Synopsis:
The Doctor has been left lying unconscious in an upstairs room of the burning farmhouse, whilst Ian, Barbara and Susan have been captured by Revolutionary soldiers...
He is dragged to safety by Jean-Pierre, the boy who they had earlier encountered in the forest. He explains that his father was arrested some time ago, and the Doctor's friends will have been taken to prison in Paris - some 16km away.
In the city, his companions have been brought to the Conciergerie Prison, on the Ile de la Cite. Ian is locked in one cell, and the two women together in another. Ian finds he has a cellmate - an Englishman named Webster who is seriously ill.
The Jailer is visited by an Official named Lemaitre, who tasks him with keeping an eye on Ian and his fellow inmate. Barbara and Susan decide to try and dig a hole at the foot of their external wall, but find a void with rats beyond.
Webster tells Ian that he must seek out a man named Jules Renan, who may be found by the sign of Le Chien Gris. The Englishman then dies.
Lemaitre enters the cell and questions Ian about the dead man, wanting to know if he said anything, but Ian claims he said nothing. Outside, the Jailer confirms that he did hear the two men talking. Lemaitre has Ian's name struck off the execution list.
The Doctor comes across a work party repairing the road. They are tax-dodgers, forced to work under a brutish Overseer. Unable to furnish identity papers, the Doctor is compelled to join them.
On seeing how greedy the man is, he devises a ruse to escape. He steals some gold coins from him then plants them in the dirt they are digging through, having distracted the Overseer by claiming a solar eclipse is about to take place. When he then claims to have struck treasure, the Overseer insists that only he should dig the hole - and the Doctor promptly hits him over the head with a shovel. The work party scatter, and the Doctor continues on his way.
In the prison, Ian hears sounds coming from the courtyard and looks out of the window.
He is horrified to see Barbara and Susan being taken away for execution in a tumbril...
Next episode: A Change of Identity
Data:
Written by: Dennis Spooner
Recorded: Friday 17th July 1964 - Lime Grove Studio G
First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 15th August 1964
Ratings: 6.9 million / AI 54
Designer: Roderick Laing
Director: Henric Hirsch
Additional cast: James Cairncross (Lemaitre), Jack Cunningham (Jailer), Jeffry Wickham (Webster), Dallas Cavell (Road Works Overseer)
Critique:
This episode is notable for the first ever location filming in the series. Up until this point the only filming which had taken place was conducted at the BBC's studios at Ealing, of scenes which required substantial editing or which would not have been practical in a cramped TV studio - fight sequences or those involving fire effects for instance. Carole Ann Ford had been filmed during the making of The Keys of Marinus, to allow her to have a two week holiday and yet still feature in The Aztecs, and William Russell was doing the same for this episode and the next.
To give this story a sense of scale it was decided to film a couple of short sequences of the Doctor's walk towards Paris. Hartnell was only featuring in two main scenes in this episode - his encounter with Jean-Pierre, and the road-digging business with the Overseer, and showing his journey to Paris in the confines of the tiny Lime Grove G would have looked less than impressive. Production Assistant Tim Combe was tasked with location scouting for rural venues which would look suitably French - especially a poplar-lined lane. He eventually found what he was after in the vicinity of Denham Green in Buckinghamshire.
Hartnell was far too busy to go out and film these scenes himself. He would only be seen from the back, at distance and without dialogue, so a body double was proposed. Chosen for this was actor Brian Proudfoot.
In order to get the walk and other physical mannerisms right, he attended rehearsals for Hidden Danger, the third instalment of The Sensorites. This initially upset Hartnell, who did not like being scrutinised in this way and regarded Proudfoot as a pest and a distraction. However, he soon realised that Proudfoot was representing him and wanted to make him look good, and so threw himself into the process - showing him how he walked and moved his arms. The filming then took place on Monday 15th June.
As mentioned, William Russell was on holiday this week, touring around France with his family. As with Ford during the making of The Aztecs, it was decided that his character should still feature as important plot points had to be set up which involved him.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, 16th and 17th June, he left rehearsals for the fourth instalment of The Sensorites (the one where Ian has been poisoned and spends much of his time lying down, so isn't heavily involved) to film his material at Ealing Film Studios. It is really noticeable that he is standing on his own elsewhere in the scene where the companions face the judge at the start of the episode. The rest of his scenes were all filmed on the prison set, comprising his cell, a section of corridor outside his door, and the external wall with barred window which he looks through at the cliff-hanger.
