Season 21 next for The Collection

It has been announced that Season 21 will be the next to be released onto Blu-ray. 

We are promised a special edition of Warriors of the Deep, re-edited and with new VFX, whilst four other stories get optional new effects - The Awakening, Frontios, Resurrection of the Daleks and The Caves of Androzani.

There are new making-of documentaries, a visit by Toby Hadoke chez Janet Fielding, and Matthew Sweet conducts interviews with her, Mark Strickson and Matthew Waterhouse.

There is another Davison, Fielding, Sutton travelogue, this time by river.

The "Behind the Sofa" segments are different this time, judging from the number contributors, suggesting story specific combinations.

The "Tales from the TARDIS" version of Earthshock is also included, as is the "Five-ish Doctors (Reboot)" piece created for the 50th Anniversary.

The set is likely to be released in April, as that is when the Sixth Doctor Escape Room, included here, is added to the official YouTube channel.

Update: just pre-ordered a copy and release date is given as 16th March 2026.

Story 308: 73 Yards

In which the TARDIS materialises on a bleak, windswept headland on the Welsh coast. It is the present day, and on leaving the ship the Doctor and Ruby spot something unusual on the ground - a pattern of string and various oddments known as a "fairy ring".

The Doctor tells Ruby of a particularly dangerous Welshman named Roger ap Gwilliam who, as Prime Minister in 2046, would bring the world to the brink of nuclear war. He declines to say any more as this is in his companion's future.

Ruby is reading some notes attached to the ring, including one referencing a "Mad Jack". The Doctor accidentally disturbs the ring, and Ruby suddenly finds herself alone on the clifftop. She is unable to get back inside the TARDIS.

On the horizon she spots a female figure who appears to be speaking and gesticulating towards her, though she is too far away to hear. As she approaches, the woman always seems to be the same distance away from her.

Deciding to go in search of the Doctor and seek shelter, she finds that the woman is following her - but always at a distance.

A hiker then appears, who acknowledges the woman. Ruby asks her to speak to the figure and find out what she wants. She then sees the hiker approach the woman - and run off as if she has seen or heard something horrifying, first staring back at Ruby.

Ruby eventually comes to a small village and goes to the inn to spend the night - despite the locals being far from welcoming. They too can see the woman, now standing in a lane near the inn. Ruby tells them that she fears that by disturbing the ring she has unleashed some supernatural power - that of "Mad Jack" - and is horrified when they agree with her. However, it quickly transpires that they are simply pulling her leg. One of the customers, Josh, goes to speak with the woman - and he too rushes away in a panic after turning to stare at Ruby.

The next day Ruby returns to London by train, and continues to see the woman along the journey. The figure follows her home. Her mother, Carla, goes to confront the woman - but suffers the same reaction as the hiker and Josh. She refuses any further contact with Ruby.

She decides to call upon UNIT for help and arranges a meeting with Kate Stewart to tell her of what has been happening. UNIT troops surround the figure and Kate approaches - and she too appears horrified by what she sees and hears. She immediately withdraws her personnel and leaves.

The years pass and Ruby has to live with the figure constantly in attendance, always the same distance away from her. She has worked this out as exactly 73 yards.

She then spots a news item about an up-coming populist politician - Roger ap Gwilliam, of the Albion Party. Recalling how the Doctor had mentioned him just before vanishing, she realises that he may be the key to what has been happening and determines to get to know more about him. Her suspicions are confirmed when he mentions in an interview that he used to have the nickname "Mad Jack", as when younger he was regarded as a jack-of-all-trades.

Ruby is able to become a volunteer on his election campaign team, and sees immediately that he has extreme right-wing views. She also learns that he sexually exploits some of the female members of his team. He wins the 2046 election by a landslide and becomes Prime Minister, and arranges a huge press event at Cardiff Stadium. Knowing of future events, Ruby has a way of stopping him. At the stadium she positions herself exactly 73 yards away from Roger, so that the woman is standing right beside him. He flees in terror, and the next day it is announced that he has resigned - his party collapsing in his absence.

Forty years later, the elderly Ruby revisits the TARDIS landing site - the mysterious woman still 73 yards away as she leaves flowers beside the abandoned Police Box.

In 2089, Ruby is in hospital nearing the end of her life. One night she is awoken by whispering and sees the woman now standing in the room. She approaches closer and as she does so Ruby dies - only to find herself back in 2024 and observing events from the viewpoint of the woman. 

The Doctor identifies the fairy ring as something to be respected and advises Ruby not to read any of the notes people have left at it.

This time they do not disturb it - and the mysterious woman vanishes from the horizon...

73 Yards was written by Russell T Davies and was first broadcast on Saturday 24th May 2024.

On being cast as the Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa already had commitments to the TV series Sex Education and so it was known that at least one of the eight new episodes would have to be "Doctor-lite" - a set-up which had been common practice ever since 2006, when a regular Christmas Special was added to the annual production schedule. These episodes allowed the companion to take centre stage so had a narrative usefulness as well as a practical side. The Doctor would appear at some point - usually just topping and tailing the instalment as they were trapped, or off somewhere else for the majority of the running time. Often the Doctor-lite episode was planned to allow for an episode which featured the lead actor prominently, and this time the companion might not feature much.

Bearing in mind that he had spent the previous episode stuck on a landmine, unable to do more than talk, there was some concern that having a Doctor-lite episode so early in his first run - one of only eight episodes - might be damaging towards getting Gatwa established. In hindsight this concern proved to be well-founded, as the Doctor would have very little input into the next episode as well, featuring only briefly until a major scene at the conclusion.

So, it is very much Millie Gibson's episode this one, and starts off as a nice bit of "folk horror". This genre has seen an upsurge of popularity in recent years after a boom in the 1970's - the "Haunted Generation as Fortean Times calls it - though it has its modern roots in the works of MR James amongst others. There is a rural setting, and generally some ancient superstition unique to a small community, with events often triggered by some incomer to the area, ignorant of local ways. A trio of movies are said to epitomise the genre - Witchfinder General, Blood on Satan's Claw, and The Wicker Man.

On TV we had The Children of the Stones and the Ghost Stories For Christmas.

Back in 1970's Doctor Who we were presented with some stereotypical renditions of regional locations - especially in stories such as The Green Death and Terror of the Zygons. 

