The War Between... poster

Publicity starting today for the UNIT spin-off, and confirmation that it's not being broadcast simultaneously with Disney+. The latest statement simply gives December for the UK, and 2026 for other territories covered by Disney.

As well as the poster above, there are a couple of new photos. Still not sure if these are supposed to be Sea Devils, or the Atlantean Fish People...

What's Wrong With... The Ultimate Foe

Trial of a Time Lord limps to its conclusion, and we have already covered some of the problems with this season-long single story, such as the bizarre vagaries of the Time Lord judicial system.

One thing we have to bear in mind is that the Vervoid story hasn't actually happened yet. The Doctor hasn't met Mel at this point in his own timeline, and what we saw for the last four weeks was simply a look into his future. Which begs the question of what he will actually do when he finally gets that call for help from Special Investigator Hallett?

Do the Time Lords wipe his memory of those events before he goes free after this is all over? There's no suggestion that they do anything of the sort. He simply departs the space station with Mel.

Everyone now knows that he is going to commit genocide at some point in the future, so is that addressed? Unless the Valeyard really messed about with the last bit of evidence then the Doctor showed no sign of remembering having seen these events unfold before. Is he just a very good actor, or does his memory get wiped?

If he does recall those events, will he feel obliged to allow everything to run its course, or will he attempt to handle things differently to avoid genocide - even if that means changing his own timeline and those of everyone on the Hyperion III?

Look at any typical court case and you'll probably find witnesses involved. So far none have been called for the Doctor's case, by either side. It finally gets mentioned here, but the Doctor moans that anyone who might be able to help him is scattered throughout time and space. But these are Time Lords, who can visit any point in time and space they choose - so picking up witnesses should be the simplest of tasks.

We can understand why the Master selected Glitz to be brought to the station, as he had evidence of the High Council's involvement with Ravolox and the thefts from the Matrix, but why bring Mel whom the Doctor only knows through watching an (unreliable) future adventure?

The biggest problem with this pair of episodes is the Matrix. It's an artificial environment which can be manipulated by whoever controls it. In this case, that's the Valeyard.

At one point the Doctor ties him up. But that's Matrix wire he's using. The Valeyard should simply be able to think himself free. Same for everything that happens here, yet he fails to kill the Doctor or Glitz.

Maybe it is the fault of the troubled circumstances under which these episodes were written but there is no consistency regarding the rules of how the Matrix works. One minute it's not real so you can't be harmed, and the next you can be.

If it's an artificial environment fashioned by the Valeyard, how did the Master manage to park his TARDIS inside? It's a physical object, which the creator of the domain must surely have noticed.

The Matrix is said to have seven doors, but the Keeper claims that there is only one key. Does that key then open all seven doors - a bit of a security risk if they left it on the bus. If each door has its own key, then what's the Keeper talking about? Does each door have its own Keeper, and this one only looks after the one on the space station?

Was the Keeper a disguised Valeyard all the time, or did he simply bump him off and take his outfit only after escaping from the Matrix?

The Valeyard, posing for no real reason whatsoever as the Dickensian Popplewick figure, tries to get the Doctor to sign away his remaining lives. The Doctor agrees to do this, on the basis that the Valeyard could kill him anytime anyway. So why doesn't the Valeyard do this? Why only here and now is he able, or willing, to destroy the Doctor and thus gain an existence of his own?

What has giving consent got to do with the process?

The separate business of assassinating another bunch of Time Lords, who all just happen to be gathered to watch this trial, isn't very well set up. It's suddenly added late in the final episode.

If you've got everyone you want to kill assembled in one place, in deep space, isn't it easier to simply sabotage the space station? Let all the air out or blow it up.

The least said about a Megabyte Modem being a devastating weapon, the better... The only thing scary about those was the time it took to download videos.

The Valeyard unleashes a Particle Disseminator onto the court. If this really does what the name implies, then you shouldn't be able to avoid its effects by simply ducking under your chair. Interesting how all the Chancellery Guards leg it from the courtroom, leaving their superiors to fend for themselves. The weapon not only fails to harm anyone in the courtroom, but it doesn't even damage the furniture.

And earlier, did the Valeyard really have to stress the word "disseminate" so obviously when talking to the Doctor - giving away his whole plan?

More Pip & Jane unrealistic dialogue on show, especially things like the Valeyard's "catharsis of spurious morality".

Mel states that Gallifrey doesn't have any Crown Jewels. How would she know? And surely the well known relics of Rassilon - his Coronet, Sash, Rod and Key - constitute a "crown jewels" of sorts.

Once the Valeyard's scheme has been defeated, the Inquisitor simply shrugs her shoulders as though nothing really serious has occurred - even though we've just heard that there's civil strife on Gallifrey. She suggests that the Doctor run for President again - despite now knowing that he's not only capable of genocide but will actually commit it in the near future.

And what has she said or done throughout these entire proceedings to make the Doctor think that she might be the best person for the job? She was all for the assassination plot to take out Crozier for one thing.

The fact that Peri is still alive and married to Yrcanos is a massive cop-out on the ending to Mindwarp.

Bearing in mind once again that Mel will only become his companion at some later date, why doesn't the Doctor simply go and collect Peri now that he knows she's still alive? Does she actually want to be stuck on a barbaric planet with Brian Blessed?

And just what did actually happen at the conclusion of Mindwarp, if she's still alive and not a repository for Kiv's mind? (Or is it actually Kiv whom Yrcanos married...?).

Not a problem at the time, but hindsight certainly hasn't been kind to this story. 

The "gap" between incarnations during which the Valeyard was said to come into being came and went without anyone even noticing it, when Steven Moffat decided to have the Doctor's life-span come to an end on Trenzalore at Christmas 2013. Then Chris Chibnall decided that the Doctor wasn't an actual Time Lord at all, and had lots of incarnations before the grumpy old bloke in Totter's Lane - so the Valeyard should really have come from a point in the Doctor's distant past, and not his future. 

(One way round this is to accept that there is a potential for a Valeyard-type figure for any Time Lord towards the end of their normal 12 regenerations cycle. Perhaps the Borusa of The Five Doctors was actually his "Valeyard", who had bumped off the nice but doddery Arc of Infinity one and usurped his role as President. Left with only a single aged life after finally achieving his own existence, he would certainly want to become immortal).

