Silurians & Sea Devils @ Peterborough

As threatened, I'm going to inflict a number of my holiday snaps on you over the next few weeks. Luckily for you, these are of the exhibits currently on display at the excellent Doctor Who exhibition at Peterborough Museum, situated on the city's Priestgate.

This first collection centres on Homo Reptilia as seen over the years - from The Silurians in 1970 to The Legend of the Sea Devils in 2022.

Naturally, a lot of these costumes are reproductions as many of the originals simply no longer exist (mainly because the materials employed to make them rot and disintegrate over time). Chronologically we start with the original (and best) version of the Silurian from Season 7... 

Next to him stands an original Sea Devil design from Season 9. Again I'd say it's my favourite of the three versions we've seen to date. It'll be interesting to see what they do with them in The War Between the Land and the Sea...

We then move onto the JNT era and the versions seen in 1984's Warriors of the Deep.

I didn't mind the Silurian redesign (apart from the way the third eye lit up when they spoke), but I never liked the Samurai look for their marine cousins. They proved to be quite impractical, with their big feet and the heads often flopping over to the side. Both these costumes also suffered from rather loose fittings, with the actors' white T-shirts showing underneath.

The weakest Silurian design is the one inflicted upon us by Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall, introduced from The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood. I have never rated these as they took away everything that was distinctive about them - turning them into generic lizard people of the sort you saw every other week in Star Trek spin-offs and their like. The regular female Silurians we saw in the Matt Smith / Peter Capaldi episodes are not represented here, however, but we do get leader Eldane.

Last in the line-up is the most recent Sea Devil, which I was glad to see proved faithful to the original design, albeit with a more practical outfit than the baggy string vest. They were obviously aiming for a pirate vibe.

It's not just costumes on show at the exhibition. There are also models and props. Two models relevant to this post were loaned by Mat Irvine and hail from Warriors of the Deep - Sea Base 4, and the Silurian battlecruiser...

Next batch - some '60's Cybermen.

60's Girl Power @ Riverside Studios

On Sunday 25th May 2025, Riverside Studios at Hammersmith hosted an event organised by the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. This was the latest of a number of small-scale themed events known as "Projections in Time". A number of episodes from the classic era are shown, and these are interspersed with Q&A panels comprising people who worked on them - be they actors or behind the scenes personnel.

My first event was based around The Moonbase, and the last one I attended covered some UNIT stories of Season 8. They are run for an afternoon only and, as well as the episodes / panels, there are photo opportunities and autograph sessions.

This latest one was themed around the four surviving female companions of the 1960's - Carole Ann Ford, Maureen O'Brien, Anneke Wills, and Wendy Padbury.

Joining them were a couple of guest artists from their episodes - Virginia Wetherell, who played Diyoni in The Daleks, and Felicity Gibson, who played Kando in The Dominators.

Constance Carling - the Auton secretary in Spearhead From Space - was also on hand for photos and autographs only.

The afternoon kicked off with The Daleks (3) and Galaxy Four (3), after which we had the first panel comprising Ford, O'Brien and Wetherell. Naturally, Ford was asked about the circumstances around her return in the current series as well as her days on the show as a regular cast member. With memories of the episodes fading, these panels often cover a lot of experiences beyond the programme.

There then followed a break during which the photograph sessions took place. I had mine taken with the four companions only, but there were all manner of permutations available.

This overran and on returning to the auditorium we had an extra piece of business as Margot Hayhoe - AFM / Production Manager on the series for a number of years - was on hand to raffle an original costume design sketch. This was the first idea for Supervisor Lowe in The Invisible Enemy. Margot had known the late designer Raymond Hughes well and had been offered the item by his widow to be sold for charity. It reached £350.

The second session of the day kicked off with The Faceless Ones (3), followed by The Dominators (2). 

One big drawback of Studio 1 at Riverside is the steepness of the stairs. The guests at these events, by their very nature, are people who are no longer young and fit, and I've seen before how some struggle to get up and down the steep gradient (made worse by high steps).

Anneke Wills suffered a serious fall in her garden a few months ago, and for the final panel could only participate from her seat at the back of the auditorium, whilst Wendy Padbury and Felicity Gibson made it down to the stage. Luckily I was seated near the back, so it was easy enough to turn slightly to see her speak. Wendy had a few funny stories about her co-stars and criticisms of the director of her featured episode - thinking Morris Barry overly patronising towards her. Wills couldn't recall working for him (which she did on The Moonbase).

The day ended with the autograph panels but, as I have never had any interest in collecting these, I took my leave.

Not everyone likes the big conventions but these small scale events are an ideal opportunity to meet stars of the show and get photographs / autographs without massive queues and in a more informal setting. The themed nature of them means that you can pick and choose which ones to go for, and at just the half day they are relatively inexpensive as well.

No idea what the next event will be - the DWAS usually post on their social media a month or so after the last event. Depending on the episodes selected and the guest list, I certainly plan to attend again.

Peterborough Pics

Yesterday I visited the Doctor Who exhibition at Peterborough Museum and took lots and lots of pictures. I'm going to post a few each week, grouped into a theme - Daleks, Cybermen etc. The first one will be Sea Devils & Silurians.

They have crammed an awful lot into the exhibition - models, props and costumes, both original and reproductions - and I would strongly recommend a visit if you get the chance.

I'll also post something about the DWAS "60's Girl Power" event at Riverside Studios later this week.

Wish World - a review

The Interstellar Song Contest concluded with a double cliffhanger, with the reveal that Mrs Flood was the Rani, and the Doctor and Belinda finally managing to get to 24th May 2025 - only for the TARDIS to apparently explode...

Quite a few things about this instalment could be deduced from photographs and trailers. There's an alternative Earth, with big dinosaur-like skeletons walking about, and the Doctor and Belinda are married with a child - that Poppy yet again - with him seemingly living as a bowler-hatted businessman. The members of UNIT are all doing different things, and Susan Triad is a tea lady. Conrad Clark has some position of influence, and he and the Two Ranis oversee things from a Bone Palace that towers over London. Another image showed Conrad reading a book about "Doctor Who".

We also knew that there was another member of the Unholy Trinity whom we were yet to see.

Rumours were that this was going to be Omega, and that Susan would make another appearance.

A Radio Times interview with Millie Gibson stated that Ruby was the only person who knew that "Wish World" wasn't the real one.

Apart from some big reveal at the end of the episode, how much of this came to pass, and what more was there to this episode? Well, there was a big reveal - but it wasn't the one we expected...

