What's Wrong With... Black Orchid

In interviews, Peter Davison stated that among the stories he hated the most were the ones which he thought were obviously intended for something else and just taken out of a drawer, dusted off, and adapted to Doctor Who. He was clearly thinking of Black Orchid when he said this, and was critical of it in other ways.

Terence Dudley's two-parter is simply a country house whodunnit, in the style of Agatha Christie and many others, which then has the Doctor and companions grafted onto it. It could work equally well with a human protagonist - someone new to the environment arriving and being accused of a crime they didn't do, before helping identify the real culprit.

There are no science fiction trappings other than the regulars and the TARDIS, but we are presented with a monster - which leads to a major problem with the story.

George Cranleigh has been left damaged in both body and mind after being captured and tortured by a native South American tribe.

He's basically crippled and disfigured, and he's presented as a monster. Physical deformity as monstrous. Sometimes you can argue that things were different back then, and such things weren't seen as objectionable. But by the early 1980's people were taking notice about such things. Just a year later Terminus would draw flak over the perceived parallels between the Lazars and leprosy.

As far as plotting goes, there are a few obvious holes (or just a load of plain old nonsense).

We can just about buy no-one at the cricket match knowing what the expected doctor looked like, but surely serious questions would be asked about a stranger, who refuses to give his name, turning up for a weekend stay with three extra people in tow, two of whom are deemed children.

The railway clearly has only the one line, because they filmed at a disused station which is now part of a heritage line.

Bearing in mind what happened to George, how did the flower get back to England?

Not content with being fluent in ancient Aboriginal languages, Tegan knows all about an obscure botanist - despite never having shown any aptitude for the subject.

The Doctor is accused of murder, but for some reason showing the police a space / time machine which is dimensionally transcendental automatically makes everything he says truthful.

He says he didn't kill the servants, so that's alright then.

What made the Doctor think showing the TARDIS would help him in the first place?

There weren't any Police Public Call Boxes in rural areas in 1925. The model upon which the TARDIS is based wasn't designed until 1929, and took time to roll out from the metropolis. Real boxes were concrete, with only the doors made of wood - so the police could hardly have been expected to know how to shift one even if they did know what it was. 

The Doctor warns everyone that George will kill Nyssa when he finds out he has the wrong girl - then tells George he has the wrong girl...

JNT's insistence on the uniform look for the Doctor and companions leads to the ludicrous sight of the them attending a funeral dressed like wholly inappropriate outfits. 

They have access to the TARDIS. Couldn't they have changed into something black? The Doctor isn't even wearing a black armband. Really quite offensive to the family - even of they did try to frame him for murder.

Talking of which, we know Madge is best friends with the local police bigwig, but is there no criminal comeback on the Cranleighs for their efforts to protect a killer and frame an innocent man?

Inspirations: The Power of Three

It was originally intended that the first half of Series 7 would only comprise four episodes, and this story was actually a late addition. Chris Chibnall was given the job as the production team were happy with his dinosaur script. He hadn't written a big invasion story, and Moffat had asked for a storyline that spanned a whole year.

As a starting point, the writer recalled a story about a container ship caught in a storm off the coast of Devon. Some of the containers were washed overboard and came to shore - and the local populace had a field day raiding them for their contents. This led to the idea of people being presented with something for free and how they would react to it. The stages to go through would be initial excitement, then growing complacency, before the objects suddenly turned on them.

An Earth invasion prompted thoughts of bringing back UNIT, Chibnall being a big fan of the Pertwee era as could be seen in his Series 5 Silurian story.

With Nicholas Courtney now passed, it was felt to be a good idea to keep the family connection with the Brigadier. Spin-off media, such as the video production Downtime, had given him a daughter named Kate.

Novels had her the daughter from his first marriage, whilst Chibnall himself thought of her as the child of the Brigadier and Doris.

Chibnall was also able to bring back Brian Williams, Rory's dad, having introduced him in his earlier story.

The Doctor at one point speaks to him about keeping his companions safe, admitting that it has not always been possible - referencing Katarina, Sara Kingdom and Adric.

For a time, this story was going to be called "Cubed", and mathematically a number (N) cubed means that it is multiplied to the power of three - i.e. N x N x N.

The Power of Three therefore alludes both to the mysterious cubes which appear on Earth, and the idea that the Doctor at this particular time generally triumphs when backed by his two companions.

Prior to the beginning of Series 7, Chibnall had given us the mini-series Pond Life. This comprised short episodes illustrating what the Doctor was getting up to, now that Amy and Rory no longer travelled full-time in the TARDIS, and - more importantly - how they lived their life day-to-day in settled domesticity in his absence.

Steven Moffat described it in terms of the Doctor's impact on the couple as being akin to the movie The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942).

The Power of Three feels like a continuation of minisodes. There is the over-arching mystery of the black cubes, but for the most part it has an episodic feel. Like Pond Life, we dip into the lives of the couple over the twelve months, seeing brief adventures such as Zygons in late Victorian London, as we go.

Next time: Angels in America...

Doctor Who Prom 2024

Yesterday saw Doctor Who return to the Royal Albert Hall for the latest promenade concert. There were two performances, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

The latter is available now on BBC Sounds, running to 3 hours - though I saw online that the content only ran to around 45 minutes. They usually pad it out with popular, sci-fi related classical pieces, and there would have been an intermission as well. The event was filmed, due to be screened later in the year, possibly Christmastime.

Catherine Tate hosted, and there was an on stage appearance by Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood, in her white ensemble. Both Murray Gold and Segun Akinola were present, with RTD and Susan Twist among the audience.

The usual monsters patrolled the auditorium, including Cybermen, Judoon and Chuldur. 

Episode 130: The Smugglers (4)

Synopsis:

The Doctor and his companions are trapped in the church crypt by Squire Edwards and Jacob Kewper. As the smugglers argue over what's to be done with them, they fail to see the pirate Cherub enter. Polly screams as he throws his knife into the innkeeper's back, and a shot rings out...

The Squire has been shot and wounded. Cherub demands to know Longfoot's secret, and threatens to kill Ben and Polly if the Doctor does not tell him.

The Doctor tells him the cryptic message but pretends not to have worked it out, asking if the names are those of local settlements.

