Blog Update

I'm afraid there's going to be another break in posts as I'm in the middle of packing prior to a house move later this week. (I'm also working my way through the Season 7 Collection when I do have any spare time - will review next week). The internet won't be set up at the new place until Monday 24th, so I'm pausing the blog until everything's sorted out.

I'll finish The Macra Terror episodes when back up and running again, then the usual posts will resume - Inspirations, What's Wrong With... and the A-Z - but then there's another short break as I visit London for a long weekend to attend the DWAS Capitol Cutaway event on 6th April.

The week after that sees the launch of Series 15, so I'll be resting the story reviews until after it has finished - since I'll be writing new episode reviews instead.

Those reviews are likely to be posted on the Sunday after broadcast, so it will mean a temporary move for the Episode posts to a weekday for the duration of Series 15.

I'll let you know if anything changes, but thank you for your patience in the meantime.

Episode 155: The Macra Terror (3)

Synopsis:

The Doctor and his companions have insisted on seeing the Controller for themselves, instead of his static picture. They are shown an older man, in a dishevelled uniform, who is being forced to speak to them by someone - or something - off-screen. This is confirmed when a huge crab-like claw reaches into view and drags the man away. Polly screams that the Macra are in control of the Colony...

The Pilot orders the strangers be sent away to the mines. Ben is told to spy on them and report any issues. 

After they have been hurried away, the voice of Control reassures the Pilot that they must be put to work mining fresh gas reserves, and he is urged to forget what he had just seen.

Ola brings the Doctor and his companions to the mine control room, which is presided over by a man named Officia. He explains how the gases are generated by natural salts and are very valuable. Ola orders that the strangers need not know what they are mining - only that they should work. Initially it is decided that Polly should remain in the control room, but she insists that the Doctor should take on this role due to his advanced years. Whilst he disagrees with this, he realises that he might be able to exploit his role in this area. Polly and Jamie will go to the mines, and find and that they are to join Medok on the "Danger Gang". He explains that none of the hospital treatments had worked on him, so this was the only place left for him.

The Doctor sees Ben, and begins to quietly undermine the voices which he knows to be controlling his thoughts.

In the mines, Polly and Jamie discover that the gas they are expected to mine is highly toxic to humans.

The Doctor makes some calculations, based on the readings on the various gauges - chalking them on the wall. The Pilot arrives and is shocked to see these, since the Colony computers took years to come up with the same figures. He orders him to destroy the equations.

Officia makes a mess of tapping a new gas strike and is rendered unconscious temporarily - long enough for Jamie to steal his keys. Ben had been watching, and they are unsure if he saw the theft. As he helps Officia back to the control room, Jamie slips away and finds a large wooden door in the tunnel he had spotted earlier. The key fits this and he slips through, but an alarm sounds.

The recovered Officia alerts the Pilot. Control states that someone has broken into the old shaft, but refuses to allow Ola's guards to enter that area.

Medok attempts to follow Jamie, but a huge claw seizes him by the throat.

The Doctor discovers that Ben had seen Jamie steal the keys, but had not reported this - confirming that his mental conditioning is breaking down. Confused, the young man goes off to seek advice from the Pilot whilst the Doctor seeks a means of helping Jamie by studying the nature of the gas.

He, meanwhile, has discovered that Macra roam the old mine shaft and are hunting him down.

Control once again insists that no colonist be allowed to enter the old shaft. Instead, it orders that guards be placed at the entrances whilst it gives new orders to Officia. He is to flood the old shaft with the toxic gas.

Forced deeper into the tunnels by the thickening cloud of gas, within lurks a Macra, Jamie finds himself trapped between it and another of the monsters...

