TARDIS is loaded onto a cart which then proceeds on a lengthy journey across the Plain, the Gobi Desert and on into Cathay, stopping off at various way stations on the route.

Initially they are making for Shang-Tu, where the Khan has his summer palace (an inspiration for poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Xanadu). However, a despatch rider intercepts the caravan and informs Polo that the venue for the meeting with Kublai Khan is now his capital at Peking.

The entire journey overland from the Plain of Pamir to Peking takes around three months.

At Peking it is revealed that Tegana actually intends to assassinate the Khan, with Noghai's army massing on the border ready to invade. Marco defeats him in a duel, but Tegana kills himself rather than face capture.

That Marco Polo and Kublai Khan existed as historical figures is beyond doubt. The latter was the grandson of Genghis Khan, and became the first ruler of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. Born in 1215, he ruled from 1271 until his death in 1294.

Marco Polo was born in Venice c.1254. In 1271 he accompanied his father and uncle on a journey to Cathay, following the Silk Road, for the purposes of trade.

He quickly became a favourite of Kublai Khan due to his organisational skills, and was sent on various missions of a diplomatic or military nature.

In 1291 he escorted a princess named Kokochin to Persia - the inspiration for Ping-Cho's role in this story - and after safely delivering her he then travelled on to Venice, via Constantinople. By the time he got home, he had been away for 24 years.

His homecoming coincided with war between Venice and Genoa. Polo fought for his city state but was taken prisoner. It was whilst in captivity that he narrated his story to his cellmate Rustichello da Pisa - and this is where some doubt creeps in...

His cellmate was the one who actually wrote the book The Travels of Marco Polo (also known as The Book of Marvels of the World) - and it is widely believed that he used a certain amount of poetic licence in the narrative - wishing, naturally, to present a best-seller. The overall history is generally accepted, but some of the specific incidents may have been fabricated to liven up the narrative.

There is certainly no mention of a strange Doctor or his magical blue flying caravan. Perhaps Rustichello thought this was pushing the fantasy too far to include, or Marco simply decided to keep this part of his adventures to himself.

After his release from prison, Marco Polo went on to enjoy a successful mercantile career in his home city, dying in January 1324. He is buried in the Church of San Lorenzo.

Unseen journeys:

Susan has seen the metal seas of Venus - but has never seen a moonlit night. She must mean "like this one" surely. She lived in London for five months and has been to other times in Earth's history and to other planets. One explanation might be that her over-protective grandfather only ever allowed her to go to the school and confined her to the safety of the TARDIS at all other times - which might go some way to explaining her lack of knowledge about British currency in 1963.

The TARDIS:

Despite the interior of the TARDIS only featuring in three short scenes, the ship does have a significant role to play in Marco Polo. It is, after all, purloined by the Venetian adventurer so that he can give it to Kublai Khan as a present. The Doctor and his companions are denied access to it, other than when he and Susan are permitted to sleep in it for one night during their trek across the Gobi Desert.

The TARDIS had materialised in a snowy landscape at the end of the previous story, and some time seemed to have passed before the travellers go outside to explore - after Susan and Barbara find what appears to be the footprint of a giant.

The Doctor goes back inside the ship, then emerges moments later to announce that there has been a failure in one of the key components. This is the 2LO circuit, which has burnt itself out. 

It is a vital part of the ship's electrical systems, and without it they have no heating or light. The Doctor also states that they won't have any water either, so presumably its loss means that the Food Machine has no independent power source. (It also implies that the TARDIS has no kitchen or bathrooms, unless they too are electrically powered).

The Doctor has Susan go into the TARDIS to fetch the circuit out to him, and he thinks it unlikely that he will be able to repair it before nightfall. It appears to be a chunky black box, full of wiring.

After examining it, the Doctor announces that he will have to make a new one, and this could take days.

It's another vital component, like the Fluid Link, for which the Doctor has no spares.

The TARDIS appears to have some form of altimeter, as the Doctor is able to state that they are several thousand feet above sea level (though this may simply be the result of his visual observation of the terrain and an assessment of the oxygen levels).

Marco Polo takes the Doctor's key - and he hasn't gotten round to making a new one for Susan yet (lost when used to sabotage the Dalek city's surveillance systems). He will make a new key, in a single night, whilst they are stopped at an oasis. He uses it to sneak into the TARDIS to repair the 2LO circuit, until Marco finds out and the ship becomes too well guarded.

In reference to the 21-barrel lock mentioned in The Daleks, the Doctor does warn Polo not to use the key himself. (The odd thing is that Polo never once shows any interest in seeing the inside of the "flying caravan" which he sees as key - no pun intended - to his release from service. Not once does he insist on being shown the interior).

The TARDIS can be lifted onto, and carried by, a wooden cart, drawn by a single horse. Its weight must therefore equate to that of whatever it currently resembles.

As mentioned, the Doctor and Susan are permitted to spend a night in the TARDIS when they are in the middle of the desert. The caravan's water supply has been sabotaged by Tegana, and the nearest oasis is a day's ride away.

Unfortunately, we don't get to see the Doctor's sleeping place. The episodes are lost, and the only telesnaps of this brief scene are two close-ups of the Doctor's face as water drips on it. There's simply a black background. All we do know is that Susan is sleeping next to him, as he tells her to wake up and fetch some means to capture the water. The suggestion is that he is in her room, sleeping on the bed that Barbara was using.