The pirate announces that the names - Smallbeer, Ringwood and Gurney - are all men who once served with him and Avery, and "the deadman's secret key" refers to Tim Deadman, the galley boy.

The Squire warns Cherub of the curse said to have been placed on the treasure.

Pike arrives on the beach, and sends two of his men - Gaptooth and Spaniard - to find Cherub. He then leads the rest of his men to the churchyard where they surround the tomb containing the smugglers booty. Gaptooth arrives to say that their fellow pirate has not been found.

Nearby, Josiah Blake is riding towards the village with a party of militiamen.

Pike enters the crypt and overhears Cherub continuing to threaten the Doctor for the treasure's whereabouts. He realises that his henchman has been planning to steal it for himself and challenges him.

The two fight, and Ben and Polly take the opportunity to sneak away down the secret passage.

In the churchyard, the rest of the pirates begin sampling the brandy and rum in the smugglers' hoard. Some of the goods are transported to the beach, where the pirates are surprised to see a large blue wooden box within a cave.

The duel in the crypt concludes with Pike slaying Cherub. He now demands to know the treasure's location. The Doctor agrees, but only on the condition that Pike leave the village alone. When Pike claims his men will want to loot, the Squire mocks his command over them.

Blake arrives nearby and splits his men into two groups - one to go directly to the churchyard and the other to enter the crypt through the secret passage.

In the crypt, the Doctor explains to Pike about the names of the dead pirates on their memorial tablets, and indicates a spot in the middle of the floor which lies between the four. Longfoot had altered existing tablets, as the named pirates were all buried at sea.

Pike lifts the central flagstone and initially thinks he has been tricked. However, delving deeper, his spiked hand emerges wrapped in pearls.

He then hears the sounds of fighting outside, as Blake's men begin their attack on the now drunken pirates in the churchyard.

Polly has gone on ahead of Ben and as she emerges into the cave she is captured by Daniel, one of the pirates. Ben hears her scream and is forewarned. He overpowers Daniel and fights with Spaniard.

Blake arrives to help, then leads his party into the passage. Ben will accompany him, whilst Polly goes to the TARDIS.

Believing that the Doctor has betrayed him, Pike attacks him. Blake arrives and the Squire manages to put Pike off balance before he can kill the Doctor. Blake then shoots the pirate captain. He falls dead, surrounded by Avery's treasure.

Ben quickly leads the Doctor to the passage.

The wounded Squire is repentant, and Blake has noted how he tried to help.

Safely back in the TARDIS, the Doctor and his companions contemplate the curse that surrounded Avery's treasure. The ship soon materialises at its next destination and they notice an immediate drop in temperature.

The Doctor announces that they have arrived at the coldest place on Earth...

Next time: The Tenth Planet

Data:

Written by Brian Hayles

Recorded: Friday 29th July 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 1st October 1966

Ratings: 4.5 million / AI 43

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Julia Smith

Additional cast: Jack Bligh (Gaptooth), Les Clark (Daniel)

Critique:

Brian Hayles specifically stated in his initial scripts that the pirate "Spaniard" was to be mute - much to the annoyance of fight arranger Derek Ware who was to play him. As well as organising the action and playing the most physical of the pirates, Ware also doubled for John Ringham in location scenes involving horse riding. This included a sequence in which Blake was thrown from his mount - with Ware landing in a pile of dung.

This episode was to see the debut of a stuntman who would go on to play a significant role in the series - Terry Walsh. He was stunt double for both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and provided his own stunt team - PROFILE - for the series after issues arose with Ware's HAVOC group, albeit briefly. More of him later.

After a relatively small amount of location footage needed for the previous instalment, the final episode contained a considerable amount of filmed material.

A number of local men were employed as extras, to portray the militia unit. Some also doubled for pirates.

The TARDIS departure sequence at Nanjizal Cove was one of the first things filmed on Sunday 19th June as it required the regular cast, and their availability on location was limited.

The fight sequence with Spaniard and Daniel at the cave mouth area, which also involved Michael Craze and Anneke Wills, was filmed on the same day.

For the rest of the filming, only the guest cast were needed on location, and Ringham filmed scenes with the militiamen assembling on Bosistow Cliffs on Monday 20th June. Other beach scenes were completed on this and the following day.

Tuesday 21st saw Michael Godfrey, Ware and Jack Bligh landing their boat on the beach.

Above: Derek Ware (Spaniard), George A Cooper (Cherub) and John Ringham (Josiah Blake) on location. 

Below: Blake brings the Militia

The final studio session of the series' third year of production got underway at Riverside Studio 1 on the last Friday of July.

The day did not start well for Craze, as he fell through an unsecured trapdoor during the morning's rehearsals, injuring his arm.

To save having to employ David Blake Kelly as a corpse, extra Terence Connolly acted as body double. The opening credits came up over a close-up of the knife hilt in Kewper's back.

The director scheduled a large number of recording breaks - mainly due to lighting requirements as most scenes were split between the churchyard in daylight, and the darkened crypt interior.

Wills also had to change her blouse to a ripped version for the final TARDIS scene, to tie in with location filming where Polly's sleeve is torn.

Terry Walsh had not participated in the location filming, and so made his first appearance in studio, playing one of the pirates in the churchyard. Much later, in one of his rare interviews, he claimed that he played both pirates and militiamen - getting killed, crawling off set and changing his wig / hat to come back on again as someone else. It's a nice story, but the cast lists of stuntmen and extras would dispute the need for doubling up as he described.

Also on the studio stunt team was Buddy Windrush, the alias of actor Bryan Mosley who had portrayed delegate Malpha in The Daleks' Master Plan (and who would go on to find fame as Alf Roberts in Coronation Street). His brother Fred was also involved in the same capacity.

The end credits rolled over a shot of the Doctor and companions looking directly into camera, as though we, the audience, are seeing the scene from within the ship's scanner.

With the recording over, the cast left to commence their summer break, with Hartnell planning a return to Cornwall for a lengthy fishing holiday.

Not for the last time, it is suggested that the interior of the TARDIS has a direct correlation with its external environment. This episode concludes with the Doctor and companions noticing an immediate drop in temperature, as they have arrived (spoiler...) at the South Pole.