Data:

Written by Ian Stuart Black

Recorded: Saturday 18th March 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 25th March 1967

Ratings: 8.5 million / AI 52

Designer: Kenneth Sharp

Director: John Davies

Additional cast: John Harvey (Officia)

Critique:

The original draft of this episode, when the story was still being called "Dr Who and the Spidermen", referred to the Pilot as the Colony's "Prime Minister". The script gives hints that the Macra was supposed to be realised by a man in costume. There's a description of an insect man with a "great plumped up back". Jamie shouts at it: "You horrible beastie. Did the devil send you? You're an insect from the pit of Satan!".

Some of Polly's dialogue was originally given to a female miner.

Monday 13th March should have been a day off before the start of rehearsals for this episode, but the regular cast had to go to Gatwick Airport to film exteriors scenes for the next story. They were then taken out of rehearsals on Friday 17th for the same reason.

On the same day Innes Lloyd contacted BBC Visual Effects due to problems which were being experienced with Shawcraft Models. Director Gerry Mill had encountered issues during the pre-filming for The Faceless Ones, whilst the producer had been very unhappy at the cost of the Macra prop. He asked if someone from the department could visit the studio during the making of this or the final episode to assess the prop and confirm that it had really cost the £500 he had been charged.

Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie had declined to work on Doctor Who right from the outset, unless they were given additional staff and workshop space. As this couldn't be offered, responsibility for VFX had always fallen to the individual story's designer in conjunction with external contractors like the Uxbridge-based company. Lloyd was asking if he could get better value for money by using other contractors. In the end, the BBC VFX department would finally take on responsibility for the programme in-house from the next story to go into production, which would be The Evil of the Daleks.

Episode 3 of The Macra Terror saw the very first appearance of the opening title details being superimposed over the new title sequence. In the past, the writer and episode title / number had appeared after the title sequence had faded out, being superimposed over the opening shot of the new episode.

In this instance, the opening scene was a restaging of the cliffhanger sequence from Episode 2.

The main new set was the mine control room which was covered in pipelines. This included a built-in back projection screen. There were two sections of mine tunnel set up, with T-junctions to allow for variety of shots. The new shaft where the Danger Gang operated saw metal panels running along the walls, and the tunnels had arches with angled tops. It looked more like a futuristic corridor than a mine tunnel. The old shaft was dressed differently, with rounded arches and sprayed with latex cobweb material. Dry ice was used to represent the poisonous gas. This and low lighting helped hide the deficiencies of the Macra prop.

As there was only one, relatively immobile, Macra, the final sequence had to be recorded out of sequence. Basically, all of the shots of the Macra moving right to left had to be shot first and then, after a break to reposition it, recorded again moving left to right. Davies edited these sequences as he went along, sitting in a mobile editing suite in the car park outside the studio. The material had to be transferred to 35mm film so that it could be used for the cliffhanger reprise in Episode 4. Not only would it be too time consuming to restage this action, but it was intended that the Macra prop would be repainted for the following episode. It should be recalled that there was only a single week between recording and broadcasting at this time.

Frazer Hines found the situation ridiculous as it showed up the impracticalities of the Macra.

Much of it relatively dark in tone, this episode does see a bit of comedy business with Troughton. After working out the way the mine control room operates from the various dials and gauges, he gives himself a score of 10 out of 10. When the Pilot confirms that his scribbled equations were correct, he gives himself a higher score (long before Spinal Tap) - then cracks a joke when water makes the chalked figures run into one another.

At one point he wishes he had been issued a mask like those going down the mine - one of the last times his hat fixation is referenced.

This humour is balanced by somewhat threatening dialogue from the Doctor, however. He appears to be content to set Jamie on his companion - pointing out that he wouldn't treat him as nicely as he might. There's definitely an explicit threat in his "... watch out Jamie doesn't catch you. He's not as tolerant as I am".

