Christopher Hamilton Bidmead (1941 - 2025)

It has been announced that Script Editor Christopher H Bidmead has passed away at the age of 84.

An actor in earlier life, including a regular role on Emergency Ward 10, he later went into script writing. When JNT took over as producer on Doctor Who, Bidmead was recommended as his new Script Editor by writer Robert Banks Stewart.

Interviewed by the producer and executive producer Barry Letts, Bidmead impressed with his desire to get proper science back into the programme and treat it more seriously.

He worked on Season 18, and quickly found himself having to carry out major rewrites on some scripts, just as his predecessors had experienced. One rewrite went badly, when the director refused to work on a story after Bidmead had taken it too far from the writer's original draft. He reluctantly had to change things back.

Finding the whole process exhausting, Bidmead decided that one year in the role was enough.

For someone who championed proper science in the show, there are some very silly notions on view, such as the time loop in Meglos, or quite literally flushing out the Master in Logopolis by flooding the TARDIS. 

DWM would later create the Bidmead-o-meter, to judge the silliness of the science in the revived series.

As well as script editing the work of others, Bidmead contributed three stories of his own - Logopolis, Castrovalva and Frontios. A fourth for Season 23 was cancelled late in the day. He also novelised his stories for Target.

Bidmead was an early champion of the home computer and wrote about the subject for science publications. He employed computer terminology within his Doctor Who scripts.

RIP.

DWM Gothic Horror Special Edition

The latest Special Edition of DWM is based around the forthcoming Blu-ray release of Season 13, and the majority of features relate directly to those six stories. However, we also get a general introduction to the Gothic in the series, which goes up to more recent stuff like the Weeping Angels and episodes like The Haunting of the Villa Diodati.

There's an article on the old movies which inspired Season 13, from Forbidden Planet via The Mummy and Frankenstein to The Thing From Another World, and this extends to later stories of the genre such as The Hand of Fear (disembodied hand films) and The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Fu Manchu films).

Image of the Fendahl gets a article to itself - costume design - and naturally there's a piece on Robert Holmes. 

(We also have one on his nemesis Mary Whitehouse). 

A feature on the new model shots of the Skarasen provides an image from the Blu-ray optional replacement sequence where the creature emerges from the Thames. Looks a bit plasticky to me, but we'll have to see it in action.

There's another item on the restoration of the unused TARDIS arrival sequence from Terror of the Zygons.

Louis Marks is profiled, as are a number of the actors who were heard but not seen in the series around this time - Martin Friend (Styggron), Michael Spice (Morbius and Magnus Greel), Gabriel Woolf (Sutekh) and Peter Pratt (the Master).

Some fans revisit the village of Devesham to see if it's still full of androids (spoiler: it isn't) and we delve into the personal archive of director Christopher Barry and the production of The Brain of Morbius. (He really, really didn't want to do it...).

There's loads more, and the magazine is rounded off by some original fiction from Louise Jameson.

Plus, you get a free CD which features 15 extracts from audiobooks of TV stories, from The Daleks up to Rose.

The monthly magazine might not be up to much these days, but the Special Editions and the occasional bookazines remain well worth getting hold of.

Before I go, the Doctor Who official YouTube channel is going to be streaming the upscaled version of Terror of the Zygons tomorrow evening (Saturday 30th) to mark its 50th Anniversary.

PS: I've got some family birthday business to attend to this weekend which will inevitably mean that the next "Episodes" post will be delayed until Monday. See you then.

Story 304: The Church On Ruby Road

In which the Doctor encounters a young woman named Ruby Sunday, who is oblivious to bad things happening to people around her...

As a baby she had been abandoned at Christmas, 2004, outside the church on Ruby Road, West London - which is how she got her name. She was brought up in Notting Hill in foster care with mum Carla and Grandma Poppy, but has always wanted to know about her real mother. Who was she, and why did she abandon her?

An appearance on a show fronted by Davina McCall, in which family reunions were arranged, failed to locate any information about her mother. Shortly after a follow-up meeting with Davina, the TV presenter was injured when a Christmas tree fell on her - the work of small goblin-like creatures.

The Doctor began following Ruby as he realised that she was being tracked by these creatures - which were indeed malevolent Goblins. One intended to harm her by dropping a huge Christmas inflatable on her after she emerged from a gig with her band but she departed safely, unaware that anything had happened.

Christmas Eve 2023 sees Ruby arrive home to find that Carla has just taken in another foster child - baby Lulubelle. Left alone with a child, she hears noises on the baby monitor and goes to the bedroom to find her crib empty. On the floor is a polaroid photograph which features one of the Goblins.

Rushing to the window she sees the Goblin on a rope ladder, hoisting Lulubelle in a basket towards something floating above the house.

She snatches the ladder and is pulled up. The Doctor suddenly appears and runs along the rooftop and grabs hold of the ladder as well, and both find themselves being pulled up to a massive rickety wooden sailing ship, floating in the clouds.

The Doctor has used intelligent gloves, which counter the effects of gravity.

They manage to get onto the ship where they find a whole army of Goblins, who are planning to feed Lulubelle to their corpulent King.

They are captured. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver fails to work as the ship is made of wood and rope, but he works out how to untangle the latter so that they get free.

However, they fall onto the conveyor belt holding the baby's basket. The damage to the ropes has yet to finish and they suddenly find a means of getting back to the ground. They take the baby back to Ruby's flat.

The Doctor notes how Ruby seems to be surrounded by bad luck and coincidence, which may be what has brought them together - he also having been a foundling.

The house is shaken and the ceiling splits, and the Doctor suddenly discovers that reality has altered.

Ruby has vanished and all the photos of fostered children have disappeared from the kitchen. Carla claims never to have fostered, regretting that decision.

The Doctor realises that the Goblins have altered the timeline in revenge and rushes to the TARDIS. Its dematerialisation is witnessed by the next door neighbour, Mrs Flood.