Here, a Welshman presents us with a less than charming representation of the rural Welsh. The staff and customers of the inn are rude and sarcastic and make fun of the visiting Londoner. The locals do point out that they are not village idiots, but Ruby isn't assuming that they are - and do they have to behave in such a negative fashion?

Apart from potential damage to the Welsh tourism industry, this is also where the episode begins to go awry. Had it remained a good, spooky folk horror, it might have gone down a lot better - but instead it suddenly dog-legs into a political thriller which is more than a little derivative of Stephen King's The Dead Zone (1979). This features someone who has future knowledge that a politician will go on to cause a nuclear war and so sets out to stop them before this can come to pass. Instead of assassinating ap Gwilliam, Ruby simply sets her spectre on them by cleverly positioning herself 73 yards away from him.

There are two big Welsh actors in the episode, though by splitting the narrative in two and having each in only their half, they come across as somewhat underused - especially Sian Phillips who plays Enid Meadows, a customer of the inn who at first appears to be knowledgeable about Mad Jack and the fairy ring. This proves to be little more than a cameo for Phillips, who is probably best known for her portrayal of the Empress Livia in I, Claudius.

Having a bit more to do is Aneurin Barnard as Roger ap Gwilliam. RTD2 is clearly having a go at the rise of populist politicians on either side of the Atlantic, who exploit societal fault-lines to advance extremist, usually right-wing, policies.

Barnard had played Richard III in the TV drama The White Queen, and portrayed photographer David bailey, opposite Karen Gillan as model Jean Shrimpton in We'll Take Manhattan (2012).

Jemma Redgrave makes another appearance as Kate Stewart of UNIT, and also returning briefly are Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood, Michelle Greenidge as Carla, and Angela Wynter as Ruby's grandma Cherry.

The BBC's Amol Rajan, who currently hosts University Challenge, plays himself. interviewing ap Gwilliam for Newsnight.

Susan Twist plays the hiker, and for the first time Ruby acknowledges that she has seen this woman's face before.

Overall, it was very popular - but I would have preferred it to have either been a folk-horror story throughout, or a political thriller (preferably the former) and not attempted to smash the two genres together. Did Davies have two story idea that he simply couldn't develop into full episodes? That's how it feels.

Things you might like to know:

• Exactly what the woman says or does to terrify people is never explained, and RTD2 said he wouldn't be telling. All we know is that magic is involved as the fairy ring's disturbance is the cause of the Doctor's disappearance, and Ruby then has to live her life full circle to bring him back.
• Some prehistoric structures such as roundhouses or barrows had been thought of as fairy circles in the past, though the most common form is a natural one - a ring of fungi. The ring here appears to be inspired more by The Blair Witch Project (1999).
• We will later learn that 73 yards just happens to be the extent of a TARDIS perception filter's effects. People don't seem to notice the strange woman until Ruby points her out to them.
• Kate Stewart states that this is now an alternate timeline, one in which magic exists and more supernatural events take place. UNIT troops are said to carry both salt and silver as defences against witchcraft.
• When Ruby approaches UNIT for help, Kate states that the organisation is now actively recruiting former companions of the Doctor.
• This was the first episode of the 14th series to be recorded, and the very first scene shot was one of a 30 year old Ruby.
• At one point Ruby thinks that the "Mad Jack" mentioned in a poem on the note might be a dog. Davies later admitted that it was, but the reference was enough to trigger her memory of the warning the Doctor had given about ap Gwilliam.
• This is the fourth episode to launch directly into the narrative and dispense with opening titles / music.
• There is a Virgin New Adventures reference for fans of those books. One of the inn customers drinks a beer called Llanfer Ceiriog. This was the name of a Welsh village which appeared in the novel Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark (Andrew Hunt, 1992).
• Sian Phillips is the daughter-in-law of actor Leonard Sachs, best known as the Master of Ceremonies of music hall variety show The Good Old Days, but who also played Admiral de Coligny in The Massacre, and President Borusa in Arc of Infinity.

Update / DWM

A few odds and ends from whilst I was away before the blog gets back underway later this week.

First of all, there's been a lot of publicity regarding The War Between The Land And The Sea - and we now have episode titles: Homo Aqua, Plastic Apocalypse, The Deep, The Witch and the Waterfall and The End of the War.

For those outside the UK, I will be reviewing the episodes as they come along - so beware spoilers. I'll post the reviews on the Tuesday evening following broadcast - just so I have enough time to watch them myself.

On the night of the first two episodes, there will be a new omnibus version of The Sea Devils made available on the i-player. Unfortunately it comes from the team behind the colourisation stories, so if you have the Season 9 Blu-ray box-set then probably best ignore this and stick to the original 1970's omnibus.

The new spin-off features UNIT prominently, and this week (Thursday 4th) sees DWM publish their latest bookazine which dedicated to the organisation. Above is the cover exclusive to Panini themselves, whilst the shop-bought cover is below, though the previous quartet of bookazines had blue / white cardboard slipcases:

Lastly, if you haven't already got it then I'd recommend the latest DWM Special Edition, which is dedicated to Terry Nation and is the first of a "Doctor Who: Legends" series. There's a look at each of his TV stories, as well as his non-Doctor Who work.

I'll be taking a look at 73 Yards on Thursday, and then we cover the opening instalment of The Enemy of the World on Sunday.

Episode 185: The Ice Warriors (6)

Synopsis:

The Doctor has used a phial of ammonium sulphide to overpower Zondal. As the Ice Warrior collapses he is able to activate the firing mechanism of the sonic cannon...

He and Victoria are unable to stop the weapon striking the Ioniser base. The blast destroys part of the building and causes panic amongst the personnel.

Varga appears on a monitor in the control room, demanding surrender. Sergeant Walters urges Clent to comply, and the Leader reluctantly agrees.

Clent states that no hostile action will be taken against them. He believes he can negotiate with the aliens. Miss Garrett advises that they can use the threat of the Ioniser to strike a bargain with them. When Walters begins to panic, she shoots him with a tranquilising gun.

Meanwhile, in the spaceship, the Doctor is able to listen in to what is going on.

Varga and his men enter the control room as Walters wakes up. He raises his weapon and the Ice Warriors shoot him dead. Varga demands that the mercury isotopes which power the Ioniser be handed over to him, the Doctor having told him that the base uses these. Clent tries to argue that they don't hold these, but Varga orders the reactor be closed down so they can take what they need. 