Trivia:

• The ratings see a significant improvement this week, both in terms of viewing figures and audience appreciation. More than half a million extra viewers, and four points up on the previous AI figure.
• John Harvey had previously appeared in an earlier story by Black, when he played Professor Brett in The War Machines. Usually called upon to play police or military officers, he featured in a number of Hammer Horrors - Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Vampire, The Satanic Rites of Dracula - and sci-fi films such as X The Unknown and They Came From Beyond Space.
• The Australian censor cut the scenes with the claw from the reprise from Episode 2. Interestingly, the cliffhanger wasn't badly cut - probably because the action is so dark and gas-shrouded that the audience wouldn't be able to see what was going on anyway.
• In his novelisation, Ian Stuart Black has Medok survive his encounter with the Macra.

Inspirations: The Day of the Doctor

Featuring Three Doctors, partly set on Gallifrey and involving UNIT on Earth, in a story marking a significant anniversary...

But enough of The Three Doctors, this is the 50th Anniversary story.

Steven Moffat did take the Pertwee story as a basis for his celebration. After the 10th and 20th birthdays had been celebrated with multi-Doctor stories, fans have come to expect this sort of story structure whenever a big anniversary rolls round. For the 60th, RTD avoided a multi-Doctor story (unless you count the climax of The Giggle where we have an overlap) but he did bring back a popular old Doctor.

The three Doctors Moffat wanted were the trio of post-2005 ones - but that meant coaxing Christopher Eccleston back to the series. He had left the role under a shadow, which is yet to be fully explained. His agreeing to return was very much a long shot, and - as expected - he declined the invite. This is why Moffat instead created the hitherto unknown War Doctor, as he couldn't see the McGann Doctor as a warrior.

The story was to revolve around the Last Great Time War, in particular the events which led the Doctor to put an end to the conflict by destroying both his own people and the Daleks.

That he had been responsible for this had emerged gradually over the course of the first half of the 2005 series.

Some of the action revolves around Gallifrey's second city Arcadia. The Doctor had previously stated that he was present at the Fall of Arcadia in Doomsday.

The weapon which the Doctor deployed was known as the Moment, as we had learned in The End of Time when it gets reported to Rassilon in the council chamber. That earlier story had shown the political elite on Gallifrey's last day, whilst this story shows another chamber - the War Room belonging to Gallifrey's military.

Eccleston night not have come back, but Billie Piper was happy to return. However, Moffat elected not to have her simply back  as Rose. The Moment would be a sentient device, which made sure that its operator accepted the consequences of using it. Piper therefore played the psychic interface with the Moment which took a form from his mind - the Bad Wolf Rose. Being a Time Lord weapon, this form could be from his future.

She only interacted with the War Doctor. The current incarnation retained Clara as companion, but Ten was on his own, and it is implied that he comes from the period between The Waters of Mars and his arrival on the Ood-Sphere at the start of The End of Time. We know this as when he was reunited with Ood Sigma he mentioned having now married Queen Elizabeth (I). The elderly Elizabeth had recognised him in The Shakespeare Code, following an event which had annoyed her but which hadn't happened to him yet.

The presence of Daleks in the story was a given, this being the last day of the Time War. For an additional threat, confined to a separate plot, were the Zygons. They had featured only once before in the series in 1975's Terror of the Zygons, despite their massive popularity (thanks to the design work of James Acheson, the direction of Douglas Camfield and the performance of John Woodnutt).

David Tennant had spoken in the past of his love of the creatures, and Moffat was already a fan. They were chosen to  provide this additional plot strand.

This has lead to inconsistencies, however. There's no sign of the Skarasen, despite Broton having implied that they are dependent on the monsters.

The biggest problem, though, is that we have refugees turning up on Earth in the 1560's, when Broton suggested that he had only recently heard about the disaster which had befallen their world, and the refugees certainly wouldn't be arriving until well after the 20th Century.

Also, Broton's group had been located at Loch Ness for centuries - so why had the refugees not contacted him on arrival?

The shape-changing nature of the Zygons is played for laughs here - rabbits and horses as well as people.

That's the broad outline of Moffat's story. There's lots of little nods to the past within it, right from the opening moments. 