A lot of unanswered questions, but we should just mention those troubled circumstances under which this story came into being. The Ultimate Foe is a bit like the Valeyard himself actually, falling between the incarnation started by Robert Holmes and completed by Eric Saward, and the incarnation devised by Pip & Jane Baker after Holmes passed away and Saward then fell out with JNT and quit.

Unlike the Valeyard, this story actually succeeded in bumping off the Doctor, as Colin Baker got the chop very soon after...

Doctor Who Xmas Special... in 2026

The BBC have announced today that the next Doctor Who we get to see, other than the CBeebies animated series which is described as "in development", will be a Christmas Special - but not until 2026.

As we have all suspected for months now, it has also been confirmed that the production partnership with Disney+ is not going to be renewed.

The same statement confirms that The War Between The Land And The Sea will be screened later this year, though there's no mention of the possible delay by Disney broadcasting it.

The 2026 Special is to be written by RTD2, and I think we can hazard a guess that it will resolve the Billie Piper appearance which most fans think might be in the form of a one-off, potentially co-starring with 14th Doctor David Tennant, to bridge the gap until the next full-time actor is in place.

The BBC said the usual stuff about the programme remaining important to them and that it will be back etc, etc. - though we heard all that in 1989 and well into the 1990's (and got the TV Movie at the end of it all) so for older fans it's hardly reassurance. A separate announcement on the future of the series is said to be coming later (my guess being on 23rd November).

Presumably another production partner is being sought, as well as the search for a new Doctor.

There will be many hoping that a new showrunner is also being looked for...

It's less than a month to the next anniversary, and there's no word on any new colourised 1960's episodes, or Tales From The TARDIS, and the animation of lost stories has seemingly dried up, apparently being reserved now for filling gaps in the Blu-ray box sets, which are released only twice per year these days. 

It's hardly the Wilderness Years back again, though it might feel like it at times...

Possible broadcast date for spinoff?

It's being suggested that the Doctor Who UNIT spinoff, The War Between The Land And The Sea, might be screened on the BBC in December, but not on Disney+ until the following February. This is obviously very odd if true as, ever since the partnership between the House of Mouse and Bad Wolf began, broadcasts have been pretty much simultaneous. It suggests that Disney might not be all that bothered about the spinoff and are simply slotting it into where they have a gap. There's a general feeling that both partners just want to finish the 26 episode agreement and move on.

If the parent programme hasn't set the world on fire then not much interest may exist for a spinoff from a not-terribly-popular-these-days series.

Just rumour for now, so just have to wait and see.

Episode 181: The Ice Warriors (2)

Synopsis:

Jamie and Victoria have been left in the laboratory whilst thermal packs melt the ice encasing the figure found by scientist Arden in the glacier. They do not notice that the ice has melted quicker than anticipated, and the creature is stirring to life...

They become aware of the Ice Warrior only after it is already on its feet. It knocks Jamie unconscious and seizes Victoria.

Clent and Arden are discussing the computer and the Doctor's suitability to assist them when he enters to tell them of his findings regarding the figure in the ice. It is alien. Clent dismisses this as unimportant, until the Doctor points out that it must have come here from another planet, and the only way it could do so is in a spaceship - a craft which might still be intact within the glacier. Arden realises that if they use the Ioniser at full strength it could detonate the ship's engines. If these are nuclear powered, the explosion could wipe out the base and much of the surrounding area. 

They dare not use it until they can ascertain the nature of its engines.

Jamie then staggers in and informs them that the creature has come to life and has taken Victoria.

They go to the laboratory where they realise what has happened - the intense heat generated from the thermal packs using high current, passing through low resistance, shocked the Warrior back to life.

Clent hesitates to mount a search party as it would divert men from other duties, and he wishes to consult the computer, much to the Doctor's annoyance.

The Ice Warrior has taken Victoria to a storeroom. There it identifies itself as Varga - a native of Mars. She is forced to tell him that he has been buried in the ice for thousands of years. Varga states that his spaceship crash-landed at the foot of the ice wall whilst on a reconnaissance mission to Earth, and he and his crew were buried by an avalanche.

She tells him that the scientists will help him, but he fears they will destroy him. He would rather negotiate from a position of strength. They will either return home - or conquer this planet.

Just as the Doctor expected, the computer merely states that it cannot advise until the spaceship engines have been investigated. It recommends one person be sent. Arden insists on going as he was the person who found the Warrior. Clent refuses to allocate anyone else, but Jamie points out that he is not one of his staff. Miss Garrett insists that the advice of the computer must be followed and so Clent reluctantly agrees that Jamie can go - but Victoria's fate cannot take precedence over the global fight against the glaciers.

At an abandoned plant museum nearby, Penley is tending to Storr who had injured his arm in the recent avalanche. Storr is vehemently opposed to the base, believing that it was scientists who were the cause of the world's current problems. He becomes paranoid when Penley prepares to go out to steal more food from the base - thinking he will hand him over for deportation as a scavenger.

Varga demands to know how he was reanimated, and Victoria tells him about the thermal packs. He orders her to take him back to the laboratory so they can take more of these, in order that he can free his crew.

The Ioniser is operating on half power for now. The Doctor attempts to find out why Penley left. Clent is resistant to creativity and individuality amongst his team and was worried about his own reputation, having selected Penley for the job.

Clent leaves for the laboratory where he encounters Varga, who has now obtained a number of thermal packs. He knocks him out.

Penley witnesses the departure of Varga with Victoria, and then meets the Doctor who tries to convince him he is needed here.

Penley refuses and leaves, and the Doctor uses smelling salts to revive Clent. Miss Garrett reports that the creature has just broken through the base perimeter, heading towards the glacier.

Arden wants to wait until morning to set off, but Jamie insists on leaving now.

Varga uses a detector to locate where his crew are buried. He has a sonic weapon built into his forearm and uses this to begin melting the ice.

Penley is back at the museum, where he tells Storr about the creature he has seen.

Varga soon has his crew members freed from the ice, ready to bring them back to life...

Data:

Written by Brian Hayles

Recorded: Saturday 28th October 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 18th November 1967

Ratings: 7.1 million / AI 52

VFX: Bernard Wilkie

Designer: Jeremy Davies

Director: Derek Martinus

Additional cast: Bernard Bresslaw (Varga)

Critique:

Brian Hayles had specified that Penley and Storr lived in a plant museum in his original story outline - helping to juxtapose their kinship with nature as opposed to the clinical environment of the base. It was described as having various plants dotted about, marked with labels, and with furs draped over the windows to keep the cold out. Furniture was composed of pine branches and their utensils were rough and hand-made.