The Doctor goes back to the night in 2004 when Ruby was first left at the church and sees the Goblin ship floating above - with one of the creatures abducting baby Ruby.

Employing his intelligent gloves, he grabs the rope ladder and slowly pulls the ship downwards towards him. It crashes onto the spire, which impales and kills the Goblin King.

The vessel is destroyed as the timeline reasserts itself. The Doctor must make sure that the baby is found and so fails to identify her mother who is walking away from the church.

The vicar finds the child and the Doctor returns to 2023 to find things back to normal.

The Doctor is worried that he may have brought the bad luck to Ruby and returns to the TARDIS, but she has worked out that he is a time traveller. She runs out to join him, and is invited to travel with him.

When the TARDIS dematerialises once more, Mrs Flood reveals to another neighbour that she knows exactly what the TARDIS is...

The Church On Ruby Road was written by Russell T Davies and was first broadcast on 25th December 2023, making it the first Christmas Special since the departure of Steven Moffat - Chris Chibnall having elected to do New Year Specials instead.

It is Davies' first festive special since The End of Time Part 1, marks the debut proper of new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa in his first full appearance, and introduces new companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson.

The episode also allows RTD (or RTD2 as he is often referred to, since this is his second time in charge) to set out his new vision for the show. This entails more fantasy than science-fiction.

At no point are the Goblins - creatures of terrestrial mythology - ever identified as conventional alien beings. We also have a number of conversations between the Doctor and Ruby about luck and coincidence. This will later be explained as being the result of events in the second of the 60th Anniversary Specials, the Doctor coming to believe that he accidentally allowed magic and superstition to break into this universe from a neighbouring dimension.

Ruby's search for the identity of her real mother, and the reasons for her abandonment, will form the main story arc this coming year - described as "Season 1" due to the new partnership with Disney+. (Though no self-respecting fan ever calls it this).

As well as introducing the new companion, we naturally get to meet her family network who will become semi-regulars. This comprises foster mum Carla, played by Michelle Greenidge, and grandmother Poppy, played by Angela Wynter. The latter was best known for playing a regular role in EastEnders, opposite Rudolph Walker, who had featured in The War Games.

Greenidge had featured in Davies' It's A Sin. 

Another person who will become a semi-regular but was initially just a guest artist at this point is Anita Dobson - another EastEnder and someone used to making an impact at Christmas - who plays the enigmatic Mrs Flood. Dobson is also Mrs Brian May.

It was inevitable that this character would be revisited as the episode ends with her looking directly to camera, asking "Never seen a TARDIS before...?".

In a cameo role is TV presenter Davina McCall, who had previously voiced the DavinaDroid in Bad Wolf. She co-hosts a real family reunion show called Long Lost Family.

Someone else to watch out for is a woman in the audience enjoying Ruby's band. She's played by Susan Twist, who had earlier featured as Isaac Newton's housekeeper in Wild Blue Yonder...

In terms of action, the episode has little - with only the two sequences involving the Goblin ship having much excitement or spectacle, the first of which doesn't take place until half way through the episode. When the script was initially given to Disney for comment this lack of incident was noted by them (and the Doctor's relative absence), and so the sequence with the falling Christmas inflatable decoration was added near the beginning.

Davies had often called upon Murray Gold to provide a special song for the festive specials - such as Song For Ten or The Stowaway - and here we get The Goblin Song, sung by the creatures and containing the sort of gruesome lyrics which small children might relish. Proceeds from the song's release went to Children In Need.

At another point the Doctor and Ruby sing to distract the Goblins. Davies had always wanted to do a musical Doctor Who story - inspired by the Buffy one. This will come in the following full series.

Overall, it's the sort of thing we've come to expect from Christmas Specials - nothing too heavy or too canon-heavy, to please the casual viewer. If it has a problem it's that lack of incident. It's a little dull, and the Goblins fail to make much of an impact. A bit of fluff and little more. When a single line by a guest artist gets the most attention following broadcast, you know that the rest couldn't have been up to much.

Things you might like to know:

• The fan speculation following Mrs Flood's closing line was mainly about her being someone from the show's history. One theory was that she was Susan, and the other big one was that she was the Rani...
• Ruby's address is given as Minto Road, Notting Hill, which is in West London. The location filming was mainly around Bristol, though the church was filmed in Newport.
• Mickey Smith had previously mentioned Minto Road in The Parting of the Ways, the location of a new pizza take-away (and a leaflet for it can be seen on Carla's fridge).
• As Ruby speaks to Mrs Flood before entering the TARDIS, the real street name - Frederick Place - can be seen.
• In DWM RTD2 teased that the front doors on Minto Road would be significant - and Mrs Flood's is "TARDIS blue" - another clue that she might be a Time Lord.
• The main singing Goblin was named Janis Goblin - a play on Janis Joplin, the singer-songwriter who died in 1970 aged only 27. The Tenth Doctor had previously claimed that she had given him his distinctive long brown coat.
• Other Goblin singers were named after musicians Pixie Lott (Pixie Not), Bob Dylan (Gob Dylan), Ralph McTell (Ralph McTelf) and Bryan Ferry (Bryan Fairy).
• The Goblin King is all too obviously based on Jabba The Hut, as he appears in The Return of the Jedi.
• Angela Wynter was born in March 1954, whilst Michelle Greenidge was born in June 1969.
• At the time, The Church On Ruby Road was the least watched Christmas Special since 2005, and the second least watched Special of any kind (after Legend of the Sea Devils).

Inspirations: Flatline

As mentioned last time, this was the first story to be written by Jamie Mathieson, although screened second of his back-to-back episodes. It was because Flatline was developing so nicely that he was then offered the chance to write a story involving a Mummy on the Orient Express - in space.

Going right back to the earliest days of Doctor Who, it had been intended that there would be three types of story - historical, futuristic / alien, and alternate states - of being, of matter or of dimension.

