N is for... Noble, Donna

The Doctor first encountered Donna Noble when she materialised in the TARDIS on her wedding day. She had been half way down the aisle when transported. The Doctor attempted to get her to the church in time for the ceremony but she was abducted by Roboforms.

The Doctor later discovered that she had been dosed with Huon particles - an ancient energy form which was present in TARDISes though virtually extinct elsewhere in the universe. The TARDIS had drawn her to it like a magnet. Her husband-to-be, Lance, was working with the alien Racnoss Queen to resurrect her sleeping children - dormant at the centre of the Earth. He had been secretly feeding her the particles in her coffee each day at work - locksmiths HC Clements. The particles would reanimate the Racnoss brood.

Donna witnessed the Doctor destroying the Racnoss children before they could reach the surface, and warned him against himself. He needed someone to temper his emotions.

Despite a fiery start to their relationship - she believing he had kidnapped her - they warmed to each other, and the Doctor even invited her to join him in is travels. 

A temp secretary, Donna had never dreamed of any life beyond her everyday suburban existence, but the Doctor had opened her eyes to the wider world. Lance had previously mocked her intellect and lack of imagination.

She came to regret not having taken up the Doctor's invite, and so began investigating strange events and phenomena which the Doctor might be interested in - in the hope of meeting him again.

She even had her belongings already packed for just such an eventuality.

Her father Geoff died, and she and her mother Sylvia shared their Chiswick home with Donna's grandfather, Wilf Mott. Her relationship with Sylvia could be strained, with her mother often belittling her over her unmarried and unemployed status.

She and the Doctor were reunited when both investigated a slimming company - Adipose Industries. The Adipose were actually fat-based alien creatures, tended by a humanoid matron who called herself Miss Foster.

The Doctor was surprised that he had met her once again, the odds being astronomical. Looking for someone to share his travels, this time she accepted. The pair got on well - causing various people to assume they were a couple - which they strenuously had to deny.

Donna's first journey was back in time to Pompeii, on the eve of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Unwilling to interfere in historical events, the Doctor at first declined to save the lives of the Roman family whom they had befriended, but she talked him into doing so - once again warning him against himself.

Donna almost brought her travels to an early end after witnessing the enslavement of the Ood on their home planet.

A visit back home followed, where the Doctor met Wilf - and was shocked to discover that he had met him before. Wilf had been selling newspapers at Christmas when the Earth had been threatened by the crashing Titanic spaceship replica.

On this occasion Donna met his previous companion Martha Jones, now a member of UNIT. At one point she was trapped alone in the TARDIS when it was transported to a Sontaran spaceship, and had to defend herself against the aliens with a well-timed strike from a mallet.

Martha accidentally rejoined the Doctor on his travels when the ship flew off to an alien world in the far future. Here the Doctor gained a daughter through a cloning process. As a soldier, he refused to acknowledge her and it was Donna who eventually made him accept her.

After Martha had been returned home, Donna had a meeting with crime writer Agatha Christie, where she used her knowledge of her books to help the Doctor investigate a murder in a country house, which proved to be the work of an extra-terrestrial. At one point she revealed that she thought that nursery character Noddy might actually be real.

On visiting a library the size of an entire planet, the Doctor decided to send Donna to safety in the TARDIS using the transmat system. However, the library's computer core intercepted her and she found herself in an artificial environment which she thought to be real. In this she did not travel with the Doctor, and at a hospital met a man named Lee whom she married. They lived in a suburban house and had two children. One day she met a woman who revealed to her that this was not the real world at all. As the computer began to break down, this reality began to crumble. Lee and the children vanished.

In the library, the Doctor had seen Donna's face used to front an information node, and feared that she had died.

Once rescued after the computer core had been saved, Donna suspected that Lee had simply been a product of the artificial environment - unaware that he had also been transferred there by the computer. He left the library before he could be united with her in real life.

Throughout her travels, Donna had been hearing cryptic messages from people she met. These included her having something on her back.

On the planet Shan Shen she agreed to having her fortune told. This was a trap set by the Trickster. His agent had a huge black Time Beetle attach itself invisibly on her back - glimpsed only briefly by certain sensitive individuals.

The creature interfered with Donna's timeline, so that she had never gone to work at HC Clements. This meant she never met the Doctor and failed to save his life when he confronted the Racnoss Queen. She lived a parallel life in which all of the alien interventions stopped by the Doctor came to pass. London was destroyed by the Titanic spaceship, and the family were sent to Yorkshire as refugees. Throughout, Donna kept meeting a mysterious blonde-haired young woman. She did not know it, but it was Rose Tyler, travelling back and forth from a parallel dimension. There she worked with UNIT to correct the Trickster's meddling to save the Doctor so that he could help with a threat to the entire universe.

Donna was sent back to stop the original intervention. However, this could only be done by her sacrificing her life - throwing herself in front of a lorry to cause a traffic jam, which meant that she went to the HC Clements job interview after all.

Donna recalled some of this alternative life and was able to give the Doctor a message from Rose.

Returning to Earth, they witnessed the planet being transported across space to the Medusa Cascade. This was the work of Davros and the Daleks, who were using the planet and others to help power a dreadful weapon.

Donna became trapped on the TARDIS when the Daleks attempted to destroy it, and there she brought about the creation of a half-human Doctor grown from his severed hand (the result of an encounter with the Sycorax several years before). This process was known as a meta-crisis. Whilst the alternate Doctor was half-human, Donna became half Time Lord. An electric blast from Davros completed the process, and she was able to use her new knowledge, combined with her old secretarial skills, to disable the Dalek weapon and send other captured planets back to their proper place and time.

The Doctor realised that he had always been destined to meet Donna, who would save the universe.

However, he knew that the meta-crisis would prove fatal to Donna, and was forced to wipe her mind. Tragically, this would completely delete her entire knowledge of him. She would revert to the ordinary temp from Chiswick. Were she to ever remember anything of recent life, she would die.

The Doctor was alarmed to encounter Wilf a few months later - worried that Donna would remember him. She was due to marry a taxi driver named Sean Temple.

The Master caused everyone on Earth to transform into himself - except Donna. As she started to recall her time on the TARDIS, a defence mechanism which the Doctor had built in was activated, saving her life.

As a wedding present, he borrowed £1 from Geoff Noble and used it to buy a winning lottery ticket.

Shortly after regenerating into an incarnation he had experienced before, the Doctor was surprised to randomly encounter Donna once more at Camden Market. She had given all her money away, unconsciously influenced by the Doctor's altruism, and had a transgender daughter named Rose. The Doctor strove to prevent her remembering their previous time together, but failed. However, the meta-crisis failed to kill Donna. It transpired that Rose had inherited it, and they could control it to help defeat the alien Meep.