Last year, RTD2 delivered an excellent episode in The Legend of Ruby Sunday (which also concluded with a big reveal of an old foe from the past). It was an episode which, though the first half of a larger story, could hold its own. Wish World really can't say the same. It is all set up, and really nothing but set up, and it takes an awfully long time to get where it's going. This proves to be a massive info-dump as the Rani tells the Doctor - and us - what's been happening for the last 40 minutes.

In a nutshell, the Rani abducts a baby who is the incarnation of another god. This one is the god of wishes. Conrad was sprung from prison so that said baby could make his ideal world come into being. The Earth is so ideal that some people harbour doubts, but the Rani wants this as these doubts will grow to shatter this reality.

The Doctor has been trapped in this world, peopled by all his old UNIT friends, specifically so that he too can begin to doubt - as the doubts of a Time Lord will finally break this world and enable the Underverse to rise in its place. Why? Because Omega is trapped there, and the Rani wants to bring him back.

Unlike the final cliffhanger of the last series, we don't actually get the big reveal. We are simply told that it is Omega whom the Rani seeks to find, and we catch a snatch of Stephen Thorne dialogue from an audio story, but we don't get to see him. Rumour has it - and they've all been correct - that it's another CGI creation like the pitiful Sutekh.

The main problem with Wish World is that we discover this is a fake, idealised domain straight away, and the episode then takes an awfully long time to show it off to us. We've got the picture, so please move the story on... However, we get stuck there - meaning that all the action is condensed into the last few minutes once the Doctor gets taken to the Bone Palace and the Rani delivers her exposition.

The domain sees UNIT turned into the Unified Insurance Team, with Kate as manager and Triad, as mentioned, the tea-lady.

People who express doubts are reported on to the authorities by their neighbours, which reminded one of the final part of the Monk trilogy in Series 10. The Rani is some powerful presence up in the clouds who is barely glimpsed - just like the Master in The Last of the Time Lords. Yet again, RTD2 is raiding the recent past.

Gibson wasn't entirely accurate in that RT interview, as a group of disabled people also sense things ain't what they used to be. The reason for this is that Conrad simply doesn't see them, so his influence can't impact on them. Presumably his contempt for Ruby is why she also falls beneath his radar.

The Bone Creatures seem to be pretty pointless (I'm assuming they are a visual reference to the Ergon), whilst Mrs Flood's subservience is obviously a nod to the Tetraps (Urak being named for Uriah Heep - the obsequious Dickens character rather than the rock group). 

I'm still waiting to see what makes the Rani any different to Missy.

The visual imagery of London collapsing was pretty stunning, and the Doctor is trapped on a balcony overlooking the city which the Rani has rigged to collapse. As he plummets to the ground, he reveals that not everything in this domain is fake. The daughter he has with Belinda isn't some artificial construct, but his real daughter - which would make her Susan's mother I assume, hence the glimpses we've been getting of her.

Quite how RTD2 will square this with the execrable Space Babies, in which there wasn't the slightest hint that Poppy was in any way known to him, remains to be seen. One bit of speculation is that those babies were actually part of an experiment by the Rani, who is out to create a new race of Time Lords.

I managed to catch Wish World before heading off to the airport on Saturday morning, and so decided not to rewatch when I got home, as I'm going to see The Reality War on the big screen and Wish World will be shown immediately before it. It is only the first half after all, and ought to sit much better when seen back to back with the finale.

We've also been informed that there will be a teaser trailer for The War Between Land And Sea shown on Saturday evening. There were suspicions that this spin-off might be postponed to 2026 since there certainly won't be a new series of Doctor Who until 2027 at the earliest, but it looks like it will be shown later this year.

Blog reminder

Just a quick reminder that I'm now taking a short break, attending the DWAS "60's Girl Power" event at the weekend plus a visit to the Doctor Who exhibition at Peterborough. I'll won't be reviewing Wish World until after I get back on Wednesday 28th May.

Inspirations: Listen

This story originated with a conversation between Steven Moffat and one of the producers, in which the writer said that he wanted to do something with sound effects, and the idea of a monster which you never actually got to see. He described the episode as a "chamber piece", with only a minimal guest cast, concentrating on character rather than spectacle.

Apart from the children's home supervisor, Reg, and little Rupert Pink, the episode is held together by only Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Samuel Anderson.

A chamber piece, using sound to its full advantage, and a monster you never get to see? Yes, this is Moffat's Midnight.

After the children's home section, it's the scenes on Orson's spaceship which mirror the earlier RTD story the most. We even have shots of the exterior in which we think that - just maybe - we glimpsed the monster.

After brief appearances, this episode also helps to establish Anderson / Danny Pink in his role as a series semi-regular, just like the various companion relatives / ex-boyfriends / fiancés who have populated the show since 2005.

As well as future time-traveller Orson Pink, we get the sequences between Clara and Danny in the restaurant.

A running theme through this season will be Clara's attempts to juggle her relationship with him and her TARDIS travels - which will lead to us learning that she is actually addicted to the latter, but wants the best of both worlds.

In the same way that Blink had originated in a story Moffat had contributed to a publication, so this owes its origins to Corner of the Eye, a short story he wrote for 2007 Doctor Who Storybook. In this the Tenth Doctor was involved with a creature known as a Floof, which was invisible and which latched onto individual and plagued their life.

Once again, Moffat wanted to play on things often associated with children's fears - especially the idea that there is something lurking under the bed. He had previously used this in The Girl and the Fireplace.

The TARDIS telepathic circuits come into play once again - first introduced in The Time Monster. Once a pair of discs on the console, they now take up a whole segment of the console and appear organic in nature. They can take the TARDIS to wherever, or whoever, the user is concentrating on - in this case a future relative of Danny's. He is stuck at the end of the Universe, and that's where the Doctor wants to go anyway as he believes that the ultimate in evolution should outlive every other creature, and he wants to see what it is like.

After the Doctor gets knocked out, the TARDIS takes Clara into his past - when he was an isolated child sleeping in a barn in outer Gallifrey. She then, inadvertently, becomes responsible for his own fear of the thing under the bed.

The barn is the one where the War Doctor took The Moment in The Day of the Doctor, and we get a glimpse of John Hurt from that story - thus explaining why he chose the location.

Commenting on the silence in Rupert's bedroom, the Doctor says "not a click nor a tick". He had previously used this term to describe the silent TARDIS in Death to the Daleks.

On waking up, the Doctor exclaims: "Sontarans! Perverting the course of human history!" - which is what the Fourth Doctor said moments after regenerating in Robot, and it refers to the events of The Time Warrior.

Putting the boy to sleep by simply touching his temples was a trick the Doctor first used in Survival.