Flatline could be said to be a descendent of the latter type - a story form which was never properly explored. Only The Edge of Destruction, Planet of Giants and The Space Museum could really be said to have gone there, with The Celestial Toymaker and The Mind Robber following along later.

Mathieson had come to meet Steven Moffat prepared with a number of ideas, after a previous approach had not led to anything. He had run these ideas past Toby Hadoke to confirm that they hadn't featured in the series before. Moffat selected the 2-D monster notion as this fitted with his liking of making the safe and mundane feel dangerous for children - the monster might be in your bedroom wall.

It was initially intended that the Boneless would gain 3-Dimensionality by enveloping their victims.

A number of inspirations were cited by Mathieson, including a well known painting, a TV programme, a children's book and a Victorian satire.

The painting was the 1533 double portrait known as The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, which hangs in the National Gallery in London. This features what at first appears to be a long grey / white streak across the bottom - but when viewed from a particular angle proves to be the image of a skull. This is a process known as anamorphosis, and it is believed that rather than view from the side, a reflective glass tube was originally employed.

The TV programme is Sapphire & Steel - specifically "Adventure 4", the one with the being who appears in every photograph ever taken and who has the power to turn people 2-D.

The children's book is Flat Stanley, written by Jeff Brown and published in 1964. Stanley gets squashed flat by a falling board but is otherwise unharmed, and decides to exploit his new 2-D existence. He can slide under doors, be used as a kite, and go on holiday by posting himself. He gets fed up eventually and a bicycle pump returns him to normal, though a further series of books followed several years later.

The Victorian satire is the 1884 novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, written by Edwin A Abbott. The book was intended to satirise class and gender distinctions in Victorian society.

One further inspiration was the Looney Tunes Roadrunner cartoons. In these, the Roadrunner and / or Wile E. Coyote could paint 2-D images which then took on substance, or vice versa - the most famous example being the tunnel painted on a rockface which the Roadrunner can run through, whereas Wile slams into it, or a truck or train emerges and runs him over.

Visually, the Boneless were said to resemble portraits by artist Francis Bacon after taking on 3-D form - as in having nightmarish, misshapen features.

The inclusion of a graffiti artist was due to the growing fame of Banksy, the anonymous street artist whose works command huge prices - so much so that people have actually damaged people's homes to remove pieces from their walls. 

He is a native of Bristol, where this episode is set, and the city was where his work first began appearing.

Rigsy fulfils the Companion role in the episode, as the Doctor is stranded in the TARDIS, forcing Clara to take on his role.

The image of the Doctor's hand emerging from the shrunken TARDIS to move it out of danger was a deliberate nod to "Thing", the disembodied hand in The Addams Family.

The Doctor's iconic speech about being "the man who stops the monsters" was inspired by Babylon 5. Captain Sheridan ends the Shadow War by basically kicking both they and the Vorlons out of this universe in the episode "Into The Fire".

The Doctor was trapped inside a shrinking TARDIS on one other occasion in the past - after the Master's meddling on the planet Logopolis.

2-D images coming to life had previously been seen in 2006's Fear Her.

In terms of this year's story arc, Clara is lying to the Doctor about Danny being happy with her continuing to travel with him, and the inclusion of a cameo by Missy was a late addition, with her commenting that with Clara she had chosen well...

Next time: Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright...

Episode 172: The Tomb of the Cybermen (3)

 

Synopsis:

On the planet Telos, Eric Klieg has released the Cybermen from their frozen tombs. He attempts to forge an alliance between their Controller and his Brotherhood of Logicians - but the Cyberman leader rejects this, stating that he and the rest of the party will become just like them...

The Doctor realises that they have walked into a trap as the Controller explains that they knew that inquisitive humans would come and free them some day, with the intelligence to break their logic codes.

Victoria, meanwhile, has gone to the rocket and fetched Captain Hopper and his co-pilot, Callum. As the control chamber looks exactly like he had last seen it, Hopper takes some convincing that anything is wrong - but Victoria points out that the rest of the party are now down below and the hatch has sealed them in.

The Controller informs the Doctor that it knows of him. It explains that their technology was running down and they had run out of replacement parts, which is why they elected to go into hibernation.

Now this group will become the first of a new race of Cybermen who will be sent to Earth to prepare it for conquest. First they must be converted.

Jamie attempts to escape but is stunned by an electric shock. Toberman is the first to be converted and struggles to free himself, but is quickly overpowered.

Kaftan has woken up and she aims her pistol at Hopper and Callum just as they have traced the wiring and worked out how to open the hatch.

Victoria suddenly screams that the Cybermat is behind her once more, and this distraction allows the men to disarm her.

Victoria will guard her whilst Hopper and Callum descend to the lower level, armed with smoke grenades.

The Doctor and the others learn that they are to be frozen until conversion takes place, and Klieg has been selected to lead them due to his Logician credentials.

Hopper and Callum launch their attack and in the confusion everyone but Klieg and Toberman manages to make it to the ladder leading up to the control chamber.

The Doctor is almost dragged back down but Victoria and Jamie free him and the hatch is closed.

As they work out their next steps, they hear someone knocking on the underside of the hatch, and this proves to be Klieg.

He is undeterred in his belief that he can negotiate with the Cybermen, if only he could do so on more equal terms.

He and Kaftan are locked in the weapons testing room, as Hopper explains that the others will have to remain here since the rocket repairs are still incomplete. Callum can stay with them.

In the tomb chamber the Controller orders the release of a swarm of Cybermats - full-size versions of the creatures. They are programmed to home in on human brainwaves - using Toberman's as a template - before being sent to the upper level via small chutes.

The archaeological party are sleeping, with Victoria on guard. The Doctor wakes to take over from her, and realises that she let him sleep on. She explains that this is due to him being 450 years old. The two then discuss the circumstances which led to her joining them, which leads on to talk of their families.

