Blog Update

Just a little reminder that I'm off to London again at the end of this week. There won't be any posts between Saturday 26th July and Monday 4th August, unless some big news breaks.

At this point I'm still not sure if I'll be popping back to revisit the exhibition at Peterborough, or leaving this until later in the year. (I'm visiting London with someone who has never been, so have a pretty packed itinerary and probably won't have time).

See you next month.

Inspirations: Kill The Moon

"As far as the science goes, that's not something I worry about"... So said Peter Harness of his first submission for Series 8, and never were truer words ever spoken as far as Doctor Who is concerned - at least not until RTD2 returned.

The main inspiration for this story was Moffat's idea of a situation which would see Clara's relationship with the new Doctor challenged, such that she would come to question if she really wanted to be around him. Harness had contributed a story titled "When We Weren't There", but when this was rejected it was he who came up with the absurd notion that the Moon was really a gigantic egg that was about to hatch.

After broadcast, many thought this episode an allegory about abortion, but Harness denied that this was thought of at the time. He said that if he wanted to write about that subject then he would have covered it as a proper contemporary drama.

The story was originally planned for Matt Smith's Doctor, with the then intended companion being a Victorian governess. She would be accompanied by one of her young charges - which is why we have Courtney from Coal Hill School instead.

It was intended from the start to begin as a base-under-siege horror story, and the writer was concerned it might be too scary for a family audience - but Moffat advised him to "Hinchcliffe" it to the maximum.

The Philip Hinchcliffe era is characterised for its Gothic horror trappings, thanks in part to the script editorship of Robert Holmes.

Giant spiders were chosen as the monster as so many people are arachnophobes. 

The episode would then concentrate more on the relationship between the Doctor and Clara. Moffat wanted this to be damaged by events, with no reconciliation between the pair at the conclusion.

At a crucial point in the narrative, the Doctor was to abandon Clara to make a decision on her own. Harness and Moffat were considering the more alien natures of the First and Fourth Doctors - the two they felt often exhibited the least empathy with human beings. The First took a very long time to warm to Ian and Barbara, and often insisted on getting back to the TARDIS and leaving others to sort out their own problems, and the Fourth could also act this way - such as when he insisted that the Antarctic base personnel carried out the surgery needed to save their colleague from becoming a Krynoid in The Seeds of Doom - "You must help yourselves".

At one point in this story the Doctor states that Earth isn't his home - just as he had told Sarah in The Pyramids of Mars.

The Blinovitch Limitation Effect (introduced by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks in the era of the Third Doctor to get round potential temporal paradoxes) was going to be a big element of the story originally. Courtney was to have changed her ways following the events on the Moon and would go on to marry the scientist Blinovitch, after first meeting her future self. The future Mrs Blinovitch would cause Courtney to become the future Mrs Blinovitch.

On deciding to film the Moon surface material in the volcanic landscape of Lanzarote, a draft title of "Return to Sarn" was concocted, making fans think this a sequel to Planet of Fire, which had also been filmed there.

The story is set in the year 2049. It had to be before the year 2070 so that Courtney could become the first female to set foot on the Moon - as Polly was there in 2070 in The Moonbase.

This episode means that all of the lunar-set stories like that and The Seeds of Death have to now be set on the new Moon left behind at the conclusion of this story.

In that Ice Warrior story, the human race had virtually given up on space travel - which is what is also happening here - though it's generally accepted that the events of The Seeds of Death come later than those of The Moonbase.

The Doctor gives Courtney one of his rules as "no hanky-panky in the TARDIS" - a phrase often used by producer JNT regarding the younger Fifth Doctor travelling with two young women (Tegan and Nyssa).

Peter Capaldi asked for a yo-yo identical to the one Tom Baker had used - such as when he tested the gravity in The Ark in Space. (His daughter's boyfriend showed him how to use it).

The Doctor spots a primitive Bennett Oscillator - first mentioned in that same Tom Baker story, named after its director Rodney Bennett.

The Doctor got his Sanctuary Base 6 spacesuit in The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit, but it is never explained where he got another pair of identical suits - considering that the base was subsequently sucked into a Black Hole.

Next time: Agatha Christie meets Hammer Horror, in a story which has its origins in a throwaway line from The Big Bang...

P is for... Persuasion

The Urbankan Minister of Persuasion, who was travelling towards Earth with his leader - Monarch - and fellow Minister, Enlightenment. They appeared to be frog-like bipeds, wearing long green robes. Monarch claimed that they sought to live in peace with the human race, and to help them prepare for this the Doctor's companion Tegan was asked to provide sketches of typical contemporary Earth fashions. She was shocked to then see these brought to life as Persuasion and Enlightenment appeared looking exactly like the drawings - he a besuited human male and Enlightenment a female. 

It transpired that they were really android in nature, and their spaceship contained millions of other Urbankans in micro-circuit form. They were not coming to live in harmony but to invade and commit genocide.

Persuasion was tasked with supervising the Doctor's party and ensuring that they did not interfere with Monarch's plans. Tegan piloted the TARDIS off of the Urbankan spaceship into close orbit nearby and the Doctor was forced to spacewalk to retrieve it. As Monarch wanted it for himself, Persuasion was sent to stop him. After a struggle with Adric, he had his control circuits pulled out - freezing him permanently into inactivity.

Played by: Paul Shelley. Appearances: Four To Doomsday (1982)

• Born Paul Matthews, he is the brother of Paul Temple / Captain Scarlet actor Francis Matthews.
• He is best known for theatre work but other TV roles include guest appearances in Blake's 7 (the episode "Countdown"), Inspector Morse and Midsomer Murders.

P is for... Perkins

Engineer on a luxury spacecraft which was modelled on the famous Orient Express. During one of its voyages a number of people died suddenly, apparently seeing something invisible which horrified them in the minute or so before their deaths. Intrigued, Perkins decided to investigate and discovered that one of the passengers had the same idea - the Doctor. Perkins found him in the baggage car examining the latest victim. He went on to help the Doctor identify the perpetrator - a mummified soldier, enhanced with alien technology, which inhabited a pocket of time 66 seconds outside its normal flow.

Everyone had been lured onto the Orient Express in order that a shadowy corporation might retro-engineer and weaponise this technology. After the Doctor had destroyed the mummy, the corporation - which communicated though an AI known as GUS - elected to remove all evidence of what it had done by blowing up the craft. The Doctor saved everyone by getting them into the TARDIS. Perkins was most impressed with this, but declined to stay on and become its engineer.

Played by: Frank Skinner. Appearances: Mummy on the Orient Express (2014)

• Real name Christopher Graham Collins, Skinner is best known in the UK for his comedy, but he has also acted and presented.
• He collaborated with fellow comedian David Baddiel and band The Lightning Seeds to release the song Three Lions for the 1996 Euros (subsequently re-released twice since then, to tie in with other football tournaments).
• Also a huge Doctor Who fan, he presented a documentary on Terrance Dicks on the Season 8 Blu-ray box set and featured on a Big Finish audio adventure.