The base computer was originally to have been part of Clent's desk. 

In the draft script there was more dialogue between Jamie and Victoria in the laboratory before the Ice Warrior attacked, with Jamie enjoying the relaxing vibro-chair.

Varga was to be shot initially from low down, to accentuate his towering height. At this point the Warriors' only had implants and these were to have contained lights. Each of the uncovered crew members was to be found in a different position - one crouching, one standing, one lying prone etc.

The guns were not built into the Warriors' bodies, as Varga is described as drawing his sonic pistol and pointing its barrel at Victoria.

It is obvious now that the Ice Warrior seen emerging from the block of ice at the conclusion to Part One did not resemble Varga closely at all, as he has quite a different helmet design. The one used for the cliff-hanger had no chin piece or projecting "nose".

Hayles had intended his creations to be more humanoid in appearance, with electronic implants - making them cyborgs. Costume Designer Martin Baugh thought this too close to the Cybermen, and picked up on a line in the script about their armour looking reptilian in appearance. He therefore decided to make them fully reptilian in nature, armoured from head to foot.

Bernard Bresslaw was just beginning his lengthy career with the Carry On... team, but was already a household name due to his appearances in The Army Game (opposite William Hartnell) and had starred in the 1959 film The Ugly Duckling - a comedic rendering of the Jekyll & Hyde story from Hammer (in which he played opposite Jon Pertwee).

He expected to be playing a proud Viking warrior figure, and was surprised to be sent to a boat-builders yard for his costume fitting.

 

The main carapace of the Ice Warrior costume was made from fibreglass in two halves - front and back. These would be bolted together at the shoulders and crotch. The actor first put on the legs, which were designed like anglers' waders, held up by elasticated braces. The arms were of a similar pliable rubber worn like long opera gloves, again held in place with elasticated straps. With arms and legs in place, the two torso sections could be fitted. These were dressed with hair to help hide the joints. For inspiration Baugh had looked to the Crocodile Soldiers who feature in the procession marking her entrance into Rome by Cleopatra in the 1963 Taylor / Burton epic. These costumes would actually be repurposed to make the Ice Warrior bodies.

The hands were designed as rubber clamps. On the right forearm was attached a small perspex tube - the Warrior's personal sonic weaponry. This could be illuminated when firing - an electrical connection being made when the actor brought wires hidden in the hand clamps together. This is why the Warriors always clench their fists when they shoot.

The guns weren't originally incorporated into the costume when filming commenced at Ealing. Bernard Wilkie was asked to do this only after Derek Martinus requested changes be made to the Ice Warriors before the story went into studio. More of this later.

A number of different helmets were put together, one of which was built around a motorcycle crash helmet, so it is bigger than the others. As we've already noted, not all encompassed the chin.

Where the mouth area was exposed, rubber appliances textured like scaly skin were attached. The eyes were covered with thin sheets of plastic. Beneath, the actor had dark green make-up applied around the eyes.

One idea dropped was that the costumes would have built-in lights. Varga's chest was to have lit up to indicate that his detector was operating. It was also planned that there would be lights within the helmet. This proved quite impractical as the costumes would already be heavy and extremely hot to wear under studio lights.

Bresslaw later reported that about a pint of sweat gathered in the boots after each recording.

In interviews, Baugh was quite clear that as far as he was concerned the Ice Warriors did not wear their armour like a suit, but this was their actual physical form, like bipedal turtles.

This episode was produced entirely at Lime Grove, requiring none of the Ealing filmed material.

Joining rehearsals this week, as well as Bernard Bresslaw, were Peter Sallis and Angus Lennie - their Part One scenes all having been captured at Ealing. 

Bresslaw was an old friend of Troughton's and was particularly looking forward to helping create a new Doctor Who monster. Knowing that he would not be recognised at all in costume, he concentrated on the vocal performance. It was he who decided that the Ice Warriors should speak in a hissing, sibilant whisper - something which was adopted for all subsequent appearances by the Martians.

Roy Skelton recorded his computer dialogue on the Thursday before recording.

During the afternoon of 28th October a number of photographs were taken of Bresslaw donning his costume - some of which you can see above. Photographs were also taken of some of Peter Barkworth and Wendy Gifford, plus Varga with Victoria in the storeroom.

Bresslaw rehearsed without his helmet, only donning it for recording. Once on, he was unable to wear his spectacles. This, combined with the tinted plastic eye-pieces, left him virtually blind, and Debbie Watling took it upon herself to help guide him around the set. Unable to sit down, the actor used a shooting stick and when not in front of the cameras took the opportunity to peruse the Sporting Life racing paper, an image which Frazer Hines found hilarious.

The rubber mouthpiece proved to be too inflexible and so Bresslaw had to pre-record his lines earlier in the day.

Keen sighted viewers would have spotted the helmet design discrepancy mentioned above as the opening credits played over a filmed reprise of the Part One cliff-hanger.

Unusually for the time, it was decided to record some computer room scenes back to back and therefore out of story sequence.

There were two new sets this week - the storeroom where Varga seeks refuge with Victoria, and the dilapidated plant museum which is home to Storr and Penley. This was based on a Victorian botanical gardens greenhouse, with cast iron fixtures.

The glacier scenes were done in studio this time, and at one point Bresslaw slightly damaged the polystyrene ice face when he bumped into it due to his restricted vision.

The well known Ice Warrior gun effect doesn't arrive here yet. The camera simply zoomed in and out from the ice.

The shot of the four frozen crewmembers embedded in ice was achieved using a model. The closing credits rolled over this before the fade to black.

"I wonder... A name that's been nearly worn out before anything came to claim it. Was this really a Martian...?"

So said Professor Bernard Quatermass (Andre Morrell) in Quatermass and the Pit. Doctor Who is rapidly approaching its fourth birthday in November 1967, and only once has the series even thought of going to Mars (before the TARDIS got diverted by the Gravitron in The Moonbase).

Martians - aka "Little Green Men" - had been a science fiction cliché since HG Wells wrote War of the Worlds and were a staple of the 1950's sci-fi movie boom, so it's surprising that it has taken this long for the programme to feature them. Instead of Little Green Men, however, we get Giant Green Men.