They are interrupted by the appearance of the Cybermats which close in on them. The Doctor arranges for an electrical cable to be laid out around them. When the Cybermats get too close, the electromagnetic field destroys them.

They go to open the weapons room door to make sure that Klieg and Kaftan have not also been attacked - only to discover that they have secured one of the Cyberman guns for themselves.

Infuriated at the meddling of the Doctor, Klieg takes aim at the Doctor - and Victoria screams as he opens fire...

Data:

Written by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis

Recorded: Saturday 15th July 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.50pm, Saturday 16th September 1967

Ratings: 7.2 million / AI 49

VFX: Michealjohn Harris & Peter Day

Designer: Martin Johnson

Director: Morris Barry

Critique:

The idea for the Cybermats came from Kit Pedler, who was inspired by silverfish. He hoped that they might be marketable like the Daleks.

The initial design came from Jack Kine, head of the VFX department, and given to Ron Oates to finalise. He ran with the silverfish idea but also thought of guinea pigs. Michealjohn Harris had 10 of the creatures made up. A couple of them were radio-controlled whilst three were battery operated. Others were more basic props which could be pulled along on strings.

The more complex ones could move their tails, mandibles and antennae. Smoke could be pumped into them for when they were destroyed.

In the original script for this episode, after Klieg had blasted a hole in a wall to test the Cyberman weapon - described as an X-Ray laser - a lone Cybermat was to have crawled out of it, unseen by himself or Kaftan. This might have explained why we see a lone Cybermat later, after the others have been destroyed.

Filming took place on Wednesday 14th June at Ealing for the sequences with the gas bomb attack in the tomb area when a smoke machine was employed. Such effects were preferrable at Ealing as the smoke could take too long to clear in the more cramped TV studios, unless such sequences could be recorded last in the evening.

Shots of the sleeping Callum being threatened by one of the Cybermats were filmed the next day. That afternoon the fight between Toberman and a Cyberman was also staged, with Roy Stewart suspended on a kirby wire to be picked up and thrown by the Cyberman, played by Richard Kerley. The wire is very obvious when seen on screen.

Various Cybermat shots were filmed on Friday 16th to be used as inserts, including close-ups of the creatures.

Unfortunately Deborah Watling was suffering from 'flu when the third episode went into studio, and she struggled with her big scene with Patrick Troughton.

The opening titles were shown over a black background before the previous episode's conclusion was re-enacted. A recording run-on was used to set up a spark generator, to be superimposed for the scene where Jamie is attacked by a Cyberman, and the same device was used for when Toberman is blasted with an electric charge.

A smoke machine was employed in studio for when Hopper launches his rescue attempt, though most of this sequence had been filmed at Ealing.

This was also employed to pump smoke from the cable when the Cybermats were destroyed.

Three of the more complex Cybermats were used to move in on Toberman, and this was when Harris discovered that the camera cables in the electronic studio interfered with the radio control frequency he was using - something which hadn't been noticed at Ealing due to the different technology employed there.

The same three Cybermats were placed onto cardboard sheets, to be pulled off camera to indicate that they were rising up the chutes.

Klieg's X-Ray laser was fitted with a small flash charge, and a hole was cued to be burnt into a wall just as George Pastell fired the gun.

Whilst some of the verbal interplay between Victoria and Hopper is very entertaining, this episode will be best remembered for the touching scene between her and the Doctor as they discuss recent events and go on to talk of family. 

We've been introduced to Susan as his grand-daughter, but the Doctor has never made mention of any other family before now. Victoria has spoken of her life with her father before the Daleks came to their home, and she goes on to say that the Doctor probably can't remember his family, being so ancient - to which he replies:

"Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. So remember, our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing. You must get some sleep and let this poor old man stay awake".

He's obviously referring to a larger group of family rather than just recalling Susan.

It's the sort of gentle character scene which we simply couldn't have had with the more adult companions like Ben, Polly and Jamie.

After all the fuss Klieg went to, to open the hatch using applied logic, it turns out that it could have been opened by almost anyone by simply checking on the wiring!

And talking of logic, locking prisoners up in a weapon-testing room isn't the cleverest idea. Why would the Cybermen waste a perfectly functional weapon on a test dummy?

Another flaw is being unable to unlock the hatch from their side, when the Cybermen get trapped on the lower level. Even Klieg said last week that logic dictated that there should be an opening device on the tomb level.

Trivia:

• The ratings continue to rise, up 1.2 million since the opening episode, though the appreciation figure drops below the 50 mark.
• On Tuesday 19th September Kit Pedler appeared on BBC2's Late Night Line-Up, to discuss BBC1's weekly science programme Tomorrow's World.
• Earlier that day, Dr Pedler had participated in the recording of a pilot episode for a new programme which would allow viewer feedback and discussion on BBC output. Presented by David Coleman, the show was named Talkback. Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis had been invited to take part in a discussion about the suitability of Doctor Who as children's viewing, but both declined to appear. Lloyd didn't want the inexperienced Peter Bryant to feature either - so it was left to Pedler to represent the programme. Facing seven members of the public who were generally hostile to the programme, Pedler came in for a hard time but defended the violence as fantasy-based and not realistic. Coleman also solicited opinions from children, and the item was rounded off by an academic, Dr Himmelweit, who actually stated that children like to be frightened. As a pilot, this Talkback episode was never screened, though the same debate would be remounted for the first broadcast episode which went out live the following week.
• The following day the Cybermats were praised by Huw Wheldon at the BBC Programme Review meeting.
• And on Thursday 21st September, the following letter appeared in Radio Times:

• Finally this week, any excuse to show my holiday snaps: the Controller costume which is on display at the Peterborough Museum, 2025...

The Art of... The Tomb of the Cybermen

The Tomb of the Cybermen was the last of three Cyberman stories novelised by their co-creator, Gerry Davis. It was first published in May 1978, and the artist is Jeff Cummins. Unlike Chris Achilleos and his The Moonbase novelisation, where he had been given the wrong reference material, Cummins actually made the conscious decision not to use the correct design, thinking it "rubbish". He used one from The Invasion instead (though with the ribbed shoulder piping of the Revenge version). He then claimed to be surprised when fans wrote to him to point this out...