Knowing that the base is doomed without power and heat, the Doctor decides to use the sonic cannon against the aliens. He must calibrate it carefully so that it affects the Ice Warriors but won't unduly harm the humans, reasoning that Martians will have a higher fluid level in their bodies.

Their helmets may also trap the soundwaves and affect them more.

Penley wakes up and slips out of the medical bay. He listens at the door of the control room as Miss Garrett is forced to run the Ioniser down to minimum power. He goes to the environmental controls and turns up the heat and humidity, whilst turning the oxygen level down.

As the heat and humidity rise sharply Varga suspects a trick and orders his men to kill everyone.

The Doctor fires the sonic cannon. The humans throughout the base are stunned but the Ice Warriors are badly affected.

The Doctor calls and threatens to fire again, so Varga and his men flee the base.

He then sabotages the cannon before slipping out of the spaceship with Victoria, who he sends to the safety of the TARDIS.

Zondal has recovered by the time Varga returns to find their cannon wrecked. He orders that they prepare to lift off and free themselves from the glacier before the humans can attack them.

As the base personnel recover, the Doctor and Penley urge Clent to use the Ioniser at full power, risking the potential explosion of the spaceship. Clent and Miss Garrett cannot bring themselves to take action without consulting the computer. It spins out of control and they realise that it simply cannot commit to any action which might mean its own destruction.

Crippled by doubt, Penley overrules them and takes over.

In the spaceship, Varga thinks that they have sufficient power to take off - but it is just the effects of the Ioniser heating the glacier.

As the device reaches full strength, the craft explodes - the blast registering only as a minor explosion on the base monitors.

The crisis over, the Doctor and Jamie slip away unnoticed.

Clent and Penley reconcile, each recognising their own individual strengths and talents but agreeing to work together once more.

Outside, the TARDIS dematerialises...

Next time: The Enemy of the World

Data: 

Written by Brian Hayles

Recorded: Saturday 25th November 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 16th December 1967

Ratings: 7.5 million / AI 51

VFX: Bernard Wilkie & Ron Oates

Designer: Jeremy Davies

Director: Derek Martinus

Critique:

The final episode of The Ice Warriors did not contain any of the Ealing filming and was produced entirely in studio.

Malcolm Taylor, playing Walters, was not available for the first three rehearsal days and Michael Attwell, who was portraying the Ice Warrior Isbur, stood in for him.

Once again the Warriors' dialogue was pre-recorded (on the Thursday before recording).

Deborah Watling would be unavailable for the evening's studio session, and so it was decided to record her scenes during the afternoon when camera rehearsals would normally be held. The reasons for her absence are unknown. In later interviews even she was unable to recall the circumstances.

The ending of the previous instalment had been transferred to film for use as a reprise at the start of the episode. 

Wendy Gifford, playing Miss Garrett, went back to wearing the costume she had worn in the opening instalments.

The VFX team rigged the sonic cannon control panel to explode when the Doctor sabotaged it by touching two wires together. They also rigged the main control panel to explode at the conclusion.

As the television cameras were large and unwieldy, a periscope lens attachment was used to show Walters lying at the feet of the Ice Warriors. The picture was rippled to indicate the rising heat in the base, and later a series of quick jump cuts were employed to show the effects of the sonic cannon on the aliens, with the actors clutching at their heads.

For the destruction of the spaceship, Bernard Bresslaw refused to fall over in his cumbersome costume. As well as the control panel burning, smoke was pumped onto the set and the ripple effect was once again used. The camera was tilted and rotated, and the image eventually whited-out.

The TARDIS departure was a model shot, superimposed onto an arctic scene, making it appear transparent. When last seen it had been lying on its side, but was now upright.

Brian Hayles had suggested that the sound of the TARDIS dematerialisation be played as the camera panned across the faces of Clent, Penley and Miss Garrett.

One small cut was made before transmission - the end of the scene in which Varga reprimanded Zondal for allowing the prisoners to escape and destroy their main weapon. The sub-commander would be punished later but first they must take off before the melting ice flooded their ship.

Following broadcast, a short trailer for The Enemy of the World was shown, comprising the scene in which the Doctor watched a speech by Salamander.

Derek Martinus would later cite The Ice Warriors as his favourite story, mainly due to the calibre of the guest cast he had been able to secure.

One of those actors would write to the regular cast members a few weeks later to say that he was now enjoying working in "proper snow". Peter Barkworth was in Austria filming Where Eagles Dare with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. After recording his final Doctor Who episode, he had kept Clent's perspex cane.

Patrick Troughton confided in Watling that he was finding the schedule on Doctor Who stressful, and that he had been experiencing heart palpitations.

Film copies of The Ice Warriors were sold to Australia, Zambia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Gibraltar. The story was also purchased by New Zealand but went un-broadcast thanks to the censors.

It was still being offered abroad  in the mid-1970's but the film copies are thought to have been destroyed by 1978. The original video recordings were scheduled to be wiped in July 1969. The final episode was wiped that October.

However, in August 1988 a number of film cans were discovered at Villiers House, which had once been home to BBC Enterprises. These were labelled as containing the second, fourth, fifth and sixth episodes of The Ice Warriors. The can claiming to hold Part Two proved to contain the first instalment.

They were screened at the NFT in London in December 1988, and again in November 1991.

The Ice Warriors had proved to be a popular new monster, and the production team were conscious of the expense of the costumes - so it was only natural that thoughts turned to a follow-up story featuring them. Plans were also being made for further Cyberman adventures and even though Terry Nation was willing to allow the use of the Daleks in the series once more, there was no rush to bring them back. A repeat screening of their last outing would be their only appearance until January 1972.

The Martians themselves have impressed with their look and the distinctive vocalisation introduced by Bernard Bresslaw. The story, however, has been lacking in incident for much of its middle section - as Victor Pemberton had once noted. One of the problems has been the lack of interaction between the Doctor and the monsters for much of the running time.

Martinus is right to praise the quality of the guest cast and Troughton has some great scenes with Barkworth and Peter Sallis.