The Doctor does sleep - so must have his own bedroom. That he is sharing here might simply be down to the fact that he has a touch of heatstroke and Susan wants to keep an eye on him.

The reason that water is forming inside the TARDIS is condensation. The ship's interior is being heated by the sun during the day, then cooling at night - meaning that the ship is susceptible to atmospheric conditions outside its shell, despite it supposedly existing in a separate dimension. (The loss of power may be the reason for this, with some protective shielding also disabled).

The Doctor attempts to get the TARDIS back by playing backgammon with Kublai Khan. He starts off well, winning 35 elephants with ceremonial bridles, trappings, brocades and pavilions; 4000 white stallions; 25 tigers; the Sacred Tooth of Buddha; and all the commerce of Burma for one year. He then hits a losing streak and is left with only a piece of the Khan's new paper currency.

That Ulster coat which used to belong to Gilbert & Sullivan is left behind somewhere, but Ian, Barbara and Susan all depart with 13th Century Chinese silk outfits to add to the TARDIS wardrobe. 

Ian will like his so much he wears it for the next story...

Behind the Scenes:

The obvious starting point for this story would have been in the TARDIS console room, when it suffers its electrical breakdown. However, director Waris Hussein and designer Barry Newbery decided to use the limited space of Lime Grove Studio D to concentrate on the story-specific sets required for the opening episode.

The console room set is used only once throughout this entire seven episode story. This is for the sequence at the end of Rider From Shang-Tu, the fifth episode, when the travellers have gained access to the ship but are waiting for Susan to join them. We only have a couple of telesnaps from this scene also, and it looks like only one corner of the set was used, comprising a couple of walls. One has the roundels, whilst the other has a series of vertical lights and is actually a large rectangular pillar-like block which was used in several of the early stories.

Assassin at Peking closes with a shot of the Doctor and his companions standing around the console - but this is clearly set up in front of black drapes in a corner of the studio. Again, this would be due to the size and number of sets needed for the final episode. A star-scape is superimposed over this scene.

We can detect the hand of Story Editor David Whitaker throughout these early stories. There was no real need for the Doctor to take his hand-held radiation meter outside the TARDIS on arriving on prehistoric Earth - there's a built-in meter on the console after all - but it had to be disposed of before the travellers reached Skaro, otherwise The Daleks would have been a very short story indeed. Likewise, Susan had to lose her key in the Dalek city for this story to work. We know she had one as she let herself into the TARDIS on coming home from school before the Doctor got back. The plot relies on there being only a single key to the ship.

2.L.O. was the old BBC radio transmitter for London, based in Marconi House on the Strand. It got its name from being the second London radio licence issued by the Post Office. It began broadcasting in May 1922 under the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, before being operated by the BBC from November that year.

What's Wrong With... Dalek

Let's get the Cyberman out of the way first. There is a head in Van Statten's museum. The plaque states that it was found in the London sewers in 1977, implying that it's from The Invasion. But the design is actually the one seen in Revenge of the Cybermen, with the thicker ridged "handlebars".

Once upon a time we could have ridiculed the notion of a tech businessman owning the internet and having the power to influence Presidential elections... But not anymore. 

And talking of the internet, just think of all the stuff that Dalek has absorbed. It ought to be overloaded with cute puppy and kitten videos, as well as all the naughty stuff...

It should also know all about, and have access to, things like nuclear or biological weapons systems. Is it the Daleks' intention to go round exterminating people individually, when it could simply wipe out all the humans at once with these weapons?

Henry Van Statten gets the "Metaltron" at an auction, and it is stated that it has gone through several buyers already. Surely an organisation such as UNIT, which has had dealings with Daleks and knows exactly what they are, would have noticed this and intervened.

A problem with setting the story so little ahead in time (2012) is that no-one knows what a Dalek is - despite the Battle of Canary Wharf, invading the planet in The Stolen Earth, being around during World War II, and fighting UNIT in England in the early 1970's. There's a limit to what Steven Moffat's Crack in Time can cover, without the entire programme's history collapsing completely.

The Dalek was said to have been found on the Ascension Islands - which is a single island by the way, not a group. It was capable of making someone burst into flames just by getting close to it, so Van Statten has it imprisoned in a cell which has a stock of liquid oxygen right next door - a substance which can cause other materials to self-ignite if released into the atmosphere.

Van Statten places the Doctor in the cell in order to observe via CCTV how his pet reacts to another alien - but he then turns the lights out.

It is also odd that whilst someone like Clive in Rose can know something about the Doctor, and Mickey begins blogging about him, the man who owns the internet - and who claims to be an expert on aliens - doesn't know the first thing about him.

Van Statten's museum is in Utah, and the Dalek drains all the power from the western seaboard of the United States - but not that of the state it is actually in or the one in between it and the area affected.

Van Statten might just possess a rubbish map, as five of the New England states have been merged into one, and half of Michigan is missing.

The Dalek has a gun. When it gets to the bottom of the stairs it stops and thinks for a moment before levitating - but why didn't it use that time to simply shoot the people in plain view who are taunting it from the landing above?

Later on it gets stopped by a closed vault door - despite having the firepower to blast a hole through reinforced concrete only a few minutes later. It has been seen to be able to tap into the complex's CCTV - so why not simply override the door controls?