The Doctor showed Donna the new TARDIS but she accidentally spilled coffee into the console and it set off with her on board. She and the Doctor encountered ruthless copies of themselves on an alien planet on the edge of the known universe. The Doctor almost took the fake Donna away with him, until he spotted a slight anomaly in its physique.

Returning her home, they met Wilf who warned that the planet was engulfed in chaos. Travelling to UNIT HQ, they discovered that this was the work of the Toymaker. Donna accompanied the Doctor to the London of the 1920's where she encountered deadly puppets. Back in the present day, the mortally wounded Doctor began to regenerate once more, but this time experienced a bi-generation - meaning that there were now two simultaneous incarnations of him. With the Toymaker defeated, the original Doctor elected to take a break from saving the universe, leaving his fifteenth incarnation to carry on his adventures.

The Fourteenth Doctor settled down for a while with Donna and her family. Rose Temple-Noble would later join UNIT.

Played by: Catherine Tate. Appearances: The Runaway Bride (2006), Partners in Crime - Journey's End (2008), The End of Time I & II (2009/10), The Star Beast - The Giggle (2023).

• Tate was best known as a comedy performer, appearing with the Big Train team (which included Simon Pegg) amongst others before getting her own show.
• Initially dismissed as stunt-casting, Tate quickly silenced her critics with the strength of her performance, as the initially abrasive Donna showed her more sensitive side.
• Not expecting Tate to return for a full season, RTD had originally devised a journalist character named Penny for Series 4.
• Donna was brought back to feature in David Tennant's swan-song, which was to headline Bernard Cribbins' Wilf as the companion.
• Tate and Tennant would go on to work together on several other projects, including a West End theatrical run in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
• A lockdown tweet-a-thon led to Tate jokingly suggesting a reunion, which RTD eventually brought into being for a trio of 60th Anniversary episodes.

N is for... Noah

Despite the origins of the name being lost in the distant past, Noah was the nickname given to the commander of a space ark designed to house a select group of human survivors in the far future. His real name was Lazar. Solar flare activity had scorched the Earth, and so several thousand people, along with samples of flora and fauna, had taken to an adapted space beacon - Nerva - to be held there in suspended animation. They would wake up automatically once the surface of the planet had regenerated.

However, an alien Wirrn Queen infiltrated the Ark and damaged some of its systems - including the reanimation equipment. It planted its egg within one of the sleeping crew members - technician Dune - before dying from wounds inflicted by the station's defence mechanism.

The Doctor repaired the damaged systems and the crew began to wake up, thousands of years later than intended. Noah was to be one of the first to wake, but further Wirrn damage to the power systems complicated this. He was horrified to find intruders on the Ark, as the survivors had been carefully selected for genetic purity. He refused to heed the Doctor's warnings and shot him with a stun gun before going alone to examine the solar stacks. There, he was bitten by a Wirrn larva. 

He rapidly began to mutate, inheriting the memories of other Wirrn victims such as Dune. He killed one of his technicians and began working to secure the sleeping humans as a food source for the hatching creatures. His human self attempted to reassert itself, and at one point he pleaded with medic Vira - his intended partner - to kill him.

Due to his position as commander, he came to lead the emerging Wirrn once he fully mutated into an adult creature. Noah demanded that Vira abandon the sleepers for his swarm, but later launched an attack on the Ark's service rocket. This was fired into space, taking all of the Wirrn with it. The craft then exploded after Noah bade Vira farewell. She and the Doctor realised that he had deliberately failed to stabilise its engines - thanks to the last vestige of his humanity.

Played by: Kenton Moore. Appearances: The Ark in Space (1975).

• Moore had previously featured in the programme in 1964. He is the Roboman who is seen to throw himself into the Thames in the opening moments of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. (It's Moore who is seen from the front, until stuntman Peter Diamond takes over).
• Whilst "Noah" comes from the builder of the biblical Ark, the character's real name also derives from the Bible - from Lazarus, the man brought back to life.

N is for... Nixon, President

In the weeks running up to the first manned space mission to the Moon - Apollo 11 - in 1969, President Richard Milhous Nixon began receiving mysterious telephone messages from a child.

He thought the caller to be a boy, named Jefferson Adams Hamilton. Suspecting his own secret service to be involved, Nixon called upon ex-FBI operative Canton Delaware III to investigate, being now an independent agent. The TARDIS materialised invisibly in the White House's Oval Office but the Doctor was spotted and captured. He and his companions agreed to assist Canton. He identified the child as a girl, with the names corresponding to a junction of streets named after ex-Presidents. The only location where such roads met was in Florida, close to Cape Kennedy where the Moon mission was being prepared. The Doctor was later arrested, accused of attempting to sabotage the space capsule, and Nixon was brought in the TARDIS by River Song and Rory Williams to extricate him. 

The President also assisted the Doctor and his companions at Area 51 where they were tricking the alien Silents into thinking that they had been either captured or killed.

Because of the mysterious phone calls which had triggered these events, the Doctor encouraged the President to record all of his calls - something which would eventually contribute to his downfall during the Watergate scandal.

In December 1999, the newly regenerated Eighth Doctor found a mask of the one-time POTUS in a hospital locker whilst searching for some clothes.

Played by: Stuart Milligan. Appearances: The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon (2011).

• From its second season onwards, Milligan took over from Anthony Head as the American magician Adam Klaus in the comedy crime series Jonathan Creek.
• In 2009 he voiced the character Colonel Stark in the animated Doctor Who story "Dreamland". He has also featured on Big Finish audio productions.
• Milligan played another POTUS in the movie Wonder Woman: 1984.
• Nixon (1913 - 1994) was the 37th President of the United States. After successes such as becoming the first US leader to visit Communist China, his time in office came to an ignominious end when he became involved in political scandal when Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Building were burgled by men associated with his re-election campaign.

Episode 127: The Smugglers (1)

SEASON 4

Producer: Innes Lloyd

Script Editor: Gerry Davis (The Smugglers - The Evil of the Daleks Ep.3) / Peter Bryant (The Evil of the Daleks Ep.4 - 7)

Regular Cast: The Doctor: William Hartnell (The Smugglers - The Tenth Planet) / Patrick Troughton (Power of the Daleks - The Evil of the Daleks).

Ben: Michael Craze (The Smugglers - The Faceless Ones). Polly: Anneke Wills (The Smugglers - The Faceless Ones). Jamie: Frazer Hines (The Highlanders - The Evil of the Daleks). Victoria: Deborah Watling (The Evil of the Daleks).

Synopsis:

The Doctor is furious that Ben and Polly have intruded into the TARDIS just as he has dematerialised the ship. They have left Fitzroy Square and the ship soon lands at its next destination.