Orson's spacesuit is specifically a Sanctuary Base 6 one, as it has the SB6 logo on it. The Doctor obtained one of these in The Impossible Planet.

Next time: Docs and Robbers...

P is for... Pangol

Pangol was the hot-headed son of Morix and Mena, leaders of the Argolin people. They lived within the confines of the Leisure Hive, a hermetically sealed complex which acted as an educational scientific holiday resort. The surface of the planet had become heavily irradiated, and this had caused the Argolins to become sterile. 

The attractions were based around Tachyonics, which allowed matter to be copied and manipulated. The highlight of the tourist visits was the Tachyon Recreation Generator, demonstrations of which Pangol presented himself. Despite the Hive's reliance on visitors from other worlds, chiefly from Earth, Pangol harboured a hatred towards any alien influence on his planet. He had been carrying out secret experiments with the Generator. 

Mena took over control of the Hive on the death of Morix, just as it came under attack by the reptilian Foamasi through a series of acts of sabotage. They sought to lower the value of the complex in order to buy it cheaply. The Argolins and Foamasi had fought a brief but devastating nuclear war some 20 years before - the cause of the radiation which blighted the planet.

Fronting the purchase was the Hive's Earth agent, Brock, who was being impersonated by a disguised Foamasi. 

When Mena then fell terminally ill, Pangol made his move. He wanted his mother's body thrown outside, even though she was not yet dead, and he destroyed an Argolin spacecraft as it tried to leave with the now captured saboteurs. He had set up the Generator so that it could duplicate himself thousands of times, to create a huge army that would wage was against the Foamasi. He had learned that he was not a natural born Argolin - being younger than the war which had caused his people to become sterile - but was the result of an earlier experiment to use Tachyonics to create new Argolin offspring.

The Doctor interfered with this process so that it was he who was copied instead of Pangol. The dying Mena was placed in the Generator by an Earth scientist named Hedin, who hoped that the process could reverse aging. Pangol attempted to stop him but got trapped inside with his mother. When they emerged, she had been rejuvenated whilst he had been regressed to babyhood. Mena promised to bring him up better next time.

Played by: David Haig. Appearances: The Leisure Hive (1980)

• Baby Pangol was played by a girl - Alys Smith, daughter of Production Unit Manager Angela Smith. She also played a child in The Mysterious Planet.
• Haig is probably best known to British TV audiences for his role in Rowan Atkinson's police-based sitcom The Thin Blue Line.
• In 1997 he wrote the play My Boy Jack, about the relationship between writer Rudyard Kipling and his son, who was killed in WWI. In 2007 this was filmed by ITV, with Haig playing Kipling and Daniel Radcliffe playing his son John. 
• He has also appeared in Blake's 7 and was one of the grooms (No.2) in Four Weddings and a Funeral.
• He was made an MBE in 2013.

P is for... Paltraki

When the Doctor and her companions arrived inside a crashed spaceship on the planet Ranskoor Av Kolos, in response to multiple distress calls, they discovered that a massive battle had just taken place. 

The captain of the ship was the only surviving pilot - a man named Paltraki, who appeared to be suffering from amnesia. This was the result of a debilitating psychotropic field which blanketed the planet. Providing him with a device which could block this field, he was gradually able to remember recent events. Some of his crew had also survived, but they had been abducted by a mysterious being who resided in a massive stone citadel on this planet. This figure had attacked many worlds, including Paltraki's homeworld of Stebble, and so a fleet had been sent to confront him.

The being had harnessed the psychic powers of a pair of Ux pilgrims. They practiced psychokinesis and thought him their deity, and so the fleet was destroyed.

The Doctor agreed to accompany Paltraki to the citadel to rescue his people as well as meet the being. This proved to be T'zim Sha, an alien who had previously been responsible for the death of Grace O'Brien - wife of Graham and grandmother of Ryan, two of her current companions.

He had created a weapon capable of destroying whole planets, using the Ux to harness energies of captured miniaturised planets.

The Doctor was helped by Paltraki to free his crew from stasis capsules, and T'zim Sha found himself imprisoned in their place after the Ux realised that he had been exploiting their faith.

Played by: Mark Addy. Appearances: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (2018)

• Addy first came to fame as one of the unemployed men who turn to stripping in The Full Monty.
• He is probably best known for his role as King Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones' first season.

P is for... Palmerdale

An arrogant Edwardian peer of the realm whom the Doctor met on Fang Rock, which lay off the coast of Southern England. Whilst gambling at Deauville he had come into some financial secrets which he was desperate to exploit, and so ordered the captain of his private yacht to speed back to England, despite heavy fog in the English Channel. He had obtained this insider information from a friend who had accompanied him to Deauville, Colonel Skinsale, who was in serious financial debt to him. Also on the trip was his mistress Adelaide.

Nearing Fang Rock just as the lamp of its lighthouse failed, the yacht ran aground. Palmerdale, Skinsale and Adelaide were taken into the lighthouse - only to discover that it was under siege by an alien Rutan, come to assess Earth's strategic value in their long-running war with the Sontarans. It was responsible for the lamp failing as it fed off electrical power. 

Undaunted and caring only for his personal wealth, Palmerdale tried to bribe the junior keeper Vince into sending a message to his stockbroker in London but, fearing involvement in any scandal, Skinsale wrecked the wireless telegraph.

Whilst hiding on the external lighthouse gantry after his bribery efforts, Palmerdale was attacked by the Rutan. It electrocuted him and his body fell onto the rocks below.

Played by: Sean Caffrey. Appearances: Horror of Fang Rock (1977).

• As well as his lengthy acting career, Northern Ireland-born Caffrey was also a set designer, writer and founder of the North Face Theatre Company. 
• TV work includes roles in Survivors, The Professionals, Z-Cars, Bergerac, and Edge of Darkness.
• Film roles included a couple of Hammer movies - The Viking Queen and When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth.
• Naturally there was no explicit mention of the relationship between Palmerdale and Adelaide in the story...

P is for... Palmer, Professor

Professor Alec Palmer was a scientist who became obsessed with a legendary ghost - or ghast - which haunted Caliburn House in Northern England. It appeared as a white, screaming entity, and had been seen by several witnesses over the centuries. It had even been captured frequently on film.

Palmer, who had once worked for the Special Operations Executive during WWII, bought the property in order to study the phenomena full-time. In 1974, he had as a guest a woman named Emma Grayling who had psychic abilities. He wished to use her in experiments to try and establish contact with the ghast.