In The Chase, the Doctor had stated that the ship could not simply hang around in space to avoid the Daleks - implying that they would run out of air eventually. Later, he talks to the Monk about his TARDIS' ability to do this safely. That first mention is in a story written by Terry Nation - and he is the writer who most often treats the TARDIS as though it were a conventional spaceship, which can run out of air and otherwise be affected by the nature of the atmosphere outside.

From a production point of view, The Smugglers Episode 4 marks the conclusion to the third season of Doctor Who. It had been a turbulent year for the series, both on and off the screen. Setting aside Verity Lambert's credit on Mission to The Unknown - recorded at the end of the previous season - the show had undergone a complete change of key personnel in the production office, with both John Wiles and Donald Tosh relinquishing their roles earlier than planned. On screen, the role of the female companion figure had seen a revolving door of actresses. 

The increasingly frail star, who disliked change, had found the entire experience unsettling, and he was struggling more and more with learning his scripts. His frustration would be taken out on others, especially those behind the camera. His latest companions were young, contemporary characters - played by young contemporary actors - and Hartnell had failed to form a close working relationship with them. During the making of this story, the decision had been taken that he would leave at the termination of his current contract. He would be back for Season 4, but only The Smugglers would fall within this contract - being recorded as part of Season 3.

For his final story, contractually, he would be a guest artist in his own show...

Trivia:

• The story limps to a close with low viewing and appreciation figures. They have at least remained consistent across the four episodes, but this week the series actually drops out of the weekly Top 100 most watched programmes.
• Brian Hayles did not write the closing TARDIS scene. It was provided by Gerry Davis in order to segue into the next episode.
• Amongst the militiamen is actor Hugh Fraser, in one of his very first television appearances. He would go on to become famous for playing Captain Hastings, opposite David Suchet's Poirot.
• There is a continuity error over the naming of the pirate who accompanied Spaniard to the beach. He is supposed to be called Daniel, but at one point is referred to as David - a fluff by Jack Bligh.
• This is the first of two stories in which Polly is the only female character, the other being The Moonbase. This situation won't happen again until 1972's The Mutants, in which Jo is the only woman on screen.
• The story has no incidental music - nor "special sounds".
• According to Wills, this was both her and Craze's favourite story.
• As previously mentioned, the Australian censors have allowed us to see some brief bloodthirsty scenes from this story. The 16mm film prints were still being offered by the BBC in 1974. The cut Australian copy was returned the following year - but by 1977 the serial no longer existed in the BBC archives.

Blake's 7 Series 1 Collection

Not Doctor Who, but the links between it and Blake's 7 are legion, and the fandom overlap is extensive, so I just thought I'd mention that the first series of B7 is due out on a shiny new Blu-ray box set on 11th November (RRP £39.99).

From the people behind the Doctor Who sets, it features remastered versions of all the episodes, with great looking new VFX - some of which come courtesy of Mike Tucker. Matthew Sweet interviews with Sally Knyvette and director Michael E Briant, a new doc and a rare archive one, plus a tribute to Travis actor Stephen Greif. 

You'll find the YouTube trailer well worth a watch.

N is for... Norton

A member of Captain Dent's Interplanetary Mining Corporation crew, Norton's role was to infiltrate and undermine settlements on planets which IMC planned to exploit for mineral resources. He turned up at the settlement on the planet Uxarieus, claiming to be the sole survivor of another group of colonists who had been attacked by huge lizard monsters and hostile indigenous peoples.

This was to provide back-up to attacks by the monsters which had now begun here - really the work of an IMC mining robot under the control of the sadistic Morgan.

Accepted by the others, Jo Grant was suspicious of him. On learning that the colony relied on an old power generator, he sabotaged this - first murdering technician Jim and his native helper. Norton made it look like the Uxarien had killed Jim in an unprovoked attack, and he had then killed the native in self-defence. 

As the Doctor and firebrand colonist Winton plotted against IMC, Norton passed information on to Dent and Morgan - including warning of a break-in and a later ambush. He was shot dead by the colonists during the latter.

Played by: Roy Skelton. Appearances: Colony in Space (1971).

• A regular voice performer - including Daleks and the Mondasian Cybermen - since the Hartnell era, this was Skelton's first on-screen appearance in the series.

N is for... Norna

Norna was an inhabitant of the human colony established on the planet Frontios, in the far distant future. Her father was Mr Range, science officer. She assisted him in his work, as well as working in the infirmary. She and the Doctor's companions, Tegan and Turlough, broke into the colony ship to collect an acid-filled battery to help light the hospital.

With Turlough, she helped explore the subterranean tunnels - which proved to be the work of the alien Tractators. She cared for him when the sight of the creatures triggered a traumatic race memory in him. She was later captured by rebels who believed that their leader, Plantagenet, had been killed, and was able to tell them this was not true.

Played by: Lesley Dunlop. Appearances: Frontios (1984).

• Dunlop returned to the series to play Susan Q in The Happiness Patrol. 
• For a time she was married to Christopher Guard, who played Bellboy in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, and was therefore sister-in-law to Dominic Guard (Terminus).

N is for... Nord

A young man who liked to be known as the Road Vandal, the Doctor and Ace encountered Nord when he arrived on the planet Segonax - intent on auditioning for the Psychic Circus. He refused to give them a lift on his souped-up, three-wheeled bike.

At the circus, he attempted a strong-man act, but failed to entertain the three audience members - the disguised Gods of Ragnarok. They vapourised him.

Played by: Daniel Peacock. Appearances: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1988).

• Daniel is the son of The Vicar of Dibley's Trevor Peacock. His brother Harry is another comedy performer (Toast of London etc).
• He first came to prominence with The Comedy Club Presents...

N is for... Nodes

Automated information-providing devices in the planet-spanning Library. In form they resembled a stylised human figure in white marble, with a main body topped by an ovoid head. Upon this was placed a real human face, donated by its owner following their death, to provide an interface with its user.

This was supposed to humanise them, but Donna Noble found the whole concept disturbing.

Later, when her teleport was intercepted and she was downloaded into the Library's core, her own features adorned a Node, much to the Doctor's horror.

Played by: Sarah Niles, Joshua Dallas, Catherine Tate. Appearances: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead (2008).

• Dallas featured in Thor, and was a cast regular on fantasy series Once Upon A Time.
• Niles will soon be seen in the movie adaptation of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club, and was twice Emmy nominated for her role in Ted Lasso.