When they emerge from the TARDIS it is to find themselves at the mouth of a cave on a beach. Ben and Polly accept that they have moved location, but the Doctor cautions that they have travelled in time as well. They see a church nearby, and Polly thinks they may be in Cornwall as it reminds her of a holiday there. Ben is keen to find a train station so he can get back to London so he can rejoin his barracks.

A bemused Doctor follows as they head for the church. 

In the graveyard they spot that the headstones are largely unweathered, despite their early dates.

They are confronted by the churchwarden, Joseph Longfoot, who is suspicious of them. When he realises they are simply travellers he invites them into the vestry. He mistakes Polly for a boy, as she is wearing trousers and a cap concealing her long hair. Ben has to accept that this is the 17th Century.

They have been spied on by a burly, bald-headed man. 

Longfoot explains that he had feared that they might be part of the pirate crew of Captain Avery. Whilst he is now dead, his men - led by Captain Samuel Pike - are still active.

Explaining that the tide has come in, and the TARDIS cave now cut off, the Doctor decides that they should seek out the nearest hostelry. Longfoot gives them directions to the village. 

Before they depart, the churchwarden gives the Doctor a cryptic message.

Once they have gone, the bald-headed man enters the vestry. Longfoot recognises him as Pike's henchman Cherub.

At the local inn, landlord Jacob Kewper is arranging a special delivery with his pot boy Tom when the TARDIS travellers arrive, soaked by a rainstorm. Suspicious of strangers, Kewper relents and provides some hospitality when they mention being friends of Longfoot. Ben is given a change of clothing, whilst Tom sets off to meet with the churchwarden.

At the church, Longfoot refuses to tell Cherub what he wants to know and is killed. The killer departs before Tom arrives and discovers the body. He hurries back to the inn to alert Kewper.

The landlord immediately suspects the strangers of having murdered his friend and sends Tom to fetch the local squire. 

Cherub arrives with some of his men. He abducts the Doctor, and Ben is knocked out.

When Squire Edwards arrives, he places Ben and Polly under arrest.

The Doctor, meanwhile, is carried in a rowing boat out to a ship anchored off the coast. This is the Black Albatross.

Cherub takes him to the main cabin to meet Captain Pike who reveals that his left hand has been replaced with a cruel metal spike...

Data:

Written by: Brian Hayles

Recorded: Friday 8th July 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 10th September 1966

Ratings: 4.3 million / AI 47

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Julia Smith

Guest cast: Terence de Marney (Joseph Longfoot), Michael Godfrey (Captain Pike), George A Cooper (Cherub), David Blake Kelly (Jacob Kewper), Mike Lucas (Tom), Paul Whitsun-Jones (Squire Edwards), Derek Ware (Spaniard).

Critique:

Brian Hayles first attempted to write for Doctor Who when he submitted a script called "The Dark Planet" in early 1965. Unsuccessful, he tried again a few months later and this time his idea was accepted - eventually to become The Celestial Toymaker. How much of what made it to screen belonged to Hayles is debatable, but generally thought to be very little. 

Inspired, he began making regular submissions, including "The Hands of Aten" and "The White Witch". Neither was taken up, but a story in which the TARDIS crew encountered "The Nazis" was seriously considered. However, the BBC had a general policy that the Second World War was too recent, the memories too painful, for anything other than a documentary or a serious drama on the subject to be considered. (Jimmy Perry's comedy about a Home Guard platoon, designed as a vehicle for radio comedy star Jon Pertwee, almost failed at its first hurdle because of this).

The war story was eventually dropped, and Hayles proposed a sci-fi tale called "The Hounds of Time". This also fell by the wayside and the writer was then asked to come up with another historical tale - this one based on Gerry Davis' preferred idea of literary or romantic history, rather than stories based on factual figures and events.

The historical period would simply act as the colourful backdrop to a more generic adventure story.

For inspiration, Hayles looked primarily to the Dr Syn books by Russell Thorndyke. There were seven novels in the series, the first of which was Dr Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh in 1915. These concerned the central figure of a mild-mannered village vicar who secretly ran a smuggling ring.

After a 1937 movie adaptation, the first novel was the source for two films of the early 1960's - Hammer's Captain Clegg (aka Night Creatures), starring Peter Cushing, and Disney's Dr Syn: Alias the Scarecrow (aka The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh), starring Patrick McGoohan.

Another inspiration was J Meade Falkner's Moonfleet (1898), filmed in 1955. This was adapted by the BBC in 1964 as Smugglers Bay, starring Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines.

Hayles' story featured pirates as much as it did smugglers - indeed more so - and there are obviously many literary and cinematic inspirations for them. The idea that the pirate leader would have a distinctive weaponised false hand clearly derives from Peter Pan's Captain Hook.

Hayles originally described the character of Pike as having "a vast black beard" - hinting at another piratical inspiration.

As with previous seasons, the final story of the production block was to be held over to launch the new series after a summer break.

The director selected for the story was Julia Smith - the series' second female director after Paddy Russell. She had handled a number of soap opera episodes as well as Dr Finlay's Casebook. One of the reasons for her selection was her familiarity with Cornwall. This story was to have the biggest location filming work to date, and what's more it was to take place well away from London. Up until now, locations were usually picked that were within a certain radius of Television Centre, so that cast and crew could go home in the evening. Accommodation needs obviously drove up costs.

Designing the episodes would be Richard Hunt, who had previously worked on Galaxy 4 and Mission to the Unknown, which had been recorded as a single production.

This was the final story to have costumes designed by Daphne Dare, who had been involved with the programme ever since the first Dalek story.

Due to the heavy action sequences, both on location and in studio, Julia Smith worked closely with fight arranger Derek Ware. He had formed the HAVOC stunt agency in 1965 and this would be their first significant appearance in Doctor Who as a group. Ware was also cast as one of the main pirates to help facilitate his work.

                                       

Cast and crew headed off to Cornwall on Saturday 18th June - the day after studio recording on The War Machines' final episode.

The production team set up a base in Penzance, a few miles from Nanjizal Bay which would provide many of the filming locations. Smith elected to prioritise scenes involving the regular cast first, on Sunday 19th, in order to free them up. A cave on the beach would form the TARDIS landing site, and the prop was carried down to it with great difficulty. The arrival and departure of the ship were captured, as well as the sequence where the Doctor and his companions spot the church on the cliff top - filmed above the beach. This was the final work required from William Hartnell, so he could be released early. He would return to Cornwall later that summer - but this time on holiday and indulging in some angling, one of his favourite pastimes. 

Some scenes featuring the abduction of the Doctor from the inn were filmed using Hartnell's double, Gordon Craig (seen in his Doctor costume above).

Filming continued around the beach area on Monday 20th. Tuesday 21st saw the production move to the church - St Grada's in the village of Grade - with harbour scenes filmed at Helston.

The inn was a redressed farm building at Trethewey, whilst the Black Albatross exterior was filmed at Newlyn Harbour.