Trivia:

• The ratings end on a healthy note, though down by half a million on the previous instalment. Mid December would have seen many families out Christmas shopping or attending festive events.
• Radio Times on Thursday 14th December published a letter from schoolgirl J Kirkcaldy, regarding the background to events in this story - namely its claim of a second Ice Age. As you can see Mr Hayles gave an immediate response:

• We are actually in the middle of the fifth Ice Age at present - the Quaternary, which began some 2.5 million years ago. Within this there have been glacial (cold) and interglacial (warm) periods. The previous four Ice Ages were the Huronian, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan and the late Paleozoic.
• One original Ice Warrior helmet from their debut story survives, recently refurbished by Mike Tucker and auctioned by the Propstore. It's one of the first batch used for the Ealing filming.

• Thursday 14th December saw Troughton appear in the Blue Peter studio, dressed and in character as the Doctor. A quarter of a million entries had been received in the "Design a Monster" competition, and today the winners were going to be shown. They were Karen Dagg's Steel Octopus, Paul Worrall's Hypnotron, and Stephen Thomson's Aqwa Man. The creatures were realised by the BBC costume department and would go on show alongside monster costumes from the series at the upcoming Daily Mail Boys and Girls Exhibition at Olympia. More on this soon.

The press covered the competition winners the following day, including a cartoon of the Hypnotron visiting an optician in the Daily Sketch.

• A young viewer wrote into Junior Points of View on 8th January that they had found the Ice Warriors frightening.
• TV Tornado comic featured Patrick Troughton on its cover in February 1968, with an Ice Warrior lurking in the background. The publication had also featured a double page spread on Doctor Who which included images of the Ice Warriors:

What's Wrong With... Time and the Rani

Time and the Rani is what Doctor Who would have looked like had JNT not had the influence of a Script Editor to keep him in check.

Andrew Cartmel is the credited Script Editor, but the story was already well advanced by the time he started and he has very much distanced himself from it. JNT had gone ahead and commissioned Pip & Jane Baker for another story, being a "safe pair of hands" (or two pairs of hands, rather) and could be trusted to get on with things whilst Cartmel got settled in. Bringing back an old enemy, played by a big US soap star, was an obvious way to get a new season launched.

We were also being given the debut of a new Doctor, someone well known to children's TV audiences.

On paper, it should have been a big success, but even the president of the biggest fan club felt compelled to go to the media slating it. What went wrong?

First of all, there's the absence of Colin Baker to participate in a satisfying regeneration scene. The Doctor appears to have simply fallen off his exercise bike after the Rani shot at the TARDIS. We see her with a relatively small gun, so how on earth did that weapon manage to target a TARDIS?

Later we'll see that she hasn't got any sort of navigation / targeting device on her Strange Matter rocket. It's the key to her entire scheme, yet it's stuck in a fixed trajectory and will miss the asteroid if it isn't launched at a precise time. Why have a gun that can target a small moving object precisely, and not a vital rocket aimed at a big hunk of rock in a supposedly stable orbit?

If the asteroid is as dense as is claimed, it ought to have drawn the rocket towards it anyway so there's no way it could miss. Also, Lakertya ought to be orbiting it, rather than the other way round.

Efforts are made to obscure McCoy's features when the Doctor is turned onto his back, but it just doesn't work.

As to the cause of the regeneration, the novelisation blames "tremendous buffeting" due to the gun.

McCoy's first couple of episodes are far from promising. He might have appeared with the National Theatre, but his acting is appalling in his first few scenes with Kate O'Mara, and the pratfalls are embarrassing.

O'Mara having to dress up and act like Bonnie Langford for two episodes is another embarrassment.

At what point did the Rani know she was going to impersonate Mel? If it was always the plan, why leave the real one lying in the TARDIS, free to get away, when she took the Doctor?

The Rani is watching Sarn run away, during which she bumps into Mel - yet a short time later she's surprised to learn that Mel is on the loose.

And at what point did she and Mel meet in order for her to know what she looked, acted and sounded like? There can only be a missing story somewhere - except Mel doesn't recognise the Rani...

The Rani's plan is to create a Time Manipulator which will alter history throughout the universe, back through time and not just henceforward. That would mean that all the genii she has collected to help her big brain with its calculations might never have been born - creating a temporal paradox.

One of the people she abducts is Einstein. Not only is this a bit of a cliché, but he was no fan of quantum physics so surely his mental input would either be disruptive as he fiercely disagreed with it, or simply useless as he would have zero talent in this field.

The Rani changes her mind about saving the Lakertyans as a slave labour force - despite the fact that the entire planet is going to be destroyed when her rocket hits the asteroid.

The Doctor gets locked in the Rani's laboratory, yet there's a second door which Mel is able to just walk through.

The Bakers always prided themselves on their research, with Pip often reminding interviewers that his brother was a scientist. But there's some very dodgy science on show here.

The Doctor uses fibre optic cables to bypass the deadly ankle bracelets as though they were electrical wires - even though they don't conduct electricity. (Pretty pointless of the Rani to employ the bracelets when she has her killer insects. All she's done is provide the Doctor with a quantity of explosives).

The Rani wants the rocket to launch at the Lakertyan solstice. A solstice is simply the date on which the sun reached either maximum or minimum declination, giving us on Earth our longest and shortest days. It should have nothing to do with the orbit of an asteroid.

Holiday - Blog Update

I'm off on holiday again at the end of the week, so there will not be any posts between Saturday 22nd and Sunday 30th November, unless there's some big breaking news. My last couple of trips saw me visit the exhibition in Peterborough but sadly that has now closed, so I may instead take a day trip to the Museum of Science Fiction in Milton Keynes, which has quite a few Doctor Who exhibits.

As I've almost got to the end of The Ice Warriors in my 'Episodes' series, I plan to finish it off later this week, rather than leave the story hanging until December. I'll also set out what I think was wrong with Time and the Rani before I go (plenty of ammunition there, so should be straightforward).

Normal service should resume Tuesday 2nd December.

Episode 184: The Ice Warriors (5)

Synopsis:

The Doctor demands to be allowed into the Martian spaceship, and finds himself in its airlock. Varga appears on a monitor to question him. When he refuses to answer, the Ice Warrior begins to depressurise the chamber...

Varga relents when the Doctor identifies himself as a scientist, come from the base. Allowed access to the spaceship, he tells the Ice Warriors that they will need the help of the humans if they wish to escape their captivity. Another glacier movement illustrates his point as the ship is rocked by tremors.

The Doctor tries to explain that the Ioniser will set them free as it melts the ice, but Varga is still convinced it is a weapon.

