Synopsis:
Held captive aboard the Chameleons Tour flight after it has taken off, Detective Inspector Crossland is shocked to see that the busy aircraft, full of young holidaymakers only moments before, now appears to be completely deserted...
In the Chameleon Tours hangar, the Doctor lies unconscious on the floor after being struck down by one of the alien weapons - a button-like device which had been slipped onto his back. Jamie had managed to remove it, but Spencer appears and aims his freezing gun at the young Scot. Samantha has sneaked into the hangar and she diverts the alien, but after a struggle he manages to freeze both of them.
He lays the three out on the ground then sets up a laser weapon. It will slowly move across the floor to where they lie helpless. He declines to stay and watch their destruction as he has work to do preparing for their final flight.
At the medical centre, Nurse Pinto is transforming another raw state Chameleon - this time taking on the likeness of Jenkins from the Immigration section.
The Doctor, Jamie and Samantha have all recovered consciousness but as yet are unable to move, as the laser beam inches towards them. They can move only their arms, and the Doctor has Samantha retrieve a mirror from her handbag. She passes this to Jamie, who is able to use it to reflect the beam back onto the weapon, destroying it.
With their mobility returning, the Doctor sends Samantha to keep a watch on the airline's kiosk, whilst he and Jamie go to find the medical centre.
There, Nurse Pinto is testing the knowledge absorbed by the Jenkins duplicate.
The Doctor bursts into the reception area moments later, insisting that Jamie has a rare tropical illness which requires attention. Nurse Pinto stops him from passing into the treatment area, claiming it is needed by someone else.
They are observed by Spencer and Jenkinson a monitor. The latter claims that he will kill them after Spencer warns that he has already tried and failed.
At Air Traffic Control, Jean is trying to locate Inspector Crossland as the Doctor and Jamie arrive. The Doctor sends Jamie down to the kiosk to make sure the headstrong Samantha doesn't get into any trouble.
Jean then informs him and the Commandant that she has been doing some checking on Chameleon Tours, and there is no record of their aircraft ever disembarking any passengers at any of their advertised destinations.
The Commandant decides to call upon the RAF. When Blade's flight departs again, it will be followed.
Determined to investigate the medical centre, the Doctor enlists the help of Jean to create a diversion which will draw Nurse Pinto away for a time.
Samantha has decided to buy a ticket on the next Chameleon flight in order to find out what is going on for herself. Jamie insists that he should be the one to go. She refuses, so he steals her ticket.
Jean feigns a fainting spell and the Commandant calls for the nurse.
The Doctor slips into the medical centre as soon as he sees her leave. There he finds strange black and white armband control units. He is unaware that Jenkins is hiding nearby, ready to shoot him.
A passenger enters just before he can fire and the Doctor leaves, taking a couple of the armbands with him.
Nurse Pinto is angry with the Commandant for working his staff too hard and she departs, with the Doctor returning soon after. He tells the Commandant of their ruse and shows him the armbands, then looks around for Meadows - but he is not on duty right now.
At the kiosk, Samantha discovers that her ticket is missing - but has apparently already been used by another passenger. She is invited into the kiosk to complain - and is captured by Spencer.
Blade's flight takes off, now with Jamie on board. He feels sick and goes to the bathroom, and so misses the food given out by Air Stewardess Ann Davidson. This contains a drug which knocks out the passengers. An RAF fighter is now following.
Blade notices the aircraft tailing them and aims a weapon at it.
The fighter jet is destroyed by a powerful electric charge, and its crash is witnessed on radar at Gatwick. They see that the Chameleon aircraft also appears stationary - meaning that it must be falling vertically like the RAF jet. The Commandant fears a mid-air collision has occurred.
However, the Doctor points out that it could equally be rising vertically...
The drugged passengers have been miniaturised - all except Jamie who is still in the bathroom, oblivious to what is happening.
The aircraft is rapidly rising upwards, its wings folding back to give it a more aerodynamic form.
It passes through the upper atmosphere and heads for a massive orbiting space station...
Written by Malcolm Hulke & David Ellis
Recorded: Saturday 22nd April 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 29th April 1967
Ratings: 6.9 million / AI 55
Designer: Geoffrey Kirkland
Director: Gerry Mill
Additional cast: Michael Ladkin (RAF Pilot)
Four episodes in, and the science-fiction elements finally begin to feature in the story. Though, bearing in mind Malcolm Hulke's background with The Avengers, perhaps "Spy-Fi" is a more apposite epithet.