Once upon another time, a Dalek shell was supposed to be a life-support system as well as an armoured travel machine. From this episode onwards they will be popping out of their shells with alarming frequency, as though they no longer need them to survive.

(Personally, I think the episode shows too much too soon, and would rather they had held back the appearance of the mutant for another time. They feel they have to explain everything. The plunger does this, the balls on the skirt do that, this is what's inside...).

Finally, what's the timeframe at the end? The whole complex is about to be flooded with cement, but Adam still hasn't evacuated yet. It looks like the Doctor and Rose have gone straight to the TARDIS after the destruction of the Dalek - so where did all that cement spring from if no time has passed?

Episode 224: The Invasion (5)

Synopsis:

The Doctor and Jamie have made their way into the warehouse basement of the IE building. There they witness Gregory and some technicians use a machine to supply power to a cocooned figure within one of the metal cylinders.

A Cyberman bursts out...

His suspicions confirmed, the Doctor ushers Jamie back to their waiting canoe and they leave via the canal to warn the Brigadier.

Arriving at the UNIT transport aircraft, they notify Zoe, Isobel and Captain Turner of what they have seen. The Doctor deduces that Vaughn's deep space radio transmitter is being used by the Cybermen to home in on, delivering troops to the compound which are then transported to London. He believes that there may now be a huge army hidden somewhere in the city as numerous UFO sightings have been recorded by UNIT.

Turner tells the Doctor that the Brigadier is at the Ministry of Defence meeting with their liaison there - Major General Rutlidge. The Doctor recalls how he was one of the people who entered the IE offices, and came out strangely changed. The Cybermen can control people's minds.

The Brigadier is telling Rutlidge about the incident at the IE compound, where his helicopter was fired upon. He counters by claiming that it was trespassing on private property and refuses to allow the Brigadier to take any further action. All he can offer is that he will talk to his superiors.

Frustrated, the Brigadier informs him that he will bypass the MoD and go straight to UNIT headquarters in Geneva for the necessary authority to take action.

As soon as he has left, Rutlidge puts a call through to Vaughn, who has arrived back at his London office. The Major General informs him of the Brigadier's threat, but then struggles to concentrate. Vaughn and Packer realise that their mental control over him is slipping, and so he is ordered to visit the office in person.

He arrives soon after, and Vaughn manages to learn from him that UNIT won't be able to act for at least another day, possibly two.

Vaughn is unconcerned, but instructs Packer that Gregory must carry out an experiment. Watkins' machine is to be taken to the warehouse area.

After Packer leaves, he opens the secret wall panel behind his desk and orders the Cyber-Director to connect him with the Cyberman fleet. A mentally conflicted Rutlidge remains in the office, unable to comprehend what is happening.

Vaughn informs the Cybermen that the invasion must be brought forward, to begin in fifteen hours' time - at dawn the next morning. They maintain that their invasion force is not yet complete, but agree when Vaughn threatens to dissolve their partnership and points out that they will meet resistance if they adhere to the original timetable.

Packer is supervising newly reanimated Cybermen, who are being sent down into the sewer system to await further orders.

The Brigadier has returned to his HQ where the Doctor is studying a map of London, one which features the main drainage system. He points out how a main sewer runs right underneath the IE building, and deduces that this is where the Cyberman army is being assembled.

The Brigadier informs the Doctor that going via Geneva will take time. The Doctor is wondering about what form the attack will take, and asks Jamie to hand him the radio which Vaughn had given him on their first meeting. He asks the Brigadier if UNIT have any IE technology, and Turner takes him to examine it.

Vaughn arrives in the warehouse for an update on progress. He orders that the next Cyberman to be reanimated be only given sufficient power for it to free itself from its cocoon.

He then has Gregory attach the Cerebratron Mentor to it, and switches on - setting the machine to generate fear. The Cyberman is driven insane and goes on the rampage before following the others into the sewers. Packer is horrified that they might have been killed, but Vaughn thinks it a useful test of the machine. He doesn't care if the rogue Cyberman kills anyone.

The Brigadier is bemoaning his lack of evidence to Isobel and the Doctor's companions - so she suggests getting photographic proof. She tells him how this could be done, even in the darkness of the sewers. Interested, he insists that he will get his people to arrange this - declining her offer to do it herself. 

Annoyed at his patronising attitude, Isobel decides to get the evidence for him anyway - and Zoe agrees to accompany her. Jamie tries to talk them out of this dangerous course of action, but they won't be swayed. Reluctantly he agrees to go with them, and they arrange transport back to London with Corporal Benton, who is unaware of what they have planned. 

The Doctor informs Turner that all IE equipment seems to contain a particular circuit which does not appear to have any function. It must serve some purpose...

Vaughn is conferring with the Cyber-Director on the final planning for the invasion. It states that a transmission from them will render all humans subject to their mental control. Some individuals will be allowed to live to help them, whilst the rest will be destroyed. Vaughn argues that this goes against their agreement, and once more threatens to withdraw his aid. He will rule the planet, supplying the Cybermen with the mineral resources they seek. The Cyber-Director insists that he undergo full conversion. He is content that his body has been converted, but his mind must remain unaltered.

It is agreed.