Out on the ice, Penley has abandoned the plant museum and is dragging the injured Jamie towards the base on a sledge.

They see a bear approach.

The Doctor, who has now been reunited with Victoria, tells Varga that the scientists need to know about his ship's engines so that a nuclear catastrophe can be avoided. However, they will use the Ioniser at full power even if they don't have this information as to do nothing will allow the glacier to advance. This is said by the Doctor for the benefit of Clent, who he knows is listening in to their conversation.

The suspicious Martian realises this and takes the comms-link from him.

Clent and Miss Garrett realise that they are not going to get the information they need about the alien ship, and are crippled with indecision. Even though he knows what it will say, Clent decides to give the computer all the available information and see what it advises. Miss Garrett has absolute faith in it, that it will come up with the solution to their predicament.

The bear attacks Jamie and Penley, who uses a tranquiliser gun at the last moment to disable it.

As predicted, the computer cannot advise until it has more information, and Clent realises that it has its own conflicted programming - its need to survive in order to serve. It is simply playing for time in his opinion.

The Doctor has been allowed to see the ship's engines. They are ion powered and he believes that they may not explode under ionisation. Varga then begins questioning him about the power supply for the base, and the Doctor realises that he is interested in using it to fuel his ship.

Much to Victoria's surprise, the Doctor tells Varga that he will find what he is looking for at the base.

Varga will go there with Rintan and Isbur, whilst Zondal will remain behind to guard the hostages and operate the sonic cannon, which will be employed to force Clent into acceding to their demands.

Security officer Walters reports to Clent that Penley and Jamie have just arrived at the base. Penley is able to tell Clent about the death of Arden. He is furious that Clent has not gone ahead and operated the Ioniser at full power, since the glacier is continuing to advance with the device on half-power. He knows that the leader is afraid to take risks, which is one of the reasons why he resigned.

The two men argue, with Jamie angrily insisting also that something be done to help the Doctor and Victoria. Losing control of the situation, Clent panics and has Walters tranquilise the two men. They are to be taken to the medical centre and held there under guard.

Varga reports to Zondal when he and his subordinates are outside the base, instructing him to aim the sonic cannon on its dome.

The Doctor has explained to Victoria that he only prompted Varga to visit the base in order to get rid of the Warriors and give them a better chance of escaping against a single guard. He is going to use the ammonium sulphide he had prepared before leaving the base, which Victoria recognises as a stink bomb.

Zondal is to fire on the base by way of a warning shot, to ensure the humans will obey them.

As the Warrior prepares the weapon, the Doctor tries and fails to distract him. Zondal attempts to take the phial of ammonium sulphide from him but he eventually opens it and throws it into his face.

The Martian collapses as Varga gives the order to fire, but as he does so he manages to activate the triggering mechanism...

Data:

Written by Brian Hayles

Recorded: Saturday 18th November 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 9th December 1967

Ratings: 8 million / AI 50

VFX: Bernard Wilkie & Ron Oates

Designer: Jeremy Davies

Director: Derek Martinus

Critique:

Brian Hayles intended Penley and Jamie to encounter a polar bear on their way to the base, suggesting that it had travelled south with the glaciers instead of being an escapee from a zoo. He proposed that this might have to be a man in a suit, or simply use of stock footage.

Only Rintan was to have accompanied Varga on his mission to the base, with Isbur left on guard outside the spaceship in the ice cavern, to be overpowered by the Doctor and Victoria after they had escaped from Zondal.

Jamie was to have been brought into the Ioniser control room on a floating air-bed.

The main filming for this episode was the sequence with the bear attack, which commenced at Ealing on Monday 25th September, with some scenes completed two days later. The bear was not present during this filming. This filming included POV shots to be shown from the bear's perspective.

It was brought to the studios on Friday 29th, a juvenile hired from a company named Zoorama Ltd of Colindale in North London. The contract specified that the animal had to be able to walk upright and follow basic guidance from its trainer. These shots would then be edited into the sequences captured with Frazer Hines and Peter Sallis earlier in the week.

With Patrick Troughton filming scenes for The Enemy of the World at Ealing on Monday 13th November, rehearsals began the following day. Ice Warrior dialogue was pre-recorded on Thursday 16th.

The fifth episode had no reprise from the previous instalment's cliffhanger, with Troughton simply carrying on the dialogue with Varga which had begun with that closing scene. 

A recording break was scheduled towards the end of the studio session to line up Bernard Bresslaw with the base dome model appearing behind him, to be seen on a monitor in the spaceship.

An improved graphic was employed for the sonic cannon targeting system, with a fluctuating strength bar as well as the usual crosshairs. 

The closing captions began to roll over a shot of Zondal's hand clutching the firing control.

A better episode for the Ice Warriors themselves this week, and the Doctor finally gets to interact with them. Victoria is a bit of a bystander now and Jamie gets a couple of good scenes - the bear attack with Penley (though the animal itself is all too obviously not large and ferocious), and the emotionally charged confrontation with Clent. We get to see more of why it is that Penley despises the Leader so much as he and Penley argue about risk taking. Clent relies too much on the computer, even when he knows it will not give him the answers he seeks. He admits to being a physical coward, but thinks this not as bad as Penley's "coward of the mind". For Miss Gifford, it is simply blind subservience to the machine and all that it represents.

A light is shone once more onto Victoria's upbringing as she instantly recognises ammonium sulphide as the basis for stink bombs - prompting a great line from the Doctor:

"Yes, you've had the benefits of a classical education...".

Trivia:

• The ratings see a big rise of 0.7 million viewers - giving the highest audience figure for this story. This took the series back into the top 50 programmes for the week (in 44th position).
• Some important decisions were being made behind the scenes this week. Innes Lloyd was preparing to step down and hand over fully to Peter Bryant, who needed a new Story Editor. He looked to Derrick Sherwin to fill this role. Sherwin, who also acted, was writing for Midlands soap opera Crossroads at this time.
• Kit Pedler, meanwhile, was preparing for the next Cyberman adventure. Bryant stated that he would like to see a story which featured both them and the Daleks together. The idea was passed to Terry Nation, whose hopes for a US Dalek series had come to naught, but he vetoed this two days later.
• And Douglas Camfield was informed this week that one of his casting decisions for the Yeti follow-up story was going to have to be changed. David Langton, who was to play Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, had been offered another role which he had decided to accept. Instead of looking to another more mature actor, Camfield offered a promotion to his current Captain Knight - Nicholas Courtney...
• Junior Points of View on Friday 8th December mentioned a letter they had received from a "mad Yeti fan", hoping to see the creatures' return.
• The Daily Mirror on the day of broadcast had an article about the Blue Peter competition to design a new monster. Entitled "Our Dr Who Monsters - By The Children" it featured some of the entries submitted so far (The Heap, Frogman, The Dedah and Mongo Man), with comments from the programme's editor Biddy Baxter. It was proving to be the most successful competition the series had run to date.