The Doctor and Clara Oswald visited Caliburn House at this time and encountered the spectre themselves. Intrigued, the Doctor decided to use the TARDIS to visit the location throughout the whole of Earth's history, taking photographs at each stop, and he found that it appeared every time. He was therefore able to tell Palmer that this was no supernatural entity but a product of some scientific phenomena. Not only that, but there were two separate visitations in the House.

It transpired that a woman time-traveller named Hila had become trapped in a pocket universe which was rapidly collapsing. With her was a misshapen alien creature.

The fracture in time linked this dimension with Caliburn House and it was glimpses of Hila which people were capturing. The mate of the alien creature had come through the fracture. 

The Doctor was able to rescue Hila and the other creature. Palmer then discovered the reason why the fracture should be centred on his home: Hila was a future descendent of Emma and he. They both had feelings for each other but he had found them difficult to express due to his obsession with the ghast.

He also harboured guilt about the people who he had sent on dangerous missions during the war, many of whom had never returned.

Played by: Dougray Scott. Appearances: Hide (2013).

• One of Scott's first big TV roles was as the main character's older brother in The Crow Road, a BBC adaptation of the Iain Banks novel. This featured Peter Capaldi as Uncle Rory.
• He was later the villain of the second Mission: Impossible movie.
• Palmer was originally going to be Professor Bernard Quatermass, previously only hinted at as being a real figure in the Doctor Who universe.
• Quatermass would have been a much older man in 1974. Unfortunately, by casting the 36 year old Scott, it means that Palmer would have been a child during WWII, so highly unlikely to be a senior figure with the SOE sending people to their deaths, even if a child prodigy...

P is for... Padmasambhava

The Doctor first met the spiritual head of Det-Sen Monastery in 1630, when it came under attack by Chinese bandits. On that occasion he was given a sacred relic for safekeeping - a small bell known as a Ghanta. When the TARDIS materialised near Det-Sen in 1935, the Doctor took the opportunity of returning it to the monks - and was shocked to find that Padmasambhava was still alive.

His body had become host to a malevolent alien entity known as the Great Intelligence, which sought corporeal existence whilst consuming all energy on Earth.

Padmasambhava was instructed to build a number of robots disguised as Yeti, which would be employed to scare people away from the area, including his monks, so that a bridgehead could be established unopposed. As well as great longevity, he was also gifted enhanced mental powers which included psychokinesis and hypnotism. He controlled the mind of Abbot Songsten - using him as a proxy for his own commands - and later that of the Doctor's companion Victoria, in order that she might try to dissuade him from intervening in the Intelligence's plans.

At times the venerable master's own mind could reassert itself, and he still saw the Doctor as an old friend whom he did not wish to harm.

The Doctor and his friends were finally able to destroy the Intelligence's control equipment which Padmasambhava had set up within his inner sanctum - breaking the mental and physical link with the entity. The only thing prolonging his life now shattered, the old man died in the Doctor's arms.

Played by: Wolfe Morris. Appearances: The Abominable Snowmen (1967)

• The Abominable Snowmen owes much of its inspiration, both narratively and visually, to the 1955 Nigel Kneale TV play The Creature, which was filmed by Hammer as The Abominable Snowman in 1957. Wolfe Morris played the lead sherpa character in both versions.
• The real Padmasambhava was a Buddhist guru, who was championed by a Tibetan monarch named Trisong Detsen - one of the three Dharma Kings. The other two were named Songtsen and Ralpachen, so you can see where Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman were getting their character and place names from.
• Barry Letts, who was himself a Buddhist, objected to real figures from its history being used in works of fiction. He claimed that he would not have allowed it had he produced the story. He was at least able to get Terrance Dicks to make changes for the novelisation of the story - though this entailed only minimal differences in spelling, Padmasambhava became Padmasambvha for instance.
• It was originally intended to show Padmasambhava's face dissolving once the Great Intelligence had been expelled, but the effect was deemed too horrific. 

Episode 162: The Faceless Ones (6)

Synopsis:

The Doctor and Nurse Pinto have attempted to bluff their way onto the Chameleon space station, but Captain Blade has already spotted the deception. They find themselves surrounded by armed aliens...

The Doctor is informed that they were allowed to come this far as they wish to obtain his knowledge.

At Gatwick, the Commandant shuts down the airport so that a comprehensive search for the originals of the Chameleon duplicates can be carried out by Superintendent Reynolds and his men.

The Doctor is taken before the Director and sees Jamie there - or his copy at least. He tries to discover the whereabouts of the originals as the Director begins recalling his people from the Earth. When it is clear that the leader is not going to bargain with him, the Doctor begins to sow seeds of discontent - sensing the potential to turn Blade against the Director, who has ordered him prepared for duplication. After he has left the office, the Doctor tells Blade that the airport authorities already know where the abducted personnel are being kept, and that they will begin deactivating their armbands - beginning with him.

The Captain thinks he is lying, but cannot run the risk, and so calls the Commandant.

He claims the Doctor is telling the truth.

Jean and Samantha have been searching the Chameleon Tours kiosk and come across paperwork relating to the hire of some coaches, and a list of 25 car registration numbers - the same number of missing personnel. They must search the car parks.

Blade demands proof from the Commandant, just as his secretary and Samantha notify him of their discovery. He plays for time. 

The Director returns and is angry with Blade for delaying the duplication of the Doctor. It has distracted the Chameleons long enough for the Doctor to sabotage their duplication machine, and it blows up. The Director orders a replacement be brought at once.

Jean and Samantha are searching the car park when they are attacked by Meadows, who has escaped custody. Between them they are able to overpower him and they spot Jenkins inside a vehicle as the police arrive.

The Commandant has been given an ultimatum to produce proof that the originals have been found, and so the order is given to remove the armband from the real Jenkins. Blade is horrified to see his duplicate suddenly decompose in front of them.

The Doctor points out that whilst the Director and his friends are safe, with their originals secure in the satellite, Blade, Spencer and their associates from the airport are all doomed.

When the Director attempts to blame them for what has happened, Blade insists of negotiating with the Commandant and the Director finds his people turning against him.

Blade confirms that the aircraft they use can reverse the miniaturisation process, after the Director attempts to claim they cannot do this.

The Director and the duplicate Jamie then attempt to leave and get help, but Blade kills both.

The Doctor agrees to act as negotiator between Blade and the Commandant, and to provide some alternative techniques which the Chameleons might use to deal with their problems. His companions will be found and returned to him. Inspector Crossland will also stay on for a while to help, whilst Nurse Pinto will return to Earth.

Some time later, back at the airport, Jamie bids a fond farewell to Samantha, who has been reunited with her brother. The Commandant arranges for the Doctor to collect the TARDIS.