P is for... Penley

Computer expert working at Britannicus Base who went into self-imposed exile after frequent arguments with his boss, Clent. The world was in the grip of a new Ice Age, and the base was one of several across the globe attempting to hold the glacial advance at bay. Elric Penley's disagreements with Clent revolved around the latter's obsessive reliance on its computer, despite his own expertise in this area. He felt that human instinct and feelings had to be applied to any situation. 

On leaving the base, he found a refuge in an abandoned botanical museum, which was also home to a scavenger named Storr. He had a profound dislike of science, believing it responsible for the global catastrophe.

Clent's deputy, Miss Garrett, kept discreet contact with Penley - hoping that he might one day return to the fold. She could see how her leader, whom she greatly admired, was struggling to cope with the pressures of command.

When the Doctor arrived at the base and immediately diagnosed a computer problem, he was given Penley's role - but advised that Clent really ought to get his expert back. The two men were too proud to reconcile, however.

The Doctor's companion Jamie was badly injured when investigating a crashed Ice Warrior spaceship, discovered buried within the glacier, and he was rescued and taken in by Penley. Storr died trying to befriend the Martians, and Penley agreed to take Jamie to the base for medical help after meeting with the Doctor. He was able to stun the creatures when they invaded the base, by turning up the temperature and humidity.

He resumed his old role and took the decision to implement the latest action to stop the glacier, when the computer could not provide the answer - leaving Clent unable to give direction. Not only did this halt the advance, but it also destroyed the Ice Warriors and their ship.

Played by: Peter Sallis. Appearances: The Ice Warriors (1967)

• Sallis (1921 - 2017) was all set to return to the series when cast as Captain Striker in Enlightenment. Industrial action led to studio dates having to be changed, and he had to drop out - to be replaced by Keith Barron.
• Sallis will forever be associated with the role of Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine, a part he played for 37 years (295 episodes / 31 seasons). That, and as the voice of Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit animations, voicing the character in all five productions between 1989 - 2008.
• He is buried in the same rural Yorkshire churchyard as his Summer Wine co-star Bill Owen, after they had used the location for filming and fallen in love with it.
• Sallis featured in a couple of Hammer horror movies earlier in his career - Curse of the Werewolf and Taste the Blood of Dracula, the latter of which features a number of Doctor Who guest actors.

P is for... Peladon, King

The young monarch of the planet of the same name, who hosted a commission from the Galactic Federation tasked with assessing his world for membership into that body. He was in favour of this, seeking to modernise Peladon whose society and customs sometimes mirrored that of medieval Europe.

His father had helped open the planet up to the wider galaxy by marrying a woman from Earth, and he wished to build on these ties. In favour was his Chancellor, Torbis, but opposed was High Priest Hepesh, who feared that their old religion and customs would be swept away.

The Doctor and Jo Grant became involved when the TARDIS landed on the planet. He was mistaken for the expected Earth delegate who was to chair the commission, and he presented Jo as a member of the royal family since no commoner could enter the throne room of the citadel. The young King fell in love with her. However, she realised that he cared for her only as a means to achieve his goals. 

Hepesh had Torbis killed, blaming the death on the curse of Aggedor. This was their sacred beast, long extinct and now deified. However, he had found a living specimen and was using it to help undermine the work of the commission. He was working with one of the alien delegates - Arcturus - who sought to exploit the planet for its own race by keeping it out of the Federation.

When the Doctor was accused of blaspheming the sacred Temple of Aggedor, after being tricked into entering it by Hepesh, Peladon claimed that he could not go against their ancient laws in this matter - even if it meant his execution and potential retaliation by the Federation. The best he could do was commute the sentence to mortal combat with his champion, a mute giant named Grun.

Hepesh's guilt was soon exposed and Arcturus destroyed, but the High Priest then seized the throne room and took Peladon hostage - threatening to kill him if he did not reject the Federation. The Doctor found the real Aggedor and brought it to the chamber where it killed Hepesh in retaliation for his cruelty towards it.

The planet would go on to become a member of the Federation and Peladon did marry, his Queen giving birth to a girl named Thalira who succeeded him to the throne. 

The TARDIS had brought the Doctor back to Peladon 50 years after his last visit, where he hoped to meet the King again, but he had already died.

Played by: David Troughton. Appearances: The Curse of Peladon (1972)

• Son of Patrick Troughton, David had once shared a flat with future Doctor Colin Baker.
• In 1986 he co-starred with Peter Davison in A Very Peculiar Practice, playing the obnoxious Bob Buzzard.
• He first appeared in the series in a walk-on role as one of Salamander's guards in The Enemy of the World, and followed this with a more substantial role as Private Moor in The War Games.
• He would return to the series in 2008 to play Professor Hobbes in Midnight - a late replacement for actor Sam Kelly when he broke his leg.
• On telling his father that he had been given a job with the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was told not to worry as something else might turn up. His father was famously uninterested in stage work, referring to it as "Shouting in the evenings".
• His sons Sam and William are both actors, and another, Jim, a cricketer. His nephew is Harry Melling, who played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter movies.

P is for... Peinforte, Lady

Lady Peinforte resided in 17th Century Windsor, accompanied by her servant Richard Maynard. 

A ruthless individual, she once poisoned her neighbour after she stole her cook.

In the 1630's she discovered a silvery substance in a meteorite which had fallen to earth, and realised that it had strange powers. She fashioned the substance int a statue of herself posing as Nemesis, the goddess of retribution. The substance was actually a Time Lord weapon - a living metal named Validium - which had been brought from Gallifrey by the Doctor. He succeeded in wrestling it from her and launched it back into space.

Lady Peinforte employed a mathematician to plot the time and palce when its orbit would return it to Earth. A mistress of the dark arts, she brewed a potion which she believed would allow her to travel through time to the landing location - which proved to be outside her home in November 1988. The potion needed but one more ingredient - human blood, which she gained by murdering the mathematician. Little did she know that she was actually being manipulated by an ancient entity known as Fenric which, though imprisoned for centuries could create time storms.

On arriving in the present day she found that her home had become a tea room. Not only was she seeking the Nemesis statue, but so also were a group of mercenaries led by a one-time Nazi officer - De Flores. Each held part of the statue, without which it could reach critical mass and its powers be unleashed. She held its arrow, and he its bow. A keen archer, she had melted her gold down and recast it into arrow heads, which she dipped in poison.

The Doctor and his companion also became involved as the he was alerted to the return.

He had regenerated since Lady Peinforte had last seen him, but could still recognise who he was. During her earlier encounter with the Validium, it had revealed secrets to her about his background.

Seeking a weapon to help create a new Mondas, the Cybermen soon arrived in search of the Validium. They seized the statue and moved it to an old crypt nearby - which proved to be that of Lady Peinforte.  Maynard noted that her tomb did not contain her body, however. Her gold-tipped arrows despatched a number of Cybermen.

Later, in trying to obtain the statue, Lady Peinforte threatened to reveal the Doctor's secrets. Physically attempting to seize hold of it, its power consumed her.

Played by: Fiona Walker. Appearances: Silver Nemesis (1988).

• Walker had previously played the villainous Kala in The Keys of Marinus back in 1964.
• She appeared in I, Claudius as Agrippina, and went on to marry its director Herbert Wise.
• Lady Peinforte's name derives from a method of torture /execution - peine forte et dure. This involved the victim being slowly crushed by heavy weights, in cases where someone refused to submit a plea. By dying without a plea, a victim could ensure their property could be inherited by their family and so avoid confiscation by the crown.

