After saying farewell to Ben and Polly, the Doctor informs Jamie that the TARDIS isn't where it is supposed to be. They are just in time to see it being driven out of the airport on the back of a lorry.
They are too late to stop it - and are unaware that they are being spied on from a nearby field by a man named Kennedy.
They speak to a worker named Bob Hall, who is wearing a hearing aid. Their conversation is being listened to by Kennedy. Hall tells them the lorry had the name "Leatherman" painted on its side. He has a document amongst his papers stating that the Police Box was authorised for collection by one "J. Smith".
After they have gone, Hall checks with Kennedy that he overheard what was said.
The Doctor is suspicious of Hall as his overalls did not fit properly, and the sheet of paper about the TARDIS was different to the others he was holding.
Kennedy meanwhile is reporting events to his employer. This is a man named Edward Waterfield, who dresses in Victorian fashion.
The Doctor and Jamie wait for Hall to leave in his car then jump in a taxi and follow him.
Waterfield runs an antiques shop in London, with his assistant Perry. Perry is impressed by the quality of the merchandise his employer procures - especially his time-pieces.
He is curious to know why they have taken delivery of a battered old Police Call Box, but Waterfield isn't willing to discuss the whims of their customers.
The Doctor and Jamie have followed Hall to an abandoned warehouse located in a narrow lane, alongside some railway arches.
Kennedy is already there waiting for him, and gives him some money. When he realises that he has been followed, Hall attempts to leave and Kennedy knocks him out. He conceals himself as the Doctor and Jamie enter, finding the stricken man. They note the cash, and hear him ask after someone named "Ken...". He passes out again before he can continue, and they search him. The Doctor finds a book of matches from a coffee bar named "The Tricolour". Some matches have been removed, indicating that they belonged to a left-handed man.
Kennedy goes to the antiques shop, where he gives his report to Waterfield - confirming that the Doctor found the matchbook. He had waited until the Doctor and Jamie had left then followed Hall to confirm he had now fled the city.
Waterfield insists that Kennedy stay hidden at the shop and that he should say nothing to Perry. Thinking himself alone, he produces a key and unlocks a hidden door in a bookcase at the rear of his office - but Kennedy is watching. He assumes that his employer has valuables locked away which he plans on stealing later.
Waterfield has brought out a small wooden casket and a pair of photographs - of the Doctor and Jamie.
He shows these to Perry and explains that a "Dr Galloway", an eccentric collector, is interested in the Police Box. Perry should go to "The Tricolour" and make contact with him.
The Doctor and Jamie are at the coffee bar, which is frequented mostly by young people. No-one knows of anyone named "Ken". They have discovered that the firm of "Leatherman" does not exist.
Kennedy is listening at the secret room and hears Waterfield pleading with someone.
Perry meets with the Doctor and Jamie and gives them a business card for the shop, requesting that they visit at 10pm that night to meet with his employer.
He reports back to Waterfield who updates Kennedy after he has gone. His preparations complete, Waterfield retires for a few hours sleep.
Believing himself to be alone, the curious Kennedy enters the office and gains access to the secret room in search of valuables. It is a brightly lit chamber, the only furniture a large chair facing a blank space.
As he rifles the safe, he is unaware of a squat metallic shape which slowly materialises behind him, flanked by futuristic machinery.
It is a Dalek...
Written by David Whitaker
Recorded: Saturday 13th May 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 6.00pm, Saturday 20th May 1967
Ratings: 8.1 million / AI 51
Visual Effects: Michealjohn Harris and Peter Day
Designer: Chris Thompson
Director: Derek Martinus
Guest cast: John Bailey (Edward Waterfield), Griffith Davies (Kennedy), Alec Ross (Bob Hall), Geoffrey Colville (Perry)
Critique:
Terry Nation was still busy working on more lucrative ATV series, which he hoped would take him to the United States, but was keen to launch the Daleks in a series of their own. In late 1966 he had submitted a pilot to the BBC, titled "The Destroyers" which would see the Space Security Service -introduced in The Daleks' Master Plan - battle the creatures. The SSS team would comprise Sara Kingdom and her brother David, Captain Jason Corey and an android named Mark 7.
Thinking it a done deal, Nation had his own production company, Lynstead, lined up to make the series with the BBC, with filming due to commence in December 1966. He had even purchased the Dalek props from the Curse of the Daleks stage play to feature in this. In the new year he would be taking the pilot to the States to interest networks there.
However, the BBC rejected the idea, which did not go down well at all with the writer. He would still take his idea to America, but this would mean taking his creations out of the BBC's hands all together.
He was agreeable to the BBC using the Daleks in Doctor Who whilst his negotiations on "The Destroyers" were in progress - though not interested in writing a new story himself. This fell to David Whitaker, who had collaborated with Nation on other Dalek projects and who had written their last outing - The Power of the Daleks.
Right from the start, Whitaker intended the story to feature a significant portion of time in Victorian England. Whilst Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis had discontinued the historical stories, they were not averse to historical backdrops being used for science fiction stories. Whitaker also planned a trip into prehistory, as the Daleks wanted a caveman (named Og) to test in order to identify the "Human Factor".
It was known that Ben and Polly were to depart the series, but this would only happen in the second episode of this story, when they would be left behind whilst the Doctor and Jamie travelled back to 1880. They feature in Whitaker's first draft of this episode.
The writer gave each episode its own title, as with the series when he had helped launch it. This one was called "To Set A Trap...".
Davis was preparing for his departure during the making of this serial, having declined the offer to replace Lloyd. He had instead suggested that his assistant story editor Peter Bryant be given the role. As with the previous serial, Bryant was credited as associate producer on this story. Victor Pemberton, who had been a supporting cast member on The Moonbase, was being groomed to replace Bryant as story editor once he was promoted.
