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...

TARDIS Log: The Edge of Destruction

Where and When:

On leaving Skaro, the TARDIS has suffered a major malfunction. The travellers have been knocked unconscious, and wake to find themselves completely disoriented. The ship is apparently stationary - and it has definitely left Skaro as we, and the Thals, saw it dematerialise - and they have to work out what has happened, and where they now are.

There are clues. ("We've been given nothing else but clues", says Barbara at one point).

When the doors open they see only a brilliant white void. It's so bright the companions have to shield their eyes when they look outside.

The scanner shows a series of images, three of which comprise a sequence - a moon-like planet, a view of a solar system, then a blinding light.

The Doctor eventually works out that this represents their journey.

He has used the Fast Return switch on the console, to presumably retrace their most recent journeys. We can assume that he planned to go back to Totter's Lane, London, in 1963, to rid himself of his unwanted passengers. But is that how the switch works? We'll come back to this shortly.

Anyway, the switch has jammed and they have travelled back much further than the Doctor intended.

Early fandom believed that they had gone right back to the Big Bang at the start of the universe, but the Doctor clearly states - in his famous soliloquy - that it is the birth of a solar system.

But which one?

He was aiming to get back to Earth, so does that mean that it is our own Solar System?

The scanner sequence is the clue, for the planet which begins it is clearly not Earth. Much later, in the closing moments of The Space Museum, we will discover that it is Skaro.

They have travelled back to the creation of that planet's system.

When that was, it's obviously impossible to know, but if it's anything like our Solar System then we're talking billions of years in the past.

Other Journeys:

I meant to include this subsection from the start, as we heard that the TARDIS had assumed the form of a sedan chair and an ionic column at some point before it became stuck as a Police Box - and then there's Susan's reaction to the book about the French Revolution, which suggested personal experience of the event.

Here the scanner shows an image of the planet Quinnis. This is said to lie in the "Fourth Universe", and it's where the Doctor and Susan nearly lost the TARDIS. She describes this as "four or five journeys back", so not that long before London 1963.

The landscape resembles a primordial swamp, and we can hear the roars of strange animals.

Much later, the Doctor will claim that travel between universes was relatively easy when the Time Lords were around, so it may be the case that this actually is another universe.

However, David Whitaker was a writer, not a scientist, and he'll provide some very dodgy astrophysics over the next few years. Let's just say that he probably meant a galaxy, and leave it at that for now...

The Doctor and Susan have visited late Victorian England at some point, as they have met dramatist WS Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, famous for the Savoy Operas. They were active between 1871 - 1896. The Doctor "acquired" an Ulster coat from them.

The TARDIS:

The TARDIS has been programmed to do something which will mean its destruction and those of its occupants.

It "refuses" to do this, and sets about warning everyone. However, rather than stick a message up on the scanner or use any of the standard warning systems which the ship must possess, it provides a number of clues - which are cryptic to say the least.

Unless everyone is concussed, it appears to initially affect the minds of Ian, Barbara and Susan - causing them to suffer a temporary amnesia and confusion.

It then employs the scanner. We have the sequence mentioned above, which illustrates a journey back through time from a planet to the creation of its solar system, but before that we get a still image of a pleasant country landscape, and the hostile environment of Quinnis. The Doctor points out that these are only photographs, but they have sound. These landscape images coincide with the opening and closing of the main doors, operating on their own.

The sequence is repeated.

A time element is then added, when the TARDIS somehow manages to melt clock and watch faces. How it achieves this we cannot tell. Does it do it physically, or is it actually only in the minds of the travellers, like a shared hallucination? 

Time is "given back" to the travellers by the sounding of an alarm from the Fault Locator. This device is still in the same place - but it no longer reads like a seismograph or lie detector, with inked needles on paper. Instead it runs through an alphanumerical code sequence - A1, A2 etc. A light indicates the status of the individual components. 

The Doctor has difficulty reading this as it blurs before his eyes. 