Episode 169: The Evil of the Daleks (7)

Synopsis:

The Emperor of the Daleks informs the Doctor that he will be forced to take the "Dalek Factor" and spread it throughout all of human history using the TARDIS...

In a special weapons room nearby, the Daleks prepare a machine.

In their cell, Maxtible is telling his fellow captives about the promise made to him by the Daleks, to provide him with the secret of turning base metals into gold. When Jamie threatens him, a Dalek guard orders that he is not to be harmed.

Waterfield attempts to get Maxtible to use his apparent influence with the creatures to help them but he refuses. The Doctor tells Victoria that he may have to sacrifice everyone to avoid doing what the Emperor has demanded. He cannot see the whole human race destroyed just to save their lives. At one point he considers taking them away in the TARDIS, possibly to his own planet.

In the weapons room, a Black Dalek is shocked when one of the worker Daleks questions an order. It goes to report this to the Emperor.

A panel opens in the cell, and the prisoners are able to see into the weapons room where the machine is ready. Maxtible then witnesses a quantity of iron being turned into gold. He is encouraged to move forward to see the device more clearly, but as he passes under the door arch his body is enveloped in a strange forcefield.

The Doctor realises that he has been subjected to the "Dalek Factor" and now, mentally, he is one of them.

The Emperor meanwhile insists that the Black Dalek to identify the test Dalek which had questioned its orders.

That night, Maxtible hypnotises the Doctor and has him pass under the archway - promising that he will be reunited with the TARDIS which has been placed outside the city. This is a ruse to turn him into a mental Dalek like himself. They will now work together to refine the "Factor".

Maxtible shows him the equipment they will use, but the Doctor secretly tampers with it - swapping a glass vial for another he had in his pocket. He indicates to Jamie with a wink that he has not been transformed. he then insists on being taken to see the Emperor.

In the control centre he explains that the Daleks who have been infected with the "Human Factor" can be cured with exposure to the "Dalek Factor". All Daleks must pass through the arch to ensure that no rebellious element remains to sow dissent.

The Emperor agrees, and the Daleks begin to file under the arch.

The Doctor admits to the prisoners that he has swapped the "Factors" and the Daleks are actually being humanised. He was not affected by the arch as he is not human.

He sends the others to the tunnel system so they can escape the city, though Waterfield insists on staying to look for Maxtible.

Throughout the city, the Black Daleks come across humanised Daleks. When they begin to destroy them, they fight back. Seeing this, the Doctor encourages the humanised ones to rebel.

He finds himself trapped in a corridor as Black Daleks bear down on him and open fire - but Waterfield throws himself into their path, knowing that only the Doctor can save everyone. As he dies, he asks that he look after his daughter.

The Emperor recalls all loyal Daleks to the control centre to defend it as battle rages through the city. 

As they pass along the tunnel, Maxtible attacks the fleeing prisoners. He kills Kemel by throwing him over a precipice, but then withdraws due to the Emperor's recall order.

The Doctor sees him heading into the midst of the fighting, before making his own escape.

Soon the conflict reaches the control centre and the Emperor itself is attacked.

The Doctor heads for the hillside where the TARDIS is located, and where Victoria and Jamie are now waiting. He tells her of her father's sacrifice, and informs Jamie that they will take her with them.

As they stand overlooking the burning city, the Doctor tells them both that they have just witnessed the final end of the Daleks...

Next time: The Tomb of the Cybermen

Data:

Written by David Whitaker

Recorded: Saturday 24th June 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 6.25pm, Saturday 1st July 1967

Ratings: 6.1 million / AI 56

VFX: Michealjohn Harris & Peter Day

Designer: Chris Thompson

Director: Derek Martinus

Critique:

And so Season 4 comes to an end with what could be described as the first ever proper season finale. The series hasn't done anything really special to close its seasons so far - or to open a new one - but here we see the final destruction of the Doctor's arch-enemies after four long years, something akin to the type of finale we have been given since 2005.

As we've previously noted, Terry Nation was seeking to launch the Daleks in their own TV series and interest from the BBC had not been forthcoming. He was still adamant that such a series could be a success and so was now looking to the US for a production partnership.

Unhappy with the way Whitaker treated his creations, and the complication of their ownership being shared with the BBC, Nation had elected to withdraw permission to use them in Doctor Who.

The Evil of the Daleks would therefore see the Daleks being written out of the series with the Doctor finally defeating them by triggering a cataclysmic civil war.

This pleased Innes Lloyd as he now had the popular Cybermen as the new recurring menace for the Doctor to encounter - and the BBC did not have to pay extra for their use as they had with the Daleks.

Whitaker titled this episode "The End of the Daleks".

For the Dalek weapons room he included in his script references to a number of specific machines, all of which had featured in the 1965 publication The Dalek Pocketbook and Space-Travellers Guide from Souvenir Press - mostly his own work. These devices included a Dust Gun, capable of spraying deadly dust throughout the cosmos; the Magnetron, which can attract spaceships out of the sky and force them to land on Skaro to be examined and retro-engineered; and the Dreamwave, capable of transmitting images into the minds of their enemies at great distances. 

A Magnetron device had actually featured in the TV series, in The Daleks' Master Plan.

Filming for the final episode took place on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th April, when some 15 Louis Marx toy Daleks were filmed at Ealing for the battle sequences. Some had their domes painted black but otherwise they had not been adapted, unlike the ones used in The Power of the Daleks for the production line sequences.

They had small explosive charges built in and some contained packets of a gooey substance. These were shot on silent 16mm film.

The destruction of the Dalek city model was also captured during these sessions.

More substantial filming too place at Ealing between the studio recording of Episodes 1 and 2, for the live action battle scenes. These were directed by Timothy Combe, who was given a credit for these on this episode. He had been working on the series as a Production Assistant since 1964, and would go on to direct two Jon Pertwee adventures.

This took place on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th May. Footage was again silent, but on 35mm film this time, using two cameras. 

Peter Day and Michealjohn Harris provided lightweight Dalek props, made of balsa-wood and polystyrene to be blown up, their casings filled with green foam. A lightweight version of the Emperor was also created for scenes where it is apparently wrecked. This had removeable panels, with electronics installed behind. The molten foam caused problems as the studio staff refused to clean up the mess afterwards. Three of the Daleks had been given black domes, with two silver. Sound effects included pouring water onto hot metal to produce a sizzling noise.

As the Emperor prop was about to be exploded, word came down from Sydney Newman, via Innes Lloyd, that there was to be some hint that the Daleks might survive - leaving the door open for their potential return at some later date. Once the Emperor blew up, Combe arranged for a small light to continue to pulse within it, suggesting that it still lived.

This filming was captured by studio designer Tony Cornell on 8mm and, along with some of the city model filming and the off-air audio recording, has subsequently been released as "The Last Dalek" on DVD / Blu-ray, giving us a taste of the story's epic conclusion. Another version on DVD features a commentary track by the VFX staff in place of the soundtrack.