Ben discovers that today is July 20th 1966 - the very day when he and Polly first stepped aboard the TARDIS in Fitzroy Square. They both realise that they could pick up their old lives by heading into London, as though they had never been away. The Doctor bids them farewell when he sees that this is what they want to do. 

Not wishing to spoil their return home, he waits until they have gone before informing Jamie that the TARDIS has disappeared...

Next time: The Evil of the Daleks

Data:

Written by Malcolm Hulke & David Ellis

Recorded: Saturday 6th May, 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 13th May 1967

Ratings: 8 million / AI 52

Designer: Geoffrey Kirkland

Director: Gerry Mill

Additional cast: Leonard Trolley (Superintendent Reynolds)

Critique:

The first drafts of this episode ran rather long and had to be cut. Blade did not know that the Doctor and Nurse Pinto were imposters straight away, and the Doctor was able to prolong their deception.

Changes made to the script included Meadows disguising himself as a policeman to follow and then attack Samantha and Jean at the car park, and it was the original of Ann Davidson whose armband was removed. Blade and Spencer were initially unsuccessful in challenging the Director. Nurse Pinto removed the armband from the real Jamie so that he recovered and came to help the Doctor.

It was stated that the Chameleons had only been operating out of Gatwick for three weeks - with the initial script for Episode Five having already said that it took four weeks for the duplication process to become permanent.

The filming at Gatwick was used mostly for the first and last episodes of the serial.

Friday 10th March saw scenes of policemen searching the airport concourse, whilst the following Monday was when the departure of Michael Craze and Anneke Wills was filmed. This included the hiring of a chauffeur-driven car as the Doctor and companions are dropped off at the hangar where they think the TARDIS to be.

The bulk of Episode Six filming took place on Tuesday 14th March when the regulars were not present. Pauline Collins, Wanda Ventham (Jean), George Selway (Meadows) and Christopher Tranchell (Jenkins) were all required for the climactic car park sequences. By only appearing on film as the real Jenkins in this episode, Tranchell would only be called upon to play his duplicate in studio a few weeks later. Gilly Fraser (Ann) was also present this day.

When the director reviewed the footage of the car park scenes, he was annoyed to see that Collins and Ventham were clearly seen to be chewing gum.

Whilst we may only have a single photograph of the raw state Chameleon, and a few images of Troughton and Hines posing beneath an aircraft at Gatwick, there were a number of publicity pictures taken of two of the female guest artists. Collins and Fraser posed for a number of photographs together, wearing straw hats and a feather boa, some of which were in colour.

Studio recording was very straightforward, with no scheduled recording breaks. Two 'run-ons' were planned instead. The opening captions ran over a view out of a circular porthole into space, whilst the closing ones ran over a shot of the Doctor and Jamie walking away from camera. A camera flare was used for the shooting of the Director and the false Jamie - Frazer Hines then slipping away to change into his normal outfit.

The episode ends with the realisation that it is the very day in which Ben and Polly had first entered the TARDIS at the conclusion of The War Machines. This means that the whole WOTAN incident must have been taking palce at the same time as this story, and that there must have been two incarnations of the Doctor only a few miles away from each other at the same time. We don't know the exact timescales involved in this episode - between the Doctor agreeing to negotiate and his farewell to Ben and Polly, so he might well have been up in the satellite whilst the War Machines were running rampage, though dialogue suggests otherwise. (He tells Nurse Pinto that he'll see her on the 'plane).

Bearing in mind who is going to turn up again next week, perhaps it wasn't WOTAN that the Doctor sensed on leaving the TARDIS in Fitzroy Square after all...

As we've previously said, Ben and Polly were originally going to depart after a pair of four part serials, but The Faceless Ones was extended to six episodes and the next Dalek serial was also going to be a six-parter. Rather than have them leave two episodes into a new story, and eager to be rid of them anyway, Innes Lloyd asked Gerry Davis to write them out early. Craze and Wills therefore filmed their departure a couple of weeks before they recorded their final two studio episodes.

Wills is on record as claiming that she was asked to stay on, but Craze had to go due to the popularity of Frazer Hines as Jamie, and the fact that stories couldn't sustain two young male companions. She has spoken of how badly she thinks he was treated. 

However, others have claimed that Lloyd specifically wanted rid of Wills due to certain prima donna-ish demands, and he wanted to introduce a new female companion anyway (hence the courting of Collins to become a regular). Apparently Lloyd was still unhappy with how the regular cast had treated director Julia Smith on The Underwater Menace. New boy Hines hadn't really been involved in this, and he could hardly sack his new star, but he could take action against the others.

You do have to wonder why Lloyd soured on the characters which he was so keen to introduce not that long ago - ones who chimed with contemporary youth culture.

After some radio work and a few movies - usually in the horror genre, as a favour to his director friend Norman J Warren - Craze gave up acting and eventually ran a pub. He died in December 1998, aged 56, following a fall whilst running an errand for a neighbour. The Doctor Who theme was played at his funeral.

Following some more TV work, including The Strange Report, Wills disappeared off the radar for a long time, living in an ashram in India and an artists' colony in Canada, before returning to the UK where she was welcomed with open arms by fandom - going on to attend conventions (in which she spoke honestly about some of the less savoury attitudes of William Hartnell) and to narrate missing stories and novelisations of stories which featured Polly.

The final scene for Ben and Polly has come in for some criticism, with many believing the Doctor is being rather sexist: Ben can go off and forge a career but Polly has to remain the dutiful housewife looking after him. It can certainly be viewed that way, and Polly is often held up to be one of the companions who suffers most from the sexism of the era, but I think it can also looked at in a more positive vein. Could the Doctor be implying that even if Ben reaches the pinnacle of his chosen career, he won't be able to do it without strong support from Polly? Even an admiral needs strong back-up, and she's the one to provide it?

Unlike Ian and Barbara, Ben and Polly won't have lots of missing time to explain away to their friends, family and employers when they get back to London. However, Ben is going to have to explain where his uniform and kit bag have got to, and Polly's job isn't likely to be there anymore thanks to a reprogrammed War Machine, and Professor Brett's probably had a nervous breakdown.

One very big potential issue with the ending to this story is the nature of the resolution with the Chameleons. The Doctor only thinks that he might have some alternatives for them - he's hardly specific on this, and even seems to suggest they might have to just put up with what they've got. He also doesn't stick around long afterwards. What is to stop the Chameleons simply restarting their operations somewhere else as soon as the Doctor's out of the way?