Interestingly, another artist had been approached to provide a cover (above), their identity not recorded according to The Target Book. (It's not Achilleos as he had stopped doing covers at this stage, and his own effort - a private commission - can be seen in the excellent Kklak! The Doctor Who Art of Chris Achilleos).

This would have featured the correct Cybermen as well as an image of the Doctor. This time it's him who comes from The Invasion.

One reason for it not being pursued further was that this coincided with the policy decision by Target, at the behest of the Doctor Who Production Office, not to feature any Doctor on the covers other than the current one.

The novel was reissued with the same cover as the VHS release in February 1993. The artist this time is Alister Pearson. More on this below.

Titan Books published the script book for the story, edited by John McElroy, in August 1989. It simply featured a portrait image of the Controller on its cover. An earlier print used the diamond logo.

The first audio release for the story came on cassette in July 1993, tying in with the 30th Anniversary. As well as a couple of images from the story, it also features an old Season 4 publicity shot of Troughton. It looks like the Cyberman is sneaking up on someone fast asleep at the bottom of the cover.

The linking narration was by Jon Pertwee. 

It was originally intended that this would be released in the summer of 1992, but got held back when the complete TV story was returned to the archives and rushed out onto video.

The BBC Audio Collection CD soundtrack release came in May 2006, this time with narration from Frazer Hines. The photomontage cover manages to fit in lots of elements, including Kaftan and Cybermats (though not the narrator). For once we get a photo of the Doctor which actually comes from the the actual story.

A vinyl release of the soundtrack came in April 2018, as part of World Record Day, courtesy of Demon Records. It uses the same Troughton image which might have adorned the novelisation, and also features a Controller with a weirdly elongated head. Despite its unique helmet design, the Controller doesn't feature much on the covers of the various media, unlike the Dalek Emperor in the previous story.

That previously mentioned VHS arrived in May 1992, rush-released onto video following the story's rediscovery in the Far East. At one point it had been planned to show it on BBC2 first, but it was added to the VHS release slate instead for obvious commercial reasons.

The image of Troughton hails from The Power of the Daleks, whilst the Controller came from a photograph of a fan reproduction printed in Doctor Who Monthly. Julian Vince recreated scenes from this story and The Dalek Invasion of Earth to illustrate "Nostalgia" articles in the magazine. With the story still lost at the time of publication, and few reference photos of the Controller, the costume isn't quite right - looking more like black PVC.

Unusually for a VHS, the tape had an extra item at the start, in the form of a short interview with Morris Barry, recorded at the Museum of the Moving Image on London's Southbank which hosted a Doctor Who exhibition at the time ("Behind The Sofa").

The story was released on DVD early in the range, back in the Spring of 2002. Prior to this the releases tended to use only a single photographic image on their covers. This was Clayton Hickman's first contribution to the range, and he began composing more interesting montages. Here we see the Cyberman bas-relief in the background to the main figure, emerging from its tomb. 

The PG Rating (Parent / Guardian) was imposed in the mistaken belief that the story contained mild sex / nudity...

The US Region 1 version sported a different cover, using the same Troughton image as had appeared on the soundtrack CD, with the Cybermen emerging from their alcoves as a backdrop. This was released in August 2002.

Many of the early DVD releases had been short on Value Added Material or required better restoration which had been unavailable at the time of their initial release, and these were reissued as Special Editions in box sets of three towards the end of the run. The Tomb of the Cybermen was re-released in this form in February 2012 as part of the Revisitations 3 set, which also included SE's of The Three Doctors and The Robots of Death.

A far more dynamic cover montage, it really ought to have had the Controller as the central top figure, rather than just another Cyberman. This was Clayton Hickman's work again, and you can see how he has come on. Not sure, but isn't that Troughton image also from The Invasion?

The Region 1 release uses the same cover image but set against a much darker blue.

That Troughton image turns up again for the German DVD release. That title can also translate as "The Grave of the Cybermen". This was initially released as a limited edition "mediabook" set in April 2020, along with various photo cards (including a Frazer Hines autograph), a magnetic notebook and a bowtie. A basic release followed the month after. The Jamie image hails from the previous story.

Davis' novelisation was released on CD as an audiobook in March 2013, sticking with Cummins' original artwork. As you can see, the reader was Michael Kilgarriff, who played the Controller, with Nick Briggs supplying the Cyberman voices - even though they often sounded like quacking ducks on TV. 

A more colourful version of Pearson's artwork for the VHS / novelisation reprint was given away as a poster with DWM (issue 191).

And finally, Pearson also did his own version of the Cummins novelisation cover, using the correct Cyberman this time. Amongst other things, it was employed to illustrate the "New to Who" Podcast in September 2017:

What's Wrong With... Timelash

Now there's a question...

It's another one of those where it might be quicker and less painful to look at what went right - but here we go.

It should be noted from the outset that writer Glen McCoy can't be held solely responsible for this story. He was an ambulance driver at the time who had submitted scripts for medical soap Angels, so his experience was limited, to say the least, and his original submission had been a Dalek story built around HG Wells' The Time Machine - not realising that Terry Nation had already delivered that back in 1963.

As a new writer, script editor Eric Saward claimed to have had a lot of input into Timelash, so needs to share some of the criticism.

And let's not forget JNT, who took the regulars out of rehearsals (and it shows) for his latest tacky pantomime. Oh yes he did...

A problem with this season generally is the long delay in the Doctor actually getting into the plot. This one is particularly badly structured, with the whole "seat belts in the TARDIS" scene coming across as unnecessarily padded. It's a problem with the 45 minute episodes - prolonging the big cliffhanger rather than just using what would have been the end of Part Two of a traditional four-parter.