N is for... Noble, Sylvia

Mother of the Doctor's companion Donna, and daughter of Wilf Mott, Sylvia was also the widow of Geoff Noble. Following his death, she and Donna shared a home with Wilf.

She first came into contact with the Doctor when Donna was transported from her wedding at a Chiswick church to the orbiting TARDIS. She and Geoff went ahead with the reception, despite the absence of the bride. 

Sylvia could have a domineering personality, imposing her will on both her daughter and her father. She failed to support Donna in both her romantic and employment aspirations, believing she should set her sights more realistically. She did not want her to join the big city firm of HC Clements, thinking that a post in a local office was more her level.

This event would later be manipulated by the Trickster, using a Time Beetle, to change Donna's timeline. 

Instead of attending the HC Clements interview, Donna never got to meet the Doctor - who met his death fighting the Racnoss. In this timeline, Sylvia saw London destroyed whilst she, Donna and Wilf were on a country hotel break. They were relocated as refugees to Leeds, having to share a small terrace house with two other families.

Despite brief moments of respite, the experience totally wore Sylvia down. Fortunately, this alternate timeline was corrected by the intervention of that universe's Rose Tyler and UNIT.

When Donna met the Docor again, when both were investigating Adipose Industries, Sylvia was to witness an alien intervention first hand. One of her best friends was taking the Adipose weight loss pills. On one of their weekly girls' nights out, the Adipose birth cycle was activated and Sylvia saw her friend begin expel the baby creatures.

Later that night, Donna went off in the TARDIS, leaving her mother to retrieve their abandoned car.

A short while later, the planet came under attack by the Sontarans and Sylvia was confronted by the Doctor - recognising him from the aborted wedding reception. She discovered that Wilf knew about her travels but had kept it secret from her - knowing she would never have approved.

She and her father then experienced the removal of the Earth to another part of the cosmos - and an invasion by the Daleks. She went out on the streets with Wilf, who was armed with a paint-gun, knowing that Donna might be out there, in danger. Both were saved by the arrival of Rose Tyler, come from the "Pete's World" dimension. Rose wanted to participate in a video conference, but Wilf explained that his daughter had banned him from having a web-cam.

When Donna was returned home  after having her memories wiped, due to the human / Time Lord metacrisis, the Doctor was quite sharp with Sylvia - telling her to appreciate her daughter a lot more.

She and Wilf were informed of the danger to Donna should she recall any of her time with the Doctor.

When the Master replaced the entire population of the Earth with versions of himself, Sylvia was one of those affected - along with her soon-to-be son-in-law Shaun Temple.

The Doctor later attended the marriage, at a discreet distance. He gave Donna a winning lottery ticket for a wedding present - bought with money borrowed from Geoff Noble.

Many years later, Sylvia was shocked when the Doctor came back into their lives on the night a spaceship crashed in Chiswick. In the interim, Donna had given all her winnings to various charities. She was still with Shaun, who drove a taxi for a living, and they had a grown-up daughter named Rose.

Wilf was now in sheltered accommodation.

Sylvia was naturally worried about the metacrisis, and witnessed their home being destroyed by aliens, but it transpired that the birth of Rose had actually corrected the issue. Its effects had been shared and could be harnessed by the pair - as they demonstrated by the defeat of the Meep.

Following the Doctor's bigeneration, the original Doctor decided to settle down on earth for a while - becoming part of the Temple-Noble family - his previous fractious relationship with Sylvia now happily resolved.

Played by: Jacqueline King. Appearances: The Runaway Bride (2006), Series 4 - various (2008), The End of Time (2008/9), The Star Beast, The Giggle (2023).

• King quickly became an ambassador for the series. She has narrated audio-books and appeared in Big Finish productions, as well as chaperoning young visitors to events at Cardiff.
• She and the late Bernard Cribbens partnered up for a celebrity edition of quiz show Pointless. They won, with King donating her half of the prize money to Northumbrian life boats - a charity her father had supported. She herself had once been saved by an RNLI lifeboat.
• She was offered a role in the unofficial Sil spin-off The Devil Seeds of Arodor, but turned it  down.
• In 2017 she portrayed ex-PM Theresa May in a TV drama.

Story 297: Flux - The Halloween Apocalypse

In which the Doctor is tracking down a figure called Karvanista, who is supposed to have information about her time with the Division...

She and Yaz have been captured by the huge dog-like being, and are now being pursued across the acid seas of an alien planet by his kill-discs. They are supported only by a gravity bar, to which they are handcuffed. To add to their peril, a star nearby is about to go supernova.

The pair manage to escape, falling into the waiting TARDIS.

In Liverpool, 1820, Joseph Williamson is busily tunnelling beneath the grounds of his estate. Thought mad by his peers, he claims to have a very good reason for embarking on this great project.

In the city, two centuries later, unemployed Dan Lewis volunteers at his local foodbank - looking after others but neglecting himself. A proud Liverpudlian, he likes to give unauthorised tours of the museum where his girlfriend Diane works. She and Dan arrange to meet that evening for Hallowe'en drinks.

However, when he gets home he is disturbed by the sudden arrival of Karvanista, who appears to know who he is.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor has a vision of a desolate planetoid on which a figure named Swarm has been imprisoned. Two guards arrive to check on him, and they are killed as he breaks free after regenerating himself.

The ship then materialises outside Dan's house after tracing Karvanista. Entering, they find the occupant missing. The Doctor finds a laptop which shows a mass of Lupari ships converging on the Earth. This is Karvanista's race. The Doctor suddenly notices that the laptop does not fit with the sparse furnishings and realises that it is a trap. She and Yaz flee the house before it is destroyed.

Dan, meanwhile, is being held in a cage on Karvanista's ship in orbit above the Earth.

In the Arctic, Anna and Jon see a strange electronic device materialise at their research base. They recognise it, but Anna simply destroys it. 

Outside what used to be Dan's house, the Doctor and Yaz are approached by a young woman named Claire who knows them. She explains that whilst they have not met her yet - she has already encountered them.

Heading home, Claire is then menaced by a Weeping Angel.

The Doctor and Yaz return to the TARDIS to discover that its internal dimensions have become corrupted. They trace Karvanista's ship and head towards it.