The final episode was recorded at Lime Grove on Saturday 24th June when Patrick Troughton's son Michael, who would go on to appear in Last Christmas, was in attendance as a visitor. He got to sit inside a Black Dalek. Two of the props had black domes and the other three silver, though once again the domes were interchangeable if necessary. The fifth Dalek was operated by Ken Tyllsen, who had once played a Sensorite and had operated a Dalek before in The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

Two recording breaks were planned - the first coming after Maxtible had been to report to the Emperor, accompanied by a Black Dalek, and the other after the Doctor encouraged his friends to leave the cell through the transforming arch.

The inlay effect was used for people passing under the arch, as their bodies were seen to ripple and distort.

One sequence planned but never filmed was when a Dalek went out of control in the weapons room, smashing into various glass tubes and bottles. Unfortunately these had already been broken during the day through careless handling, so the shot had to be dropped.

As with the end of the previous episode, the set was composed of lattice-like elements which could be rearranged to form different rooms and corridors. This required careful lighting as other sets might show beyond them.

There were a number of small cuts made for timing reasons - six in all. The first was just after the reprise as the Doctor, Jamie and Waterfield are led from the control centre to the cell. The Doctor ponders why the Dalek Emperor is so sure he will help them. The second was a scene of Daleks checking their machines in the weapons room. The third was the end of a scene in which the Doctor and Maxtible discuss the control device which had been used on Terrall.

Next was a sequence just after Maxtible had been transformed, where the Doctor attempts to speak with Alpha before it is sent away. Jamie asked if it really was Alpha, but the Doctor wasn't sure.

The fifth cut came in the scene where Maxtible reports back to the Emperor that the experiment has been successful. The final edit came with a cell scene in which Victoria tried to reassure Jamie, after he believes that the Doctor has been transformed.

Interestingly, the Doctor at one point talks about taking his fellow prisoners away in the TARDIS, to either another universe or to his home planet - the first time he has mentioned this since his personal musings alone in the TARDIS at the end of The Massacre. Then he had talked of going home himself, before accepting that he somehow cannot. All we know of his home is that it is "a long, long way from Earth". We'll learn a little more about the Doctor in another quiet scene between him and Victoria in the next story.

The talk of going to another universe seems to be a throwback to the earliest days of the series, when the writers - Whitaker included - demonstrated a rather shaky grasp of cosmology. We'll later discover that there is only one prime universe, with others being only rarely visited alternative dimensions, accessed accidentally. Basically, the writers confuse universes with galaxies.

Some questions we need to ask: if the Daleks know that the test subjects had marks placed on their casings by the Doctor, why do they need to subject every one to the "Factor"? Surely they could just look for the marks - yet the Black Dalek claims they have searched "without success".

Also, why is the TARDIS moved outside the city, when Maxtible only needs to make the Doctor think it's there? If he believes his hypnotism is effective, why move it at all? It's a bit of a contrivance that the ship is safely outside the city when it is destroyed. 

Season 4 had seen the biggest shake-up in the series' history to date, with the high risk strategy of changing the lead actor at the conclusion of its second story; the arrival of the Cybermen as a popular new menace; and the introduction of a highly popular companion in Jamie. After initially wanting to have contemporary companions reflecting Swinging London, Lloyd had cooled on the idea and now gone for a pair of companions who both came from Earth's history (though he had tried to retain a contemporary companion had Pauline Collins agreed to stay on as Samantha Briggs). The issue that people from the past would need to have everything explained to them - as previously argued by John Wiles and Donald Tosh - had been resolved by simply ignoring the problem.

Behind the scenes there had been some consistency, in that Lloyd remained producer throughout, and Gerry Davis only stepped down part way through the final story. And whilst Lloyd was keen to move on, his successor was already working on the series and being groomed to take over, helping to make for a smooth transition when the time came - a time which was rapidly approaching...

Whilst it was the end of the season for the viewers, the production team would go straight into the next story, which would then be held back to open the fifth season.

Trivia:

• The ratings see a slight dip for this final episode, though it manages to achieve the highest appreciation figure of the serial.
• The episode was broadcast at a later time due to live coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, which placed it against the popular talent show Opportunity Knocks! on ITV.
• The episode was repeated at 5.15pm on Saturday 23rd August 1968, when it was watched by an audience of 5.5 million - a huge increase on the previous week. The AI was 49.
• An Audience Research Report was commissioned  for this episode in early August. There were 180 respondents, some of whom hoped that the Daleks were gone for good. A small number hoped that the entire series would not return. Positives included a general satisfaction with Patrick Troughton's performance, and the "absolutely wonderful" special effects.
• For some reason the story was sold to Australia later than most, so that it was first broadcast between The Web of Fear and Fury From The Deep. 
• It was shown in August 1969 in Hong Kong, Singapore in December that year, and New Zealand in the summer of 1970. By the mid 1970's all copies were believed destroyed, until Episode 2 turned up at a car boot sale in 1983.
• The story was released in animated form in 2021, along with the orphan episode. A couple of easter eggs to look out for are the names of later Doctor actors on the shields in the trophy room, and Maxtible has candlesticks in the form of Weeping Angels.
• The story generated a DWM comic strip sequel featuring the Eighth Doctor - Children of the Revolution - which depicts Dalek Alpha and the humanised Dalek survivors living secretly underwater.
• Cut lines from Day of the Daleks would have revealed that the rebellion on Skaro was eventually quashed.
• You could get your photograph taken with a Black Dalek at Dudley Zoo in 1967...

• And pop group The Troggs (best known for Wild Thing) had themselves pictured with one of the props...

• Finally, another wonderful retro movie-style poster from Oliver Arkinstall-Jones:

Cybermen @ Peterborough (2)

The last of my photo posts from the Peterborough museum exhibition covers the later Cybermen, from the JNT era through "Nu Who". You saw some images of the first of the three Cyber-displays when I covered the 1960's models in a previous post.

The second row features the 1980's ones, and includes some actual screen-used costumes.

A Cyberman from Earthshock (judging by the moonboots) and the Controller from Attack of the Cybermen. This is the actual suit worn by Michael Kilgarriff in the story, bought at auction. The mannequin had to be padded in order to mount it properly.

Then a standard Cyberman from Attack of the Cybermen - another original costume - and one from Silver Nemesis. This is a reproduction made for the Hyde Fundraisers group.

The latter suffered a mishap as the display was being set up. The mannequin fell over and the helmet smashed - lucky it was only a reproduction - so the donor had to quickly create a replacement.

We then move onto the revived series, with a rather oddly posed Cybus Cyberman accompanied by a Cybershade from The Next Doctor and one of the models first introduced in Nightmare in Silver:

In the room containing the masks and models we also have "Handles" from The Day of the Doctor and a Cybergun, in a case next to the Julian Bleach Davros:

It's then onto the Chibnall era to finish off, with Ashad and a Cyber-Warrior from Ascension of the Cybermen and a finally CyberMaster from The Power of the Doctor. Nice seeing the detailing on the latter's suit up close.

Personally, other than the impressive Emperor, I would say that the Cyberman display on show at Peterborough is superior to the Dalek collection in its wide range of costumes, from The Tenth Planet through The Wheel in Space to The Power of the Doctor (though I'm always biased in favour of the Cybermen over the motorised dustbins anyway).

