Inspirations - Planet of Fire

It's been a very rare occurrence in the series so far when we can say that the inspiration for a Doctor Who story is another Doctor Who story. It has only happened when we have had a sequel (such as the two stories set on Peladon, or involving the Mara) or where we have recurring characters / monsters.
One quick summary of Planet of Fire might go along the lines of: the TARDIS is redirected by someone other than the Doctor to an alien planet; there is a local superstitious sect which worships a sacred flame which has regenerative qualities; there's a rogue Time Lord present: the rogue Time Lord is physically in reduced circumstances; the leader of the sect sacrifices themselves at the end; the planet's name is a four letter word ending in "arn".
Yes, Planet of Fire does seem to borrow quite a few elements previously seen in The Brain of Morbius.
The Time Lords redirected the TARDIS then, whilst Kamelion, under the influence of the Master, does it here; we have the Sisterhood of Karn and the Cult of Logar; the sacred flame gives long life and has restorative qualities, whilst the flame here restores health in its blue phase; the Master has been shrunk due to an experiment with his Tissue Compression Eliminator, whilst Morbius existed only as a brain in a tank; Maren and Timanov elect to sacrifice themselves at the conclusion of each story - she to the flame and he to remain behind on the planet as it faces destruction, rather than accept that his life has been wasted worshipping ancient alien visitors; the planet Karn / the planet Sarn.
Too many overlaps to be a coincidence I would have thought. We do know that John Nathan-Turner did often offer tapes / scripts of old stories to writers, so presumably Peter Grimwade, the writer of this story, got to see The Brain of Morbius again, or got to read the script, as it wasn't one of the stories he had worked on as Production Assistant.

Last time, we told of how there had been a falling out between JNT and Grimwade over the cancellation of the Dalek story that was to have ended the previous season. Grimwade never directed on the show again (and may not have wanted to anyway) but he already had this script in the pipeline, and he would go on to offer a further one during Colin Baker's tenure as the Doctor which wasn't commissioned. Having Grimwade write the story which would exit the character of Turlough from the programme made sense, as it had been he who had written his introductory story - Mawdryn Undead - and he had contributed to some of the character's development, using some of his own public school experiences.
Grimwade was given some other elements which he was asked to include. As well as the departure of Mark Strickson, he had to introduce the new female companion, to include the Master - who was to be written out as well, as JNT was now in dispute with Anthony Ainley, and whose "one story per season" contract was coming to an end. The troublesome Kamelion robot was also to be gotten rid of.
On top of all these departures and arrivals this story was also to be the one that would be filmed overseas. It had been thought that Greece, or at least one of the Greek Islands such as Crete, might have been the possible filming location, and Grimwade was a keen Hellenophile. His initial scripts reflected this.
His main aim in his scripts was an attack on fundamentalist religion. He disliked how many religions took events as "signs from god", and used them to attack people and to justify their bigotries. This was the time of AIDS, remember, and religious groups of all sorts were queuing up to attack gay people by claiming the illness as a visitation from god.
All of Grimwade's Greek research was in vain, however, as director and close friend of JNT Fiona Cumming had recently been on holiday to Lanzarote. Her holiday snaps were to inspire the location eventually chosen for the story. Not only would the volcanic island, one of the Canary Islands, appear as itself, it would then feature as the alien world of Sarn. "Sarn" by the way is Grimwade looking once again to the Welsh language (as with the name Mawdryn). It means a pavement, causeway or stepping stone.
Delays in selecting the location, plus further issues around casting, meant that Grimwade elected not to develop his scripts any further, and he handed them over to Eric Saward to complete.

It has been suggested that had 'The Return' / 'Warhead' been made, it would have included the writing out of Kamelion - meaning that the character would have gone in the very next story after it had been introduced. This was because it had been obvious that the machine couldn't be operated as efficiently as had been promised (problems exacerbated by the death of its programmer in a boating accident). As it was, Kamelion had merely been forgotten about for several stories - not even referred to. A brief scene between Kamelion and Tegan had been recorded for The Awakening, but was cut before broadcast. With the return of the Master in this story, it seemed the opportune moment to exit the robot which he had helped introduce to the programme. With the Master incapacitated due to being shrunk, he would exert his influence over Kamelion once more so that it could come and rescue him.
Its shape-changing abilities allowed Anthony Ainley, and Dallas Adams (in the dual role of Peri's step-father Howard, and the possessed Kamelion looking like Howard) to interact with the rest of the cast in studio and on location, despite the Master being confined to his tiny control room.
We mentioned last time the Fifth Doctor's willingness to handle a weapon, and at the conclusion of this story he uses the Master's TCE to destroy Kamelion - though it is at the robot's own instigation.