Concluding the meeting, he tells Packer that the Cybermen will likely turn on him the moment the invasion succeeds - hence his own plan to use the Cerebratron Mentor against them. They and many of the IE men have special implants designed to counter Cyber-control.

The Doctor tells the Brigadier and Turner about the micro-monolithic circuit he has found in all the IE equipment he has examined. He wishes to study it further at Watkins' home, where there is an electronics laboratory.

The Brigadier agrees to arrange transport after organising a photographic detail to follow up on Isobel's suggestion.

They then discover that she, Jamie and Zoe have gone to London with Benton, "to get something for the Brigadier". They realise what this means and Benton is contacted by radio.

He reports that he has already dropped off the young people close to the IE building.

They have opened a manhole cover and are descending to the sewers when spotted by a policeman, who follows them down.

Benton is ordered to locate them, with Turner on his way to assist. He will drop the Doctor off at Watkins' house on route.

The policeman stumbles into the path of a pair of Cybermen and is shot dead. This is witnessed by Jamie, Zoe and Isobel. 

Knowing that the Cybermen block their path that way, they move off in the opposite direction - only to see another Cyberman lurching along the tunnel towards them...

Data:

Written by Derrick Sherwin (from an idea by Kit Pedler)

Recorded: Friday 18th October 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 30th November 1968

Ratings: 6.7 million / AI 52

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Douglas Camfield

Additional cast: Dominic Allan (Policeman)

Critique:

Major General Rutlidge is never seen again after this episode. Our last glimpse is of him still sitting, mentally conflicted, in Vaughn's office. The implication is that he is no longer needed, now that the invasion is about to commence in a few hours, and he is disposed of.

One of a number of cuts to this episode in post-production dealt with his fate. After completing his discussion with the Cyber-Director, Vaughn turned to find Rutlidge pointing a gun at him, now realising what has been done to his mind. Vaughn is unconcerned, and tells him that he knows he will not shoot him. Instead, he reasserts his mental dominance over him and makes the hapless military man turn the gun on himself.

Ian Marter's novelisation of the story reinstates the bloody conclusion to his role.

It had originally been planned that Cybermats might appear in The Invasion. Looking at the finished story, one wonders where they might have been included. One possible idea might have been as sewer guards, so it may have been they who threatened Jamie, Zoe and Isobel and who killed the policeman. They would only have been functional in a studio environment.

We know that the sequence involving the use of the Cerebratron Mentor on one of the Cybermen was revised by Derrick Sherwin in early August, possibly to give the aliens a role to play in this episode now that they had been revealed.

The new Cyberman costumes were designed by Bobi Bartlett, who wanted them to look tougher and more imposing.

Six new costumes were made for the story.

She retained the use of padded diving suits for the main body, but altered the helmets, chest units and the hydraulic framework for the arms and legs. These components were the work of freelance father and son prop-builders Jack and John Lovell. As with The Wheel in Space, they were later unhappy that their role went uncredited, with Doctor Who Monthly stating that Bill King's outfit were responsible. (They would only provide the new Cyberguns, more of which later when they appear).

For the helmet, Bartlett added the now famous "earmuffs" to the sides, increasing the size and making them less claustrophobic for the actors wearing them. She kept the teardrop below the eye holes, but got rid of the one beneath the mouth. Small army surplus torches were built into the helmets. Black gauze was placed behind the eyes and mouth.

The more compact, lightweight chest units had built-in lights which flashed in sequence, which would look good in the darkened sewer sets, though they were not employed on location filming.

The main filming for this episode took place on Sunday 8th September, on Fore Street in London, which lies close to Moorgate station and the site of the old Museum of London at the Barbican.

This was for the scenes of Jamie, Zoe and Isobel entering the sewers via a manhole, and their pursuit by the policeman. Peter Thompson played the workman who sees the young people enter the manhole.

Also filmed for this instalment was the departure from the IE building of the Doctor and Jamie by canoe on the Regent Canal in West London, recorded on Friday 13th.

Four Cybermen were used in studio on 18th October, their voices provided by Peter Halliday. The modulator was set to a higher frequency to differentiate it from the voice of the Cyber-Director.

Sherwin had looked to The Wheel in Space for the idea that the Cybermen could control people's minds, as well as the defence against this of a small metal plate worn on the back of the neck.

Douglas Camfield opted to record this episode out of sequence, based on sets. He began with the opening warehouse scene, then moved on to all the sequences in UNIT's aircraft Ops Room.

This was followed by all of the scenes in Vaughn's office.

Next up was Rutlidge's office, for his video call with Vaughn, followed by one further warehouse sequence involving Packer and the Cybermen.

The final scenes recorded were on the sewer set.

Only used on film, Peter Thompson provided a pre-recorded computer voice for Vaughn's office.

Recording breaks were for cast movements, including moving the Cyberman actors from the warehouse to the sewer set.

For the death of the policeman, a bright light came from the Cyberman chest units, and the picture went into negative through over-exposure - as used for the Dalek extermination effect.

Closing captions rolled over a shot of the approaching insane Cyberman before a fade to black.

As well as the death of Rutlidge, there were two further cuts made before broadcast. The first took place in the UNIT Ops Room. The Brigadier was sceptical about the Cybermen, with the Doctor countering that they were no more incredible than the Yeti. Discussing how large an army of the aliens there might be in London, the IE building seemed too small to be concealing a whole invasion force - and Jamie wondered if they might be hidden underground somewhere. This prompted the Doctor to seek out the map of the sewer system.