That's it for now. I may be revisiting the exhibition very soon as I'm back in London, though I may hold fire until the autumn to see if they've added some other items.

That holiday runs 26th July to 3rd August when there'll be no posts, but I'll stick a "Blog Update" out nearer the time.

What's Wrong With... The Mark of the Rani

Too many Time Lords, that's one of the things.... Instead of getting her own introductory story all to herself, the Master gets shoehorned into what is really a very simple and straightforward plot by the Rani. She's out to harvest chemicals from the human brain which will pacify the people of the planet she has taken over. She has tampered with their neural chemistry so that they need to sleep less, and so can work more. This has led to them becoming overly stimulated physically and emotionally, however. 

She picks times of great upheaval so that no-one will notice that her victims are acting very aggressively.

In this instance she picks the period of English history known as the Luddite Riots - and there we have a couple of problems.

The first is that there were lots of nice big wars going on around this time - the biggest being the Napoleonic Wars but there were dozens of other conflicts all across the globe in the first quarter of the 19th Century to pick from.

Secondly, the Luddite Riots were primarily aimed at the manufacturing industries, especially cotton - a violent reaction by some workers to the threat to their jobs from automation. They occurred roughly between 1811 - 1816. Killingworth is very much a coal mining district, producing the key raw material needed to fuel the mill towns such as "Cottonopolis" - Manchester. There's no evidence of any manufacturing going on here. Automation had very little impact on jobs in the mining industry, which is why it remained labour intensive up to its decline.

The riots had peaked by 1813, and George Stephenson did not produce his first locomotive until the following year. (We see what looks like The Rocket, but that was actually built by his son Robert in 1829).

If the Rani needs brain chemicals to subdue an entire planet's population, surely it will take her decades to harvest enough fluid using the occasional customer of a village bath-house.

Going undercover at a hospital in a war zone would have been far more efficient for her needs.

We first see the Master standing in a field disguised as a scarecrow. Why? 

Did he somehow know that the Doctor's TARDIS was going to arrive there in the next few minutes, or has he been hanging around there for hours (or days / weeks) on the off-chance his arch enemy might show up?

Even if we allow for the fact that he deliberately caused the TARDIS to go off course, how did he know that the Doctor was heading for somewhere in this general time zone anyway?

(Kew Gardens did not open to the general public until 1840 by the way, well after the events depicted here).

What, exactly, is the Master's plan here anyway? It appears to be another attempt to meddle in Earth history by interfering with the Industrial Revolution which, considering it has been going on for a while by this stage, is surely "small time villainy" once again on his part.

How exactly does he intend to interfere, if he only finds out about the Rani's mind-controlling maggots after he has already come here? Was he going to hypnotise all the visitors to Ravensworth's conference individually? Was his plan to assassinate them? If so, then just about all their inventions would have been developed by their rivals / relatives / assistants anyway, sooner or later.

Back to disguises: no-one knows the Rani here, so why does she feel the need to wear a mask to run the bathhouse?

And is the Doctor putting some dirt on his face really enough to confuse the Rani? She's seen him enter the village on the back of a cart only a short time ago, but doesn't recognise it's him in the bathhouse until she's about to drain off his brain fluid.

It's a small place so she ought to spot strangers straight away, and this guy has just gone right past her holding a loudly bleeping electronic device.

When the volcano trap ignites, why do they not simply run out of the door? We know it's not locked because he opens it to let the gas out.

In the same way we questioned why a Time Lord would pause to name the type of weapon that's about to shoot him dead, instead of running away or punching his attacker, why does the Doctor feel the need to reel off the multi-syllable name of the chemical that is about to poison him and his companion?

It's mustard gas (which would have been quicker to say if he really does insist on Peri knowing what's about to kill her), so donning gas masks wouldn't stop them getting blistered skin.

And why does this basic gas trap need a TARDIS to power it?

There's some dreadful dialogue as well, such as the Rani's "You and the Doctor are a well matched pair of pests". One's a mass murderer and the other stands for everything which she doesn't, yet she can only describe them as "pests".

The Bakers are infamous for using ten words, the more elaborate the better, where simpler, more straightforward, language would do - e.g. "Fortuitous would be a more apposite epithet". It's all very well helping the kids expand their vocabulary, though I don't know how many went into school the next week saying this instead of "'Lucky' would be a better word".

At one point Peri says "You suspect another motive?". When does she ever speak like this? She would say "You think (s)he's up to something?".

Why does the Master think that shoving the Doctor's TARDIS down a pit will destroy it?

How can a Time Lord be fooled into thinking that the Rani has invented a scanner that can somehow show thoughts instead of real images when any old TARDIS has this function built-in anyway - like when the Doctor used such a device to show Zoe a summer repeat of The Evil of the Daleks?

Even the moronic Moroks had tech that could do this.

Why does the Master use one of the scarce maggots to hypnotise Luke, when he could just have done this himself and saved the beastie for another time? 

Why does Peri have to set out and concoct a herbal remedy? Does Killingworth not have any doctors?

We can't put it off any longer, but the plastic tree needs to be talked about. It's one of the worst effects in the history of the series. The pair which hold the Doctor up are just as bad. Note how the rope tying him has modern sticky tape on it and plastic tips.

The Rani emerges from her ship with only a couple of mines, yet later the dell is supposed to be littered with them. (And does the Doctor go back and deactivate them all after? Doesn't look like it).

Still, could be a lot worse. They could have had the Rani breathing on people and turning them into plants. That would have been really stupid...

Episode 168: The Evil of the Daleks (6)

Synopsis:

The three Daleks sent to Maxtible's home from Skaro have had the "Human Factor" added to their brains. Instead of lethal cunning, they exhibit playful friendliness...

Maxtible leaves the laboratory, satisfied that the experiment has been a success.

After their game of "trains", the Doctor marks each of them with a symbol - naming them Alpha, Beta and Omega. He tells them that he and Jamie are their friends.

After spending some time with the trio, they suddenly announce that they must return to Skaro. All of the Daleks in the house have been recalled.

The Doctor and Jamie set off to look for Victoria as Maxtible returns with Waterfield, who wants to know where his daughter is now that the Dalek experiment is completed. Waterfield lies, claiming she is probably out in the garden. He goes to look for her as a Dalek sets a large box in the middle of the floor.

Maxtible wants to know what this is but is ordered not to touch it. He demands that the Daleks give him the formula they promised him but is only ordered to fetch the Doctor and Jamie. This is overheard by Waterfield as he returns.

Not trusting his old acquaintance and realising that there is more going on here than he has been told, he tries to force Maxtible into telling him the truth. Maxtible knocks him out, then tells a newly arrived Dalek that he hasn't been able to find the Doctor and Jamie.

It tells him that the device on the floor is a powerful bomb which is timed to go off in a few minutes. He is horrified at the thought of losing his home - especially his laboratory, as he believes that without it the knowledge they will give him will be useless as he will not be able to exploit it.

He is forced to enter the time cabinet and leave with the Dalek.

Waterfield has revived and heard them speak about about the bomb, and he warns the Doctor and Jamie as they return, having found no trace of Victoria. 

Unable to deactivate the device, they are unable to use the time cabinet either as it is now simply an empty shell.