In all, there were five location filming days. It was covered by local paper The Cornishman, which focussed on the use of locals as extras and some sea cadets who were employed to do the rowing.

Colour home movie footage of the location filming exists. It first featured on the unofficial "The Doctors" DVD, and later appeared on the "Lost in Time" set.

David Blake Kelly and George A Cooper had attended the location filming. When rehearsals began for the opening episode on Monday 4th July, at the regular Bulwer Street TA drill hall, the cast were joined by Terence de Marney who would be playing "Holy Joe" Longfoot. He had been appearing in films for decades, and had even enjoyed a lengthy spell in Hollywood, including a regular role in Western TV series Johnny Ringo. He had also been the very first ever The Saint, on radio.

Smith would later use him in other productions. 

On the afternoon of recording, publicity shots were taken of the regulars on the TARDIS set, and of Michael Godfrey as Pike. Cooper was photographed having his make-up applied.

Footage of the TARDIS dematerialising from Fitzroy Square was shown after the opening credits. Unusually, these were in black type rather than white. 

A piece of location filming of the empty Nanjizal Bay was shown on the TARDIS scanner. Hartnell had a brief argument with Smith over the correct use of the ship's controls.

The star was famous for his verbal gaffes, but the big one in this episode actually comes from a guest actor. The cryptic clue given by Longfoot was supposed to read "This is Deadman's secret key: Ringwood, Smallbeer, and Gurney". What de Marney delivered was "...Smallwood, Ringwood and Gurney".

Hartnell does get one slight fluff when he tells Ben and Polly: "You see that scanner? That's what I call a scanner, up there".

Closing credits ran over a close-up of Pike's spike embedded in the wooden table. Recording breaks had included setting a knife handle on de Marney's back for his death scene, and to allow Craze and Wills to change into their period costumes.

As season launches go, it's an underwhelming episode. It looks great, but then the BBC were masters of the period drama, and it is certainly helped by the extensive use of location filming - and an exotic locale at that, which is clearly not somewhere in the Home Counties. The audience would have been very familiar with this period of history thanks to the above mentioned inspirations as well as the works of writers such as Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, which had been adapted for film and television.

The Doctor's initial anger at the intrusion of Ben and Polly quickly dissipates, and he seems to quite enjoy proving them wrong about where - and when - they are: "You may know where you are, my dear, but not when! I can foresee oodles of trouble!".

Trivia:

• Had this been a mid-season episode of Doctor Who, the ratings would best be described as middling. However, for a season launch they are very weak. The episode only just managed to feature in the top 100 programmes for the week (at 96th). Season 3 had launched with 5 million more viewers.
• The series returns to its later regular time slot of 5:50pm. The third season had been in a 5:15pm slot. Its main competition in most ITV regions was the hugely popular talent contest show Opportunity Knocks.
• Viewers had seen a 45 second trailer for the story, using location footage, immediately following the final episode of The War Machines on Saturday 16th July. This was narrated by Martin Locke.
• The "howlround" title sequence is briefly seen on the TARDIS scanner before the new landing site is seen, so representing the Temporal Vortex.
• David Blake Kelly had previously featured in the series as Briggs, Captain of the Mary Celeste, in The Chase.
• Terence de Marney appeared in a number of horror films, co-starring opposite both Bela Lugosi (The Mystery of the Mary Celeste) and Boris Karloff (Die, Monster, Die - an adaptation of HP Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space). He also features in vampire film The Hand of Night, and mummy movie Pharoah's Curse.
• Paul Whitsun-Jones would return in 1972 to play the Marshal of Solos in The Mutants.
• He was the first James Fullalove, the journalist from the Quatermass serials, and had played Porthos in the BBC's 1954 adaptation of The Three Musketeers, alongside Roger Delgado.
• Character actor George A Cooper was best known for comedy performances, but found fame with a younger generation when he became the ill-tempered janitor, Mr Griffiths, of Grange Hill School.
• The series featured on Junior Points of View the day before broadcast. This gave background to Ben and Polly (from their character notes). Whilst some viewers were excited by its return, others were already bored with the series.
• The episode was included in the BBC's weekly Programme Review Board meeting, in which it was praised as a "rumbustious return". William Hartnell's performance was regarded in a positive light. It was noted that a Japanese cartoon character (in The King Kong Show) was called "Dr Who" - prompting questions about whether or not the name was copyrighted.
• Radio Times previewed the new story as usual. After a brief word about the set-up and its guest actors, it reminded readers about the two new companions. The photographs derive from the opening and closing scenes of this first episode. Unfortunately, this piece gave away the identity of the titular smugglers:

San Diego News

It has finally been confirmed, at Comic-Con San Diego, that The War Between The Land And The Sea will begin filming in September, and does indeed feature UNIT and Sea Devils (probably - not mentioned by name).

Two of the UNIT regulars are appearing (Jemma Redgrave & Alexander Devrient), along with two actors who have been in the series before, in quite prominent roles - Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. He was Midshipman Frame, and she Martha's sister. They may well be playing new characters as there's no mention of their previous roles.

Also shown was a lengthy prologue to Joy to the World, the next Christmas Special. This featured the Doctor attempting to deliver food, turning up at wrong places and times (including Manchester in WWII and Mount Everest in 1953) before he finally arrives in a London hotel in the present day. Guest artist Nicola Coughlan has just checked in, and been confronted by a Silurian when the Doctor arrives.

Unlike previous years when Comic-Con material was embargoed, you should be able to find this on the official YouTube channel and elsewhere.

Ysanne Churchman (1925 - 2024)

It has been reported today that actress Ysanne Churchman has passed away at the age of 99. 

She was well known to Doctor Who fans as the voice of the hermaphrodite hexapod Alpha Centauri in The Curse of Peladon (1972), Monster of Peladon (1974), and reprised for a cameo in Empress of Mars (2017).

The costume was operated by Stuart Fell, and the pair collaborated to bring the popular character to life.

Churchman also provided the voice of Lupton's power hungry Eight-Leg in 1974's Planet of the Spiders. 

Primarily a radio performer, the actress came to national fame as Grace Archer in the long-running rural drama The Archers. In 1955, her character was killed off in a fire on the evening that ITV launched in the UK - a deliberate move to sabotage the new channel's ratings.

Other voice work included the puppet show Space Patrol (currently being repeated on Talking Pictures), and TV appearances included cult sci-fi show The Flipside of Dominick Hide and its sequel, and Nigel Kneale's Beasts.

RIP.

What's Wrong With... Kinda

For several years the authorship of this story was questioned by some sections of fandom. In the pre-internet era, little was known about Christopher Bailey. Rumours abounded that the writer was a pseudonym for someone well known who did not wish to be associated with the series. This ranged from playwright Tom Stoppard to pop queen Kate Bush.