The final cut was a single shot of a Cyberman descending a ladder from the warehouse into the sewers.

It's from this episode onwards that the TARDIS crew dynamic changes. Jamie will start to become side-lined, and Zoe will come more to the fore.

Here, she allies herself with Isobel in a show of female solidarity and independence, whilst Jamie reluctantly agrees to tag along - more in his role of protective big brother than because he actually sees their plan as a sensible one. It is an extremely silly venture. Both have first hand experience of the Cybermen, and know just how dangerous they can be. 

Jamie might be being over-confident, having helped defeat them three times before. As for Zoe? Might she still be thinking of the death of her mentor Gemma Corwyn at their hands, and be looking for a way to fight back?

What triggers their crazy scheme is the Brigadier's insistence that any kind of dangerous mission is unsuitable for a woman. He's being presented as a chauvinistic, patronising authority figure, but the fact is that he is quite right to say that this is a job best left for his men - professional photographers who are also trained soldiers - as events subsequently show.

Of course, the whole point of Isobel's scheme is to get photographs of the Cybermen - but once in the sewers they then do everything they can to avoid them...

Oddly, the Doctor seems less than concerned about the fate of his companions and Isobel - leaving UNIT to handle their rescue even though he is being taken back to London himself. It seems very out of character that he would not want to be involved in person, even if he is somewhat preoccupied with the IE circuits. We're reminded of his apparent disregard for Dr Corwyn's safety in the penultimate episode of the previous Cyberman story.

For me, the Cybermen lurking in the sewers is just as iconic as the subsequent scenes of them marching around London landmarks. There's something ghostly about them, and they really suit these claustrophobic, darkened environments.

Trivia:

• The ratings see a slight improvement, both in terms of viewers and in the appreciation figure. Last week's episode was actually the lowest rated of the story.
• Tuesday 26th November 1968 saw a feature on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop on the TV programme Tom Tom. This included a brief clip of exploding Daleks from The Power of the Daleks (6), which is how this material came to be preserved in the archives.
• In an April 1989 interview with fan publication DWB, the Lovells claimed that Bobi Bartlett's husband used to visit their workshop to collect his wife, and always showed a keen interest in their work. She suddenly stopped using them, and they discovered that she was giving the work to her husband instead.
• Edward Dentith would be reunited with Frazer Hines a decade later when he joined Emmerdale Farm, appearing in 56 episodes between 1979 - 80. He also appeared in another production with Kevin Stoney, though they didn't share any scenes together - "The Plastic Eaters" episode of Doomwatch.
• Dominic Allan had a reputation for playing police officers in a number of series (11 times, according to IMDb). He also featured in four episodes of The Tomorrow People, and played Dracula author Bram Stoker in a 1974 edition of arts series Omnibus.
• Peter Thompson relocated to Australia, where he appeared in their version of Are You Being Served?, and soap Neighbours.

The Art of... The Invasion

The Invasion was novelised by Ian Marter and first published in hardback in May 1985, with the paperback following that October. The artwork, depicting a lone Cyberman and the UNIT logo, was by Andrew Skilleter. He has used an airbrush to give the Cyberman its metallic look.

Derrick Sherwin had originally intended to novelise his own story. When this fell through, Marter stepped in as he had already covered a Cyberman story - Earthshock - despite his dislike of writing for the monsters.

He made a number of changes, some controversial. He altered the name of Vaughn's company to International Electromatix, and the Russian rocket base was given the name Nykortny, after Nicholas Courtney. The actors had become very good friends through the convention circuit, for which they wrote and performed a double act for the evening cabarets. 

The opening TARDIS sequence was consigned to a prologue.

He included some swearing from Packer, but most noticeably gave Rutlidge (renamed Routledge) a rather graphic death.

This is the first time that an Invasion-style Cyberman has actually accompanied the correct story on a Target novelisation, having previously featured on the covers of both Doctor Who and the Cybermen and Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen.

The book was reissued, with new cover art by Alister Pearson in September 1993, using a mirror image of a Cyberman from the St Paul's location shoot. The Troughton portrait derives from a publicity image from The Power of the Daleks, of the Doctor looking at his 500 Year Diary.

A collector offered the original painting for sale on Ebay for £3000 in 2017. It failed to get a buyer.

According to DWM issue 97, artist Mark Bentham was in talks to provide artwork for the Target range and came up with sample covers for The Invasion and for The Mind of Evil. His work had been spotted in the Peter Haining book Doctor Who - The Key to Time. Nothing would come of these discussions. Here he used a portrait shot of Kevin Stoney as Tobias Vaughn, and the iconic Cyberman portrait previously used by Chris Achilleos for Doctor Who and the Cybermen. The image above was reproduced in Telos Publishing's The Target Book.

With two of the eight episodes missing, the story was given a soundtrack release as part of the BBC Audio Collection in November 2004 with linking narration from Frazer Hines, who also supplied an interview.

It has the usual photomontage cover, featuring some explosive action and a lot of Cybermen. One looks like it's popping up from a manhole behind Isobel Watkins, whilst she photographs a bunch of its dead comrades.