When has the Doctor ever resorted to those belts, considering the number of times the TARDIS has been out of control?

Part One actually overran, whilst Part Two underran, so another problem with pacing and structure.

That whole argument between the Doctor and Peri before he goes off to stop the Bandril missile had to be filmed during the making of the next story and edited in.

Everyone dreads the Timelash (presumably because they don't know where it takes you and think it might be an airless moon or some such), but it goes to a rather attractive part of Scotland. Okay, so the earlier history of my homeland was a dangerous place (still is not a million miles from where I write this), but a bunch of people turning up with advanced technological knowledge, assuming they escaped being burnt as witches, could easily have come to dominate the area - especially as the established ones would have welcomed the newcomers. Maybe this is why we came to be at the forefront of the Enlightenment and to invent a heck of a lot of stuff - it's all down to descendants of refugees from Karfel.

The Borad is simply creating a potential power base elsewhere in the galaxy that might then come to invade and dominate Karfel in revenge.

The idea that the Borad is the Loch Ness Monster is obviously nonsense, as he's just a human sized guy with a flipper, whereas we all know it's the Skarasen, established in the loch well before the period mentioned here.

The whole Bandril conflict revolves around Karfel being the bread basket for that world, yet the model shots of the citadel appear to show it sitting on a rocky, barren, moon-like landscape. Shouldn't it be corn-fields, under a blue sky? VFX don't appear to have examined the script too closely.

The Bandrils aren't given anything to contrast their size with, making them look even more like glove puppets than they needed to be. Are they small, or are they twenty feet high? There's no sense of scale.

The Bandril response to having their wheat withheld? To destroy the planet they rely on to provide them with wheat...

The Borad is said to have lots of experiments going on, yet all we see is the Timelash - already up and running for some time, and his private plans to create a Morlox-hybrid mate for himself. If he's that great a scientist, why hasn't he built sufficient power generation capacity for himself - then he wouldn't need to divert energy from hospitals etc and stir up rebellion.

The story opens with one rebel being brought to his inner sanctum to be aged to death, whereas her comrade goes into the Timelash. What's so special about her (apart from providing a pre-titles style hook for the story)? Presumably this is something personal between him and her, but it's not clear on screen.

Why would anyone leave acid-spitting plants sitting around in a communal area? The guards wear netting on their faces, but we know this is no defence as we see Peri shove a plant into one of their faces.

Part Two has additional padding as the Borad turns out to have a clone. This one walks about, whilst the original is confined to a wheelchair. Or does it? Which one is the clone, and which the original? Presumably the one in the wheelchair is the original, else why would you make a disabled clone of yourself? What was the clone doing all that time?

If the Borad has mastered cloning, why the whole convoluted "let's-deliberately-start-a-war-so-that-a-stockpile-of-gas-will-be-released-that-will-turn-the-survivors-into-Morlox / Karfelon-hybrids" scheme? Has he been taking lessons from the Cybermen. or watching recent series finales?

He was created in a freak accident, so who is to say that repeating the process would result in anything similar. You might just get people with really long necks.

Why suddenly get the hots for Peri (not as if she hasn't had this sort of thing happen before) over any other female? What was wrong with all the Karfelon ladies? They're beautiful women, probably, so why not just mate with one of them? 

If the Borad is never seen in person in public, why the fake old man? Couldn't he just do his dictating as a voice and picture, like Big Brother?

The Borad's actions are a little inconsistent. He prizes the Timelash yet doesn't properly protect it - allowing the rebels to seize the council chamber very easily, and leaving a Time Lord with access to its innards - the set for which has to be one of the worst ever seen in the series. Jablite, tinsel and disco lights.

(The lack of reflective surfaces might be part of the plot - but it also makes from drab sets).

The Borad also kills Renis for actually refusing to agree to rebel with young Mykros, yet does nothing when Tekker allows Vena to nab the vital power control amulet. (And why trust such an important item to a transient politician anyway, especially when they seem to be so expendable?).

Lucky someone with a TARDIS showed up a few minutes later to get it back...

As for the rebels, Peri gets handed a cryptic note - rather than something which actually spelled out who it was for and why. The person who handed it to her seems to know all about the new arrivals and that they might be useful allies - but doesn't appear to have then told his leader to expect them, so Peri gets captured and threatened by the person who actually wants her help.

Recognising a photograph of Jo Grant magically makes everyone trust her. I can understand Katz keeping the locket as a memento of her grandfather, but would she really recall all the additional information about the woman in the picture.? And how does Peri recognise Jo anyway? Has the Doctor spent long nights in the TARDIS boring her with his holiday snaps, when they aren't arguing with each other?

Tekker seems to think that the Doctor normally has two companions, and it is the Pertwee Doctor he's talking about - but that incarnation never travelled with more than one person.

The Pertwee portrait is hidden behind a panel, and behind it lies a mirror. Why did the Borad not simply remove and destroy these items, and avoid the risk of their rediscovery? How did the Doctor know that they were there? Did he hang around to see his picture before departing last time (possible, for this most vain of Doctors).

McCoy might have managed to cram in the big three HG Wells novels - War of the Worlds, The Time Machine and The Invisible Man - but he doesn't seem to have done much research into the man himself.

He preferred George to Herbert and was short and blond. He certainly didn't get all embarrassed around the ladies like Herbert here...

Last, but by no means least: is Timelash the only Doctor Who story to have a title which is also an anagram of its description...?

Episode 171: The Tomb of the Cybermen (2)

Synopsis:

A Cyberman appears from behind a hidden panel and shoots archaeologist Peter Haydon dead - just as the Doctor and the rest of the party enter the weapons testing room.

The Cyberman has vanished, and the Doctor notes that the young man was shot in the back - so couldn't have been killed by it. He has everyone go to the doorway then has Jamie repeat the sequence of controls he had operated when Haydon was killed. This reveals that a laser gun emerged from a wall panel at the back of the room - designed to fire upon the Cyberman which is just an empty suit, employed as target practice. Victoria picks up the small inanimate creature from the floor. Quickly referring to his diary he advises she leave it alone, but she slips it into her bag.