Bailey employs a lot of imagery and concepts from Christianity and Buddhism, some of which led to confusion with many viewers. VHS recorders were becoming cheaper and therefore more accessible by the time Season 19 arrived, but many households still did not have them - so there was no opportunity to wind back and review scenes. 

It is doubtful any significant proportion of viewers had studied Buddhism - so the names of the characters in the black void, and what they represented, would have been totally meaningless to the audience.

Quite who these people are is still open to debate. Are they the missing crewmembers? If not, what did happen to them and why are they never mentioned again?

Or are they supposed to be representations of the Doctor, Adric and Nyssa, with the strange object beside them representing the TARDIS?

This is the most common assumption. Two of them are playing chess after all, as we saw Tegan's friends playing draughts earlier.

The painted studio floor is all too obvious for the forests of Deva Loka - and we actually see that some of the vegetation grows in plant pots.

The studio is over-lit - the curse of the programme for much of its classic era - so any chance of engendering mood and atmosphere is lost. We don't even have any sequences set at night.

The Kinda know that the dreaming of an unshared mind can allow the Mara to re-enter this world, so why do they allow the glade of the wind chimes to still exist? Shouldn't it have been dismantled - or at the very least guarded in some way? At one point we actually see some of the tribe come across the sleeping Tegan, but they just look at her for a bit then wander away. If this poses such a danger, why not wake her up?

By failing to take any action they allow this whole chain of events to take place. If it's all to do with fate and "the wheel of time" - so predestined to happen - this isn't made clear.

Was showing a lot of 1980's alarm clocks really the best way to represent the "wheel of time" concept on screen?

Deva Loka is known to the colonial force as S14 - i.e. the 14th planet explored by Commander Sanders. As with the various bosses of bases-under-siege in the Troughton era, we have to wonder how he managed to achieve his position or to retain it.

Adric mentions that the malfunctioning Total Survival Suit might be responsible for the missing crew members. Sanders agrees - and then sets off alone into the jungle in it. No thought of getting it checked out.

As with Sanders' suitability to hold a senior role in the party, so with Hindle. Apparently some background of how he came to have his mental health issues was included in the script, but dropped for the actual programme. A TV show can only be judged by what actually appears on screen.

As with Ghost Light yet to come, if it has to be explained in an interview after the event then there's been a pretty serious problem with the script-editing. (Christopher Bidmead's decision to quit after one season did lead to this being a bit chaotic, script-wise, behind the scenes, with the involvement of three different script editors on some stories of Season 19 - Bidmead, Anthony Root and Eric Saward).

The final episode underran, necessitating Eric Saward devising an additional scene which was recorded during the making of Earthshock. It's just Tegan and Adric arguing in the base airlock.

Keep an eye on Adrian Mills when Aris' wooden framework is attacked by the real TSS. He's clearly worried about the fact that the fire hasn't quite gone out.

The Mara would have worked a lot better as an unseen force for evil, manifesting only through its possession of others. The decision to have it materialise as a huge, pink, plastic-looking snake is an obvious error of judgement. Preferably it should never have been seen at all, but if it had to be included then something with the look and colouring of a real snake would have been (slightly) better.

The climax is all about evil being unable to face itself - but the snake is never seen to be at the same level of the mirrors. It's looking right over everyone's head, and if it had only shrunk itself it could have escaped through one of the many gaps in the mirrors.

As a psychic force, capable of possessing people, why did it take on this giant snake form in the first place?

Story 296: Revolution of the Daleks

In which the Doctor languishes in prison on a remote asteroid, 79 billion miles out in space... 

Back on Earth, Graham and Ryan have been returning to their old lives, whilst Yaz remains obsessed with seeking a means to find her - making use of the TARDIS which had brought them home from Gallifrey as a base.

Shortly after the lone Reconnaissance Scout Dalek had been destroyed at GCHQ in 2019, its remains had been hijacked so that they could be reverse engineered. The man behind this scheme is millionaire businessman Jack Robertson. He is a friend of politician Jo Patterson, the Technology Minister who has designs on leading her party. Robertson presents his Defence Drones to her at a secret location, and she sees how effectively they deal with a staged civil disturbance. They are in fact purely robotic versions of the GCHQ Dalek. They are solar powered, and run on artificial intelligence, equipped with non-lethal weaponry such as tear gas and water cannons. It was Patterson who informed Robertson of the wrecked Recon Scout's transportation arrangements, enabling him to stage the hijack. He promises to have an army of Drones ready in 12 months - just in time for her to use to help win the next General Election.

Patterson goes on to win the election and commissions the Defence Drones from Robertson. Graham and Ryan have discovered footage of them being tested and identified them as Dalek-based. They notify Yaz. Robertson leaves a meeting with his technical expert, Leo Rugazzi, and is confronted by the Doctor's companions - whom he recalls from the spider incident in Sheffield. His security team chase them off. 79 billion miles away, the Doctor discovers that she has a familiar fellow inmate - Captain Jack Harkness. He had learned of her imprisonment and has allowed himself to be arrested so that he can aid her escape. The attempt succeeds and they teleport to where the TARDIS is waiting.

They materialise in Graham's house, where Yaz is upset with the Doctor for abandoning them for so long. They are shown the material relating to Robertson and Defence Drones. The Doctor and Jack will take action.

Leo informs Robertson that he found some organic material in the wrecked casing, and shows him a Dalek mutant which he has grown from it. Robertson is disgusted and orders it incinerated. However, as Leo attempts to do this, it escapes and latches on to him - mentally dominating him.

The Doctor confronts Robertson and he shows her that the Drones are entirely robotic machines, under computerised control. In Osaka, Leo discovers that the Dalek mutant has been working behind the scenes to create a whole army of its kind. When asked bout the Japanese facility, Robertson is confused and explains that he doesn't have anything in that country. Jack and Yaz travel there and discover the mutant cloning farm.

At Downing Street, PM Patterson rolls out the Defence Drones to the general public and they begin taking up positions at strategic locations around London.

The Doctor brings Robertson to the Osaka factory in the TARDIS, and find Yaz and Jack planting explosives to destroy the Daleks. Leo confronts them, revealing his Dalek master. 

The Doctor suddenly notices that the lighting has changed as they have been speaking - distracted by Leo. The mutants have been brought to life by ultra-violet light. before the facility can be blown up, they teleport away and into the waiting Drone shells. No longer needed, Leo is killed.

The new army of Daleks begin exterminating everyone - beginning with Patterson.

The Doctor is at a loss initially as to how she can stop the Daleks, but then comes up with a highly risky strategy - using fire to fight fire. She allows the Recon Scout Dalek's initial message to its own kind to be projected through the temporal vortex to a Dalek Death Squad saucer. This will bring them to Earth.

She is gambling on the new arrivals to reject the new army as they are not pure Dalek.