The surviving six episodes were released on VHS in a double pack in June 1993. The missing instalments were covered in condensed fashion by Nicholas Courtney, narrating events to camera. The artwork is again by Andrew Skilleter, who once more concentrates on a single Cyberman image, backed with a fleet of Cyberships.

For its DVD release, the decision was made to animate the missing episodes - the work going to the Cosgrove Hall company. This was the first of the incomplete stories to be presented in this way. Perhaps disappointed at the lack of Cybermen in their episodes, the company produced a trailer which reproduced the famous St Paul's scene, but set against a rainy, overcast sky.

The DVD was released in the UK in November 2006. The cover is the work of Clayton Hickman, and features Vaughn and the Brigadier prominently along with Cybermen and St Paul's, but also includes an action shot of the Doctor from the final episode.

The Region 1 release came in March 2007 with its own photomontage cover - which isn't anywhere near as satisfying as the more dynamic Region 2 version. The Troughton portrait is the same one used by Skilleter for the VHS cover.

Marter's novelisation was released as an audiobook in April 2016, using the original Skilleter artwork. As you can see, the reader was David Troughton, whilst Nicholas Briggs provided the Cyberman vocals. The image is sharper than the version used on the book, and benefits more from the stark black background.

Finally, Don Harper's music for the story was released on CD in September 2019. It also includes Brian Hodgson's radiophonic contributions to the score. The label was Silva Screen Records.

Harper's master tape of his score was actually lost soon after production, but the composer had luckily retained a personal copy.

Inspirations: The Lie of the Land

Not a great deal to say about this one, as we've covered a lot of the background already.

The final part of the Monks trilogy originated with Toby Whithouse's idea for a story based on the sort of totalitarian society seen in George Orwell's 1984. The writer then had to make this act as a sequel, and conclusion, to the previous episodes.

Steven Moffat liked the idea of an invasion that had already taken place - and the Doctor appearing to be collaborating with the invaders. As the darkest iteration of the Time Lord to date, viewers might actually believe that he really had gone over to them.

His role appears to be inspired by Nazi propagandist "Lord Haw-Haw" - William Joyce - whose "Germany Calling..." broadcasts to Britain during WWII were designed to sap morale. He was the inspiration for the villain in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942). Joyce was hanged for treason in January 1946.

The Doctor appearing to be undergoing a regeneration, but not actually going through with it, had been seen in the cliffhanger to The Stolen Earth, and the Eleventh Doctor had undergone a non-regeneration in The Impossible Astronaut. In the former case, he did use up a life and had to redirect the regeneration energy into a compatible organic receptacle (his hand), whilst in the case of the latter incident it was only a robot copy of the Doctor.

The main element taken from Orwell's novel - written in 1948 and published the following year - was the idea of the Ministry of Truth, which was basically a propaganda machine which presented history as the rulers wished it to be seen, not as had actually taken place.

"Fake news" was a big thing in the media at the time of writing this episode, coming especially from the first Trump presidential campaign where anything negative was dismissed as made-up. It continues to this day.

Whithouse was notified that his episode would be the one where the Vault would finally be opened, and so Missy would feature once again.

It was originally intended that her prison would be a spartan affair. It would be she who would give the Doctor the solution to defeating the Monks, having had previous dealings with them.

The episode opened with a collage of fake history, as presented by the Monks. They would appear in artworks, photographs and newsreel footage, being present at a number of momentous world events as well as appearing in some of the Doctor's own adventures, dealing with Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels.

Moffat had already used this technique to plant the Silents throughout history. Woody Allen had built a whole movie around the idea - 1983's Zelig.

Instead of Orwell's Thought Police, Whithouse introduced the Memory Police - who arrested people who harboured memories of real history.

Having events move on by 6 months from the previous episode, with the Earth already subjugated, reminds us of The Last of the Time Lords. In this, the Master had built a gigantic statue of himself.

A statue which actually acted as a psychic transmitter / receiver was an idea which featured in Douglas Adams' original idea for what later became The Pirate Planet. Then, it was one built by the Time Lords to absorb negative emotions and so pacify a planet's population. A Time Lord sent to dismantle it was caught up in the works and himself absorbed all the negativity, to become the story's villain.

Ordinarily, the Doctor prevents invasions - but having him have to deal with a planet that has already been taken over goes right back to The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

The Doctor's room on the prison ship was described as looking like the one astronaut Bowman finds himself in as an old man at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey - a stark, brightly lit white space.

The Monk generating thought waves at the heart of the London Pyramid - described in the script as their Cathedral - was to be seen sitting in the pose of Rodin's The Thinker statue (1880).

Next time: Zulu, but with Ice Warriors...

Episode 223: The Invasion (4)

This episode no longer exists in the archive, and nor are there any telesnaps. Representative images have been used.

Synopsis:

The Doctor and Jamie are being hunted by Packer and his men. They conceal themselves in a railway freight car, Jamie climbing inside one of the metal cylinders they saw at IE's London warehouse.

He discovers that he is not alone, as something cocooned within begins to stir... 

Once the searchers have moved off, he tells the Doctor of what he experienced but they do not have time to go investigate as they overhear a guard state that Zoe and Isobel have arrived and are to be taken to the main administration block.