The Doctor then recalls the time travel machine which Waterfield had used to travel to 1966. They quickly set it up and activate it as the bomb detonates, destroying the house.

Victoria and Kemel are being held captive in a cell in the Dalek city on Skaro. Maxtible joins them briefly, before being escorted away by a Dalek.

The Doctor, Jamie and Waterfield have arrived on a plateau overlooking the city. The Doctor recalls a cave system nearby which will allow them to enter unobserved.

Maxtible, meanwhile, is having to answer to a black-domed Dalek why he did not bring the Doctor with him.

One of these Black Daleks has noticed a mark on another's casing, and it explains that it was made by the Doctor. It is Omega.

Victoria and Kemel hear an alarm sound as the Daleks announce intruders detected in their city, and she hopes that it is her father come to rescue them.

She is then taken from the cell to join Maxtible in a darkened chamber. She hears him scream out, then is made to do so herself. This is a ruse by the Daleks to lure the intruders into a trap.

They, meanwhile, are moving along a narrow ledge when they are confronted by a Dalek. It proves to be Omega, come to escort them the rest of the way. The Doctor suddenly pushes it off the ledge into a deep chasm, as he has noted that it is not his writing on the casing.

They enter the city and are confronted by two Black Daleks which force them to accompany it.

They enter a darkened chamber and hear a voice booming out from the shadows. A light comes on and a massive static Dalek is revealed. The Doctor identifies it as their Emperor.

He tells it that the day of the Daleks is coming to an end. Somewhere in the city are three Daleks with the "Human Factor". They will come to question their orders and this will sow discontent which will spread. Rebellion will follow.

The Emperor reveals that the TARDIS is here, then explains that the "Human Factor" was merely a means to an end. It has helped to identify a "Dalek Factor". 

The Doctor will be forced to take this to Earth in the TARDIS and spread it throughout the whole of human history...

Data:

Written by David Whitaker

Recorded: Saturday 17th June, 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.45pm, Saturday 24th June 1967

Ratings: 6.8 million / AI 49

VFX: Michealjohn Harris & Peter Day

Designer: Chris Thompson

Director: Derek Martinus

Critique:

Unlike the other six instalments, there is no record of any working title for this episode from its writer. The novelisation of the repeat showing, by Frazer Hines, which uses these working titles as chapter headings employs "Escape to Danger".

One of the things which Terry Nation disliked about this story was the introduction of an Emperor. He had been content with the Black Dalek Supreme.

We all know that the comic strips published in TV Century 21 comic were the work of David Whitaker, and not Nation, and he had introduced an Emperor there. That had been a distinctive (flidor) gold one, with a spherical upper half and multiple dome lights. It was the Dalek which had confronted the last two natural Dal people when they emerged after the nuclear disaster which befell Skaro, and which forced them to create more of its kind before they succumbed to radiation sickness. As the first, it elected to make itself their ruler and had a special casing built for itself.

Also introduced this week are the Emperor's special retinue which have senior status over the normal silver Daleks. The script refers to them as "Black Daleks", though they obviously only have a black dome and are otherwise identical to the standard model. This is the only story in which this colour scheme appears. 

There were five Daleks available for the whole serial, which had easily replaceable domes to switch from silver to black as the scenes dictated.

In the draft script for Episode 6, the Doctor told Jamie and Waterfield that he had found a way to destroy the Daleks for good - "by making them all like us".

Their city was described as "piercing out of the sand of the desert, with a mountain range to the side... its weird shaped buildings, pillars and projections making up a kind of alien symmetry". No doubt Whitaker was recalling the model city designed by Ray Cusick for their debut, which had featured a mountainous backdrop.

The model was mainly built from balsa wood.

Filming for this episode was limited to model shots, recorded at Ealing on Wednesday 26th April. These were establishing shots of the city, to be seen by the Doctor and his friends as they first arrive on Skaro, plus the use of a Louis Marx toy Dalek for the sequence where the Doctor pushes the fake Omega into the chasm.

On Friday 16th June, Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling were released from rehearsals to film the opening sequence for the next story, where Victoria is introduced to the TARDIS.

Recording seems to have been a mix of tension and humour. Some of the younger cast members raced around the studio in the Dalek bases during the afternoon, and apparently it was whilst making this episode that Hines, trying out one of the props, overheard certain cast members slagging off the director in particular and the programme in general. 

Hines devised the double-entendre "Look at the size of those balls, Doctor!" when first seeing the Emperor. Comments on size would become a running joke with him, sometimes even making it to broadcast, unlike here.

Murphy Grumbar joined Robert Jewell, Gerald Taylor and John Scott Martin to operate a fourth Dalek prop.

As previously mentioned, Peter Hawkins had his voice duplicated and overlaid to provide the deep booming vocals of the Emperor -  the voice previously heard in Arthur Terrall's head.

To relieve a moment of tension in studio, Roy Skelton decided to sing "What's it all about, Alpha?" in Dalek voice - a play on the Cilla Black song which accompanied the Michael Caine movie Alfie, which had opened in March the year before.

There were three recording breaks scheduled. The first after the action leaves the laboratory, the second following the Doctor's destruction of the Dalek on the cave tunnel set, and the third just before the final scene with the Emperor.

This large static prop was initially kept in shadow, then illuminated by a spotlight. The Dalek city interior was composed mainly of white angular supports, which could be rearranged into different permutations to represent various chambers and corridors, set against black drapes.

The Emperor had as part of its dome a segment of a Chumbley, from Galaxy 4.

The TARDIS prop had its doors hung the wrong way round.

There were two small trims made during editing. The first was a shot of the Doctor's party moving through the tunnel system, and the other was a model shot of a toy Dalek moving along the bottom of the chasm.

After an enjoyable instalment which saw the Doctor and Jamie as fish-out-of-water visitors to contemporary Chelsea, the story had moved to Victorian Kent, restricted to the confines of Theodore Maxtible's country house, where Jamie's rescue of Victoria was certainly the most exciting part. If there was padding, it has been well and truly ditched with the departure of those extraneous characters who inhabited the house.

Episode Six now sees the action shift to the Dalek homeworld of Skaro. It's this final section of the story which is best remembered by fans who saw it at the time (on first or repeat broadcast) and it could be argued that it's the bit which most of us would like to see found. The Daleks have worked well in the gothic environs of the house, mainly because many of their scenes were filmed on location at night, but a high tech environment like their city does seem to be their natural habitat.

Before we get there we have the humorous opening scenes of the playful Daleks, making the Doctor play "trains" with them. Nation would not doubt have cringed at scenes of them playing and chanting about "Dizzy Daleks", or the sing-song "Alpha, Beta, Omega. Alpha, Beta, Omega...".

This episode gives guest star Marius Goring more to do at last. John Bailey's Waterfield has had more of a presence up to now, whilst Maxtible has tended to merely flit in and out of the laboratory, fluffing lines - calling Waterfield "Whitefield" at one point, and claiming the Daleks hail from a planet named Skarov. With the experiment out of the way, and those other characters jettisoned, the story can concentrate more on him and his obsession with alchemical secrets, and the relationship which he believes he has with the Daleks.

The city clearly does not resemble the one seen in The Daleks. Not just in its architecture, which can obviously change over the centuries, but also in the geographical location. The city seen previously sat on a plain, with mountains behind, whilst this one has higher ground all around it. 