A short time later the entire machine lights up - suggesting that everything is failing. 

Eventually the Doctor starts to accept Barbara's contention that the TARDIS is causing all these strange incidents itself, as a means of warning them. He accepts that the ship can think - but only as a machine and "not as you or I do". For him it is simply a machine intelligence, devoid of any kind of consciousness.

The interesting thing about all this odd behaviour from the TARDIS is that the Doctor's logic and scientific reasoning is blind to what it is trying to do.

It is Barbara's human instinct and intuition which solve the mystery. The TARDIS appears to be more in tune with the new passengers than with its own operator and his granddaughter. 

We have to go back to why it chose these particular methods of warning, rather than the more straightforward mechanical ones. It must have some sort of consciousness, which operates above the purely machine level.

It's fair to say that this is yet another reason for doubting that the Doctor built the TARDIS, as he simply doesn't understand it beyond its role as a space / time machine.

We learn more about the console itself - especially the central glass cylinder and its internal mechanism. (This will later become known as the Time Rotor). According to the Doctor, the rise and fall of this indicates the extent of the power thrust. The power source of the TARDIS lies beneath the console, and were the cylinder to be pushed up too far and come free, this power would escape and effectively destroy the ship.

Near the beginning of the story, the Doctor speculates on the cause of the breakdown, and worries that it might even be the "main unit", but doesn't elaborate on what this is.

In An Unearthly Child we saw how the Doctor could electrify part of the console, and here the TARDIS does this itself. It generates an electrical charge, targeting the back of the neck, which can knock out anyone even approaching any part of the console other than the section it wishes to draw their attention to. This includes the scanner control - and the Fast Return Switch. 

This is actually marked on the console in felt-tip pen, and seems to be a removable component which plugs into the console. There are two theories as to how this functions.

The first is that it simply takes the TARDIS rapidly back in time, and that's what it seems to do here if the solar system being created is indeed Skaro's.

The Doctor actually says: "I had hoped to reach your planet Earth. Skaro was in the future and I used the Fast Return switch". Ian then replies: "You've sent us back too far...".

Setting aside the fact that events on Skaro may well have actually occurred in Earth's past, theory number two is that the switch causes the TARDIS to retrace its own journey - traveling in reverse gear as it were - so that he can get back to Totter's Lane in 1963.

The problem with this second theory is that a stuck switch shouldn't take the TARDIS back to the birth of a solar system, but to its own creation on the Doctor's home planet.

However it works, the problem is traced to a spring inside the mechanism. This has stuck so, as far as the TARDIS is concerned, the Doctor was holding it down the whole time. It therefore didn't register as a fault.

As well as the Fault Locator, another change is to the Food Machine. It certainly wasn't there in The Daleks, but there is now a separate button for water. It's in the middle of the other controls, and there's an indicator light above left, which let's you know when it's empty. Quite when the Doctor found time to add this is anyone's guess. Or was it the TARDIS itself? Do the Doctor's people not need this as much as human beings, so he - or it - decided it was necessary to accommodate passengers from Earth? I say the TARDIS might be responsible as the layout of the console room changes considerably from story to story, even when there is no time for the Doctor to have made adjustments himself. 

Whoever installed it, it provides the water in little plastic bags. 

You now have to go through an internal double door to reach the Food Machine, whereas in The Daleks it was simply behind a partition wall, off the console room. 

The Edge of Destruction introduces us to the travellers' bedrooms. We see Susan's room, which contains an angled bed, with a table and metal chair. She has a plant on the table. The bed folds up into the wall when not in use. There must be a wardrobe off screen, as we have already seen her change outfit more than once, and here she dons her sleeping apparel - a black smock-like garment. We'll see Barbara wear the same night gear, though Ian manages to find an ordinary dressing gown (but no pyjamas). There doesn't appear to be any need for sheets or blankets. 

There isn't a separate room for everyone, as Barbara has to share Susan's bedspace on a second fold-down bed. Presumably Ian has his own room - unless he's in with the Doctor.