In deep space, a young man named Inston-Vee Vinder has been banished to a remote one-man observation outpost after running foul of his superiors. After months of routine, he notices something affecting a nearby planet. A vast glowing mass is rolling through space, destroying everything it touches. He sees the planet disintegrate, then flees in an escape capsule before his outpost is consumed.

At the Arctic base, Anna wakes up to see Swarm in her room. He kills Jon, then causes her to change her appearance. She is really a similar being to the alien being, called Azure. Swarm has now freed her to become her old self.

On Karvanista's ship, Yaz frees Dan whilst the Doctor confronts its pilot. She discovers that the Lupari fleet has come not to invade Earth but to protect its population. Each Lupar is bonded with a human being, and Dan is Karvanista's personal responsibility to safeguard. They have come to save each individual from the a phenomenon known as the Flux.

Elsewhere in space, the Sontarans are monitoring the Flux, which they fully intend to exploit.

In Liverpool, Diane is on her way to meet with Dan when she is lured into an old house by Azure - and finds herself transported to a strange black void.

The Doctor orders Karvanista to reposition his fleet so that the massed vessels create a physical shield around the planet.

She is then mentally contacted by Swarm who threatens her, and it is clear that he knows her from her previous life.

Dan joins Yaz and the Doctor as they leave to investigate the Flux - and are confronted by the destructive wave previously seen by Vinder. The TARDIS interior continues to alter its shape, and the Doctor assumes this to be a side-effect of the Flux. Vortex energy fails to stop its advance. 

It hurtles towards them...

Flux: The Halloween Apocalypse was written by Chris Chibnall, and was first broadcast on Sunday 31st October, 2021.

It was originally intended that the 13th series of Doctor Who would follow the normal pattern of a dozen or so episodes, comprising mainly single-episode stories with the odd two-parter. 

However, the Covid pandemic then intervened. Once it was known that production on the series could resume, a number of strict health & safety limitations would remain in place. 

Chibnall realised that the next series would need to be truncated to half the usual length, and so decided to scrap his original plans. The new idea was to have a single story told over the duration of the six-episode season - making it the longest Doctor Who story of the revived series.

The classic run of the series had seen stories lasting 8, 10 and 12 episodes, with Trial of a Time Lord claiming 14 instalments.

The Halloween Apocalypse - named when it was known it would screen on 31st October, and so set on that date - would act as a set-up to the series, which was given the overall story title of Flux. Each individual episode, or chapter, would have its own subtitle.

Characters are introduced who won't play any significant role until later in the story - making this opener appear to be a bit of a confusing mess. Whilst Trial could be seen as three separate stories with a framing device, Flux would very much be seen as a single unified story in six chapters, and so it would be necessary for viewers to stick with it throughout.

The main threat is what appears to be some sort of natural phenomenon - the titular Flux - which is rolling through the universe like a destructive wave. Its presence coincides with the release from captivity of a being named Swarm, who has been imprisoned on a desolate moon-like world. Once free, he regenerates into a younger form - played by a different actor. Swarm has something to do with the Doctor's hidden past, so his captors were presumably Division. Their guns would appear to confirm this, as they're the same model sported by Gat in Fugitive of the Judoon. 

Chibnall very much builds on the Timeless Child revelations of the previous series.

Once free, Swarm then releases his sister Azure, who has been living in the Arctic as a seemingly human woman.

A key new figure is Karvanista - a huge shaggy dog-like biped who knows the Doctor's Division history. Initially presented as villain, we find out that his motivations are more ambiguous. Through him we are introduced to new companion Dan - first seen in a brief post-credits scene of the last New Year Special.

Other characters we meet are Dan's girlfriend Diane, who falls foul of Azure; Claire, who is haunted by a Weeping Angel; and Vinder. It is widely believed that this character was a replacement for Captain Jack Harkness, following John Barrowman's fall from grace. Seemingly divorced from the rest of the story is the real historical character of Joseph Williamson - famed for his tunnelling obsession.

On top of all this, we then discover that the newly redesigned Sontarans are somehow involved.

It's quite impossible to get a grasp of what is going on at this stage, other than that the Flux is destroying the universe. Little did we know that another four very significant characters would be added to what is already a fairly overloaded narrative.

Dan is played by Liverpudlian comedian and devout Liverpool FC fan John Bishop. 

In his introductory scene at New Year he was seen opposite actor Craig Els, who returns now to portray Karvanista.

Playing Vinder is Jacob Anderson, who came to fame as Grey Worm in Game of Thrones. He is currently to be seen in the TV adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire, in which he plays Louis.

Diane is Nadia Albina - primarily a theatre actor but who has also recorded some Big Finish audios.

The older version of Swarm is played by Matthew Needham, with his younger self portrayed by Sam Spruell. As well as a lengthy small-screen CV, he has acted in movies alongside Tom Hardy, Liam Neeson and Chris Hemsworth. I'm not entirely sure why they saw the need to have two different actors play Swarm. One could easily have essayed both versions. It isn't even terribly clear on screen that it's another actor.

Azure is played by Rochenda Sandall, best known for Line of Duty. She also featured in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Claire is Annabel Scholey who was a regular in the first season of Being Human and was recently seen in the highly acclaimed true-life crime drama The Sixth Commandment.

Williamson is played by actor and comedian Steve Oram, who has appeared in films by Ben Wheatley and Edgar Wright. He has worked with many fellow comics, some of whom featured in his directorial debut Aaaaaaaah! (2015) - in which all the characters communicate in grunts.

Finally, the two Sontarans we see are portrayed by Dan Starkey (Kragar) and Jonathan Watson (Commander Ritskaw). The latter is well known to Scottish television audiences from numerous comedy shows going back to City Lights in the 1980's. He has been co-starring in sitcom Two Doors Down since 2013.

Overall... Impossible to judge - it simply can't be looked at in isolation. The main thing is, did it make you want to come back and find out what's going on? In this it does work, as it has thrown so many elements into the mix that something piques the interest - even if it's just the reappearance of popular old monsters like the Sontarans and Weeping Angels. Only half a million or so failed to come back for more the following week.

