Story 311: The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of Death

In which the Doctor finally discovers the truth about Ruby's heritage, and encounters an old foe he thought long destroyed...

The Doctor and Ruby arrive at UNIT HQ in order to seek help in investigating the woman whom they have been seeing throughout time and space in recent weeks. She exists in the present day as well - a philanthropic tech mogul named Susan Triad. However, UNIT have been investigating her for some time and Kate Stewart has already placed an operative within her organisation - his one-time companion Melanie Bush. She is working as a media assistant to Triad. So far she has found nothing to be concerned about. She is a pleasant individual who cares for her employees and who wishes to make affordable IT available to the masses.

And yet the same face keeps appearing on different planets and in different time-zones.

At the same time, the Doctor wishes to investigate Ruby's origins and discover the identity of the hooded woman who abandoned her at the church on Ruby Road - which may go some way to explaining the odd phenomena which surround her, such as snow falling where it should be impossible to do so.

The TARDIS cannot revisit the moment of her abandonment again but Ruby has an old CCTV tape which her foster mother Carla has kept all these years. New scientific adviser Morris explains that this can be adapted using UNIT tech to create a 3-D image of the event, which might identify the woman.

As Triad prepares for a press conference in which she will announce giving away free technology, Mel takes the opportunity to obtain a DNA sample from her, then makes for UNIT HQ where she is reunited with the Doctor. She explains that she was able to return to Earth following the death of Sabalom Glitz.

Carla accompanies Ruby to the HQ, leaving Cherry in the care of neighbour Mrs Flood. After they have gone, Flood begins to act coldly towards the old woman and a storm begins to gather as she indicates that something is coming...

Triad's DNA sample comes up as human. Ruby arrives with her mother and Morris prepares a Time Window, which will create the three dimensional virtual reality simulation of what the VHS depicts.

As Ruby repeats the story she was told of that Christmas Day, snow begins to fall - even though the program is not yet running.

They witness the event, including the arrival of the Doctor. He notices that unlike the rest of the imagery, which is grainy and shadowy, the TARDIS looks solid, as though it is in the chamber with them. Attempts to identify the hooded woman fail as the image glitches at the key moment when her face might be seen.

He is then surprised to see something which doesn't match his memory of the event - the woman stopping to point towards him before turning away.

The Doctor realises that time is shifting and the event is changing. He deduces that the woman may not be pointing at him at all - but something behind him. This is the TARDIS. A UNIT officer named Winston is sent to look behind the TARDIS and see if anything is there. A strange black shadow is seen momentarily. They hear him call out then contact is lost. The entire image then breaks down, and they discover Winston's body - aged to death and crumbling into a sand-like powder.

The Doctor insists on meeting Triad, after beginning to suspect that she may actually be his granddaughter Susan, perhaps unaware of her true identity. When he meets her in person, however, he cannot sense any Time Lord presence. On hearing that she hasn't been sleeping well due to vivid dreams, he mentions the names of some of the people he has recently encountered who look just like her and this seems to trigger some vague recollection.
At UNIT HQ team member Harriet suggests running the 3-D model again but this time in reverse, to try to identify the black shape. It now appears to emanate from the TARDIS itself, as though wrapped around it.

Kate worries that the entity might surround the actual TARDIS in their main control room. Harriet begins to speak oddly, and at the same time Triad interrupts her press announcement to make similar remarks about the coming of the "God of Death". Harriet points out her full name - H. Arbinger - the harbinger for the entity. Kate demands that it show itself. The features of Harriet and Triad are transformed into skull-like visions and it is revealed that the name of the IT company, S Triad Technology, has hidden a terrible secret in plain sight. Sue Tech - Sutekh.

A huge black jackal-like creature is revealed, wrapped around the TARDIS, announcing that it will bring death to the entire Universe...

Triad begins reducing people to dust as the Doctor and Mel flee the building on her moped. At UNIT HQ, weapons prove ineffective against Sutekh and his harbinger.