• Jamie apparently knows some Shakespeare as he says to Penley "Lead on MacDuff". This is actually a popular misquotation as what Shakespeare really penned, in Macbeth Act 5, Scene 8, was "Lay on MacDuff", which means to make a vigorous attack.

Spin-off broadcast dates

The broadcast dates for The War Between The Land And The Sea have now been announced. The first two episodes will be shown in the UK on Sunday Dec 7th, with parts 3 and 4 on the 14th. The finale follows on the 21st.

Inspirations: Under the Lake / Before the Flood

The main inspiration for this two-parter was the inclusion of ghosts as the monster. 

Doctor Who had always steered clear of the supernatural, even when it borrowed many of the visual and aural trappings. If we look at The Daemons, the story which is the closest the programme had come to traditional supernatural horror, you'll note that the Doctor explains - more than once - that it is really alien science which people are observing or experiencing.

This had always been the position taken by the series. It may look supernatural, but it's really all down to some scientific advance which the human race hasn't reached yet. (We're reminded of Clarke's Law - "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic").

Toby Whithouse had been contributing to the programme since Series 2, and was again approached to write for the latest season. He believed he would be asked for a single episode instalment and was offered a couple of scenarios to pick from, one of which was the ghosts idea.

He wanted to write a story which made full use of the dramatic opportunities afforded by time travel, and enjoyed the "timey-wimey" set-ups which Moffat often employed.

By combining the two in a single story, he realised that this would allow someone to actually meet their own ghost.

For the backdrop, it was decided to go for the traditional "base under siege" scenario, which was introduced in The Tenth Planet and proved so popular that it was frequently used throughout the Troughton era. Something of a cliché, it was seldom used in the revived series.

Another story idea Whithouse had been considering for some time was that of an alien infection, passed on through a spoken phrase and acting like a curse.

This was then added to the new storyline, and when considering the base which had to be besieged, a moonbase, a space station or an underwater complex were the options. Whithouse went for an underwater setting as this hadn't been used anything like as much as the other two locations.

An unused plot from one of his Being Human series involved a ghost hunter who captured entities in a Faraday Cage, so this was utilised here instead.

Michael Faraday had come up with this concept in 1836 - a framework or mesh which blocked electromagnetic fields.

For the underwater base (the Drum) sequences Whithouse claimed to have been inspired by the original Alien movie (1979) and John Carpenter's The Thing (1982).

The setting used for much of the second episode - the abandoned military training ground - was selected to provide a contrast with the claustrophobic, high-tech Drum.

This was inspired by the setting for 1989's The Curse of Fenric.

The cliffhanger appearance of the Doctor's ghost at the window of the Drum was inspired by Salem's Lot, the 1980's TV adaptation of Stephen King's vampire novel of 1975. The scene in question is when Danny Glick appears at the window of Mark Petrie, though Danny himself is visited by his vampirised younger brother in an earlier scene.

The 2014 sci-fi film Under the Skin was another inspiration for this sequence, as it features bodies floating slowly in darkness.

For the main alien villain of the piece, Whithouse elected to call it the Fisher King - a character from Arthurian legend. As he weakened, so too did his kingdom, as though they were psychically linked.

Looking for a planet which the Fisher King could have dominated, the obvious choice was Tivoli. The meekly acquiescing Tivolians had been created by the writer himself for The God Complex in Series 6.  The new invaders who deposed the Fisher King were the Arcateenians, created by Whithouse for Torchwood's Greeks Bearing Gifts.

Whilst doing research into time travel theories, Whithouse came upon the Bootstrap Paradox a term coined by Robert A Heinlein in his 1941 short story By His Bootstraps. In this a student is encouraged by his future self to become a world leader, who has to do this in order for it to come to pass.

The Doctor uses the writing of Beethoven's 5th Symphony as his example of the paradox. This was composed between 1804 and 1808, when it was first performed. The Tenth Doctor, in The Lazarus Experiment, had stated that Beethoven had taught him how to play the organ.

The Doctor also plays on his guitar the theme tune to the world's longest running science-fiction TV series at one point, composed in 1963 by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop...

As the alien infection was passed orally, Whithouse needed someone who could communicate in sign language so that one of the group would remain unaffected, and this led to the inclusion of a deaf character. Whithouse recalled a writers workshop he had once attended in which it was stated that not enough disabled characters were being utilised in TV drama.

For a time, the working title for this story was "Ghost in the Machine".

Next time: Odin't it be nice to see a story in which the Doctor and Clara get Mired down in a conflict between aliens and Vikings...?

Season 13 - The Collection (Review)

I actually received this latest Blu-ray box set two days early, thanks to HMV, but have only been able to work my way through it a bit at a time due to one thing or another - but better late than never.

I shan't say too much about the stories themselves as I've covered them elsewhere, and will eventually get round to looking at the individual episodes in detail.

Needless to say the picture quality is much improved, though I did see a bit of image shake on a couple of film sequences on Terror of the Zygons. That story is the only one this time to have optional VFX.

This comprises a few new shots of the Skarasen, using good old-fashioned model work rather than CGI.

There's a brief glimpse of the monster towards the end of Part Two, with a bit more for the final Thames appearance sequence in Part Four.

Now onto the Extras, of which there are many as we've come to expect of these sets (and one of the reasons it's taken me so long to get through it).

Two big new documentaries this time - one focussing on producer Philip Hinchcliffe with specific emphasis on this season, and another on Ian Marter, who played Harry Sullivan in two of these stories - his final work on the series.

The Hinchcliffe doc sees him meet up with Toby Hadoke in the West Sussex village of Charlton, which doubled as Tulloch in Terror of the Zygons. Here they discuss the story and Hinchcliffe is reunited with the original Skarasen model, lovingly restored by Neil Cole of the Museum of Sci-Fi in Allendale, Northumbria.