The Death Squad will hopefully exterminate the newcomers - but needs a second plan to deal with the victors. Otherwise she has simply replaced one invasion force with another.

The two Dalek forces confront each other and, as expected, begin to battle each other. Robertson, always seeking to ensure he is on the winning side, decides to offer his services to the Death Squad, and they transport him to their spaceship. He is going to tell them about the Doctor's presence on Earth to get on their side.

The original Dalek grown from the Recon Scout DNA attempts to ally itself with the Death Squad, but they refuse to accept it due to its lack of genetic purity. They destroy it, ending the new army. Captain Jack transports himself with Graham and Ryan to the saucer with explosives using his Vortex Manipulator. They abduct Robertson.

The Doctor, meanwhile, materialises the TARDIS above London and intentionally draws attention to herself. She then allows the Dalek force to invade her ship.

However, she proves to be a hologram. This isn't her TARDIS at all, but the other one which had brought her companions to Earth. It has been disguised as a Police Box, and its dimensional controls have been sabotaged. The entire Dalek force is trapped within as it collapses in on itself. Jack and the others transport themselves off of the saucer seconds before it explodes.

A short time later, the Doctor and her companions witness Robertson on TV, manipulating recent events to make himself out a hero and hoping that this will help his Presidential hopes. Jack has left to seek out his Torchwood colleagues. As the Doctor is about to set off, Ryan announces that he has decided to remain behind - feeling he has missed too much of day to life with his friends. Graham elects to stay with him, now that they have a healthier relationship which he does not wish to lose.

Revolution of the Daleks was written by Chris Chibnall, and was first broadcast on New Year's Day 2021. It acts as a direct sequel to the 2019 Special Resolution, and sees the departure of Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole as regulars Graham and Ryan.

Walsh had an extremely busy career, involved in a number of prime time TV shows including The Chase, whilst Cole had the offer to make a series in the US.

Whilst Ryan's departure had been set up earlier in Series 12, Graham's departure comes out of the blue. Indeed, the character is clearly intending to travel on with the Doctor is quite surprised when his grandson makes his announcement. The impression is that he is bounced into making his own decision, and his heart isn't truly into it. As such, it's a disappointing way to write out what has inarguably been the best companion figure of the Thirteenth Doctor's run. The funniest companion, and the better actor of the trio.

We are now left solely with the frankly underwhelming Yaz, who has been the least well developed of the companions. It's very annoying to see her angry with the Doctor when we know that she has been stuck in prison and can hardly be blamed for not getting in touch.

Another annoyance is the latest example of this Doctor's impotence. If Jack hadn't shown up, she'd still be stuck in jail. No previous Doctor would ever have spent that much time locked up. The Doctor should be seen to get round any sort of obstacle, quickly, using their wits and ingenuity.

Yaz won't be travelling on her own with the Doctor, however, as we are granted a brief coda after the episode which introduces Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop as a character named Dan.

The Special also sees the return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, in what has been his final appearance to date. Soon after, a scandal broke relating to his outré behaviour on set during his initial run on the series and on other shows - leading to him being widely "cancelled". Despite his sexually inappropriate behaviour taking place over years, beginning a decade earlier, allegations about him only surfaced in May 2021 off the back of those regarding one-time co-star Noel Clarke.

A similar fate has befallen the actor who returns as Jack Robertson - Chris Noth - last seen in Arachnids in the UK. Despite being a very broad cartoonish parody of Donald Trump - one reason for the story to be so lowly regarded - Chibnall wanted to bring the character back. A number of women have made allegations of sexual assault against him, the first in December 2021. However, no criminal charges have ever been brought, but his career is very much dead at the moment.

The main guest artist for the story is Harriet Walter, who plays politician Jo Patterson. She is one of Britain's most accomplished actors: made Dame of the British Empire in 2011 for services to her art, member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, star of film, TV and theatre, her career goes back to 1974.

She has performed a number of traditionally male Shakespeare roles, including Henry V and Prospero.

More recent TV work includes Ted Lasso, Succession and Killing Eve. She also featured in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Leo is played by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. Prior to getting the role he had appeared opposite Andrew Garfield in the National Theatre revival of AIDS era drama Angels in America. An early TV role for him was as a regular in Misfits.

Sharon D Clarke makes a final cameo as Grace in the closing moments of the episode as Graham and Ryan are seen to go back to where it all began - Ryan practicing his bicycle-riding.

It was always assumed that the unique Dalek design from Resolution could never be used again, being such a one-off, but Chibnall manages it by having new copies made, based on the Recon Scout.

Overall, it's not a bad episode. Always nice to see Daleks en masse, and Captain Jack getting more to do than the mere cameo he had in Fugitive of the Judoon. Even Robertson is more bearable this time round. Only those initial annoyances - and Graham's departure - mentioned above let it down.

Things you might like to know:

• The draft script was pretty close to the finished version. The Defence Drones made their debut in Russia before being brought to the UK by the politician who is already PM, and the threat was more global. The Daleks exterminated most of the world's leaders before being stopped. Graham and Ryan left the TARDIS specifically to help rebuild the Earth after the damage caused by the Daleks.
• To conceal the involvement of the Daleks, the Drones were called "Bobs" in paperwork, with the Death Squad ones called "Nigels".
• Cameo appearances by monsters in the prison include a Weeping Angel, P'ting, Silent, Sycorax, Skithra, Gathering Coil, Thijarian and a Cyberman.
• Filming was able to take place on the Clifton Suspension Bridge near Bristol as it had been temporarily closed for maintenance work.
• Graham and Ryan appear to see Grace's image in the sunlight - but the sun is clearly seen to be behind them when this happens.
• One of the prison escape scenes has obviously been flipped, as the black stripe on the outfits worn by the Doctor and Jack swap sides.
• A few plot queries exist, such as the odds on the driver just happening to stop at the roadside burger van where the hijackers are waiting. What if he had stopped earlier because he had to use the loo? Were agents placed at every potential stop on the route? Also, how does the Dalek mutant, isolated in a tank, manage to set up the whole Osaka facility? If it had been shown that Leo was taken over much earlier and done all this then that might have made more sense.
• Also - whatever happened to the future refugees who travelled back from Gallifrey in that TARDIS? They're simply forgotten about.
• The episode debuted on the BBC i-Player 10 minutes before the TV broadcast.
• It was originally intended that this festive special would move back to Christmas Day, but it was felt to be too dark and violent for that slot.
• Guest star Harriet Walter is a niece of Christopher Lee.

Episode 126: The War Machines (4)

Synopsis:

The War Machine leaves the warehouse as the soldiers retreat, their weapons useless. Everyone runs for cover - apart from the Doctor. He stands his ground as the Machine bears down on him...

It moves to within a few feet of him, then comes to a halt.