The Ice Warriors have often been regarded as the bronze medallists in the Doctor Who Top 3 of monsters. Like the Yeti in the previous story, this came about because of Target's Doctor Who Monster Book. This arranged the monsters in order of frequency of appearances, and back in 1975 Ice Warriors had featured in the series four times, behind Cybermen and Daleks. All the other creatures featured in the publication had been seen only once or twice at best.

When the series returned in 2005, most fans were expecting them to make a reappearance some time soon - but it took until Series 7 in 2013 for it to happen. Had RTD stayed on for a fifth year he might have contemplated bringing them back. Steven Moffat was resistant, thinking them the epitome of the lumbering man-in-suit monster. Too slow to be any real kind of menace.

We have Mark Gatiss to thank for the belated return in Cold War - an episode which borrows heavily from The Ice Warriors. Gatiss is known as a fan of the Pertwee era in particular, which included the Peladon stories. He was able to convince his Sherlock co-writer that they could be made an effective foe once again - though the way he achieved this is questionable. Remember that their original designer was adamant that the armour wasn't something which could be taken off, like a Medieval suit of armour.

Even when they introduced the "Ice Lord" caste in The Seeds of Death, all subsequent Ice Warriors owed much to the original performance by Bernard Bresslaw, which we first see in this episode.

Trivia:

• The ratings see a rise of almost half a million viewers since the opening instalment, whilst the appreciation figure remains the same.
• In his Target novelisation of this story, Hayles named the computer ECCO.
• A native of the region, Hayles appeared on the local Midlands Today programme on Thursday 16th November to discuss his latest Doctor Who story.
• The episode was discussed at the BBC's weekly Programme Review meeting on Wednesday 22nd November, during which the new Controller of BBC1, Paul Fox, praised how this latest adventure was progressing.
• In 1957 Bernard Bresslaw was a strong contender for the role of the monster in Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein, losing out to Christopher Lee. Whilst I could see him also playing The Mummy, I can't quite see him as Count Dracula, however.
• Radio Times had another piece on the series this week, a brief item about composer Dudley Simpson:

Nabil Shaban 1953 - 2025

Very sorry to learn of the death on 18th October of actor Nabil Shaban, who played the villainous character Sil in two Colin Baker stories - Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp, the second section of Trial of a Time Lord.

Born in Jordan, he was sent to England as a child for medical reasons (osteogenesis imperfecta - brittle bone disease) and settled there. 

His first TV role was opposite Ian McKellen in the Channel 4 drama Walter (1982), and his final acting credit was as Sil in an unofficial spinoff in 2019.

As well as acting, he wrote, produced and directed for television and theatre, his work heavily influenced by his politics. He championed disability rights in particular, and was one of the founders of theatre company Graeae.

Sil was one of the highlights of an especially troubled period for Doctor Who and it is a great shame that the character was never brought back. Shaban once suggested himself as a new Doctor.

RIP

Inspirations: The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar

In planning the next series of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat decided to revisit the two-parter format. He had been generally dissatisfied with these, feeling that the only way to do them was to have the second half going off in a new direction - sometimes having little bearing on what went before. He had recently cut back on these, ending Series 6 and 7 with single episode finales.

For this series he thought that they might try some big two-parters which could act as a selling point, as they allowed him to tell bigger stories that might not fit a 45 minute timeframe. How these worked might be different, however, and he was keen to see them used as more than simply two halves of a single storyline.

Rather than end the series on a blockbuster, Moffat also decided to kick the series off with one.

He hadn't written a substantial Dalek story by himself since Asylum of the Daleks, and saw this as the ideal opportunity to have another go. He was keen to experiment further with the notion of Daleks assembling from different eras of the series' history. This led to the setting of Skaro.

Looking back, his favourite Dalek story had been Genesis of the Daleks. Indeed, he thought it one of the best Doctor Who stories ever.

This led him to include Davros in his new story - not seen since Series 4's Journey's End - and he considered a certain sequence in the 1975 story as a powerful inspiration. This is the scene where the Doctor anguishes over destroying the Dalek nursery, and asks his companions if they could kill a child, even knowing it would grow up to be an evil dictator.

This led to the Doctor having the opportunity to kill Davros as a child. Moffat looked back at all the Davros stories and saw how the big confrontations between him and the Doctor worked really well - with the narrative gradually building towards them. He envisaged scenes of the pair debating their respective moral values.

Missy's inclusion did not feature in the initial plans for the story, but Moffat wanted to develop the character further. The Master had worked with the Daleks in the past - in Frontier in Space - so had their own history with them.

The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar had two prologues. The one showing the Doctor living with Medieval  characters, constructing a well, was the intended one. The other - in which the Doctor is seen hiding on Karn as Colony Sarff comes looking for him, was actually supposed to be part of the first episode, but was shifted to form a stand-alone prequel.

Sarff is Welsh for "serpent", hinting at his true nature.

Karn was first seen in The Brain of Morbius - a bleak planet  in the same region of the universe as Gallifrey and home to the mystical Sisterhood, who had historic links with the Time Lords. The planet had been revisited briefly in another prequel - Night of the Doctor. Leader of the Sisterhood, Ohila, had also been seen in this.

UNIT use temporal paradoxes to help look for the missing Doctor across Earth's history. They identify a trio of these surrounding Atlantis. This is reference to the three different versions of the fall of the city state, as seen in The Underwater Menace and The Time Monster, and mentioned by Azal in The Daemons. Other locations mentioned include 15th Century San Martino (The Masque of Mandragora) and Troy (The Myth Makers).

Peter Capaldi sent Moffat an email following Series 8, suggesting certain things he'd like to see the Doctor do in the next season. One of these was him playing an electric guitar, and he was surprised Moffat agreed to it.

The Dalek slaves like Bors (a name first used in The Daleks' Master Plan) were introduced in Asylum of the Daleks.

The action moves from Medieval England to Skaro, and we see a city whose design was inspired by the one which featured in The Daleks. The first sight of a Dalek here has the general silver / blue livery of the ones seen in that story, as we know from colour photographs of its production.

Inside are a number of Daleks with different colour schemes, including black domed ones seen in The Evil of the Daleks and gunmetal grey ones first introduced in Day of the Daleks.

In charge is the red / gold Supreme first introduced in The Stolen Earth.

Also present is the Special Weapons Dalek, introduced in Remembrance of the Daleks.

Skaro was said to have been destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks, but was present in the 1996 TV Movie. The city was last seen, in ruins, in Asylum of the Daleks. It is claimed that the Daleks simply rebuild what they lose, to get round these inconsistencies.