The Doctor also seems to know all about the tunnel system leading into it, which he claims he recalls from his previous visit. If it's the tunnels which Ian's party used to infiltrate the city then they don't look the same, and he was never seen to enter them anyway. It may well be that he explored off camera between the defeat of the Daleks and the farewell scenes by the TARDIS. An alternative is that this is another city altogether (an idea which some fans have raised to explain how the Daleks could all be destroyed in their debut, and yet still be around later). If this is the case, then the Doctor can't possibly know about the secret tunnel entrance - unless there has been some unseen adventure on Skaro in the interim.

We have to question why, if the Daleks know about the tunnel (and they do, as they send the fake Omega along it) it isn't properly guarded.

Trivia:

• After a gradual decline, the ratings show a massive improvement this week - up 1.7 million viewers. The appreciation figure drops below 50, however.
• The repeat screening was at 5.15pm on Saturday 27th July 1968, when it was watched by an audience of 4.2 million - the lowest of the run - but with a higher AI of 51.
• When Russell T Davies introduced a new Emperor Dalek in Parting of the Ways, he had it served by black-domed versions of the standard bronze Daleks as a nod to this story. There was also a visual clue to the Emperor in the previous episode as we see the Controller of the Game Station permanently wired into its systems, and there's a familiar hexagonal pattern left behind when she gets teleported away.
• A Black Dalek was amongst the inmates of the Asylum of the Daleks, not that you could actually spot it very well. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan actually claimed it as their favourite of the classic models and were photographed with it.
• Radio Times this week featured a piece on Marius Goring, to tie in with the broadcast of this sixth episode:

• There is a recreation of the Dalek Emperor on display at the Adventures in Time and Space exhibition in Peterborough's art gallery and museum, running to October 2025.

• And a Black Dalek was a regular fixture of the Doctor Who Experience throughout its run. Presumably this was the prop which, dirtied down, had featured in Asylum of the Daleks...

Inspirations: The Caretaker

Writer Gareth Roberts tended to be a two-trick pony when it came to his stories for Doctor Who. His first contributions revolved around a famous literary figure and peppered the dialogue with references to their work. 

His other gimmick was to have the Doctor placed into what was for him an unfamiliar domestic setting to see how he would cope. First he used an old DWM comic strip idea and had the Doctor forced to share a flat with someone in The Lodger. In this the Doctor also temporarily held down a job - covering for Craig Owens when he fell ill. Then he gave us a sequel to that story - Closing Time - but concentrated more on the Doctor-gets-a-job angle by having him gain a position at a department store.

Here, he gives us another Doctor-gets-a-job scenario, but this time it's complicated by being at the same place where his companion works - Coal Hill School - and she's started a romance with a colleague there.

The Doctor has gone undercover in a school once before, in order to investigate alien activity, in 2006's School Reunion.

Coal Hill School was the second location seen in the series back on 23rd November 1963, in An Unearthly Child. It was where the Doctor's granddaughter Susan was a pupil, who aroused the curiosity of teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.

(An earlier idea for the very first story would have been set entirely within the school, with the Doctor and companions shrunk to an inch in height).

Coal Hill School later became a base of operations for the Imperial faction of Daleks as they sought the Hand of Omega, in Remembrance of the Daleks. (The Doctor was mistaken for a potential caretaker in that story).

Missing two years of work did not seen to harm Ian's job prospects as by 2013 he was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the school, as we see in The Day of the Doctor. This was also when we learned that Clara Oswald was now working there as a teacher.

Following Series 9, the school would actually form the principal location for an entire spin-off series - Class. The Twelfth Doctor made an appearance in the opening episode, and it was explained that all that time travel activity back in 1963 had created a weak point in space and time, a bit like the Cardiff Rift, that allowed alien menaces to slip through. By this time the Board of Governors were actually villains, so presumably Ian had by now retired. 

The events of Attack of the Cybermen in the district had added to this phenomenon.

Series 8 features a few visits to the school, but only this episode really concentrates on it. Danny Pink was first introduced in Into The Dalek, and developed as a semi-regular character designed to highlight the conflicting pressures on Clara - a stable home life with a partner, as opposed to the excitement and danger of travelling in the TARDIS with the Doctor.

She attempted to keep these two lives separate - especially when she learned that the Doctor hated soldiers (Danny being ex-army). The Caretaker sees the Doctor and he finding out the truth about each other.

A whole year has passed since the Dalek episode, as Danny was new to the school then, but a parent talks of him here as having been in post since the previous year.

Another significant character in this episode is Courtney Woods, a disruptive schoolgirl first introduced in a flashback sequence in Deep Breath, where she was seen to be the bane of Clara's professional life.

She is there mainly for some comic relief scenes with the Doctor.

When the Doctor discovers from her that that Clara has a boyfriend amongst the teachers, he automatically assumes it is Adrian, the one who wears a bow tie - as his previous incarnation was wont to do.

We also get another appearance by the strange woman seemingly welcoming the recently deceased into some sort of Afterlife - in this instance a policeman who has been killed by the Skovox Blitzer.

The design of this robot was based on Babyface, from Toy Story (1995). This had the head of a doll on a spider-like mechanical body.

The Doctor is heard to whistle part of the Pink Floyd song Another Brick in the Wall (1979), its lyrics tying in with the school setting -  "We don't need no education... / Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone..." etc.

The Doctor and Clara argue over the dating of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. They are both right as she wrote it over the course of 1796 - 1797. (Coincidentally, Jenna Coleman would be seen on TV a few days after this was broadcast in an adaptation of Death Comes To Pemberley - a sequel to Austin's book).

The Head of the school was going to be female - a Miss Coburn, named after Anthony Coburn who wrote the episode which introduced the location. It was then decided to reuse the character already seen in Into The Dalek, Mr Armitage.

At one point the Doctor offers to take Clara to see some Fish People - potentially the Atlanteans ones from The Underwater Menace.

He also offers to take her to the 1814 Frost Fair on the Thames. We'll see him get there in Thin Ice, but River Song had also mentioned being taken to it by the Eleventh Doctor, where she got to see Stevie Wonder perform.

The Doctor had previously assumed the job - and title - of Caretaker in The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.

Next time: David Niven named his 1971 memoir The Moon's A Balloon. He was wrong. It's an egg...

Story 302: Wild Blue Yonder

In which the Doctor and Donna briefly meet Isaac Newton, before the TARDIS materialises on board a vast spacecraft...

Arriving up a tree in an orchard in the year 1666, the Doctor and Donna accidentally cause Newton to name the force he has just defined as "Mavity".

The TARDIS then arrives in a spaceship and the Doctor and Donna are forced to evacuate it, due to the damage resulting from her having spilled coffee into the console. For some reason, the TARDIS has blasted out some of the old wartime tune Wild Blue Yonder. The Doctor inserts his sonic screwdriver into the ship's lock, in order to trigger its automatic repair systems. They are just setting off to explore when it suddenly dematerialises, the Doctor having forgotten to override the Hostile Action Displacement System.

They are now stranded on this mysterious spacecraft until it comes back for them, and they need to discover what is so dangerous about it that the HADS was activated.