We see a policeman checking the gates to the junkyard on Totter's Lane, in monochrome scenes, in homage to the opening of An Unearthly Child. (A shift from monochrome into colour had also featured at the start of The Two Doctors).

Clara is teaching at Coal Hill School - just as Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright had done back in 1963. Ian is listed on the school noticeboard as the Chairman of Governors. Like The Five Doctors, we get a mix of original arrangement of the theme music with the current version.

At one point Clara rides a motorcycle into the TARDIS - just as the cop had done in The Movie. We'd also seen Ten drive out of the ship on a scooter in The Idiot's Lantern, and the current Doctor emerged on an anti-grav bike in The Bells of Saint John.

The Doctor is seen to still be wearing Amy's reading glasses.

UNIT continue to be based at the Tower of London, first established in The Christmas Invasion. Like Malcolm (who gets a mention here) in Planet of the Dead, the latest Scientific Adviser is a big fan of the Doctor.

UNIT's Black Archive - first seen in SJA's Enemy of the Bane - has now been moved to beneath the Tower, when it was previously out in the countryside somewhere.

A few old props are seen - bits of Cyberman etc. - but the main interest is only glimpsed. There are loads of photographs, mainly from the classic era, which feature companion mash-ups - characters who were never seen together on screen:

The First and Third Doctors have previously mentioned being help prisoner in the Tower, and for the Eleventh this is his second known incarceration there.

The War Doctor often represents the classic era (or the Hartnell role in The Three Doctors), and is used to mock some aspects of the modern series - despairing of some of the others' catchphrases or questioning the amount of smooching which goes on.

His TARDIS is a mix of classic era and Ninth, and we will get a vague glimpse of the latter when he comes to regenerate.

For the finale we get to see all of the Doctors come together to save Gallifrey. Oddly, this includes the Seventh Doctor twice - once from The Movie and once from Battlefield. Other TARDIS-based clips come from The Daleks, Tomb of the Cybermen, The Mind Robber, Colony in Space, Planet of Evil, Frontios, Attack of the Cybermen, Rose and Parting of the Ways. The Troughton dialogue comes from The Seeds of Death, however, whilst Pertwee's comes from The Green Death. Davison's comes from The Five Doctors.

As well as all the nods to the past, we are also treated to a nod to the future as Peter Capaldi's "attack eyebrows" also feature.

One of the classic Doctors does turn up in person, as we see Tom Baker portray the Curator - seemingly a future incarnation of the Doctor, revisiting an old persona.

Finally, we see all of the Doctor's line up for a curtain call.

Overall, it's more of a celebration of the revived series than it is of the classic era.

What's Wrong With... The Awakening

It's just a short two-parter - but that's one of the problems. Originally four episodes long, it was heavily edited down to half the length and this leaves it rather rushed.

The anachronisms should have been prolonged, so that the audience would be unsure as to when this story was set - the 17th or 20th Century. The fact that it's a contemporary story with characters just dressed in English Civil War costume is given away far too quickly.

The whole ghosts thing is confusing. Why do some people materialise corporeally, like Will and the disfigured thief, whilst others are just phantoms? And why do some of the latter look real whilst others are a sort of ghostly silver colour?

Everyone connected with the village seems familiar with the name "Malus" - but how would they have known its name?

A couple of directorial issues. Tegan is walking along, minding her own business, when she gets abducted. But you can see that her attacker must have been standing right in front of her in the open to have achieved this.

The Doctor and Jane confer as they're hiding under the stairs in the secret tunnel - despite their searchers only having just walked past (after ignoring the only place in the tunnel where anyone could hide).

What exactly happens to Sir George at the climax. He falls into the crack, but what happens next? Does he get eaten, or is the big malus of the same proportions as the little one, meaning there's a huge unseen drop below the face that he falls down? 

The story borrows (very) heavily from The Daemons, but in that story Chris Barry managed to show that Devil's End had a population. Where are the inhabitants of Little Hodcombe?