They then move on to discuss Planet of Evil at the rural home of designer Roger Murray-Leach, who provided the stunning jungle sets.

After that it's another home visit, this time to actor Gabriel Woolf who played Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars. He does the voice and is reunited with the original mask. His return in the Series 14 finale is mentioned.

The latter two homes visited are in the country, and it actually looks like they all live in the same village the way it's filmed.

At the Oxfordshire village of East Hagbourne Toby and Philip meet Sadie Miller, daughter of Lis Sladen, to discuss The Android Invasion. Again, there's a feeling that they've just gone a mile or two up the road from where the other interviews were filmed.

Stunt performer and fight arranger Stuart Fell is the next to be visited, to discuss The Brain of Morbius in which he played the patchwork monster. They have a zoom meeting with a collector in the USA who now owns the original brain / brain-case and claw from the costume.

The final venue is Athelhampton House, location for Harrison Chase's mansion in The Seeds of Doom. There they are joined by Graeme Harper who was Douglas Camfield's PA on the story.

Nice to see everyone again, but little new information offered.

The other doc, and the highlight of the set in my opinion, is the biography of Ian Marter. Fans will know that he died on his 42nd birthday in 1986, so it's a poignant affair. His wife and son are amongst the people interviewed, and one very good thing about this production is that there's no presenter or narrator. The friends and family simply talk about Ian, and we get to see lots of images from his varied theatrical career (working with Richard Burton on a production of Marlowe's Dr Faustus being an early highlight). After his year with Doctor Who Marter went on to write some of the most critically acclaimed novelisations - sometimes controversial in their use of violence and first ever instance of a swear word in a Doctor Who book. The man himself appears courtesy of convention footage and his "Myth Makers" video appearance, recorded at the Zygons locations only a couple of weeks before his death. One thing which is mentioned in the doc was his refusal to take his illness - diabetes - seriously. 

His struggles to come to terms with his bisexuality are also discussed.

The Matthew Sweet interview is with the aforementioned Graeme Harper. As well as PA'ing on Seeds, he also featured in Morbius as one of the pre-Hartnell Doctors. Unlike the others who contributed to this most divisive of scenes, he didn't get dressed up especially. They used a photo of him from Colony in Space, used for the real Adjudicator ID badge, and he was wearing Roger Delgado's costume.

He spends much of the interview, after talking about his early acting career and move into production, praising Camfield. Harper remains only semi-retired, with a few new ideas in the pipeline.

"Behind the Sofa" comprises three panels as usual. The first has Hadoke (the Doctor Who fan version of mansplaining at times) with Katy Manning and Sadie Miller. Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding have Sixth Doctor Colin Baker. With Davison off working somewhere else, Fielding isn't as annoying as usual. The third sofa has Maureen O'Brien with Sophie Aldred, companion actors spanning the classic series.

Favourite story amongst the lot seems to be Pyramids. Katy sides with the monsters often and is highly entertaining, reducing Sadie to tears at one point.

There's an archive convention panel and an assortment of short miscellany filling out the 8 discs. 

We get Tom's links from his Disney Time stint, which linked into the Zygons story as he receives a message from the Brigadier whilst at the cinema. 

A schools programme - Merry-Go-Round - sees the presenter watching a bit of Zygons by way of introducing the kids to the idea of the Hero. (He is going to go on to discuss The Odyssey, and I for one would have liked to have seen the whole programme).

We get a bit of a Bruce Forsythe-era Generation Game - a Star Trek spoof during which a Cyberman turns up.

Another Cyberman makes an appearance in a Crackerjack (Crackerjack!) sketch. There are two of these, one of which runs to almost quarter of an hour. Set on the Moon, it sees the two main male performers - Peter Sensorites Glaze and Don Maclean - dressed in Thal spacesuits from Planet of the Daleks. Host Ed "Stewpot" Stewart turns up at the end dressed as the Fourth Doctor.

The other is the full "Hallo My Dalek" sketch, a tiny bit of which you'll have seen in the (More Than) 30 Years in the TARDIS 30th Anniversary documentary.

Now I loved Crackerjack (Crackerjack!) as a child, but watching these I simply could not see what the audience were laughing at at all. Maybe JNT was right and the memory does cheat...

Only three more sets to go before they have to visit the 60's monochrome seasons, all of which have missing episodes or complete stories. They're 11, 16 and 21.

General consensus on-line is that 21 will be next (though artist Lee Binding made some cryptic comments about the colour blue in his colour palette reveal the other day, which might point more towards the set with the visit to the famous blue planet of the Acteon Galaxy...).

Have just received the second season of Blake's 7 on Blu-ray, so I'll take a look at that soon since there are always a lot of Doctor Who crossovers.

Episode 183: The Ice Warriors (4)

Synopsis:

Victoria has slipped out of the Ice Warrior spaceship and has found Arden's comm-link. As she talks with the Doctor and Leader Clent, she is unaware that the Martians' sonic cannon has her in its sights...

Zondal is keen to open fire, but is overruled by Varga, who wishes to hear what is being discussed. He is intrigued by Clent's insistence on knowing about their engines. As Victoria has brought people from the base in search of her already, she may do so again and he wishes to question one of the scientists.

The Warrior Turoc is sent outside to recapture her.

She sees him emerge from the ship and so takes flight deeper into the glacier, which is honeycombed with tunnels.

At the base, the Doctor realises that he will have to go and discover the nature of the spaceship engines himself. He uses a chemical dispenser to produce a vial of ammonium sulphide. Clent is dismissive of this but the Doctor points out that the aliens come from a planet with a mostly nitrogen atmosphere.

The Leader does not want him to leave as he has only just assumed Penley's role, but the Doctor tells him and Miss Garrett to go ahead and prepare for full ionisation. He will take a comm-link and report on his findings once at the spaceship, where he intends to let the Martians take him prisoner.

Victoria has dropped her communicator and goes back to find it. The glacier is unstable due to the ice movement, and there are frequent collapses. 

Turoc seizes her just as a major quake shakes the tunnels, and he is killed under an avalanche of falling ice. Victoria is unharmed, but left gripped in his clamp-like hand.

In the plant museum Penley is concerned about Jamie. He has just come round again and his fever has broken, but his pulse is weak. He tells them of his quest to rescue Victoria and, when he speaks dismissively about the base and its personnel, Storr believes him to be a kindred spirit.