Trivia:

• The ratings have fluctuated wildly over the course of this story, but end right where they started with the same figure as Episode One.
• A young viewer of Junior Points of View wrote to the 12th May edition of the programme claiming that Frazer Hines was "the best looking actor on the television", and the BBC should not consider letting him go.
• The same day, a letter arrived at the British Airports Authority, asking if it was now safe to fly without being miniaturised. The general manager of Gatwick responded to say that they had now managed to rid the airport of aliens and the writer's journey through the airport would be as safe and trouble-free as they could make it.
• Innes Lloyd was also written to, by the editors of Airframe - the journal of the British Aircraft Corporation - asking for information about the aircraft cabin design seen in the story. He responded by stating that, whilst his designer had looked at real examples for research, the set seen on screen was not based on any specific aircraft model.
• Five of the six videotape masters of The Faceless Ones were cleared for wiping on 21st July 1969, with the sixth instalment being destroyed that September. Film copies were known to exist as recently as 1973, in Zambia.
• With only two episodes still in existence in the archives, The Faceless Ones was animated for DVD / Blu-ray release in 2020. Likenesses are faithful to the actors, though we have the usual lack of costume changes to simplify the animation process. The climactic fight between Samantha, Jean and Meadows in the car park doesn't come across very well at all - a limitation of the basic 2D animation techniques employed. They look like they are dancing rather than fighting. The Doctor hides behind the "Mill Hill Times" newspaper at one point - an in-joke as this was the area of London where Patrick Troughton lived. We also get Police 'Wanted' posters depicting the Master - both the Delgado and Dhawan incarnations.

• And finally, another of Oliver Arkinstall-Jones' fabulous retro-style posters:

The Unholy Trinity (Not)

 

Further to my review yesterday, RTD2 has stated that the Mrs Flood Rani isn't the third of the Trinity - the Two Ranis count as one person. That leaves the door open for the missing person to be a figure from the series' history - so maybe those rumours might be true...

The Interstellar Song Contest - a review

Big Spoilers ahead, though if you've got this far in the day without catching social media then you're probably going to be watching the evening broadcast and won't be reading this until later anyway.

There was obviously a great deal of hype in advance of this episode, as (a) it was scheduled to broadcast on the evening of the Eurovision Song Contest, (b) it would guest star real Eurovision personalities Rylan Clark and Graham Norton, and (c) Ncuti Gatwa would later be the celeb who was going to announce the UK's voting. Unfortunately for Whovian Eurovision fanatics, who are apparently legion, Gatwa has dropped out at the last minute, to be replaced with the daughter of a former Doctor Who guest actor.

I went into it with a certain degree of trepidation as I thought the hype was just so much gimmickry, and I really can't stand Eurovision. Can't say I've seen it since the 1970's, when the only controversy was Greece and Turkey always giving each other Nil Points, but what I have seen of it lately online hasn't encouraged me to return to it. It's all too terribly tacky for me.

Norton has form with the series, none of it positive thanks to two unplanned intrusions in the past. He and Clark are well known in the UK, but does their presence have the slightest meaning to viewers outwith this country?

So, is this story nothing more than a gimmicky cash-in, or does it actually stand up in its own rights as a decent Doctor Who story?

Douze Points, or Nil Points? A Sandie Shaw hit, or an Olly Alexander flop?

From the little information we could glean from advance publicity, it looked like the main plot was some sort of terrorist attack on the titular Song Contest, and this proved to be the case. A young couple from the planet Hellia hijack the space arena hosting the event in revenge for the planetary devastation wrought by its sponsor, an outfit known as The Corporation. 

First they eject the vast majority of audience members and participants into space, and then they set up a Delta Wave which will fry the brains of everyone watching its broadcast across the galaxy. This latter action immediately brought to mind the finale of Series 1 in 2005, which also saw a mash-up of popular culture with Doctor Who, and involved a Delta Wave projection.

This might sound terrible, but I think that they really ought to have left the victims dead. It was a shocking, adult moment for the show, and I think it was totally undermined by the fact that they could all be saved. This, especially, as we're supposed to believe that the Fifteenth Doctor is capable of turning to the dark side. I could believe this of the Tennant or Capaldi Doctors, or Smith at a push, but it just didn't go with this lightweight and often superficial incarnation.

I might just have found it credible if Kid really had just murdered 100,000 spectators, but knowing they could all be rescued completely undermined any justification the Doctor might have had for torturing the guy.

You will have spotted that Cora St Belvier was representing the planet Trion - home to Davison era companion Turlough. (And I like to think that the singer Liz Lizardine is another native of Malpha's planet).

But if you thought that references to the series' past would be little more than "blink-and-you'll-miss-them" you'd be very much mistaken - and this is where the spoilers come in.

First we get an actual on-screen appearance from a companion of the classic era, and then we are treated to the return of an old villain who hasn't featured since 1987 (I'm totally ignoring Dimensions in Time). 

The Doctor is one of those who gets ejected into space, and he's on the point of death (or so we think at the time) when visions of his very first travelling companion come to him, urging him to live. We've suffered possible hints of the return of Susan several times in the past, but finally Carole Ann Ford makes an on-screen appearance for the first time since The Five Doctors where her inclusion was very badly handled, leading some to question her familial relationship with the Doctor. Her role here really does cement the fact that she is his granddaughter.

Also ejected into space is Mrs Flood, and her shadowing of the Doctor is finally given some reason. She isn't simply Susan Twist Mark II, but has been following the Doctor to get the co-ordinates he has been collecting for his Vindicator device (though how she manages to get places before him isn't explained).

Once rescued and revived, she then undergoes a regeneration - except it then becomes another bi-generation... 

We knew that Archie Panjabi was going to feature in this series, and that she would be playing a villain, and here it's revealed that she and Mrs Flood are actually incarnations of the Rani.

My joy at seeing Susan again was in sharp contrast to my complete indifference to the return of this character. Played originally by Kate O'Mara in one middling and one pretty dreadful story in the 1980's, I've always considered the Rani a third rate villain at best. She isn't supposed to be a criminal mastermind in the same vein as the Master. She's simply a scientist devoid of ethics, and my fear going into the finale is that RTD2 is just going to turn her into Missy Mark II.

These two big call-backs to the classic era will obviously elevate the reputation of this episode, but if you set them aside, what are you left with?

Actually, I thought the story stood up rather well in its own right. As mentioned, I would have preferred Kid to have been a really nasty character like Conrad, but this was watered down to deliver an upbeat ending. The visuals were great, and I know enough about Eurovision to know that some of the songs featured mirrored the sort of thing which you always get - including really naff but highly addictive tunes. Dugga-Doo, I'm looking at you.