Things you might like to know:

• For a programme dealing with scary monsters, it had never used Hallowe'en as a setting. It's alluded to by Dan having trick-or-treaters visit, and he initially thinks Karvanista is wearing a costume.
• The Doctor mentions having Nitro-9 explosives in the TARDIS - as created by previous companion Ace. She also makes use of some Hopper Virus at one point, which previously appeared in Orphan 55.
• We also hear the Cloister Bell sound - first heard in Logopolis, the first time the entire universe fell under a single threat in the series.
• The Doctor's handcuffs are voice activated, programmed by a previous incarnation who had a Scottish accent. She attempts to order them open by impersonating her Twelfth persona, and then her Seventh.
• Dan Lewis is supposed to live at No.37 Granger Street, yet his next door neighbour's door has No.49 on it. (Filming took place in Cardiff at a property numbered 51, with Liverpool FC's Anfield Stadium added in the background via CGI).
• Vinder's observation outpost is called "Rose", but this does not lead anywhere.
• Both the Sontarans and a Weeping Angel had both been seen on location, but at a time before it was known that they would both be featuring in the same narrative.
• The former no longer wear their rubbery-looking blue armour, but have reverted to a look closer to their original appearance. The masks are certainly closer to that worn by Kevin Lindsay as Linx.

Episode 129: The Smugglers (3)

Synopsis:

Ben is in the church crypt, holding exciseman Josiah Blake captive. Squire Edwards appears on the steps with Captain Pike and Cherub, holding Polly prisoner. The Squire aims his pistol at Ben and assures him that he will not escape a second time...

Edwards has Blake freed and informs him that the young people are the murderers of his churchwarden. He agrees to take them into custody.

On the Black Albatross, the Doctor and Jacob Kewper are playing cards, watched by Jamaica. The Doctor offers to tell Jamaica's fortune and talks about what the picture cards represent, feeding into the pirate's superstitions. Distracted, Kewper knocks Jamaica out.

They sneak out onto the deck and take to the innkeeper's boat, escaping back to shore.

In the graveyard, the Squire shows Pike and Cherub the hiding place of their contraband of silks, brandy and tobacco. It is concealed within a stone sarcophagus.

Cherub is sent back to the ship but he lingers, hidden, as his Captain and the Squire arrange to land more goods the following night. Pike really intends to rob the Squire, whilst Cherub plots to profit on his own.

Back at the inn, the Doctor's companions are surprised when Blake frees them. He explains that he has his suspicions about the Squire leading the smuggling ring. Having watched the area for some time, he knows he will need the help of some armed men. The local militia would be noticed, so he wishes Ben and Polly to act as his eyes and ears whilst he goes to fetch his own men.

The Doctor and Kewper arrive, but the innkeeper rides off when he discovers who Blake is. The exciseman knows him for a smuggler.

On the ship, Pike learns that his captives have been allowed to escape, and that Cherub is not here. He kills Jamaica - stabbing him with his spiked hand.

The Doctor tells Blake about the pirates, and warns that they will ransack the village in their search for Avery's treasure. The exciseman rides off to gather his men. 

When Ben suggests returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor refuses - explaining that they have a moral duty to stay and prevent the inevitable carnage. They head for the church, where the Doctor knows the treasure to lie.

Kewper arrives at the Squire's house to warn him about Pike.

Edwards arranges that their contraband should be moved and a trap laid for the pirates, but first he will look for Avery's treasure himself.

In the graveyard, the Doctor is trying to work out Longfoot's cryptic message when Ben and Polly begin talking about the names on the tombstones. He realises what the "dead man's secret key" is - names on other graves. As they don't feature in the churchyard, they make for the crypt.

They look for the names Ringwood, Smallbeer and Gurney. After a few minutes, they locate memorial tablets naming all three.

The Squire and Kewper arrive and attempt to force the Doctor into revealing Longfoot's message. The smugglers begin to argue as the Squire, though greedy, does not want blood on his hands. They fail to see Cherub sneak in after them. He aims his knife.

Polly screams as it buries itself in the innkeeper's back and a shot rings out...

Data:

Written by Brian Hayles

Recorded: Friday 22nd July 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 24th September 1966

Ratings: 4.2 million / AI 43

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Julia Smith

Critique:

In his original draft for this episode, Hayles was quite specific about the layout of the playing cards arranged by the Doctor during the scene with Kewper and Jamaica. Seven lines radiated out in a circle, and the Doctor concentrated on the ones closest to the centre. The Jack of Clubs represented the innkeeper, with the Jack of Spades being Cherub. Pike was the King of Spades, with Blake the Jack of Diamonds. The Ace of Spades was, as is traditional, the Death Card.

It is interesting to note that both the Doctor and his companions, quite independently, use superstition to manipulate their captors. The Doctor uses the cards this week, whilst Ben and Polly fashioned a straw doll to scare Tom in the previous instalment, telling the young man that the Doctor is a sorcerer.

As the Doctor later tells Polly: "Superstition is a strange thing, my dear, but sometimes it tells the truth".

The TARDIS has landed its occupants in the past on many occasions, but it is not often that the belief systems of the native peoples have been used in this way. It is more usually the case that the travellers are mistaken for deities, or choose to exploit such a misunderstanding - such as when Barbara went along with the misidentification of High Priest Yetaxa in 15th Century Mexico, or when the Doctor allowed Achilles to continue to believe him to be Zeus.

The day to day belief systems of ordinary individuals have generally been ignored.

This episode contained the least amount of the extensive location filming which had taken place in late June. Outdoor scenes included the Doctor's departure from the Black Albatross - the adapted Bonny Mary fishing boat in Newlyn Harbour - as well as short sequences outside the inn (Trethewey Farm, Porthcurno), and outside the Squire's house (Trenethick Barton, Helston).

Friday 22nd July saw the programme return to its 8.30pm studio recording time, after the late start the week before. 

Julia Smith obtained close up shots of the playing cards by utilising a hand double for Hartnell. This was Albert Ward, who had fulfilled the same role in The Romans (the burning of Nero's map) and The Celestial Toymaker (the invisible Doctor playing the Trilogic Game).

Three recording breaks were planned. The first was to add blood to Michael Godfrey's spike, with the second to allow the regulars to move from the churchyard to the crypt set. The last was to add a knife hilt to David Blake Kelly's back for the final shots.