When Jamie tries to get up, however, he discovers that his legs are paralysed.

Varga becomes concerned when Turoc fails to return with Victoria. He needs her to lure another from the base. Not only does he want to know why they are so interested in their engines, but they have discovered that their fuel supply has depleted over the centuries. They must learn what kind of power source the base uses, to fuel their ship.

As it was the alien weapons which harmed Jamie, Storr decides that the only way to help him is to seek their aid. He refuses to heed Penley's warnings about how dangerous they are, thinking they will see him as an ally against the base.

Penley goes after Storr but loses him on the glacier. Instead he encounters the Doctor, on his way to the spaceship. He tells him about the injured Jamie, and takes him to the plant museum to see him. 

There, the Doctor is able to convince Penley that he must set aside his differences with Clent and take Jamie to the base for treatment. The museum is increasingly threatened by the glacier and will be buried very soon anyway.

Storr meanwhile has come upon Victoria. He frees her from the dead Warrior's grip but she then discovers that he is going to see the Martians - and she must come with him.

Varga and Zondal are checking on the sonic cannon when Storr appears with Victoria. When they learn that he is not a scientist and has nothing to do with the base, they kill him.

At the base, Miss Garrett is shocked to discover that Clent has no back-up plan should the Doctor fail in his mission. The glacier is continuing to surge towards them, and time is running out.

The Doctor arrives at the ice cavern and knocks on the spaceship door, demanding to be let in.

The outer door is opened and he enters an airlock, where Varga appears on a monitor and begins questioning him. 

When he refuses to answer, the Ice Warrior begins to reduce the atmospheric pressure...

Data:

Written by Brian Hayles

Recorded: Saturday 11th November 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 2nd December 1967

Ratings: 7.3 million / AI 51

VFX: Bernard Wilkie with Ron Oates

Designer: Jeremy Davies

Director: Derek Martinus

Critique:

The draft script made much of the Ice Warriors' built in sonar equipment. Turoc used this to trace Victoria through the ice tunnels, whilst a different tone was used when he operated the spaceship door.

Two Warriors were seen working on the dismantled engines, and the engine bay was a specific set.

The sonic cannon was originally to be a stand-alone piece of kit, resting on an air-bed, and could be rolled out of the door into the ice cavern.

Turoc was described as moving clumsily due to his bulk. Brian Hayles specified the effect of the Warrior weapons - "if possible a refraction effect suggesting disintegration".

The first day of filming for the pursuit of Victoria took place on Thursday 28th September, the first day on which the Ice Warrior costumes were used. Earlier in the day they had filmed their resurrection from the ice.

The ice tunnels were composed primarily of sculpted polystyrene, though more rigid sections were set up when Debbie Watling and Sonny Caldinez had to interact with them. For the ice walls which had to be smashed, toffee glass was used.

More filming took place the following day, which included the avalanche which leads to Turoc's demise. Again toffee glass was used for the ice fall, with the camera shaken to simulate the tremors running through the glacier.

Unable to sit down in his bulky costume, Caldinez was supplied with a resting board to lean against between takes.

Watling was happy to be reunited with him, as he had been very protective towards her on The Evil of the Daleks.

Monday 2nd October saw the completion of the sequence, with Angus Lennie present as Storr. He was first filmed rescuing Victoria, then being shot down by the Warriors - the first use of the iconic Mirrorlon distortion effect from a production point of view, though it would first be seen by the public in the third episode.

Designer Jeremy Davies recalled being unhappy with the glacier interior sets at the time, but was pleasantly surprised by how effective they were on later viewing the episode for the DVD release.

Bernard Bresslaw and Roger Jones pre-recorded their dialogue on the first day of rehearsals for the fourth episode.

Patrick Troughton missed the Friday rehearsal day when he attended Ealing for filming for the following story.

The reprise of the cliff-hanger was remounted in studio on Friday 11th November, and some of the scenes originally set within the spaceship were moved to the ice cavern since the sonic cannon was no longer going to be a stand-alone prop which had to be pushed out the door.

As with the ice fall on film, cameras were shaken to show the glacier moving - both on the plant museum set and the ice cavern, with lightweight debris being dropped on both. Jablite snow fell as the Doctor approached the spaceship.

Varga appears on a monitor in the airlock in the closing scenes. Bresslaw was actually standing on the base laboratory set for this, seen only in tight close-up.

The end credits rolled over shots of the Doctor's horrified reactions to the airlock depressurisation.

We've already mentioned how Victor Pemberton thought this story rather dull, and there were criticisms about pace and lack of incident both at the time and when the episodes were later released onto VHS and DVD.

For the debut of one of the best remembered monsters, the Ice Warriors have been relatively underused up to this point, and we are now over the halfway point of the story. Only Victoria has interacted with the aliens so far, who only turned up on mass at the end of the second instalment. It is only in the final two episodes that they have any major interaction with the Doctor and the base personnel.

Victoria wasn't well used in the previous story - with the obsessive desire to visit Padmasambhava's inner sanctum seemingly included just to give her something to do in the middle episodes.

This has been a much better story for her, with Jamie more on the side-lines for a change. Injured last week, he spends this entire episode lying on his back in the plant museum, with Hines enjoying only a couple of scenes.

The Doctor has also had very little to do in Parts Two and Three. He has been left hanging around the base with Clent watching events on a screen - only finally getting out onto the glacier this week. First he is reunited with Jamie at the plant museum, and then he has his first meeting with Varga, albeit only via monitor.

Apart from the Victoria / Turoc chase set-piece, this episode is very much one that sees the story tread water.

Trivia:

• The ratings see only a very small drop on the previous week, but the appreciation figure remains stable. It varies only between 50 - 52 over the course of the entire story.
• The Radio Times published on 23rd November, the programme's fourth birthday, included a piece about an exciting new competition which would be featured on Blue Peter on the afternoon of Monday 27th: to design a monster that could beat the Daleks. The programme included a filmed sequence from The Power of the Daleks. It was stated that "Doctor Who" himself would judge the entries, and the winners would be put on display at the forthcoming Daily Mail Boys and Girls Exhibition - and might even make it into the show itself. The competition announcement actually made the news the next day, with political cartoonists suggesting Labour's Harold Wilson as a potential rival to the Masters of Skaro.