Friends of the Doctor hiding in Dalek casings have been seen in The Daleks and The Planet of the Daleks, and the Doctor himself hid in one in The Space Museum.

The episode titles are a reference to The Sorcerer's Apprentice - the 1897 classical composition by Paul Dukas. This is best known for its inclusion in Disney's Fantasia (1940) - originally intended as a stand-alone piece for Mickey Mouse.

Sarff's search for the Doctor takes in a number of locations seen in the series before - the Maldovarium (The Pandorica Opens) and the Shadow Proclamation (The Stolen Earth). The latter sees the same actress - Kelly Hunter - playing the Shadow Architect, and Judoon are present as before.

In a Star Wars cantina-style bar we see a Sycorax, an Ood, a Hath, a Khaler, a Skullion (from the last of The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Man Who Wasn't There) and a Blowfish (first seen in Torchwood's Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang).

A cultural reference which younger people, and those from outside the UK, would have missed was Missy's declaration that she would speak to UNIT "through the square window". This comes from the classic pre-school children's series Play School (1964 - 1988). Each week viewers were asked to guess through which window - square, round or arched - the next filmed item would appear.

Musical references include Missy's "Oh Missy you so fine..." paraphrased from Toni Basil's 1982 hit Mickey and Mott the Hoople's All The Young Dudes (1972).

Next time: Timey-wimey ghostly goings-on, at the bottom of a lake...

Story 307: Boom

In which the TARDIS arrives on a war-torn planet - and the Doctor almost immediately puts his foot in it. Or rather on it, as he steps on a landmine...

This is the planet Kastarion 3 and the year is 5087. The army of the Anglican Church has been engaged in combat here for many months. A Marine named John Francis Vater has been blinded, and is being escorted back to base by his orderly, Carson. Vater has a daughter named Splice waiting for him there. 

They are confronted by an armoured mobile Ambulance, which has an Artificial Intelligence interface. Vater wishes to avoid it as it may deem him unfit for active service due to his sight loss - and this proves to be the case. The Ambulances terminate anyone unfit to fight as a way of reducing pressure on supplies. Carson treads on a mine and is killed.

Vater is unable to hide his blindness and so trick the Ambulance into ignoring him. He is killed by it, his body compressed to be handed over to his next of kin.

It was on hearing his cry that the Doctor rushed from the TARDIS and stood on the mine. He recognises the device as being a product of the Villengard Corporation.

Ruby looks for a heavy rock which might be used to take his weight from the trigger mechanism. 

She finds instead the container bearing Vater's remains and a hologram is activated - a pre-recorded message asking for this to be returned to his next of kin. It is also able to tell them how he died.

Splice has been making her way to meet her father and arrives at the crater where the Doctor and Ruby are located. On hearing her give her name, the hologram is reactivated. 

Another Anglican Marine named Mundy Flynn appears. Thinking he is an enemy, holding a weapon, she orders the Doctor to drop the compression cannister - then shoots him in the arm when he declines to do so.

The Doctor points out that his Time Lord biology will result in the mine producing a much greater explosion. Mundy scans him and finds this to be the case.

The Doctor's wound draws an Ambulance towards the crater. It must be distracted from the Doctor to prevent the explosion, so Mundy asks Ruby to give her a slight wound - her gun on its lowest setting.

However, a Marine named Canterbury has been searching for Splice and when he sees Ruby pointing a gun at Mundy he shoots her.

The Ambulance is diverted to her but is unable to take any action as it cannot identify her. As she isn't Clergy it cannot treat her, and she cannot be destroyed as there is no next of kin to give the remains to.

Mundy and Canterbury must save Ruby.

It transpires that the Marines are not fighting any enemy. This is all just an elaborate scheme by Villengard to supply weapons and the Ambulances to the Church, making them money as the combat is artificially prolonged.

Mundy asks for proof, so the Doctor has Vater's hologram hack into the Ambulance's systems. Every Church casualty has been a victim of their side's own weapons.

The Ambulance's defences are triggered and it kills Canterbury. More Ambulances arrive to prevent the data breach, but Vater has been successful. They are reprogrammed, and one of them heals Ruby.

Soon after, the conflict has ended and the Marines are preparing to leave the planet. Mundy will look after Splice, who is still accompanied by her father's hologram.

Boom was written by Steven Moffat - his first episode since he handed over the showrunner role to Chris Chibnall in 2018. It was first broadcast on Saturday 18th May 2024.

The story was inspired by a short scene from the opening instalment of 1975's Genesis of the Daleks. Exploring the barren landscape of Skaro after being diverted there to fulfil a mission for the Time Lords, the Doctor steps on a landmine. Harry Sullivan is able to move a rock into position so that the Doctor can step away.

As well as looking to a classic Tom Baker story, Moffat elects to raid his own writing history to provide other story elements as the Genesis scene can hardly provide sufficient material to fill 45 minutes.

We first of all have the return of the faceless Villengard Corporation, first mentioned in The Doctor Dances and at the time most recently seen in Moffat's final episode as showrunner - Twice Upon A Time, in which the Dalek "Rusty" presides over its ruins.

We also have the return of the Clerics, first introduced in The Time of Angels, and a 51st Century setting.

Then we see another example of supposedly beneficial AI causing more harm than good. We saw this with the Siren (The Curse of the Black Spot) and the Handbots (The Girl Who Waited) amongst many others.

We also have yet another instance of the dead /  dying companion being brought back to life. Moffat does this so often that it completely destroys the drama of the situation. You just know there's going to be a cop-out so you really don't care.

And love is an emotion capable of interfering with technology, just like with Craig in Closing Time.

Moffat also takes a swipe at the futility of war, and the greed and immorality of the arms industry, which would rather see conflicts prolonged than cease due to the effects of peace on their profits.

Something else Moffat throws in is a bit of emotional manipulation. There's absolutely no reason for Splice to feature in this episode. (Why would a Marine have their child with them in a war zone?). She's there just to be cute and get the heartstrings tugged as she interacts with the "ghost" of her father.

For "cute" read "annoying" in my book.

This episode is also significant for giving us our first look at Varada Sethu in the series. Here she plays Marine Mundy Flynn, but she will be invited back a few months later to play the Doctor's new companion Belinda Chandra. 

Sethu had featured as Peaseblossom in RTD's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2016, but is probably best known for her role as Rebel Alliance operative Cinta Kaz in Andor.