In the past, it was always the Doctor who was the first to suggest a return to the TARDIS - even when a threatening situation remained unresolved (such as when escaping the cell in the Conscience pyramid on Marinus, whilst Yartek was still in control). Here, after Ben makes the suggestion - something he will often do - the Doctor makes it plain that he has a moral obligation to stay and protect the villagers from Pike and his men. He feels responsible in many ways, as he knows the clue that will lead to the whereabouts of the treasure. By taking it out of the equation, it will prevent Pike from ransacking the district in search of it. Polly, meanwhile, simply thinks that it is the right thing to do, to stop and help the locals.

We have an unintentional continuity error here, as the Doctor quotes names which differ from those which Longfoot told him back in the first episode - not that many would have remembered in those pre-video days. Here, the notoriously unreliable Hartnell gets the scripted names right. It was Terence de Marney who had gotten them wrong a fortnight ago.

It was during the week between the recording of Episodes 2 and 3 of The Smugglers that William Hartnell made the difficult decision to relinquish the role of the Doctor. The moment was recorded by his wife, Heather, in her diary. He would stand down in October, after recording one final story.

Innes Lloyd was now in touch with Patrick Troughton, who was filming The Viking Queen for Hammer in Ireland, after having considered other actors such as Patrick Wymark and Michael Hordern.

Troughton's initial reaction was to reject the offer, feeling that the series was on its last legs.

Trivia:

• The ratings fall by half a million viewers, on top of already low viewing figures, accompanied by a small drop in the appreciation figure. This makes Episode 3 of The Smugglers the lowest rated instalment up to this point.
• The episode was praised by Huw Weldon, Controller of Programmes, at the following week's Programme Review Board meeting.
• Wednesday 21st September saw the BBC reject a proposed Doctor Who radio series featuring Peter Cushing. A pilot had been submitted, which is now lost.
• The day after recording, Hartnell returned to Cornwall on a flying visit - quite literally. He was flown from Gatwick to the Royal Navy Air Service open day at RAF Culdrose, where he appeared in costume accompanied by the Black Dalek Supreme and a Chumbley robot. He was taken back to Gatwick immediately after the event, which was reported in that Monday's Western Morning News.
• Thanks to the extremely strict attitude towards violence adopted by the Australian censors, this episode furnishes the longest surviving sequence from this story - the death of Jamaica. We also have preserved the closing moments in which Cherub murders Kewper.

The Art of... The Smugglers

Doctor Who - The Smugglers was written by Terrance Dicks and first published in 1988.

Dicks novelised 64 Doctor Who stories, but this was the only purely historical adventure he ever tackled.

The book was the final novelisation of the classic run to be issued in both hardback and paperback. Up until then, the h/b was issued a few months before the p/b version. WH Allen announced that they would henceforth be issuing both versions together - only to drop the hard cover altogether.

The cover art is by Alister Pearson. He opts to include the two main aspects of the story - the pirates, represented by the ship at night, and the smugglers by the church where "Holy Joe" Longfoot is based and where much of the action takes place. This is contrasted with the pirate half by being depicted in daylight.

The Hartnell portrait derives from a publicity shot of the actor in the TARDIS from The Web Planet.

The soundtrack opts to feature as its main image the best known photograph from the story - the Doctor being threatened by Cherub. The other common image is that of the Squire with Polly and the injured Ben, and that is also used. Captain Pike, a sailing ship and some figures landing on a beach at night complete the montage cover.

This was released in May 2002. Anneke Wills provides the narration.

Pearson's image is used again on the audiobook release but, unlike many, it is adapted by the artist to fit the larger, squarer space. Indeed, he has opted to repaint the work, as can be seen with the configuration of the sails on the ship and the treeline behind the church. The main artwork is framed by pillars and an arched design, presumably reflecting the church crypt setting. The daytime sky has been totally repainted in a much more satisfying manner, and there is a clearer dividing line between the day / night halves of the image in the foreground.

As you can see, the novel is read by Wills, and it was released in 2020.

Finally, with no VHS or DVD release available, the moviedb site uses a colourful photomontage to illustrate the story. The same photographic sources as the soundtrack release are used, but minus the Squire and adding the church.

The surviving Australian censor clips plus the colour home movie footage from location can be found on the Lost in Time DVD set. The latter originally appeared on the unofficial The Doctors release.

A couple of years ago it was claimed in the press that the story was going to be animated, along with The Underwater Menace. We've had that, but no sign yet of The Smugglers being animated. With sailing ships and large groups of pirates and excisemen, it was never an obvious choice for animation but the team behind these have stated that they would like to release everything eventually.

A great alternative is the recent AI recreations courtesy of Ian Levine, some of which are already available on YouTube, with a promise to have them all freely available in the near future.

2024 London Locations Walk

Despite all the Doctors that have come since, the monsters, companions and hundreds of episodes, the two most iconic images from the entire history of Doctor Who remain the Daleks gliding across Westminster Bridge (1964), and the Cybermen marching down the steps of St Paul's Cathedral (1968).

Of course, we never actually see the Dalek photograph reproduced exactly within the broadcast episode. We only get a low shot of them on the bridge, taken from the footpath beneath, which isn't even a close-up.

As for the Cybermen... Truth is that it wasn't until Death in Heaven that Cybermen were seen to walk down the steps of St Paul's. What they did in The Invasion was to walk down a set of steps on a hill opposite the cathedral. These steps no longer exist, as the area of St. Peter's Hill has been heavily landscaped and there is now a more gentle slope leading down to the Millennium Bridge over the Thames.

What can still be seen, looking very much like it did in 1968, is the junction of Knightrider Street with the Hill. Douglas Camfield got some lovely low angle shots of the Cybermen at this corner.

What follows are some other Doctor Who locations which can be visited over the course of a single day's walk.

I managed two lengthy walks on my last visit to the city - a zig-zagging one through the City of London itself, and one along the south bank of the Thames (this walk). 

In both instances, I began at Tower Hill.

Dominated by the Tower of London - UNIT's HQ between The Christmas Invasion and The Zygon Inversion - the First, Third and Eleventh Doctors all referred to unseen incarcerations here.

These were during the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I / James I (Raleigh was locked up by both) and Charles II.

Summer 2024 prices are just short of £35 for an adult, but you can see a lot just from walking around the peripheral public areas, including a view of Traitors Gate.

From the Tower, walk along the river towards the iconic bridge named for its proximity and cross to the south bank. On descending to the riverside walk, turn left - to the east.