A terrorist threat is hardly original for an action-heavy drama, but it's rare for it to form the basis of a Doctor Who story.

Rylan's presence was bearable - even poking fun at himself - and Norton only appeared a couple of times as a hologram in the Song Contest museum. He got to be the one to tell the Doctor and Belinda that the date they are aiming for is when the planet Earth disintegrated, which brings us to next week's episode.

We have been told that the finale involves an "unholy trinity" and the rise of something called the Underverse. There are Bone Creatures and a Bone Palace, and one image of the latter appears to show robot drones identical to those seen in today's episode. The cast list also mentions a return for the child Poppy (a plant mentioned throughout The Interstellar Song Contest, so is this heading anywhere?).

Presumably two thirds of the "unholy trinity" are Conrad and the Rani. Anita Dobson features, so is she the third member, or is there going to be someone else introduced? Rumours abound.

Among the rumours I've seen recently are that Omega appears (but he is forever being rumoured to turn up), and that Conrad is hosting the consciousness of the Master, who makes an appearance in a new body at the end.

What did The Interstellar Song Contest score in the end? Dix Points from me.

Blog Update

You may recall that I'm going to be attending another DWAS event in London at the end of May - dubbed "Girl Power" - which has as guests Carole Ann Ford, Maureen O'Brien, Anneke Wills and Wendy Padbury. (A couple of other guests have since been added - Virginia Wetherell, who played Dyoni in The Daleks, and Felicity Gibson, who played Kando in The Dominators. Slightly off topic, though it was filmed in the 1960's, there is also going to be an appearance by Constance Carling, who was the Auton secretary in Spearhead From Space).

All this takes place on Sunday 25th May. This would have been a flying visit - down on Saturday 24th and back home on the Monday.

I also said that I intended to visit the new Doctor Who exhibition at Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery at some point.

Looking into the latter, I quickly realised that the easiest way to get there, living as I do in Glasgow, is to actually travel from London on a day trip whilst there on one of my regular visits.

I've therefore decided to prolong this visit in order to spend the day in Peterborough, on Tuesday 27th, with me now returning home on Wednesday 28th.

This will mean a slightly longer break in the blog, and my review of Wish World won't be posted until after I'm back. (I'll have to watch it on my tablet, and might want to rewatch on a decent sized screen).

Also, my review of The Reality War certainly won't be posted until the day after broadcast - as I've booked myself a ticket to see it in the cinema, and will no doubt be frequenting a hostelry thereafter.

It has been stated that the Peterborough exhibition may be added to later in the summer, so I may make another trip before it's due to finish in the Autumn. From a video I've seen of it as it stands, there's a lot packed in already.

What's Wrong With... The Twin Dilemma

Just where does one start? One of those stories where it might be quicker to say what went right with it, as there really wouldn't be very much.

I'll start with one big thing that went wrong - and that was screening this story immediately after The Caves of Androzani.

Whilst Troughton had been introduced part way into Season 4, all subsequent Doctors had their debut proper at the beginning of a season.

JNT's reasoning for having Colin Baker star in the final story of the season was simple - to allow the audience to go into the 9 month break already familiar with the new guy, rather than be left wondering for all that time what he might be like.

That's fine if it's someone we're looking forward to seeing again. I don't think we get that feeling at the conclusion of this story. Indeed, the Doctor's "...whether you like it - or not" comes across as a threat to the audience, rather than the reassurance it was intended to be.

Let's breakdown where we think things went wrong...

First things first, a little more on what it is following. Written by Robert Holmes, and delivered in a dynamic, atmospheric manner, with excellent performances all round, Caves was always going to be hard act to follow, and there's no way JNT could have known that when originally planning his season (though I'm sure Eric Saward would have alerted him to the dangers).

The Twin Dilemma has some very poor performances, tacky sets and costumes, little menace - except from the person who's supposed to be the hero - and zero atmosphere or dynamism.

It's also the last story of the season and everyone knows that's when the money has run out, and you're never going to have terribly good production values.

Secondly, the new Doctor's outfit. It was a brave move to have a darker and more alien Doctor - but the effect is totally ruined by putting him in a clown costume. Hartnell and Troughton had outfits which somehow came across as neutral. Their appearance is very rarely commented upon - a bit like the convention that everyone in the Universe speaks BBC English. Pertwee had a uniform style but went through a whole line of different coloured velvet jackets, and Tom Baker went through a number of outfit changes, whilst managing to maintain a consistent overall look thanks to the hat and scarf.

The rot starts with Davison and JNT's insistence on turning outfits into uniforms. This really annoys when you have things like the Doctor and his companions attending a 1920's funeral in what would look like fancy dress to the Cranleighs and their friends. Then there's Mark Strickson being asked to change his hair colour because people might mistake him for Davison - despite the fact that one permanently wears a beige outfit, and the other a dark schoolboy uniform (and why would someone who loathed Brendon School continue to wear his school uniform for months after he no longer had to?).

Colin Baker's clown suit is so overbearing that it stretches credulity that no-one questions it.

How is the audience supposed to take this character seriously? Look like a clown, get treated like a clown.

Before we move on from costume disasters, let's not forget Hugo's garish tinfoil tunic. He has an entire wardrobe to pick from, and goes for this monstrosity.

Thirdly, the Doctor's personality and its impact on Peri. It's one thing for this to be a darker and more dangerous Doctor in character, but violence towards anyone, let alone the companion, and overt acts of cowardice simply aren't traits we want from the Doctor. What was it that Terrance Dicks used to say of the Doctor? "Never cruel nor cowardly...".

I've always said that I thought the Capaldi Doctor was the Sixth Doctor but done properly. He isn't cowardly, though he could be cuttingly cruel to people - usually only verbally - and this was explained by his lack of empathy (and the fact that he was a grumpy Scotsman, played by a grumpy Scotsman, and created by a grumpy Scotsman).

Something we'll come back to again for the next few stories: you really have to wonder why Peri isn't asking to be taken straight home after Part One.

Things aren't helped by Baker's performance. Personally, I've never rated him as a screen actor. He's more of a theatrical performer, where you have to project and play to the back of the gallery. He lacks subtlety at this stage of his career in my opinion. I'm not a Big Finish listener, but I believe he gives much more nuanced performances, presumably because of the recording studio environment.

Next, if you're going to build a story around a pair of distinctive characters then it's best to get a couple of good actors to play them. JNT was offered a number of female twin actors, who were experienced in TV work, but he insisted that the twins be male - despite there being a dearth of talented male twins in the business at that time. The Conrad brothers were the sons of Les Conrad, who was a frequent extra on Doctor Who - including an appearance in Caves. Their inexperience wasn't helped by an obvious speech impediment. This is one of those many occasions when JNT insisted on something and wouldn't back down when told it wouldn't work.