A new addition to the TARDIS medical supplies is a bandage which is impregnated with medicated bands. This ointment seeps into the wound and when the colour fades it has done its work. It comes in a long roll, and you simply cut off the length required with scissors.

(Susan has a pair of scissors which look like they are used for dressmaking, so she may make some of her own clothes - when she's not threatening schoolteachers with them or attacking her mattress...).

Once the problem has been resolved, the TARDIS continues its journey. After landing, the Doctor and Barbara have a conversation in the rest area where the Food Machine is located. This now features a long, low couch. There's a small round table as well, but no obvious chairs.

The Doctor says that the TARDIS has "an extensive wardrobe", and we see Ian wearing that Ulster coat mentioned above, whilst Susan has picked out cold weather garments for Barbara.

The TARDIS appears to have been sitting at its new destination for some time before anyone has ventured outside, as no-one has noticed the giant footprint in the snow just outside the doors...

Behind the Scenes:

A popular alternative title for this story is "Inside the Spaceship". Early fandom also used "Beyond the Sun", but we know that this was an episode title for Malcolm Hulke's abandoned "The Hidden Planet" story, as well as the overall title of Brian Hodgson's suite of sound effects for the series.

For many years, the background to this story was that it was written to plug a two week gap in the schedule as the sets for Marco Polo weren't ready yet. This is what the cast certainly believed, as they mention it in interviews. The truth of the matter is that the series was threatened with cancellation due to budgets - and it was the TARDIS set which was mainly to blame.

The series was to be terminated after 13 episodes on the grounds of cost, on the instructions of Donald Baverstock, BBC Controller. Story Editor David Whitaker was therefore asked to come up with two episodes which would complete the run.

Verity Lambert saved the day by pointing out that the cost of the TARDIS had been worked out over 52 weeks, so she was within budget. £500 over 13 weeks would work out at nearly £40pw, whereas the same amount spread over a whole year would come to less than a tenner.

Whitaker then used his two-parter to concentrate on the relationships between the Doctor and his companions, properly introduce the TARDIS, and at the same time save money by only featuring the regulars and an existing set. Designer Ray Cusick only had to add the sleeping area and make some amendments to existing props and set elements.

The large hexagonal metal floor plate which surrounds the console makes a return.

The story relies heavily on lighting effects to conjure mood and menace, and the console room is plunged into darkness, other than a single overhead light, for Hartnell's soliloquy about the birth of a solar system.

When asked about "Fast Return" being written on the console above the switch, in felt-tip pen, Cusick suggested that it was probably put there simply for the benefit of William Hartnell and / or the camera operator to find. The scene is recorded in low lighting after all. Either no-one had thought that it was to get a big close-up, or it had been intended to remove it before recording and someone forgot. 

What's Wrong With... Aliens of London / World War Three

Let's start with the way in which the government of the United Kingdom works. There's been a big incident - a spaceship crashing in central London. In any national crisis, a meeting of COBRA is convened - the name deriving from Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. The make-up of this meeting would depend on the nature of the incident, but here we would expect to see the Prime Minister taking the lead, and the other relevant Government Ministers would be the Secretary of Defence and the Home Secretary. There would also be senior representatives of the Police, military and health services. In the absence of the PM, the Deputy PM would lead. The official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the third most senior government minister, is right next door to 10 Downing Street.

Even with the PM disposed of, there are an awful lot of people who would be convening before you would ever get to the bunch we see here.

The Opposition parties could have intervened if they didn't like the leadership of the country falling to so lowly a figure as Green.

Martial Law would have been instituted long before such a junior minister got to assume the Premiership.

No-one seems to link the disappearance of the PM with the arrival of the spaceship. Rather than be allowed to take part in the inner circle leading the government, Margaret Blaine is more likely to have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in his disappearance - being responsible for tracking his movements and seemingly the last person to see him. Likewise Oliver Charles.