Marine John Francis Vater is played by Joe Anderson.

Though English he has worked a great deal in the USA, appearing in the series Hannibal, one of the Twilight films, and the 2010 remake of cult horror movie The Crazies. He played bassist Peter Hook in the Joy Division biopic Control (2007) and is a musician as well as an actor.

Canterbury is played by Scots actor Bhav Joshi, who is a regular in crime drama Granite Harbour, which is set in Aberdeen, and appeared with David Tennant in Deadwater Fell.

Splice is Caoilinn Springall. She featured in the 2024 horror film The Beast Within, which starred Game of Thrones' Kit Harington. She also features in the Amazon TV series Citadel.

Portraying the Ambulance's AI interface provides Susan Twist with her latest appearance in the series.

Other than the Twist appearance, the other story arc element this week is a reappearance of the incongruous snow - which begins to fall as Ruby lies dying.

Overall, one of the better episodes of this series, frequently voted favourite story of the season, but it has its weaknesses - such as the inclusion of the child and the back-to-life companion business. By the very nature of the episode, the Doctor is pretty much stuck in a hole for the duration and can only offer advice, and Ruby gets shot halfway through - so Munday Flynn actually comes across as the strongest character in the drama.

Things you might like to know:

• Canterbury clearly gets his name from the cathedral city in Kent, which is the see of the Archbishop of Canterbury - leader of the Anglican Church.
• Vater's name derives from the German word for "father" (in the same way that the Star Wars villain got his name for the same word in Dutch). You just know that his relationship with his child is going to be significant.
• Mundy can mean "protector or guardian", so she's obviously going to be left looking after the kid at the end. In fiction it has also been used to describe an ordinary, non-magical person - as in "mundane".
• When he first steps on the mine, the Doctor sings The Skye Boat Song to keep his mind off his predicament. This was occasionally played on his recorder by the Second Doctor - and the Master played it in The Power of the Doctor.
• The business with the explosion being much greater because his biology is Time Lord makes no sense whatsoever, so is just there to give people a reason not to simply let him be blown up. The Doctor has been involved in many, many potentially explosive situations and this has never been an issue.
• The Doctor quotes a line from a poem - "What survives of us, is love", attributing it to a "sad little man". It's Philip Larkin (1922 - 1985) he's referring to - from his 1956 poem The Arundel Tomb.
• RTD2 didn't give Moffat any information about Ruby, other than her first name and that she was just an ordinary young woman exploring with the Doctor.
• Gatwa claimed this as his own favourite episode of this series.

Episode 180: The Ice Warriors (1)

Synopsis:

Advanced computerised technology sits incongruously within a Georgian drawing room. Technicians supervised by Miss Garrett bustle around it as an alarm sounds. Her superior, Clent, arrives to take charge of the situation. Their mission is to hold back an advancing glacier. This is Britannicus Base, one of several around the globe battling a new Ice Age...

Outside, a technician named Arden is helping organise the placement of seismic monitors on the ice face, so that they can accurately measure the advance. His colleague Walters alerts him to something they have just found embedded in the ice - what appears to be the body of a man. Once an archaeologist, Arden elects to excavate it - even though he knows Clent would deny him permission.

The TARDIS materialises on a bank of snow outside a huge dome structure, toppling over to rest on its side. Luckily the doors are free and the Doctor and companions Jamie and Victoria emerge to find themselves in a wintry landscape. Jamie thinks they have simply landed on another part of the mountain in Tibet from which they have just come. They explore and find an opening in the dome, but hide when two men emerge. They are dressed in heavy furs and have been carrying provisions, which they have just stolen. One of them, a small man named Storr, is concerned that the alarm is meant for them, but his colleague Penley recognises the sound as originating from the computer. Clent is having trouble with the Ioniser...

After they have gone, the Doctor and his companions venture inside and are surprised to see that the dome protects a large country house. Inside they are generally ignored until someone pins badges on them - identifying them as scavengers who are to be deported to the Equatorial regions.

The Doctor is intrigued by the alarm and decides to investigate, entering the control room where Clent and Miss Garrett are scrabbling to fix the computer problems. The travellers are spotted and Clent orders them thrown out - but the Doctor explains that within three minutes there will be a massive explosion unless he is allowed to help. The nuclear reactor is about to overload. 

Clent looks on stunned as he hurries from panel to panel gathering data, then instructs Miss Garrett on what she must do. His efforts are successful and the alarm ends.

When Clent checks with the central computer he learns that the Doctor was only out by a second in his warning.

Penley and Storr are making their way back to their shelter when they see Arden and his men, who have now managed to expose the huge armoured figure they found. There is an avalanche and one of the technicians is swept to his death. Arden arranges to take the figure, which Walters has described as a "proper ice warrior", back to base.

There, the Doctor is being offered a job. Penley was once Clent's computer expert but he quit and left, and Clent would like the Doctor to replace him. When the Doctor claims not to know about this new Ice Age, he is given a test to see if he will be suitable - working out how this state of affairs occurred and what should be done about it. He correctly deduces the cause to have been the loss of plant life as more and more land was given over to industrial and residential purposes, and that ionisation would be the best solution. This process intensifies the sun's heat onto the Earth's surface.

Across the world, the glacial advance is being held in check, but Britannicus Base is continually struggling since they lost Penley, and Clent is too proud to invite him back.

Arden and Walters arrive with their find. Thermal packs are attached to the ice in which it is still encased, which should slowly melt it. Clent and Arden then leave to see to the Ioniser.

The Doctor examines the figure and is intrigued. It is believed to be an ancient warrior who was entombed centuries ago - but the Doctor sees electronic components in its armour. He goes to alert Clent, leaving Jamie and Victoria in the room where the block of ice is thawing.

However, the packs are working much faster than anticipated.

Unnoticed by the youngsters, the creature stirs to life...

Data:

Written by Brian Hayles

Recorded: Saturday 21st October 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.10pm, Saturday 11th November 1967

Ratings: 6.7 million / AI 52

VFX: Bernard Wilkie

Designer: Jeremy Davies

Director: Derek Martinus

Guest cast: Peter Barkworth (Clent), Wendy Gifford (Miss Garrett), Peter Sallis (Penley), Angus Lennie (Storr), George Waring (Arden), Malcolm Taylor (Walters), Roy Skelton (Computer Voice)

Critique:

Brian Hayles had been submitting scripts for Doctor Who since the earliest days of the series, finally getting one accepted by John Wiles and Donald Tosh. This unusual piece strayed into the realms of fantasy, including characters from a play written by Gerald Savory who was then head of drama at the BBC. He changed his mind about their inclusion and the piece was heavily rewritten by Tosh. Tosh and Wiles then left the series, to be replaced by Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis - and Davis carried out a further rewrite on Hayles' story, which became The Celestial Toymaker.