The Doctor explains that this is basically a mobile computer, and the attack by the soldiers led to it being activated too soon. It could not have been programmed properly yet.

The army are now able to enter the warehouse and capture Major Green and his men. His mental conditioning broken, he has no memory of recent events. 

The Doctor drops a key which Ben picks up. Distracted by all the activity, he forgets to return it.

News of the incident is soon being reported on TV and radio, with the general public warned that more attacks are expected.

The Doctor is introduced by Sir Charles to his Minister, and informs him of the reason the War Machine failed.

At the Post Office Tower, Professor Brett is in contact with a technician at one of the other construction sites in Battersea. Here Machine No.9 is ready for testing.

Ben is concerned that Polly has not been found at the warehouse. The Doctor has examined the captured Machine and is able to tell Sir Charles and the Minister that there are another eleven War Machines yet to be found, within a 20 - 30 mile radius and all programmed to attack at noon that day.

War Machine No.9 is being put through its paces when it suddenly goes out of control and kills its technician.

It is soon reported that it is loose on the streets, killing and destroying all in its path.

It appears to be heading across the river into West London.

Polly has presented herself at Brett's office for punishment, but the scientist is too busy dealing with this latest malfunction.

The Doctor comes up with a plan to capture the rogue Machine, using a series of electromagnetic fields. Studying a map of the Kensington district, he identifies a place where a trap can be set.

In a cul-de-sac by Cornwall Gardens, three sides of the trap are set up - resembling a boxing ring. Once the War Machine is in position between them, the fourth side will be completed and the power switched on. Ben volunteers to do this.

The plan succeeds, and the Machine is deactivated.

The Doctor announces that he is going to reprogramme it, and send it against WOTAN. It heads for the Post Office Tower - with the Doctor following in a taxi with Sir Charles and the Minister. Realising Polly is there, Ben has gone on ahead to warn her.

He arrives moments before the War Machine and drags her to safety as it fires upon the computer. Professor Krimpton tries to intervene and save WOTAN, but is killed. The computer is wrecked.

When the Doctor and the others arrive, it is to find WOTAN destroyed and Brett unable to remember anything of the last couple of days.

The next day, Ben and Polly hurry to Fitzroy Square to meet the Doctor, whom they see standing next to a Police Box. They inform him that Dodo has recovered and decided to remain in London, which clearly annoys him. Thanking them for the message, he is eager for them to get on their way. 

As they move off, they are suspicious at the way he is lingering by the box then see him open the door and enter. Polly suddenly remembers the key Ben picked up and they go back - despite Ben's worries about missing his transport back to barracks. They unlock the door and enter - and the TARDIS dematerialises seconds later...

Next time: The Smugglers

Data:

Written by Ian Stuart Black

Recorded: Friday 1st July 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 16th July 1966

Ratings: 5.5 million / AI 39

Designer: Raymond London

Director: Michael Ferguson

Additional cast: George Cross (Minister), Kenneth Kendall (Newsreader), Edward Colliver (Technician), John Slavid (Man in Telephone Box), Carl Conway (US Journalist), Dwight Whylie (Radio Announcer)

Critique:

The original storyline would have seen new male companion Rich depart in the TARDIS with the Doctor and Dodo at the conclusion.

Dodo's departure is one of the worst in the history of the programme. She gets ditched halfway through her final story, and it all happens off screen. The Doctor hears about it at the same time as we, the audience, do.

Those actresses who simply failed to return for their next season - Caroline John and Mary Tamm - could be argued to have less satisfying departures. In the case of Liz Shaw, her absence fits the narrative. Time has passed, and she has left UNIT and moved back to academia. Romana I's absence is explained by regeneration. She's a Time Lord, so why not? Well, there really has to be a very good reason for regeneration, and Destiny of the Daleks fails to provide this.

The other famously bad one is Leela's. leaving to get married is a cliché, but narratively acceptable in normal circumstances. But Leela leaves to wed someone she's only just met, and who is hardly of the warrior class, to live in a stultifyingly boring technocratic society. Leaving to go with Nesbin would have just about made better sense.

The cliff-hanger resolution was to have seen the War Machine blow up due to incomplete programming, rather than simply grinding to a halt. This may be why, in the finished version, the Doctor reprogrammes the second War Machine, rather than the one already captured earlier at Covent Garden - in the draft this was destroyed.

The Sir Charles character - Sir Robert - wanted to attack all the mobile computers, which the Doctor had identified as converging on Central London in a circle. He wanted to concentrate on attacking the central computer at the Post Office Tower. Sir Robert was to have kept the military back whilst the Doctor used remote control to send the War Machine to attack WOTAN. Rich had arrived at the Tower earlier to rescue Dodo and been captured by Brett and Krimpton.

In the later camera script, the capture of the Battersea Machine was to have been done in studio. Location footage was to have shown more of the aftermath of the Machine's activities, such as burning motor cars. War Machine No.9 was to have been seen physically tearing WOTAN apart, rather than simply shooting it.

This episode contained a great deal of the location filming which had taken place on Sunday 22nd May (the War Machine on the rampage), and Thursday 26th May (the War Machine capture sequence).

On the first day, scenes were shot on Berners Mews (the couple running away), Maple Street (the arrival of the Machine at the GPO Tower), Charlotte Place (the telephone box scene), and Gresse Street (the Machine knocking through the dustbins).

The high shot of the telephone box attack was achieved by filming from an upper floor of the Duke of York pub.

Most of the publicity shots featuring War machine No.9 were taken during the Thursday location filming in South Kensington. The Machine was pictured with children (see below) and a woman walking a dog.

The main location was Cornwall Gardens and the adjoining Walk. William Hartnell was collected from Bertorelli's restaurant where he was having lunch and taken to the location, after a brief stop at Television Centre for him to get into costume. 

Of the guest cast only William Mervyn (Sir Charles) and Frank Jarvis (Corporal) were required for the scenes of the capture of the War Machine. High shots of the action were obtained from the window of 50F Cornwall gardens, owned by a Mrs Lessing.

The day before the Kensington filming, Wednesday 29th May, Michael Craze provided a vocal recording at Lime Grove Studio R. This was to provide the voice of the police radio car announcement about the War Machine threat.

Joining the cast was Kenneth Kendall who had been a newsreader with the BBC until going freelance in 1961. He had done some acting work and possessed an Equity Card. Kendall had covered a similar role in episodes of Adam Adamant, Mogul and A For Andromeda. He had also presented TV programmes such as Songs of Praise and quiz shows. He would later become even better known for hosting Treasure Hunt with Anneka Rice.

He was recorded on a small news desk set, the material then being shown on a TV in a pub sequence. For another shot of the public listening to broadcast warnings, extras simply stood in front of a photographic blow-up of a radio shop façade.

The same technique was used for the US correspondent, to save on creating a set for one brief scene.