Packer reports back to Vaughn in his office. The security chief argues that he ought to have been allowed to dispose of the Doctor and Jamie sooner, but Vaughn argues that sometimes it is best to keep people alive if they can be made to serve his purpose. He has allowed Watkins to live only because of the Cerebratron Mentor, after noticing that their allies are troubled by it. It is his intention, once the planned invasion has been a success, to then discard them. The alternative would be conversion into inhuman creatures like them. Vaughn wants the Doctor's travel machine as a contingency plan should they fail.

The girls will be used to flush him out.

In the UNIT helicopter, Captain Turner reports all the increased activity at the compound to the Brigadier, who orders Sergeant Walters to put his troops in the area on standby.

Vaughn does not seem too concerned by it hovering so near his factory. He then makes a public address announcement, giving the Doctor ten minutes to surrender.

Zoe and Isobel are locked in a room on the tenth floor of the office block. They can see the Doctor and Jamie below, motioning them to keep back from the window. Zoe has also spotted an electronic eye in the room, spying on them.

The Doctor uses his UNIT radio to contact the Brigadier, to check if the helicopter has a rope ladder on board and to have it position itself immediately above the building. He and Jamie are going to make for its roof via a fire escape ladder.

They are picked up by the helicopter, and Jamie is then sent down the rope ladder to the window of the room where the girls are being held. They have jammed the door to prevent Packer and his men from entering. All three must then ascend the ladder to the helicopter, with IE guards opening fire on them.

The guards reach the roof just as the helicopter moves away, with Jamie - last to leave - still clinging to the ladder.

Vaughn is initially furious that Packer has failed yet again, but then announces that they will be returning to London with the professor and his machine. He intends to bring the invasion forward - to begin in 24 hours. He also assures Packer that there will be no official reaction to what has just happened, having his secretary contact Major General Rutlidge at the Ministry of Defence...

Rutlidge is informed that UNIT have been causing him trouble, and he is instructed to ensure there will be no further interference from them. Rutlidge agrees to arrange this, though is oddly hesitant in his response.

The Doctor and his companions are now all safely back at UNIT's transporter aircraft HQ. He tells the Brigadier about the spaceship on the dark side of the Moon which fired on the TARDIS, and of the deep space radio transmitter they saw at the IE compound.

From Captain Turner he then hears about UFO sightings near to the compound, one of which was photographed.

Watkins is notified that he is to be moved back to London - and given an ultimatum of 24 hours to complete work on his machine. Vaughn and Packer lead him to believe that Isobel is still in their power.

The Doctor examines the photographs and finds the craft depicted strangely familiar. 

He deduces that these spacecraft are delivering something to the compound, which are then transported up to the London IE premises. He recalls Jamie talking about something within his metal cylinder moving, and asks the Brigadier for a detailed map which covers the area around the building.

Noting something interesting, he then enquires if the Brigadier can get him a canoe...

A short time later he and Jamie are paddling the canoe along a canal and into a tunnel which provides an access point into the IE warehouse, managing to evade the guards.

Once inside, they witness Gregory, Vaughn's head of research, and some technicians employing a strange electronic device. Cables run from it to one of the cocoons, standing within an upright cylinder. 

The power quickly builds, and a Cyberman bursts out...

Data:

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

Recorded: Friday 11th October 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D 

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 23rd November 1968

Ratings: 6.4 million / AI 51

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Douglas Camfield

Additional cast: Edward Dentith (Rutlidge), Sheila Dunn (MoD Phone Operator)

Critique:

During the making of An Unearthly Child, Eileen Way, playing the Old Woman, told William Hartnell that she didn't think Doctor Who would last more than a few months at best. He always said it would last 5 years. The pair decided to bet on it, but never met again - so Hartnell never did get his money. Of course, when he made the bet he would have assumed that he would still be in the title role but, sadly, that was not to be. Doctor Who celebrated its fifth anniversary, with no fanfare and with a different star, with this episode. 

It's just a pity that this episode no longer exists in the archives, as this is the one where the story really picks up a gear. UNIT get involved in the action and Vaughn's allies make themselves known - and it's the return of a popular monster.

Rutlidge was described in the script as "about forty, greying, and with a nervous disposition which he covers up in normal circumstances with false bonhomie".

The UFO photographed by UNIT was described as being of an elongated hexagonal shape. Sherwin may have intended use of the same model seen in The Wheel in Space. 

It was originally intended that the Cyberman would be reanimated using a bio-projector, as seen in The Tomb of the Cybermen.

In August, script amendments were made to the scene of the Doctor and Jamie overhearing the mention of the girls being taken to the admin block; the rooftop rescue sequence; and the Doctor and Jamie using a canoe to get into the IE building.

The filming for this episode centred on the dramatic helicopter rescue by UNIT. This had been due to be filmed at RAF Fairford on Tuesday 3rd September, but had to be postponed when insurance problems prevented the arrival of the helicopter.

The filming then got underway on Thursday 5th at Denham Airfield. Close-ups of the cast in the aircraft, including Robert Sidaway playing Captain Turner, were filmed with it on the ground. Concerned about being filmed from below climbing up the rope ladder, Frazer Hines had lead weights sewn into the hem of his kilt to stop it showing the football shorts he usually wore. As a good Highlander, Jamie would have been expected to wear nothing under the kilt. Hines had read that the Queen used this lead weight technique on her skirts. Unfortunately, Sally Faulkner hadn't read the same article and so her underwear did make an appearance - spotted, like her dress, it would appear from photographs taken on location...