Another behind the scenes change going on at this time was that the BBC's own visual effects department was to assume responsibility for the series. Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie had initially refused to work on Doctor Who unless they were given more staff and facilities, which had been rejected. The department had since grown and so they were now able to take on the workload which the series would bring. Lloyd had been keen to drop their reliance on Shawcraft Models after the high cost of the Macra prop and the problems encountered during the making of The Faceless Ones. Shawcraft would continue as a subcontractor, and they were happy to see the partnership cut back as they were getting a lot of other, more lucrative, commercial work.
The sequence of the Doctor and Jamie chasing the lorry with the TARDIS, then discussing the matter with Bob Hall, was not filmed at Gatwick Airport alongside footage for The Faceless Ones. Instead, filming was carried out at hangars belonging to the Metal Box Company on Kendal Avenue in North London - across the road from the BBC's Outside Broadcast transport department. This took place on Friday 21st April.
As well as Troughton and Hines, actor Alec Ross and extra Len Russell (playing the lorry driver) were in attendance. After filming at this location the cast and crew moved to Warehouse Lane to film shots of the Doctor and Jamie alighting from a taxi after following Hall. This lane featured railway arches and warehousing.
The scenes of Kennedy watching the activities at Gatwick were actually filmed the day before at an entirely different location - Grim's Dyke, a house in Harrow Weald west of London, which would be used as Theodore Maxtible's home for much of the story. Griffith Davies was filmed sitting on a fence behind the house's stable block.
Thursday 11th May saw Peter Hawkins dub all the Dalek dialogue for the Ealing filming material, as the cast rehearsed at St Helen's church hall.
Recording on the evening of 13th May ran from 8.30 - 9.45pm. The opening captions were shown over the title sequence, instead of following this and playing over establishing shots as had been the norm since The Savages.
The main set was a linked one for Waterfield's shop. It comprised his office and the inner chamber in which the Dalek would materialise, as well as a short section of corridor. The wall safe was constructed with no back so that Derek Martinus could shoot Kennedy face on with the Dalek behind him.
The materialisation of the Dalek was achieved simply by mixing between a still photograph of the empty room and the set with the Dalek and the time machine props in place, being careful to line up the background exactly.
Other sets were the fuel station office, the warehouse doorway and interior, and "The Tricolour" coffee bar. As the name suggests, this was decorated with red, white and blue stripes.
Photographs of Troughton and Hines had been taken during location filming.
As the previous story had established that this was July 1966, appropriate music was needed for the bar. Two pieces chosen were No Body Knows The Trouble I've Seen, by The Seekers, and Paperback Writer by The Beatles.
Composer Dudley Simpson had created a Dalek theme which was based on the bass line of Ron Grainer's Doctor Who theme.
It was during the making of this story that Simpson was stopped by the police when driving the music over to his copyist in the middle of the night. When he explained what he was doing the policeman saw him on his way.
The BBC received a complaint from Terry Nation's agent - Roger Hancock - following the broadcast of this episode, as his client had not been credited on screen for devising the Daleks. The credits for Episodes 3 - 7 were amended, whilst the second instalment would have a spoken acknowledgement.
It's a very convoluted way of getting someone to an appointment, and this is symptomatic of this story (and some other Whitaker scripts). Of the two Troughton Dalek stories, The Power of the Daleks is my favourite, as it lacks the padding which is evident throughout a number of episodes of this later effort.
Here we have an entire episode devoted to getting the Doctor to Waterfield's antiques shop, where a trap is obviously being set - and the Doctor and Jamie don't even get there until the next instalment.
In Whitaker's original notes, it is Edward Waterfield himself who steals the TARDIS, forced to do so as the Daleks hold his daughter hostage. He employs a gang member named Bill - a character who would later become Bob Hall. This would obviously have sped matters up considerably.
This is not to say that this opening episode as it stands is bad. It's actually very interesting to see the Second Doctor in a contemporary setting. The airport backdrop for The Faceless Ones was still quite exotic at the time, but here we see him and Jamie frequenting a trendy coffee bar, where young people in mini-kilts dance to The Seekers and The Beatles.
Also like The Faceless Ones, we see the Doctor employ detective skills. Back then burnt fibres and foreign stamps had caught his attention, but here he notes Hall's ill-fitting overalls and different coloured works orders, and even works out that the book of matches had been used by a left-handed person.
- The ratings get off to a healthy start, no doubt due to the reappearance of the Daleks.
- The episode was repeated on Saturday 8th June 1968, when it was viewed by an audience of 6.3 million, with an appreciation figure of 50.
- For the repeat, some dialogue between Patrick Troughton and Wendy Padbury was played over the opening scene, as this repeat run was linked directly to the closing scene of The Wheel in Space and helped plug the summer gap between Seasons 5 and 6.
- Future Dad's Army regular James Beck (David Whitaker's best man at his wedding) was a candidate for the role of Kennedy, whilst Maurice Denham (The Twin Dilemma) had been considered for the part of Edward Waterfield.
- Doctor Who was the subject of a feature in Television Today magazine, two days before this episode went out. It was mainly an interview with Innes Lloyd.
- Daleks featured in Late Night Line-Up on the evening of broadcast. Joan Bakewell conducted interviews with school children about the monsters, and a clip from a Hartnell Dalek story was shown, dubbed into Arabic.
- Start times for this story will vary greatly over the seven week run, with the earliest being 5.45pm (Episodes 3 - 6), and the latest 6.25pm for the final instalment.
- This episode aired at 6pm due to coverage of the FA Cup Final.
- Radio Times as usual featured the first episode of the new story, including a photograph depicting Jamie and Victoria - even though Deborah Watling wouldn't feature until the following week.
No comments:
Post a Comment