Triad has released Sutekh's dust of death, which destroys every living thing which it touches. Harriet does the same at UNIT HQ, killing everyone there. Mrs Flood, Carla and Cherry all perish as the dust cloud spreads through London and beyond.

The Doctor and Mel arrive at the HQ and join Ruby in the Time Window chamber where they enter the TARDIS - which proves to be quite unlike the real one. It contains a jumble of elements associated with all the incarnations of the Doctor, who explains that it is created from memories.

Sutekh then materialises with the real TARDIS and explains how he saved himself when they last met by seizing hold of the ship. Ever since then he has been attached to it, travelling through the Vortex and growing in strength. Having once been mistaken for a god by ancient Egyptians, he now has the powers of one.

Knowing of his granddaughter, Sutekh then laid a trap for him using Susan Triad, creating copies of her throughout his travels.

With Harriet in control of the real TARDIS, the Doctor, Ruby and Mel take to the Memory TARDIS and flee Earth.

From space they see the planet consumed by the dust, and the Doctor explains that it will be spreading across the entire universe to every planet and every time the TARDIS has visited.

Sutekh is joined by his servants and informs them that the Doctor and his companions must be tracked down, as the mystery of Ruby's parentage must be known.

Weeks pass and the Doctor discovers that the Time Window is still active, and he explains to his companions Sutekh's obsession with Ruby. He can see every moment in time and space, but this one fact eludes him and it is driving him insane. The Doctor and Ruby are unaware that Mel is beginning to hear the voice of Sutekh in her mind.

Accessing the Time Window through the Memory TARDIS, the Doctor is puzzled to see events from Ruby's future - when she encountered politician Roger Ap Gwilliam in 2046. They see him announcing the creation of a national DNA database. The Doctor realises that they can use this to check Ruby's DNA.

They travel to the Department of Health in 2046 and a blood sample is taken from Ruby which should provide the identity of her mother. Sutekh has been monitoring all of this through Mel, and he now orders her to bring the Memory TARDIS to him.

Mel transforms into one of Sutekh's servants and Harriet brings them all back to UNIT HQ. Here, the Doctor tells Sutekh that he now knows the name of Ruby's mother. He tries to bargain with him, even promising to worship him. Ruby then steps forward to say that she will reveal the name if Sutekh frees the Doctor. She will give him the name, which is recorded on a tablet screen. Sutekh climbs down from the TARDIS. Just as she is about to hand it over, Ruby drops and smashes the screen. It has all been a diversion, giving the Doctor time to uncoil a length of "intelligent rope" which he has taken from the Memory TARDIS. He uses this to ensnare Sutekh then takes to the real TARDIS with Ruby. He had known that Mel was possessed for some time due to her lack of empathy, and so had prepared this trap for Sutekh. The being is then dragged through the Vortex at the end of the rope, the Doctor arguing that if you bring death to death then the outcome is life. Life is restored to the Universe as they travel.

Once completed, Sutekh is cast adrift to disintegrate in the Vortex.

The TARDIS then returns to UNIT HQ in 2024. Susan Triad is there, now a normal human being with only the memories of this particular version of her - brought properly into being by Sutekh's demise. With her great technical knowledge, Kate offers her a role with UNIT.

Morris is able to use Ruby's DNA sample to find out the identity of her mother. She is Louise Alison Miller, a 35 year old nurse from Coventry. She had fallen pregnant at 15 with a troublesome teenage boyfriend, and this is why she had elected to abandon the baby at the church on Ruby Road. The reason for the hooded woman pointing in the Time Window reconstruction was to indicate the street name, and nothing to do with the TARDIS.

Some time later, Ruby has decided to go and see her mother and the Doctor transports her to Coventry in the TARDIS. Ruby elects to speak to Louise and reveal who she is. The pair are reconciled, and soon after Louise is making friends with Ruby's foster family as well. They all meet up at Christmas at Carla's home.

Ruby then decides to give up travelling with the Doctor to concentrate on family.

Neighbour Mrs Flood is on the roof of the building, and comments that only one chapter of Ruby's story is over - and greater terror awaits...

