Inspirations - The Masque of Mandragora

Season 14 opens with The Masque of Mandragora, written by Louis Marks. This is his fourth and final credit on the series, and what an eclectic bunch of stories they have been. Some writers are synonymous with "eras" of the show, or with particular types of story - but Marks just turns up every so often with something completely different each time. We first met him back in 1964 when he was given the brief to write the "miniscules" story, (Planet of Giants), a variant of which had been on the drawing board from the very start of the programme. He next turned up in the middle of the Pertwee / UNIT action-adventure years, with a story revolving around assassins from the future and a temporal paradox (which became Day of the Daleks after he was asked to bring the Daleks back from their long hiatus).
Then he was back for the Hinchcliffe-Holmes Gothic Horror period, with the Jeckyll & Hyde / Forbidden Planet themed Planet of Evil.
He doesn't have to wait quite so long between commissions this time, as he returns for the second season in a row.

Marks was a bit of an authority on certain aspects of the Renaissance - having for time been a lecturer on the subject. In particular, he had written a paper on late 15th and early 16th Century Florentine finances. For this story, Marks was allowed to delve into his specialist subject for ideas.
But first, we get a brand new TARDIS. At least on the outside. As mentioned last time, the old Police Box prop had collapsed on top of Tom Baker and Lis Sladen whilst on location for the closing moments of The Seeds of Doom. A new box was built, which is of a lighter, brighter blue colour than the original one, as well as being slightly smaller - so easier to fit on the sets. Philip Hinchcliffe did not like the console room set, thinking it rather boring and much too big - taking up far too much studio and storage space. Designer Barry Newbery was asked to come up with a smaller alternative, and he decided on a radical rethink. Looking to the works of Jules Verne - especially Captain Nemo's Nautilus submersible - he decided on an antique wood and brass look. The Doctor claims that the new console room is actually the old console room - the one he used to use a long time ago. We see a frilly Third Doctor-style shirt, and Sarah picks up a recorder, as played often by the Second Doctor. The suggestion is that these earlier Doctors sometimes went back to it. Certain features are retained. The walls still have roundels, though they are carved out of wood, and some have stained glass inserts. The central console is still hexagonal, though the controls are hidden behind Davenport writing desk-type covers. In place of the usual glass column, we have a shaving mirror which acts as... well, just a shaving mirror. We get to see one other TARDIS room - the boot cupboard. This looks like a Palladian drawing room, with a solitary pair of boots standing in the corner.

No sooner has the Doctor taken up residence in the new / old console room, than the ship gets caught up in the Mandragora Helix - a whirlpool of sentient energy floating in space.
Mandragora is the Latin equivalent of the English mandrake - a plant which has roots which look vaguely human in form. The odd shape, plus the fact that the plants contain hallucinogenic properties, have caused mandrake to become associated with many occult practices, and it is used in magical rites. Fans of Harry Potter will be well aware of mandrakes.
It's most likely that Marks got the name from a play by Niccolo Machiavelli - La Mandragola. It was written during Machiavelli's exile from Florence following the return to power of the Medici in 1518, and the collapse of the Florentine Republic. It was first published in 1524, and is seen as a satirical parody of the Medici. It revolves around a man's use of mandrake to drug a woman he wishes to woo. The mandrake is also known as the "love plant". A revival of the play in New York in 1979 starred a young Tom Hanks as the main protagonist.
The TARDIS escapes and arrives in the tiny Dukedom of San Martino in what will one day become Italy, in the latter years of the 15th Century. The novelisation makes it 1492. This fits with some later dialogue about the guests who will come for the new Duke's investiture, including Leonardo da Vinci, who is said to be in the company of the Duke of Milan. That would be the notorious Ludovico Sforza - nicknamed Il Moro (the Moor) due to his jet black hair and swarthy complexion. He ruled until 1498 when he was deposed - dying in prison in 1508. Leonardo had first approached the Duke for work in the 1480's.
The young Duke of San Martino's scheming uncle - Count Federico - seems to have been inspired by Sforza.