If this story seems to borrow inspiration from The Brain of Morbius, then it therefore has to acknowledge some of that story's inspirations. Chief of these is the restorative flame, which comes from H Rider Haggard's She: A History of Adventure. This was first published in book form in 1887, having been serialised in The Graphic magazine some months before.
It tells of an expedition to the lost city of Kor, somewhere in central Africa. This is ruled over by a sorceress named Ayesha (She Who Must Be Obeyed). Ayesha has found the secret of eternal life, by having bathed in the flames of a strange volcanic flame. However, bathing in the flame a second time undoes the process, and Ayesha ages rapidly to death. The story has been filmed 11 times - the earliest from Georges Melies in 1899. The best known versions are the 1935 adaptation starring Randolph Scott and Nigel Bruce, which moved the action to the Arctic, and Hammer's 1965 version, which starred Peter Cushing, Christoper Lee, Bernard Cribbens and Ursula Andress. The latter spawned a sequel - The Vengeance of She - as it had ended with the hero joining Ayesha in the flame - he now becoming immortal whilst she withered and died.
The Master's plan is to have Kamelion deposit him in the flame of Numismaton gas when it burns blue, so that his shrinking will be reversed. It had been intended for a time that this would have seen the death of the character, as the flame reverts to its normal destructive state with him in its midst. The Master is heard to demand that the Doctor help him, ending with: "Won't you show mercy to your own -". The production team did toy with the idea that that sentence was to have ended with the word "brother", but they ultimately decided against this.
The name of the gas - Numismaton - seems to have been picked from the word for coin or bank note collecting - numismatics.

Cumming and JNT made a couple of controversial casting decisions for this story. For High Priest Timanov they offered the role to Peter Wyngarde, best known as the playboy detective Jason King from Department-S and his own spin-off show (supposedly the principal inspiration for Mike Myers' Austin Powers). Wyngarde's reputation, and thus his career, had suffered after a couple of arrests in the mid 1970's for "cottaging". Dallas Adams, meanwhile, had recently been in the news for winning a record winning sum in a gay palimony case.
Even the casting of new companion Peri was controversial. The character was an American, but the actress selected was Nicola Bryant, who was English. She had an American boyfriend and had used an American accent to land the part. It is claimed that JNT decided to have an American companion due to the series' rising popularity in the United States. He spent many weeks there attending conventions - sometime to the detriment of the series itself. Eric Saward, and many fans, were unhappy about this - pointing out that the reason that American fans liked the series so much was because of its eccentric Britishness. They could watch American characters any time, and didn't need to see them on Doctor Who. Once cast, Bryant had to keep up with the pretence of being American to fans and the press for some time. Peri's full name is Perpugilliam Brown. JNT claimed to have found Perpugilliam in a book of girls' names, and thought it sounded the sort of thing a New England parent might call their child.

Turlough's backstory and origins are given a very rushed and cursory glance. He is really Junior Ensign Commander Vislor Turlough (VTEC9/12/44). His father was a political dissident from the planet Trion, who was exiled to Sarn along with his younger son Malkon, whilst Turlough was sent to his exile on Earth. The political situation on Trion has now changed, and Turlough is welcome to return, along with Malkon, whom Timanov had thought was the "chosen one" of his god Logar. His religion is really based on visits in the past by Trion agents, who used this planet as a sort of penal colony. Turlough's serial number derives from the birth date of Eric Saward - 9th December 1944.
Turlough's stripping down to his swimming trunks might well have been inspired by Sarah Sutton getting to strip down her costume in her last story (Terminus).
Next time: you wait for a story to be inspired by another story for ages, and then two come along at once. It's the much better remake of The Power of Kroll as Peter Davison bows out...