The pilot was Mike Hughes of Gregory Air Services. He took Hines and Sidaway up on a short flight and alarmed them by jokingly claiming that, as it was an Alouette, all the controls were labelled in French and he couldn't understand them.

It was on this day that Hines announced to the press his imminent departure from the series.

The following day, cast and crew moved to Wallingford, Oxfordshire, to film all the ground level action for the recue sequence at the premises of Associated British Maltsters.

The final filming for this episode took place on the Regent's Canal on Friday 13th September, when work was underway at Ealing Studios - Troughton and Hines being filmed paddling the canoe.

Having been seen only in a photograph in the second episode, the cast was now joined by Edward Dentith, playing Major General Rutlidge. He had appeared alongside Nicholas Courtney in the thriller Watch The Birdies, directed by Douglas Camfield.

And having previously voiced the IE reception computer, the director's wife Sheila Dunn now featured as the video phone operator.

A sizeable amount of the running time for this episode had been pre-filmed, so the studio session ran relatively smoothly. The only new sets this week were small offices - the one where Zoe and Isobel were kept, and Rutlidge's. The Cyberman was reanimated in part of the IE warehouse set.

The first recording break allowed Hines to move from the cylinder with the cutaway section into a complete one, to be seen climbing out of it.

Other breaks were for cast movement between sets.

One of the new Cyberman spaceship models, filmed at Ealing on Friday 30th August, was photographed against a neutral background and slightly blurred, to be shown to the Doctor by Captain Turner.

The Cyberman which emerges from the cocoon at the episode's conclusion was played, uncredited on this instalment, by Pat Gorman. He had been a background artist and monster performer on the programme ever since the second episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Terrance Dicks used to joke that it was in the BBC Charter that he had to be cast in everything.

We'll discuss the new-look Cybermen next time, when they feature more prominently.

After being consigned to the periphery of events up until now, UNIT finally get involved in the action through a dramatic helicopter rescue of the Doctor and his friends. The Brigadier, though, is still confined to his transport aircraft and yet to make his mark.

Vaughn's allies are revealed to be the Cybermen. Even if Radio Times hadn't spoiled their return - or if they had stuck with the working title of "The Return of the Cybermen" - then I think the audience in 1968 might have guessed their involvement. We've had a few clues, such as the Doctor thinking that the threat on the dark side of the Moon might already know who he is, the look and sound of the Cyber-Director, and the talk earlier in this episode about conversion and the significance of emotion. Watkins' machine delivers emotional impulses, and the allies don't want it developed.

There's also the fact that the Cybermen were appearing on the programme frequently during this period. They featured twice in Season 4, and topped and tailed Season 5, so it was pretty inevitable that they would be showing up again soon.

Invasions of Earth are a bit of a cliché in the programme, especially since it returned in 2005. Whilst the planet has been threatened quite a few times, actual alien invasions have been relatively rare in Doctor Who up until this point. Only The Dalek Invasion of Earth comes really close, and then the TARDIS arrived after the invasion had already been accomplished and the Daleks were now the rulers of Earth, with only a small band of ill-equipped rebels to trouble them.

In this story, we get to see the build-up to the attack, as a human collaborator schemes to pave the way.

Vaughn isn't only interested in taking power once the Cybermen have conquered the Earth. His ambitions - like those of his future look-a-like Mavic Chen - are much greater than that. Both have a secondary plan in which they will get rid of the alien allies once their work is done, in order to rule single-handedly. Not for them ruling under a foreign power. Chen could easily have kept his initial involvement with the Daleks a secret from the rest of the Solar System, attacking them with his fleet based on Venus and coming across as some sort of avenging saviour. Vaughn isn't interested in what the people of Earth might think of him. He plans to rule them, and that's all there is to it as far as he is concerned.

Trivia:

• The ratings see a sharp fall this week, of over half a million viewers. The appreciation figure also drops some three points.
• This was the second time "The Return of the Cybermen" had been used as a working title for a story, the previous time being for The Moonbase.
• The image of a Cyberman bursting out of a cocoon was so striking Eric Saward reused it in Earthshock, which also borrowed elements of Revenge of the Cybermen. The Invasion will also inspire one aspect of Attack of the Cybermen - namely Cybermen exploiting London's sewer network and having a spaceship hidden on the dark side of the Moon.
• Isobel asks Zoe why they were kidnapped, and not just handed over to the police. She seems to think they're in trouble purely for sabotaging the IE reception computer - forgetting entirely that she was told back in Episode 2 that she was going to be used to force her uncle into cooperating with Vaughn...
• The filming at Denham Airfield was covered by the local press:

• This week's Radio Times published a photograph of Isobel climbing up to the UNIT helicopter, to accompany the day's programme listings...

• And it also ran a feature on Kit Pedler, though not in all regions. On Tuesday 12th November he participated in a Radio 3 discussion titled Of Ombudsmen and Cybermats, which considered the ethics of science and looked forward to his new series Doomwatch, co-written with Gerry Davis. This would focus on the potential dangers to people and the environment of unregulated science. The discussion wasn't broadcast until June 1969, and would be his final link with Doctor Who. There was an article in The Listener, dated 10th July 1969, to accompany the broadcast...