The Mandragora Helix's plan is to prevent the Renaissance from taking place - leaving Earth in a less enlightened, superstitious phase which will make it easier for it to take over and enslave the human race. Renaissance means rebirth, and it is generally regarded as a period either side of the turn of the 15th and 16th Centuries when great advances were made in the fields of art, science and philosophy. Much of this was inspired by the rediscovery of ancient Rome through archaeological finds. Like the Industrial Revolution or the Enlightenment, there was no one big event which triggered it, and what we regard as the Renaissance comes mainly from how it was defined afterwards, though the name was affixed at the time, as people could see the changes that were taking place.
Mandragora plans to use a pagan cult as its bridgehead - the Cult of Demnos. They are said to date back to Roman times, and to be moon worshipers. Marks may have been thinking of the Roman Cult of Mithras when devising the Demnos group. They are led by a man named Hieronymous, who works for the Count - though Federico is oblivious to his Cult activities, and would like to see them wiped out. Hieronymous is commissioned to write horoscopes which will predict bad things for the Count's enemies - and to then assist with the prophesies coming true through some judicious poisoning. He has already bumped off the old Duke - Federico's brother - and now the Count wants the nephew gone in the same way as quickly as possible.
Hieronymous was named after the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (d. 1516) who was famous for his surreal, nightmarish paintings.
Young Giuliano is a Renaissance Man, interested in the new sciences and learning. For his investiture he has invited many powerful rulers, as well as scientists and philosophers (like Leonardo). Once they are all assembled, the Cult of Demnos will be used to wipe them out - setting progress back for centuries.

This being the Robert Holmes / Gothic Horror era, a classic horror movie is never far away. This time we don't look to Hammer or Universal Studios, but to the smaller American International Pictures studio. Director Roger Corman made a name for himself in the 1960's with a number of low budget, but highly effective, adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories. So successful were these that when they ran out of Poe to adapt and made a movie based on an H P Lovecraft story, they stuck a Poe poem at the beginning and billed it as "Edgar Allan Poe's The Haunted Palace". It's really Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Corman was able to obtain the services of Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre for his films, as well as giving young actors like Jack Nicholson their first break. One of the last of the AIP Poe-cycle was 1964's The Masque of the Red Death - which is where Louis Marks got his story title from. The film uses another Poe short story - Hop-Frog - as a subplot.
In the film, Vincent Price plays an evil Duke who parties in his castle as all around him his subjects perish from a plague - the Red Death. The movie culminates in a lavish masque ball during which a mysterious robed figure appears - dealing death to everyone he touches. He's the Red Death personified, like one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. When on his Cult duties, Hieronymous wears cowled purple robes and a golden mask, and once the Mandragora Helix permeates his body he can dispense death with lethal energy bolts from his fingertips, and his followers are able to do the same - attacking Giuliano's guests at a masque-ball in the final episode.

It is claimed that when Robert Holmes discovered how many different authors Marks had used as sources for his story, he is said to have told the writer he would have given him only a fraction of the fee.
Before we close, a quick mention of the location filming for this story, as well as the lavish costumes. Unable to go to Padua or Urbino, the production team went to Portmeirion in Wales - best known for its portrayal of The Village in The Prisoner. This tourist village was built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis over a period of 50 years on the Gwynedd coast, using architectural salvage and new builds based on architectural designs from all around Europe - giving much of it an Italianate feel. Barry Newbery set up a fake Roman ruin for filming. Sir Clough liked it so much he asked if it could be kept - only to learn that it was made from lightweight materials that would never have survived their first Welsh winter.
Costume designer James Acheson, meanwhile, tried to get his hands on some costumes from the Italian film industry. He was promised some from a production of Romeo and Juliet. Excited to think these to be from the award winning 1968 Franco Zeffirelli production, he was disappointed to discover that they came from the lesser regarded 1954 Renato Castellani adaptation.
Next time: Sarah Jane Smith bows out, with a bow-wow. There's a beast with five fingers on the loose, in a story whose development is far more interesting than what made it to the screen. Oh yes, and Eldrad Must Live!...