The new team commissioned Hayles for another story - this time a historical genre piece called The Smugglers, which would be one of the final purely historical stories.

Lloyd and Davis' replacement, Peter Bryant, decided that they wanted another new monster to rival the Daleks - which were now absent from the series - and to match the Cybermen. This would be a bipedal creature, organic rather than machine-like this time, which might become a new regular foe for the Doctor.

Taking this on board for his next idea, Hayles was inspired by a story he had read concerning the finding of a perfectly preserved mammoth corpse in Northern Siberia. This had been discovered in August 1900 on the banks of the Berezovka River and was found to be some 30,000 years old.

This is referenced in the script as Arden thinks that their find might be a mastodon, another form of prehistoric elephant.

Another inspiration is the classic science fiction film The Thing From Another World, which concerns the finding of an alien being, survivor of a spaceship crash, entombed in ice near a scientific base in the Arctic. The 1951 film was an adaptation of a 1938 novella titled Who Goes There?, written by John W Campbell.

This will prove to be the inspiration for a number of Doctor Who stories.

In devising his new aliens, Hayles originally intended that they be human-like in appearance, akin to Vikings, but with cybernetic implants. This was changed as it was felt it might too closely resemble the concept of the Cybermen. 

We'll talk about the costumes, designed by Martin Baugh, next time, once the Ice Warrior makes its first full appearance.

This was the final story which Victor Pemberton worked on before going freelance, though only in the early stages. He found Hayles resistant to changes being made to his scripts, and Pemberton did not like the story himself, thinking it lacked excitement.

Hayles specified in his outline that the base personnel use personal communicators which looked like wristwatches, recommending that for close-ups the director could cut to a full size monitor with a cloth background, suggesting the sleeve of a coat or tunic. This was picked up by Bernard Wilkie, practical head of the BBC VFX department (along with Jack Kine, who tended to handle the managerial side). Wilkie's contribution to the series went back to The Daleks, where he offered advice to its designer Ray Cusick on the design and manufacture of the titular creatures.

The Ice Warrior's helmet was described by Hayles as looking like the one from the title sequence of the TV series Hereward the Wake (1965). This programme no longer exists, but we can hazard a guess that this was probably the iconic Sutton Hoo helmet. He wore armour but his face was visible. The Doctor spotted an electronic ear-piece.

The character of Storr was originally to have been a big muscular figure, with Penley slighter in stature.

Filming on this episode got underway at Ealing on Monday 25th September. Hayles had suggested that the glacier scenes be recorded in the TV studio, but Derek Martinus elected to move these to the film studios to give a greater sense of space. He was unhappy with how realistic jablite chips looked as snow, having previously experienced its use in The Tenth Planet. He thought it only looked good when wind-blown.

The very first scene filmed was the arrival of the TARDIS, as the regular cast could only be spared for a limited time from rehearsals for the fourth instalment of The Abominable Snowmen. 

The TARDIS prop had been refurbished with the doors now opening outwards for this sequence, the dialogue for which was mostly ad-libbed - such as the business with the Doctor looking like he's seen something horrifying, only for it to be that Jamie is kneeling on his hand. The cast wore their costumes from the previous story.

The dome featured a circular door which opened upwards, and beyond was a photographic blow-up of a stately home.

The following day the avalanche scenes were filmed. The unfortunate technician who gets swept away was fight arranger Peter Diamond, who had worked on many Doctor Who stories - including speaking roles in The Romans and The Space Museum.

Wednesday 27th September saw scenes filmed of the discovery of the Ice Warrior, with George Waring and Malcolm Taylor present. Bernard Bresslaw was busy working on Carry On Doctor at Pinewood and so Tony Harwood stood in as Varga. He had been cast to appear later as the Ice Warrior Rintan and had previously played both Cybermen and Yeti.

Joining the cast as rehearsals got underway on Tuesday 17th October was Peter Barkworth. He was one of the stars of The Power Game - one of Innes Lloyd's favourite programmes, as he tried to get almost everyone in its cast onto Doctor Who at some point. Debbie Watling had guested in an episode in January 1966 and worked with Barkworth. Unsurprisingly, Wendy Gifford also featured as a regular in the business drama.

Clent's limp and use of a walking stick were not scripted, having been added by the actor during rehearsals. Barkworth had also wanted his character to have a stammer, but Martinus vetoed this.

Into studio, and neither Sallis nor Lennie were required as all their scenes for this episode had been captured on film at Ealing.

The episode number for each instalment was captioned simply "ONE", "TWO", "THREE" etc. 

These were shown over a wintry landscape. A soprano singing voice accompanied the titles - something which would come to represent "outer space" music in later stories such as The Space Pirates. Composing the incidental music is Dudley Simpson, who will develop a martial drum-based theme for the Ice Warriors.

No recording breaks were planned.

The main set was the Ioniser control room, with futuristic equipment set up in a Georgian style room, as specified by Hayles. Set dressing included oscilloscopes, and there's a well-known portrait shot of Troughton posing with one, which features on a later Radio Times cover.

Decoration for the base personnel outfits was based on printed circuit designs, which Baugh had seen in New Scientist. French fashion designer Andre Courreges was another influence.

The computer prop had an extra sitting inside, to make it rotate. Three different people carried out this task over the course of the story, including Frankie Dunn who had worked the Cyberman revitalising machine in The Tomb of the Cybermen.

On the wall were two backlit screens which showed the advance of the glaciers - one locally and the other a world map. Wave pattern machines - one vertical and one horizontal - were projected onto these, with a sliding perspex panel representing the ice face.

Debbie Watling ad-libbed the line about the base reminding her of her old home.

The other principal set was Clent's office / laboratory, which had a suspended monitor to display the countdown for the Doctor's test as well as images of the two glacier maps. A curtain-like screen could be lowered down to shield the frozen Ice Warrior.

The end credits began rolling over a close-up shot of the waking Warrior.