Parry has everyone congregate in the main chamber, where Klieg is still attempting to decipher the logic symbols which should literally unlock the secrets of the complex.

Following the death of Haydon and the crewman who had earlier been electrocuted, the professor reluctantly announces that the expedition must return to Earth. Hopper arrives and he is telling him of his decision when the captain informs everyone that they will not be able to leave. His ship has been sabotaged, and they will not be able to re-embark as they would get in the way of repairs. They must spend the night where they are. 

Kaftan had earlier sent Toberman out on a task whilst they were exploring the two chambers, and the Doctor deduces that it was he who carried out this act of sabotage - though he will not openly accuse them. He would prefer to observe and see what she and Klieg are up to.

As they must stay, Klieg returns to his efforts to break the logic code to open the huge hatch in the middle of the chamber.

He believes he has finally found the correct sequence, but the hatch fails to open. The Doctor has spotted an error in his calculations, and operates a control without him noticing.

The hatch opens.

Kaftan and Victoria will remain in the upper chamber whilst the others descend a ladder to explore. 

An attempt by Kaftan to have Toberman stay behind as well is foiled when the Doctor insists that he will stay too. He asks Victoria to keep a wary eye on Kaftan.

The main tomb chamber contains a tall gallery filled with sealed alcoves, within each of which is a dormant Cyberman. At the base of the structure is a large panel with a stylised representation of a Cyberman head. To the side is a control panel.

Above, Kaftan has drugged Victoria's coffee, and when she awakes she finds that she has closed the hatch.

The party realise they are sealed down in the tomb chamber but Klieg points out that there must be a control for the hatch here as well. He begins operating controls.

Victoria finds herself held at gunpoint, but the tiny creature in her bag has come to life and chewed its way out. Kaftan fails to heed her warnings, assuming a trick, until the creature springs at her. She faints. Victoria snatches up her gun and shoots the creature - destroying it. 

She then runs out to find Hopper.

As Klieg works the controls, the ice covering the tombs rapidly melts as the temperature rises. The creatures within the alcoves begin to stir. 

Panic-stricken, Viner begins reversing the process - but Klieg shoots him dead. He resumes the revivification process.

The Cybermen burst out of their alcoves and begin descending to floor level, to the horror of the watching party.

Two of the Cybermen open up the panel with the bas-relief, to reveal a giant figure crouching within. It slowly unbends itself and emerges. Taller than normal Cybermen, with no chest unit, it has a large domed cranium, lit from within. The Doctor deduces that it is their leader, or Controller.

Klieg approaches it to introduce himself as their rescuer and to offer an alliance with his Brotherhood of Logicians - but the giant creature clamps its hand round his arm, forcing him to his knees.

It tells them: "You belong to us. You will be like us...".

Data:

Written by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis

Recorded: Saturday 8th July 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.50pm, Saturday 9th September 1967

Ratings: 6.4 million / AI 52

VFX: Michealjohn Harris & Peter Day

Designer: Martin Johnson

Director: Morris Barry

Additional cast: Michael Kilgarriff (Cyberman Controller), Peter Hawkins (Cyberman voices), Reg Whitehead, Tony Harwood, Hans de Vries, John Hogan, Richard Kerley, Ronald Lee, Charles Pemberton, Kenneth Seeger (Cybermen)

Critique:

In their script, Pedler and Davis mentioned that the "Cyberman theme" - Space Adventure - should be heard as the Doctor and his group looked down into the now open hatch. This piece of music had been used in both of their earlier stories, though this would be the last time for them. It'll feature one more time in the series, but this time accompanying the Yeti in their attack at Covent Garden.

The only description given of the Cybermats was that they possessed antennae.

The writers were unavailable for rewrites so this work was undertaken by Victor Pemberton, mainly to flesh out the character of Victoria and to add more atmosphere.

A total of eight Cyberman costumes were used in the production. These were basically the same as those seen in The Moonbase, but with some slight modifications. After the actors had previously complained about the lack of air, a circle of holes were drilled into the cheeks of the helmets to provide ventilation, and the lace-up boots were replaced with small wellingtons. Extra piping emerges from the base of the chest unit and there are only two pipes coming from the top of the unit instead of four as in their last appearance.

The Cyber Controller has a brand new costume in a darker shade, with no chest unit and a large glass cranium within which was a light fitting. The battery for this was hidden in a panel built into the back of the helmet. The dome had veins painted on it, but the effect of the glowing brain case was mostly lost under the bright studio lights. This was an ordinary helmet which had been adapted, rather than a special build as you can see where the "handle bars" would have fitted.

Cast as the Controller was 6' 5" actor Michael Kilgarriff, who was known to the director and the producer for his radio drama work. He was reluctant to take on the role, however, and was very disappointed to learn that he would not be providing the voice of the Controller. This would be the work of Peter Hawkins, who used the special electronic palette introduced in The Moonbase, and which caused him to suffer headaches from the vibrations.

Filming on the Cyber-tomb set took place at Ealing on Wednesday 14th June. As mentioned last time, this was to be Martin Johnson's only work on the series, which is a great pity as it is such an iconic set. The half-moon shaped steps would return in Nightmare in Silver and The Time of the Doctor in their Cyberman set designs.

The alcoves containing each Cyberman were covered in transparent polythene, with the stylised Cyberman head logo spray-painted on using a stencil. Set dressing then continued with fake frosting to indicate the freezing temperatures.

The large bas-relief on the Controller's hatch was carved from polystyrene.

The set was four levels high, with a fifth dummy one on top. An angled mirror above this made the structure look even higher. It was reported that when it came to tea breaks, the Cyberman actors on the upper levels missed out.

Shots of Kaftan's attack by the Cybermat were filmed the following day on the control room set. Head of the VFX Dept. Jack Kine designed the Cybermats, which were then made by Ron Oates.