Only James Cairncross and Jeffry Wickham were required for this pre-filming. The scenes with the Jailer are cuts to the studio recording.
According to the DVD commentary, Wickham met up with a friend at a pub near Ealing for lunch, thinking his work done for the day. However, one scene had been left unrecorded - when Lemaitre pulls the blanket back from his dead body. It was necessary that his face be seen, so he had to be called back for this. Lying on the bunk under the hot studio lights, after a few lunchtime drinks, he fell asleep and was only woken up as everyone was packing up to leave.
Most of the action takes place in the Conciergerie Prison. Now a museum, it began life as a Roman fortress protecting the city of Lutetia. It became a palace in medieval times, and only became a prison and courthouse when the monarchy moved across the Seine to the Louvre during the reign of Charles V (1364 - 80). Placed in command was the person who had been the concierge of the old royal palace - hence its name.
Marie Antoinette was held in the prison prior to her trial and execution in 1793. The following year it housed Danton and Desmoulins. Ironically, when Robespierre was taken to the prison it was in Marie Antoinette's old cell he was briefly confined.
At the time of the events depicted in The Reign of Terror, the prison held some 600 men, women and children at any one time. Four fifths of them were under sentence of death.
It remained a prison until 1934.
This was one of Carole Ann Ford's favourite stories, although it appears that this was more to do with the costumes she got to wear. It is a terrible story for Susan, who spends most of it locked up in various cells feeling ill. She has very little to do, and it comes as no surprise that it was during the making of The Reign of Terror that she decided to leave the programme. This led to a huge row with William Hartnell, who had always treated the actress as though she were Susan's age. He couldn't understand why she would wish to give up a successful series, with steady work and income. They made up the very next day.
In particular, Ford didn't get on with Henric Hirsch. He accused her of acting "maudlin" all the time - and she argued that this is exactly how Susan would behave if separated from her grandfather and stuck in a rat-infested 18th Century prison, destined for the guillotine. Hirsch failed to give actors very much direction - but would then criticise them when they didn't give him what he was after.
Her decision to leave had already been anticipated by the production team. They had been considering a change anyway, and both her and Jacqueline Hill were in the firing line. The two stars of the series were Hartnell and Russell, so they were safe. With the second production year looming, contracts were up for renewal. The stars would be looking for a raise, but there was no significant increase in budget per episode. Reducing the main cast would reduce costs.
As mentioned last week, Dennis Spooner had come from a comedy background. His writing would always have a considerable amount of humour in it. This is obvious from the character of the Jailer - a drunkard who is easily manipulated by everyone - and the Overseer sequence, which is played pretty much just for laughs. Hartnell is clearly in his element in these scenes, having himself been a minor comedy star in his earliest film career - before the villains and gruff sergeant majors took over.
Trivia:
- The episode title is shown over a shot of a guillotine. This was taken from the 1958 BBC adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities, which had starred Peter Wyngarde as Sydney Carton.
- This was preceded by a period engraving of Paris - depicting the Ile de la Cite and Notre Dame Cathedral to set the scene - and followed by another period engraving depicting the Conciergerie Prison.
- Brian Proudfoot also played a soldier in the fourth and sixth episodes. He would later be seen in the more substantial role of Tigilinus in The Romans.
- Despite being broadcast in the middle of summer, audience figures were holding up - they have been consistent at 6.9 million for a number of weeks. However, the appreciation index figure dropped from 58 to 54 for this instalment.
- The Doctor rests at a marker stating "PARIS 5km". This is an anachronism as the kilometre wasn't adopted in the Paris region until Napoleon's time.
- The script then had the Doctor peer through some bushes and see the city in the distance - a model shot. Carole Ann Ford claimed that she was given this model - but I suspect that what she is talking about is the set model, created by the director and PA to plan camera moves. A full city model, built to a scale where individual tumbrils were visible, would be ridiculously big - too big to fit on top of her wardrobe as she described.
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