They find themselves in a long corridor. Random, alien, words are broadcast from a loudspeaker system, and each time they hear these parts of the architectural configuration of the corridor alter.

They come across a small robot, which at first appears stationery but is in actual fact merely moving very, very slowly.

They find a computer centre and the Doctor decides to carry out some adjustments. The pair split up to work in different rooms.

Donna notices a drop in temperature, and tells the Doctor of her worries about her family should they not be able to get back home. The Doctor's only response is to comment that his arms are too long, and she is shocked to see that his hands have grown huge and are dragging on the ground.

This is not the Doctor. He, meanwhile, has discovered that he has not been talking to the real Donna, as her limbs are also out of proportion.

The real travellers are reunited and run out into the corridor where clamber into a buggy. The doppelgangers - creatures who identify as the "Not-Things" who originate in the region outside the spaceship - give chase but cannot control their bodies. They grow to enormous size and get jammed in the corridor.

The Doctor and Donna reach the bridge and discover only a void outside. They are at the very edge of the universe, and the Doctor realises that the Not-Things must come from another dimension that lies beyond this one. They hear a strange knocking sound. The random words continue to be announced.

Opening a screen, they see the corpse of the ship's pilot hanging in the void, attached to a cable which causes it to knock against the hull as it orbits the vessel. 

The Not-Things attempt to get in, their bodies attempting to normalise - as though acclimatising themselves. The Doctor knows that they wish to copy then replace them both.

He finally works out what is going on here. The ship's captain killed themselves to prevent itself from being duplicated and replaced, but first set the craft to self destruct. It did this in slow-motion so that the Not-Things would not realise what was going on. The random words are really a countdown, and the robot is slowly moving towards the trigger mechanism.

The Not-Things now have the memories and intelligence of the Doctor and Donna, and so now also know what is about to happen.

The TARDIS returns, and the Doctor and Donna must race to towards it before the alien creatures can reach it first. The Not-Doctor is destroyed as the spaceship begins to blow apart. The Doctor gets into the TARDIS but is confronted by two Donna Nobles, whom he cannot tell apart.

He initially rescues the Not-Donna but then realises his mistake and swaps the real one for the duplicate, which is left to perish on the disintegrating spacecraft.

The TARDIS materialises back in London, and on exiting they are met by Wilf. He warns them that something terrible has been happening since they left, and they see people fighting in the street as an aircraft crashes into the city...

Wild Blue Yonder was written by Russell T Davies, and was first broadcast on Saturday 2nd December 2023. It is the second of the three 60th Anniversary Specials.

Apart from the rather pointless opening sequence with Newton, it is a two-hander for the most part, with David Tennant and Catherine Tate playing both the Doctor and Donna and their Not-Thing doppelgangers. We then get a brief appearance from Bernard Cribbins as Wilf at the conclusion, setting up the events for the final Special. Sadly this was to be his last screen role, and it is his only appearance in the trio of episodes. Filming took place at Camden Market in London, at the same time that the scenes for The Star Beast were recorded.

The episode was dedicated to him.

As with a lot of RTD2's material since taking back the series, the roots are showing. In parts this resembles Midnight, and one is strongly reminded of the film Event Horizon - described at the time as a haunted house movie in space - and John Carpenter's The Thing (alien creature attempting to mimic but getting it wrong). The robot closely resembles the cinema version of Marvin the Paranoid Android.

When it came to advance publicity for the Specials, this concentrated only on the first and last of them. We knew that the first was a screen adaptation of the classic Doctor Who Weekly comic strip, and that the third would see the return of the Toymaker. The lack of any information about this middle episode resulted in all manner of speculation from fans - mainly revolving around a guest appearance by one or more previous incarnations of the Doctor, or the return of a popular monster.

The fact that it failed to deliver either, and proved to be a self-contained bottle-episode, did not go down well at all and it is regarded as the weakest of the three. As I said at the time in my review, it is unfair to blame an episode for not being something which it never once claimed to be.

However, there wasn't any reason for RTD2 to have withheld information about the episode. Scenes of the robot and the spacecraft could have been shown as part of the trailers without spoiling the reveal that that Doctor and Donna at one point are speaking to copies of each other.

Regarding that Isaac Newton sequence... The series long ago gave up on even trying to be educational. 

RTD2 clearly thought that getting the nation's schoolkids to start saying "Mavity" instead of "Gravity" would be a "hoot ", but the problem is that the schoolkids had long since given up on the series.

They've tried to prolong the "joke" but it quickly became an irritation.

The colour-blind casting of Nathaniel Curtis as the great scientist did not go down very well with many - partly through a general anti-wokeness viewpoint but also from those who simply think that real historical figures shouldn't be shown to be something which they were not. I tend towards the latter, on the grounds that it gives a skewed picture of history to children and glosses over the problems of the past. It's not as if we don't know what Newton looked like.

This sequence also features the first appearance in the series of Susan Twist, playing Newton's housekeeper, Mrs Merrydew. Naturally, this became part of the whole story arc for Series 14, as Twist appeared as different people across space and time.

Overall, it's actually a great little episode, held together by the two stars who get to play against each other - and themselves - without the distraction of lots of other characters. Dark and creepy for the most part, that unfunny Newton segment feels tacked on and totally out of place. It's a pity that they couldn't have found a better way for the Doctor to know who the real Donna was. On screen, it's something stupid like the length of a bone, but it would have been far more satisfying had it been something to do with her as an individual which provided the clue.

Things you might like to know:

• RTD2 did originally intend for an old Doctor appearance - the First. However, as time went by he elected to simplify the story so that it concentrated solely on the two stars.
• Not only does the Newton sequence spoil the continuity of the TARDIS initially blowing up with the coffee spill, and the reason for their hurried evacuation of it on the spaceship, but it also contradicts the Fourth Doctor's description of his meeting with him.
• RTD2 had written a lot more material for Wilf, including scenes for The Giggle, but it quickly became apparent that his involvement with the shoot would have to be kept to a minimum. He does feature briefly in the following episode, but it is a body double and some old dialogue of his that is heard.
• In an interview, RTD2 spoke of this episode as a sort of homage to the Season 15 story Underworld, in that much of it was filmed against today's version of CSO, green screen.
• DWM 597 played along with the secrecy for this episode by redacting three of the guest artists. Of these, only Wilf's appearance might have been any kind of spoiler. The other names were those of Curtis and Twist.
• Wild Blue Yonder is another name for a song properly titled The U.S. Air Force - adopted as their anthem by that service in the late 1940's.
• One of those fan rumours was that this episode would be set within the damaged TARDIS, where the Doctor and Donna would be threatened by evil versions of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors - this despite Capaldi bluntly stating that he had no desire to return to the series.
• The HADS was first introduced in The Krotons.
• The robot, nicknamed "Jimbo" was operated as a puppet, and not as a man in a costume.
• The spaceship decor contains some hoof-shaped motifs, tying in with the equine nature of the dead captain.
• The Doctor invokes the old superstition that vampires and other supernatural entities can't pass a line of salt (see the TV series Supernatural for a lot of this). This invocation of a superstition is apparently the trigger for him to be plagued by the Toymaker and various other deities over the course of the next two series.