This sub-genre of the espionage adventure came to the fore with the James Bond films, as gadgets and unusual forms of transport began to proliferate.
There's a touch of Thunderbirds and other Gerry Anderson series with the aircraft turning into a spaceship.
In this episode, we even have our heroes helpless as a laser beam moves inexorably towards them - just as happened to Bond in Goldfinger. As with Bond, the villain makes the schoolboy error of not sticking around to see their diabolical death trap through to its conclusion - allowing the hero(es) to escape.
An earlier draft saw the bound heroes woken up in time to save themselves from the laser trap after it caused a bottle of water to boil and burst, rousing them in time to do something about it.
Trivia:
These also saw Ben steal the female guest character's ticket to board the 'plane, whilst Jamie accompanied the Doctor to the medical centre.
Another change was that Spencer planted a time bomb in Samantha's radio, with the Jenkins duplicate tasked with taking it to the Doctor. This would have formed part of the cliff-hanger, with the final moment being Meadows unmasked as a Chameleon.
Director Gerry Mill had experienced issues with Shawcraft Models during the Gatwick filming, when Spencer's freezing pen prop had been damaged after actor Victor Winding dropped it - the company taking three days to collect, repair and return it.
Model filming was scheduled to take place at Ealing on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th of March. The two models to be filmed were the Vickers VC-10 and the Chameleon space station. Shawcraft were used to creating aircraft models as a lot of their work was for travel companies, including airlines.
This VC-10 would have wings which could fold back towards the fuselage.
Problems arose with the space station model, however, as it arrived at Ealing with no instructions as to how to mount it. Advice then came through that it could be hung by a single wire.
It was also found that the hatch on the base, through which the aircraft had to pass, hadn't been finished properly.
One of the internal bulbs then blew, and there were no spares supplied. It took half an hour to locate a replacement, by which time the filming was more than 2 hours behind schedule.
Just after all of the VC-10 material had been captured, the single wire snapped and the space station model fell to the floor.
Shawcraft were ordered to repair it overnight and return it in time for the second day of filming.
In the end, the Ealing material was found to be too poor to use, and Mill had to arrange a remount on Tuesday 21st April, in the week before Episode 3 was recorded.
This utilised an improved model, with smoke and wind machines being employed for atmospheric effect. The model was hung on a sturdier kirby harness this time.
The director wrote to Innes Lloyd about his dissatisfaction with Shawcraft, and the producer was already unhappy with the firm following the high costs of the Macra prop. He entered into discussions with the BBC's own VFX department to replace them. More on this when we get to the next story.
Only one brief shot from the Gatwick filming featured in this episode - Jamie being greeted by Ann as he boarded the aircraft.
Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines missed some of the rehearsals for this episode as they were needed for location filming on The Evil of the Daleks.
As with the pervious episode, there was another rare example of out-of-sequence recording on the evening of Saturday 22nd April - with all of the laser death trap scenes being filmed together.
The laser beam was a superimposed oscilloscope image, and the screen simply whited out when the projector was destroyed. A small flash charge concealed under a pile of wood shavings demonstrated the weapon's power.
This was then followed by the sequences involving the duplication of Jenkins, which required two recording breaks - one for the alien extra and Chris Tranchell to swap couches, and the other to then show the Chameleon Jenkins talking with Nurse Pinto - the "real" Jenkins now concealed under a blanket.
Another recording break allowed for the setting up of the RAF cockpit - a small set built within an existing one. Michael Ladkins was only ever shown in close-up, and his demise was achieved with another white-out.
A photographer took pictures of Madelena Nicol (Nurse Pinto) sitting still in a closet, for insertion into this and the next episode, to save on the actress having to break her performance in studio.
Several pieces of library footage were employed, of VC-10s in flight and taking off / landing, and an RAF Lightning jet.
The end credits rolled over a shot of the VC-10 model entering the base of the space station, which then faded to black.
- There's a bit of a rollercoaster going on with the ratings for this story, as we see yet another sharp drop - of a million viewers - after the recovery of the previous week. However, the appreciation figure continues to rise.
- Shaun Sutton would raise a concern about this at a later BBC programme review meeting, stating that the figures were varying between 6.5 and 8 million - and he wanted them stable around the upper figure. This coincided with his request that a replacement series be considered.
- The model of the VC-10 can be seen being demonstrated in the short home movie "Follow That Dalek" which accompanied the DVD of The Chase initially.
No comments:
Post a Comment