Model shots of the tombs thawing and refreezing were filmed at Television Centre's puppet stage on Monday 19th June, using timelapse photography.

Despite being killed at the conclusion of Episode 1, Bernard Holley was given another day's employment to feature at the start of this instalment - simply to appear as Haydon's corpse.

The dummy Cyberman - "Fred" - was fitted with a small explosive charge, triggered to coincide with the head falling off.

Only the two lowermost levels of the tomb structure were set up at Lime Grove, and it is noticeable that we never see the cast in shot with the full structure.

The small Cybermat prop was stuck onto Shirley Cooklin's shoulder off camera, with its launching at her having been pre-filmed at Ealing.

Klieg's gun fired blanks.

The cast change costumes as Hopper provides anoraks due to the night-time temperature drop on Telos. The Doctor dons a black cloak, fetched from the TARDIS.

One small cut was made to the episode prior to transmission - the end of the scene where Kaftan gives Victoria a hot drink.

As with The Moonbase, the Cybermen don't make their grand appearance until the cliffhanger to Episode 2, halfway through the serial. (We see them briefly in the second instalment of the previous story, but they don't really come into their own until the third).

This marks the first appearance in the series of the Cybermats, though it's only a tiny one, first seen dormant in the opening episode.

Amazingly, the prim and proper Victoria is able to destroy the little creature with a single shot from a modern handgun - suggesting perhaps that she was quite the tomboy in her former life.

Of all the costumes she could have selected from the TARDIS wardrobe, she picks a short skirted dress rather than something more akin to the clothes of her own time. We see her rather nervous about it in the first episode, requiring reassurance, but it's still an odd choice.

Another thing we neglected to mention last week was the poor research that went into the archaeological party. At one point Viner, armed only with a little notepad and pen, had claimed to have recorded everything there was to see in the recharging room, having only been in it for a few minutes. As anyone who has ever watched Time Team or similar series will know, real archaeologists painstakingly record everything in the minutest detail. This party don't even use cameras.

We have to question the Doctor's actions in this episode. He insisted on staying when Cybermen were mentioned last week (despite the fact that there were gigantic representations of them on either die of the city doorway). Here, he deliberately goes out of his way to help Klieg open the hatch, even though he must know that it leads to where the Cybermen must be. Everything which follows, including a number of other deaths, could be laid at his door. It may be that he knew that Klieg would succeed eventually anyway, and he's simply hurrying things along, but his behaviour is still questionable.

Often described as the clownish Doctor - "Chaplinesque" - he's very much a darker, manipulative figure at this point.

Trivia:

• The ratings see a rise on the opening episode, with the appreciation figure remaining stable.
• With the launch of the new series, it was around this time that TV chat shows such as that hosted by DJ Simon Dee were clamouring to have Patrick Troughton on as a guest, but he flatly refused. This was bad news for Frazer Hines who longed to appear - but they were not interested unless they could get Troughton as well.
• After praise from Huw Wheldon at last week's programme review meeting, the Director General of the BBC, Sir Hugh Greene, expressed how pleased he was with the new serial.
• However, a trio of schoolgirls writing to Junior Points of View following this episode thought the series "stupendously stupid".
• Michael Kilgarriff will go on to portray the Controller once more in Attack of the Cybermen. Between, he played an Ogron in Frontier in Space, and the K1 Robot in Tom Baker's debut story.
• He is an expert on Victorian Music Hall, and often acted as Master of Ceremonies for music hall performances, as well as featuring in documentaries on the subject such as Frank Skinner's What A Performance. He has written what is regarded as the definitive book on the songs of the period, published by Oxford University Press.
• Reg Whitehead and Ronald Lee were Cyberman returnees from The Moonbase. Whitehead went out with Debbie Watling briefly after meeting here.
• Klieg mentions Whitehead Logic at one point. Not a reference to the actor playing a Cyberman but to Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947), a mathematical logician.
• After setting up the story, costume designer Sandra Reid had to relinquish control due to going into hospital. The exact same thing had happened on The Moonbase. After this episode she hands over to Dorothea Wallace and will not return to the series.
• A reproduction of a Tomb Cyberman at an exhibition in Bradford in 2014:

• The first of two great retro movie-style posters for this story by Oliver Arkinstall-Jones...

P is for... Pig Slaves

When the Cult of Skaro found themselves stranded in 1930's New York, their leader Dalek Sec devised a scheme to create a new army of human-Dalek hybrids. They would be human beings, mentally conditioned to act like Daleks. They began abducting sewer workers and the homeless to create this new army, but some of the captives showing lower intellect were transformed into human-pig hybrids, to act as servants and guards, and to go out into the city at night to capture others.

One such victim was a young man named Lazlo, but with him the process failed to take hold completely - leaving him more human than swinish. He was able to tell the Doctor that those transformed into Pig-Slaves had only a limited life span, and he himself was already dying.

Following an attack on the Hooverville homeless camp in Central park, the Pig-Slaves were despatched to the top of the Empire State Building to stop the Doctor interfering with the Dalek plan to use its lightning conductor mast to harness gamma radiation to awaken their army. Martha Jones, with the help of Lazlo and his girlfriend, showgirl Tallulah, rigged up a booby trap for them. When they emerged from a lift, the gamma lighting bolt electrocuted them.

Lazlo was later helped by stabilising his condition, though he could not be made fully human again. He would be given sanctuary at Hooverville.

Played by: Paul Kasey (lead Pig-Slave). Appearances: The Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks (2007).

• Regular monster performer Kasey was credited as "Hero Pig-Slave" - a term used to denote the lead monster, who often had a more detailed, sometimes animatronic, mask.
• A Pig-Slave mask was featured in the Worlds of Wonder exhibition at Edinburgh in 2023...

• And one of the creatures is on display at the exhibition at Peterborough Museum, alongside some of their masters...