You are immediately into the old warehouse district of Shad Thames. Very much gentrified since its appearance in Resurrection of the Daleks, when Lytton and his fake policemen gunned down escaped prisoners and random passers-by. Walk a short distance along the street and you come to Butler's Wharf. First seen on the opposite side of the river in the opening episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, there is a wide passage, marked with cast iron pillars, through to the riverside.

This marks the TARDIS landing site, and scene for many publicity photographs of the cast with the Daleks. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are seen walking through the passage onto Shad Thames after first arriving. 

Opposite this location is St Katherine's Dock, where the Robomen were filmed back in 1964. The marina there was used for scenes in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, including the Doctor and Litefoot in the rowing boat looking for the sewer entrance. 

You could therefore take this in before crossing Tower Bridge. We now retrace our steps back to Tower Bridge and continue along the river walk to the west.

You'll shortly come to HMS Belfast, which is actually another Doctor Who location. Not from the TV show, or any of its televised spin-offs, however. It was instead used for the filming on the unofficial production Shakedown, in which it played a spaceship boarded by Sontarans seeking a Rutan enemy. The cast included Sophie Aldred and Carole Ann Ford, and the video was written by Terrance Dicks - later expanded by him as a Virgin New Adventures novel incorporating the Seventh Doctor.

(£28 per adult if you want to go aboard for a closer look).

Continue your walk, leaving the riverside briefly to pass through Hays Galleria but rejoining it at London Bridge. You'll shortly see two locations - one seen in the series and one whose interior was "faked" by using another ecclesiastical building closer to South Wales. 

Dominating the skyline near London Bridge is the Shard. This building was central to the events of The Bells of Saint John. Miss Kizlet had her HQ here, under the control of the Great Intelligence, and the Doctor rode his anti-grav motorbike up the side of it. Borough High Street and St Thomas Street were also used for this filming.

In the foreground above is Southwark Cathedral - setting for the climax to The Lazarus Experiment. The cathedral does appear briefly in the distance in early scenes as the Professor describes his WWII childhood experiences, but the interior was all filmed at Wells.

The cathedral is well worth a visit. There is a memorial to Shakespeare here (he was a local for a time), but the guides were unable to tell me where his brother Edmund is interred.

If you haven't eaten yet, just behind the cathedral is Borough Market, which has an incredible range of international foodstuffs on offer. Badly crowded at times.

The streets between the market and Waterloo East station were used extensively in Remembrance of the Daleks for battle scenes between the rival factions.

There's more Shakespeare shortly, but first we go along Clink Street - named for the old prison associated with the palace of the Bishop of Winchester, and which itself has come to used as popular slang for a jail. This narrow street was used as another location for The Talons of Weng-Chiang, including the TARDIS landing site and several incidents between the Doctor, Leela and the Tong members. It is right at the corner where the museum now stands that the Doctor was only narrowly missed by an axe.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre follows once you've passed under Southwark Bridge. A recreation of the Tudor Bankside theatre, it was the brainchild of US actor / director Sam Wanamaker - father of Lady Cassandra actress Zoe. The theatre allowed location filming for The Shakespeare Code, since the setting was the original building which was located only a short distance away.

A number of Doctor Who guests stars have trodden the boards here. My first ever visit was to see a Marlowe play rather than one by the Bard of Avon - Doctor Faustus - in which Arthur Darvill portrayed Mephistopheles, between the two halves of Series 6 of Doctor Who.

Right next door to the Globe is a range of very old houses (early 18th Century), including the narrow Cardinal Cap Alley. These buildings also feature in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

They lie between the theatre and the old Bankside power station which now hosts Tate Modern. 

In front is the pedestrian Millennium Bridge - which can take you up to Knightrider Street and St Paul's Cathedral where we began as a short north bank detour, should you wish.

From Tate Modern, continue westwards along the river walk and you will shortly come to a more modern theatrical district.

This next area is where the post-war Festival of Britain had stood. It is now the site of the National Theatre, the National Film Theatre / BFI, and the Royal Festival Hall.

The brutalist concrete complex was deemed futuristic enough for it to be used as 26th Century Earth in Frontier in Space. Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning told many convention tales of filming around the area one Sunday morning with Draconians and Ogrons, scaring the homeless people sleeping rough there.

Nowadays there's a popular skateboarding zone plus an outdoor book and art print market.

At the moment, there is an odd Malpha-like sculpture outside the Royal Festival Hall...

You'll then come to the very busy area at the foot of the London Eye - used by the Nestene Consciousness as a transmitter to activate Autons and other plastic weaponry in Rose.

We have now reached one of the most iconic landmarks of London. As already mentioned, Daleks zoomed across Westminster Bridge, and the Ninth Doctor and Rose also ran across it in Rose.

Big Ben was hit by a Slitheen spaceship in Aliens of London, whilst a Dalek saucer easily passed overhead in The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

Cross over to the western side of the bridge and you'll see the steps which the Dalek considered during the scenes of Barbara, Jenny and Dortmun traversing London, and the stretch of embankment it glided along. It's a popular location for taking pictures of Big Ben, so always busy. On the left is St Thomas' Hospital - which played the part of the Royal Hope Hospital in Smith and Jones.

After you've perhaps taken a detour over the bridge to see Big Ben closer up, come back to the southern embankment and continue westwards towards Vauxhall. 

At Lambeth Bridge, the view towards the Houses of Parliament might look a little more familiar to Doctor Who fans if the skies were full of airships. This was the scene of the TARDIS landing site in The Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel.

Lambeth Palace is just across the road.

On the north side of the river we can see two large office buildings. One of these posed as Thames House - arrival place for the 456 species in Torchwood: Children of Earth. This was the real HQ for MI5 between 1934 - 39. The MI6 HQ you will also pass as you approach Vauxhall, recognisable from the James Bond films (until its destruction during the Daniel Craig era).

As I was staying in the Victoria area, I elected to end my walk at Vauxhall, where you can either walk across the river and up Vauxhall Bridge Road, or jump on the tube. The last Doctor Who landmark on this outing is Millbank Tower. This was the London HQ for Tobias Vaughn's International Electromatics in The Invasion - which brings us nicely full circle...

I did see some other locations on my travels, though dotted around rather than in a manner that could be grouped together as a walk. There are two story-specific walks which are fairly central and which I plan to do on my next visit - based on The War Machines and Invasion of the Dinosaurs.