How does someone like Dr Sato know about his disappearance, when people actually based in Downing Street are just confused about the situation? (Okay, so we'll later find out that she works for Torchwood and may have special access to information, but that's a long way off yet. This actually creates a bigger problem, as we'll find out that Torchwood have a whole tower full of people in Docklands, whilst she's based away in Cardiff - so what is she doing here anyway?).

Even with roads grid-locked, there are such things as helicopters. Horse Guards Parade would make an ideal landing site. There's also access to Westminster via the Thames.

Unless the Slitheen have gotten rid of all of the people mentioned above, a meeting could be held remotely if the key personnel couldn't physically attend - so government would continue to function. That's the whole point of COBRA - to manage the crisis and to ensure continuity of government.

We later see all the alien experts like UNIT arrive at Number 10, followed later by a whole bunch of other disguised Slitheen. If they could make it through the streets, then surely a lot of the genuine key figures could do so.

Also, COBRA meetings don't usually take place in Downing Street anyway - hence the name. There are far more secure places in Westminster for such meetings to take place.

The story begins with the Doctor bringing Rose home a year late - causing all sorts of emotional problems for her mother and boyfriend.

In a few weeks time, we'll see the Doctor happily take Rose back multiple times to see her father on the day he dies - so why does he not simply bundle her back into the TARDIS and cancel this out by getting her back on the right date? It can't be anything to do with crossing his own time stream or meddling with past events if he has no problem doing it in Father's Day.

The Missing Persons posters give Rose's age as 18, but a whole year has passed, so Jackie should surely have said that she is 19 now if they are freshly printed ones (and we see she has a pile in her flat). The one the Doctor removes to read can't be an old one, as it would never have survived 12 months outdoors in London due to weather, being plastered over, or vandalism.

There's no computer or internet at Rose's home - she had to go to Mickey's to use his - yet they get a US TV news station. (The Iraq War was televised primarily through US footage - but that was shown through BBC and ITN broadcasts. We didn't all magically get CNN in the UK).

The Doctor and Rose are captured after setting foot outside the TARDIS. A helicopter somehow manages to materialise immediately above them, but they don't hear it approach. The Doctor was in the TARDIS because he wanted to run some scans - yet these didn't pick up the helicopter.

Also, Mickey is with them at the time, and he manages to evade capture - despite them surely being surrounded by armed police / soldiers and observed from the helicopter above...

There are timeframe issues with the story - such as Mickey spotting the Doctor and rushing to Jackie's flat at 10pm, whilst the Doctor is then seen with Sato at 10.55pm. Did it take him nearly an hour to get to the hospital?

There's bright sunshine when the TARDIS arrives. It's March, so it can't be very early. The spaceship crashes into Big Ben at 9.50am - which means that the Doctor has only been questioned about a possible abduction for only an hour or so. Why did this take place in Jackie's flat anyway, and not down the police station?

I say the ship crashes at 9.50am, but as everyone knows they decided to flip the image and the numerals on the clock face are back to front.

The Doctor only gets flagged up on government security systems after Jackie reports him (which she takes all day to do) - yet he's been questioned by police for a while that very morning. Does the alert system only function if a crisis has already begun? As his arrival usually precipitates a national / global calamity, wouldn't it make more sense to have it search for mention of him all the time, rather than wait until after trouble has already arrived?

Talking of IT issues, the idea that UNIT have a one word password that lets you locate nuclear submarines and fire its missiles is an astonishingly stupid one.

Last, but by no means least, the Slitheen decide to discard their skin-suits to answer the phone call from the UN about access to the nuclear weapons. Not only does this mean that they no longer sound human - and they're taking a call, remember - but they have massive claws in their natural state. How do they propose to pick up the receiver...?

Blog Update - Holidays

Just to give you plenty of notice, but I've got some holidays coming up next month - two trips back-to-back in the second half of September. This will mean there won't be any regular posts after Thursday 10th September until the beginning of October. I'll put up a reminder before I go.