That 1970's story was also set at May Day. Here we see lots of sunshine, and no-one's wearing their big coats. So why does Sir George need a roaring log fire in his little study.

These days, the showrunner would devise a whole three season story arc around the fact that relatives of Tegan fall foul of alien interventions.

Finally, it's yet another Davison story in which lots of people get invited into the TARDIS and hardly bat an eyelid, and owning a dimensionally transcendental time machine apparently makes everyone automatically believe everything you say.

Inspirations Cutaway: Night of the Doctor

Regular readers will know that this blog concentrates on televised Doctor Who, so for me Paul McGann was the Doctor for one night only back in May 1996. The Eighth Doctor has gone on to enjoy a significant afterlife lasting many years - but that's all on audio or in novels and comic strips.

McGann had the opportunity to appear on screen once more when the 50th Anniversary rolled round in November 2013 - but The Night of the Doctor would prove to be a short minisode, and be released only on-line. He would have to wait another nine years to appear on BBC One, when he joined other ex-Doctors for the channel's Doctor Who centenary special.

The main 50th Anniversary was going to be featuring the War Doctor, and Steven Moffat thought it might be an idea to show just where he came from. An unknown incarnation, who had to be connected to the Time War, there was only one place he could have originated, and that was the wilderness years between 1996 and 2005.

That meant coming after McGann and before Eccleston.

The minisode opens with a spaceship in trouble, and the TARDIS materialises on board in time for the Doctor to rescue its lone pilot Cass. Trouble is, she sees the Time Lords as just as bad as the Daleks and declines his help. The Doctor has deliberately kept himself out of the conflict up to this point - helping but never fighting.

He decides to stay with Cass as the ship crashes. This just happens to be on the planet Karn.

We were introduced to this bleak world in The Brain of Morbius, where we learned that it was home to the mystic Sisterhood. They appear here, under a new leader named Ohila. The Sisterhood had passed into the leadership of the similarly named Ohica in the 13th Season story, but then the Doctor had stressed the importance of change. Ohica presumably refused to outstay her welcome as Maren had.

The group extricate the Doctor and Cass from the wreckage. She can't be helped, and he's fatally injured. 

Having the action set on Karn and featuring the Sisterhood made sense for Moffat, as not only was it a nod to one of the most popular seasons ever, but it had been stated in that older story that the Sisterhood had ancient links with the Time Lords. Their Elixir of Life was sometimes used to help save them should there be problems with a regeneration and that is exactly what this minisode is designed to be - a regeneration story. It wasn't so much about closing the door on the Eighth Doctor, as showing us the birth of the War Doctor.

Cass's reaction to him provides the impetus to make him decide that he can no longer stay on the sidelines of the conflict. The Elixir in the past simply healed or prolonged life, but now it has been refines so that it can give different results. The Doctor can basically chose the nature of his next persona, and he chooses to be a soldier. McGann regenerates, but before he goes he recalls all of his companions and, of course, these are all from the spin-off material except for Grace. (A problem with spin-offs shoehorning their own companions into gaps is that you then wonder why the Doctors entirely fail to recall them in various televised flashbacks).

We then get a glimpse of the War Doctor, looking much younger than when seen at the conclusion of The Name of the Doctor. That's because they used a bit of footage of John Hurt from the BBC's 1979 adaptation of Crime and Punishment.

An in-joke is when McGann asks if the regeneration is going to hurt...

Next time: The (New) Three Doctors...

British Museum Who

I was surprised today to find that Doctor Who is represented in the British Museum. On the top floor there is a gallery devoted to the development of money, and there on display was one of the dummy £10 notes which featured in The Runaway Bride. There was even a video of the sequence playing on a loop beneath it. The series crops up in the oddest places.

Cyber Art

Spotted this near Brick Lane whilst on a walk this afternoon, snapping some street art.

By the way, a new trailer arrived this evening for the next series. Looks rather good, though they always do...