Dwight Whylie was a genuine radio announcer, and his involvement had been requested by Innes Lloyd in early June. He presented the BBC Light programme's Breakfast Special.

Unusually, the episode was recorded out of sequence. First before the cameras were all the War Machine shots, including the opening at Covent Garden and the activation of No.9 at Battersea. It was necessary to swap the numbers during a recording break, as the Covent Garden Machine was No.3.

As well as shots against photographic blow-ups, back projection was also employed - such as when we see the War Machine travelling towards the Tower and the Doctor's group in their following vehicle.

A shot of an empty Great Queen Street in Holborn was also used to illustrate the deserted city.

The final recording break of the evening was to set up the closing scene at the TARDIS.

As far as viewers were concerned, Doctor Who's third season drew to a close with this episode. From a production point of view, however, once again a story from this block was to be held over to launch the next season. As location filming had already taken place for The Smugglers, the BBC was able to show a trailer for the story alongside the announcement that the programme would return in the Autumn.

Season 3 had been a time of great change and experimentation, having seen three producers and two story editors. Peter Purves had provided some consistency in the TARDIS with William Hartnell, but there had been a revolving door of female companion figures - Vicki, Katarina, Sara, Dodo and now Polly. 

The programme had dipped its toe into more fantastical realms with The Celestial Toymaker, but the Daleks had very much dominated, thanks to the 12 week epic The Daleks' Master Plan. We had lots of other strong sci-fi stories, but the writing was on the wall for the Historicals, which were clearly losing popularity as far as the production office was concerned.

Season 4 would continue the experimental trend - including the biggest gamble of them all...

Trivia:

• The ratings see the story end on its highest audience figure, but the appreciation index drops below 40 once again. The AI has fallen by 10 points over the course of the story. With summer's arrival and the start of the 1966 World Cup - hosted by England - you would have expected the viewing figure to fall instead. An action-packed finale would normally see a higher audience score.
• The episode was transmitted earlier than usual as the BBC were broadcasting the Royal Tournament that evening. It took the slot normally occupied by Juke Box Jury.
• The BBC commissioned one of their Audience Research Reports for this episode. Of the 149 respondents, around half claimed to have no interest in the series. The ending was deemed anti-climactic and the War Machines regarded as a poor alternative to the Daleks. One lady thought they looked like something her young sons could have made. Many found the idea of a computer taking people over "preposterous". On the positive side, it was still popular with children and people liked the contemporary setting, which made the story more realistic.
• Two weeks later, the story featured on Junior Points of View which also plugged the second Peter Cushing Dalek movie. The programme was still deemed to be frightening to some children, though one wanted to see the return of the Chumblies - not seen since the very start of the season.
• Television Today on 21st July thought The War Machines "one of the better ones" and highlighted the strong supporting cast. Craze and Wills were also praised as the new companions.
• When you watch this story on DVD or streaming service you might be forgiven for thinking that it's one of those stories which exists in its entirety in the archive. This is not the case, however. Some censor-driven cuts were made and not all of the missing material has never resurfaced. Small sections of other episodes are used to plug the gaps.
• Gerald Taylor is credited only as "Voice of WOTAN" on this episode. In the previous instalments he was simply "WOTAN".
• John Slavid - the man in the telephone box - had previously played an officer in The Massacre.

Inspirations: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

This was one of those stories where the title came first - inspired by the 2006 movie Snakes on a Plane - and the story was then built around it.

The writer handed this brief was Chris Chibnall, who had been responsible for the first two seasons of Torchwood and had written 42 under the RTD regime. For Moffat he had written the two part Silurian story for the previous series, and most recently had been the writer on the five mini-episodes which comprised Pond Life. Having been a lead writer on Torchwood, and run his own series - Camelot and Law & Order UK - he was given a pair of episodes to work on for this series, whilst Moffat was busy juggling Sherlock and Doctor Who.

As well as the title coming from a movie, the story also owed its origins to a discussion between the producers and the VFX company about what they might be able to achieve for the programme. 

The technology to create convincing dinosaurs on a TV budget had been proven a while back, with the landmark series Walking With Dinosaurs. This had led to shows like ITV's Primeval becoming possible, which had a heavy reliance on the creatures in a range of settings.

To make the story as exciting as possible, the spaceship of the title would be on a collision course with Earth - adding additional peril. At the same time, the producer - Marcus Wilson - suggested the use of some large, expensive robot costumes which had only ever been seen on the CBBC series Mission: 2110. Their exposure had, therefore, been limited, and it was felt that they could be included somewhere in the story.

When it came to populating the story with additional characters, Chibnall decided on two things - a look at Rory's family background, and the idea of the Doctor putting together an eclectic gang from his various travels to assist him. The latter had already proved successful in A Good Man Goes To War, which brought together what would later become known as the Paternoster Gang.

The Big Bang had shown Amy's parents, but we hadn't seen anyone from Rory's family. It was decided to incorporate his father into this gang. 

The gang would therefore have a mix of contemporary and historical people - both fictional and factual.

The latter was represented by Queen Nefertiti (c.1370 - c.1330 BC). She had famously vanished from history, her burial place still undiscovered, so any story could be made up about her. She also had a distinctive appearance. thanks to the antique famous bust in the Neues Museum in Berlin.

The fictional figure from the past was a big game hunter named John Riddell. He was based on similar characters from a host of old adventure series set in Africa (such as the Tarzan movies), and Alan Quatermain of H Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885). One particular forebear is the character John Roxton, as played by Michael Rennie in George Pal's 1960 adaptation of The Lost World - another big game hunter confronted by dinosaurs.

This character was added later as he was originally going to be a cowboy, named Buffalo Jones. This idea was dropped when it was decided that a full-blown Western was going to be one of this series' stories.

The villain of the piece - Solomon - was inspired by the Somali pirates who were in the news plaguing shipping in the Indian Ocean, and subject of the 2013 Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips.

Having reintroduced the Silurians to the series, Chibnall saw that it made sense to have them involved. As well as building subterranean shelters to avoid the expected disaster in prehistoric times, first mentioned in The Silurians, some had built a space ark to preserve more of their larger wildlife.

However, this went against established history for the creatures, who had never shown any space-going abilities. You have to ask why they simply didn't relocate their entire civilisation to another planet.

To play the lone representative, seen in ancient recordings, actor Richard Hope was cast. He had previously portrayed Malokeh in The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood, and The Wedding of River Song. Here he plays a character named Bleytal. This continued the trend that Silurians have genetic groupings where multi-generational members are identical in appearance.

(Malokeh's name had been derived from that of their creator, Malcolm Hulke).

At one point the Doctor claims to be a Sagittarian. This is the astrological star sign which covers 23rd November - birthdate of the series.

Next time: The Good, The Bad and the Cyborg...