Not so much a dreadful performance as poor dialogue comes from Helen Blatch as space police commander Fabian. Referring to her latest orders, her "And may my bones rot for following them..." is rightfully derided.

The usually reliable Dennis Chinnery struggles with what he's been given to say, and how he's supposed to deliver it, as well.

Other stuff:

Escaping the Titan base, what possible difference could it make if the Doctor and Peri arrive in the TARDIS a few seconds apart?

Why do the Time Lords tolerate one of their number, no matter how venerable, ruling a relatively primitive planet? Surely this is intervention in other race's affairs on a grand scale?

There's absolutely no reason whatsoever for Azmael to be using the Prof Edgeworth alias.

A little bit of silver powder on the floor is automatically taken to be a sign of teleportation, and that means aliens. How? Are aliens popping down to Earth, leaving powdery residue behind, so often that you can tell at a glance?

If the twins' abilities are as awesome as their dad claims, why are they ever left unsupervised? He goes out for dinner and leaves them home alone, just after he's gone on about how their mathematical abilities could crack the universe in two.

Azmael hasn't spotted what Mestor's real plan is, but surely a basic computer model would have shown him exactly what would happen if they moved the outer planets. Newton could have worked it out in an afternoon.

Why go to the extremes of blowing up planets to spread his eggs when Mestor has access to spaceships?

Why exploit a couple of brainy brats when you already have a captive Time Lord mind to plunder?

Philip Hinchcliffe once remarked that he couldn't see the Kraals as possibly being a technologically advanced species, as the costume just didn't fit this idea. The Gastropods just don't convince as a universal threat, even if they do have a smarter than normal boss (just like the Tractators, who we only saw a few stories ago).

Mestor sometimes can get into people's heads and know what they are thinking - and other times he can't.

Going back to Hugo's horrible jacket (sorry, but we must), of all the hundreds of costumes available to him in the TARDIS wardrobe, he just happens to pick the one in which the Doctor hid the power pack of his gun.

If Azmael's rule over Jaconda was dubious to say the least, why does the Doctor happily allow a humble gun-toting Earth police lieutenant he hardly knows to stay and take over the planet? It's actually all very racist. Funny looking aliens can't be trusted to govern their own affairs and need human types to rule them?

Any why, ever since, has no-one been able to spell Jaconda / Joconda the same way twice...?

Inspirations: Robot of Sherwood

The clue is in the title. There have been many, many adaptations of the Robin Hood story - either on the big screen or the small. 

According to Wikipedia, there are some 20 movies, not counting early silent shorts, and 10 TV series.

One of the best of the small screen versions was the HTV series Robin of Sherwood, which debuted in 1984. The first series starred Michael Praed as Robin. He was lured to Hollywood to appear in Dynasty and his character actually killed off, so a second Wolfshead was introduced for Series 2, played by Jason Connery. He played a different person altogether, named Robert rather than Robin, but the role was the same.

The mystical Herne the Hunter (John Abineri) was a significant character in the series, and early drafts of this Doctor Who story included him. We should also note that Season 22 of Doctor Who suffered badly against Robin of Sherwood.

The most famous screen version - and the one which influenced the writer the most - is undoubtedly 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn in the title role and with Basil Rathbone as the wicked Guy of Gisbourne, but other popular iterations include the 1955 TV series starring Richard Greene (in which The Daleks' Alan Wheatley played the Sheriff of Nottingham), BBC adaptations in 1975 and 2006, and more recent cinema outings starring Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe and Taron Egerton. Disney delivered an anthropomorphic animated version in 1973, with Robin as a fox, and Mel Brooks made his spoof version (Robin Hood: Men In Tights) in 1993 - as much a spoof of the Costner movie specifically as of the old legend.

In addition to films and series specifically about Robin, the character has also popped up in other guises, in other series, including an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The earliest British TV series about the outlaw of Sherwood Forest was another BBC adaptation. On screens in 1953, it starred future Second Doctor Patrick Troughton as Robin.

This, and the Errol Flynn iteration, can be seen in this Doctor Who episode when the Doctor accesses the robots' database.

Thanks to these many versions, a number of plot elements have become standardised across the majority of them - and some of these make it into Mark Gatiss' script. He has basically made this a bit of a Robin Hood Greatest Hits. A fight on a narrow bridge over a stream is usually between Robin and Little John, when they first meet each other. The Sheriff hosting an archery contest which Robin enters incognito is another staple of the legend.

The episode was going to end with the arrival of King Richard I. Sean Connery, who had played an older Robin in 1976's Robin and Marian, had a famous cameo as Richard in the Kevin Costner film.

Gatiss intended his episode as a more "frivolous" episode from the start, though not necessarily an outright comedy.

Robot of Sherwood sees Clara wishing to meet Robin, believing him to have been a real character, or at least based on an historical figure who held his same values of fighting oppression and robbing the rich to give to the poor. The Doctor, however, dismisses him as an entirely fictional character.

Robin does first appear in literature in the 1370's, featuring in the poem Piers Plowman, and an early 15th Century proverb mentions him in a way that suggests he was already a well-known figure in popular folklore.

The Doctor persists with his belief that Robin is not real, even after encountering him - Robin firing an arrow into the TARDIS. We previously saw an arrow embedded in the Police Box in Silver Nemesis and at the conclusion to The Shakespeare Code. This leads into the fight above the stream which is usually reserved for Little John in most versions.

The Doctor later believes the Merry Men to be androids or Auton replicas, and that this is all part of an amusement park - or they are trapped inside a Miniscope, as in Carnival of Monsters.

Only later does he find out that there are indeed robots about, but it's the villains who aren't all they seem.

The ending was changed significantly very late in the day due to current affairs. A pair of British hostages had been beheaded by the ISIS group shortly before broadcast and it was felt that it would be wrong to show a similar fate happening to the Sheriff, perhaps upsetting to relatives. The Sheriff was to have been shown having his head cut off by Robin - only to reveal that he was also a robot, but instead we simply get him falling into a vat of molten gold.

The script was one of three leaked prior to broadcast, as was a rough B&W copy which contained the deleted scenes.

The idea of including Robin Hood in Doctor Who goes right back to Season 16, as an abandoned Key to Time storyline by Ted Lewis ("The Shield of Zarak") might have seen the Doctor encounter Robin, only to discover that he was the exact opposite to his legend.

Next time: Listen up...