The story was given a 75 second trailer, broadcast immediately following the sixth and final episode of The Abominable Snowmen. This had been recorded by Barkworth and Sallis on Saturday 28th October, during the making of the second episode:

"My name is Clent. I'm a scientist in charge of stopping the second Ice Age from destroying the European world. A complex task at the best of times, but a challenge. A great challenge. One of the most brilliant scientists on my staff has rebelled against the way I run the base. So now, he lives the life of a scavenger. A useless, non-productive waste of talent".

"He's talking about me. I'm the scientist who rebelled - the name's Elric Penley. There's no point arguing with a man like Clent. He's a machine. I chose this existence because - well - because I demand the right to be an individual. Clent may be able to control the glacier... but there's a far greater menace that he hasn't reckoned with. I mean the creature from the ice..."

"The Doctor and his companions find themselves involved in this life and death struggle in Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors, next Saturday at Five Twenty-Five".

The actual broadcast began fifteen minutes earlier than stated here, as you can see above. This was due to the live Festival of Remembrance event that evening. 

This trailer now only exists on audio.

Two cuts were made to this opening episode. On first entering the base the Doctor and companions are confronted by a group of men running towards them. However, they run right past with one of them shoving the Doctor out of the way - straight into Jamie's arms.

The other cut came at the end of the scene where Clent offers the Doctor a job. Miss Gifford extols the virtues of the World Computer as an infallible tool, leading the Doctor to deduce the reason for Penley's defection.

Pemberton's accusation that this story lacks excitement is hardly a fair one. This opening episode is very much about scene-setting, providing the dramatic backdrop to the story - the new Ice Age, which will prove to be just as big a threat as the Ice Warrior. We also have the erratic computer providing a second threat, as lack of proper control over it might lead to an explosion which will not only destroy the base, but have an impact on the global situation. The waking Warrior provides the third threat, though at the moment it's just a mysterious being who is initially thought to be a prehistoric human, but has modern attachments. Being Doctor Who, viewers at the time will have already worked out that it's probably alien.

Penley features only briefly, but the episode provides a good introduction to Leader Clent and, to a lesser extent thanks to one of those cuts, Miss Gifford. Clent is seen to be somewhat neurotic and panicky - a man seemingly out of his depth and struggling with his responsibilities, but too proud to do anything about it. He comes across as a technocrat who goes strictly by the book and lacks imagination or intuition. The same can be said for Miss Gifford, who has an over-reliance on the World Computer. We'll see later the dynamic which exists between her and Clent, and between her and Penley.

That trailer, for those who caught it, helps with the scene setting as well - telling you all you need to know about the personalities of the two key Britannicus Base personnel.

You would definitely want to tune in the following week to see what happened next...

Trivia:

• The ratings get off to a tentative start, some half a million down on the previous episode. ITV continued to offer very little in the way of competition.
• The story outline submitted by Hayles set the date as 3000 AD. At one point Clent talks of losing 5000 years of history, which led some fans to believe that the story was set around 5000 AD. This was partly due to hindsight, as Robert Holmes had mentioned an Ice Age around that time in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, though there's no indication of it in The Invisible Enemy. Hindsight again, but the year 3000 clashes somewhat with the tail end of the Earth Empire which features through the Pertwee era.
• Whilst some future-set stories suggest the end of contemporary borders / power blocs, Clent implies that Russia is still only an uneasy ally, which can't necessarily be trusted.
• With its scripts running behind schedule, The Abominable Snowmen might possibly have gone into production after this story, and two different "Next Week" captions were prepared  for the fourth episode of The Tomb of the Cybermen - one for the Yeti story and one for this.
• Jamie thinks that they have simply landed elsewhere on the Tibetan mountain, meaning that this is the fourth consecutive story to follow on directly from its predecessor, starting from the conclusion to The Faceless Ones.
• Angus Lennie will be back in Terror of the Zygons, playing Fox Inn landlord Angus. He was a regular for many years on the soap Crossroads, playing the volatile motel chef Shughie McPhee.
• Peter Sallis is best known for the 37 years he played Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine, as well as voicing Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit animations. He was due to make a return to Doctor Who in 1983, playing Striker in Enlightenment. He had already been cast in the role when industrial action led to a postponement, forcing him to drop out.
• After skipping the previous story, Radio Times once again gave readers a preview item accompanied by a photograph. This piece concentrated mainly on the new aliens, though the photo caption mistakenly identified the Ice Warrior as guest star Bernard Bresslaw when it is in fact Sonny Caldinez as Turoc in a scene from the fourth episode:

• The Daily Mail helped advertise the new story on the day of broadcast with a piece about guest star Bresslaw, even though he wouldn't be featuring that week. It was accompanied by a marvellous photograph of the actor with his two sons, in costume but without the helmet:

Polystyle Doctor Who Holiday Special 1973

It's a while since I brought you some images from a long-extinct magazine which featured Doctor Who, so here's a little look at some of the features which appeared in Polystyle's Doctor Who Holiday Special, dating back to 1973, which could have been yours for the princely sum of 10 new pence.

Polystyle were the publishers of TV Action, which ran a weekly Doctor Who strip. A previous general Holiday Special had featured a location photo-feature on the making of The Daemons. This new Special was put together around the making of Frontier in Space.

The majority of pages were filled with comic strips and text stories featuring the Third Doctor, as well as the usual cartoons and general knowledge items which used to help pad out the old World Distributors annuals. Attached here are the photo features, which included a number of portrait images of the key on-screen personnel of the time:

There is also a brief overview of the series to date for newer fans:

As with the earlier feature on The Daemons, there is a behind the scenes photo spread on what would have been the story in production when it was edited, Season 10's Frontier In Space:

The photographs clearly come from the final episode as they feature the Daleks. We also see Pat Gorman getting ready to play a Sea Devil in the Jo / Master hypnosis scene which opens Episode 6.

Other features include a piece on the Daleks...

And a photo gallery of monsters...

In the days before Doctor Who Weekly / Monthly / Magazine, such features were a rarity for fans. Unless you had managed to hold onto old copies of Radio Times (whose picture quality varied greatly) where else could you obtain photos of Fish People, Macra or Monoids?

The rest of the features were more fun in nature - games and quizzes designed to keep the young reader occupied on their wet week in Blackpool or Skegness.

There's a board game...

A quiz...

And a "Spot the Difference"...

Not bad value for 10p. That would be just under £2 today. DWM would be charging at least £9.99 for something similar today.