The Legend of Ruby Song and Empire of Death were written by Russell T Davies, and were first broadcast on Saturdays 14th and 21st of June, 2024.

They form the two part finale to Series 14, bringing to a close the first full seasons for Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Davies as returning showrunner. It also marks the end of Millie Gibson's run as a full-time companion, though Ruby will guest in some episodes of the next series. The story also sees the proper return of a classic companion in Mel, after her cameo in The Power of the Doctor as one of the companion support group.

The mystery of Mrs Flood, who knows what a TARDIS is and can seemingly communicate directly with the audience, is prolonged, whilst a popular villain from the classic series returns - only to be badly mishandled.

It's not a bad first half, but the pay-off is atrocious...

Sutekh was created by Robert Holmes after he took over the writing of what would become Pyramids of Mars from Lewis Griefer. An inhabitant of Phaester Osiris, Sutekh had decided to wage war against all living things and embarked on a crusade to achieve this with a band of zealous followers. The other Osirans, under the leadership of Horus, tracked him down on Earth - in ancient Egypt, where the animal headed aliens had been taken for gods. Sutekh himself had the head of a jackal. Unable to kill him, as that would make them no better than he, Horus elected to imprison Sutekh in an underground chamber, held immobile by a forcefield generated from a complex on the planet Mars.

His escape in 1911 coincided with the arrival of the Doctor, in his fourth incarnation, and Sarah Jane Smith. On gaining his freedom, the Doctor had trapped him in a time corridor, shifting the exit point so far into the future that he aged to death before he could ever reach it.

So Sutekh was simply a mortal, though long-lived, alien, who was killed whilst trapped in a time tunnel. Whilst the superstitious Egyptians believed him a god, he wasn't one. He just had some superior mental powers. Physically, he was humanoid but with a jackal-like head mostly concealed beneath a helmet. 
Rather than employ a mask to cover the actor's head, the production team opted to use a model head on a mannequin body, to give him a more alien appearance.

The new Sutekh is a massive CGI entity who looks more canine than humanoid, and has gained extra eyes. We are led to believe that he somehow escaped the time corridor - despite what was seen on screen in 1975 - and managed to hitch a ride on the outside of the TARDIS - a feat achieved, presumably, by suddenly managing to make himself invisible.

We are then compelled to accept that he has been hanging on to the TARDIS from Part Four of Pyramids of Mars throughout every single story up to this point... Instead of merely being thought to be a god, he somehow now is a god.

I've always argued that if you are going to bring something back in Doctor Who, then you should bring it back - i.e. as the thing that you actually liked and thought worth bringing back. If you plan to change it too much, why not just create something new? There should always be good reason for bringing anything back, not just ticking a nostalgia box. Sutekh was a fantastic stand-alone villain, in an era of the show that featured many other memorable foes. He should have stayed that way, as RTD2's story does nothing positive to add to the mythos - only to diminish it.

And the CGI's rubbish as well.

The other big disappointment about Empire of Death is the wrapping up of the Ruby's Mother story arc. Fan speculation ran wild on this, with many believing her to be the Doctor's granddaughter - even though RTD2 was attempting to steer them towards Triad for this. Even though no-one could agree who she might be, everyone felt that the character had to be significant and there had to be a pay-off.

But then it turns out she was just a normal teenage human. Nothing wrong with that, but to build up a mystery in the way that this season had done, the audience expected better. It's an anti-climax, and the end of the episode is dragged out to incorporate it. Looking back now, I don't feel the whole snow-falling business was ever properly explained, especially if neither Ruby nor her mother where anything special.

One further issue was Gibson's departure. Unfortunately, the shortness of this season, including a companion-lite episode, meant that we never really got to know Ruby and so never quite invested in her emotionally. Also, fans are becoming increasingly bored with companions who are defined purely by some big secret. They long for the days when the companion was simply an ordinary person like them, given the opportunity to embark on extraordinary adventures.

Fans were also looking to have Mrs Flood explained, but that was at least held back for a later date.

The only pay-off we got was Sutekh - and that was disappointing.

My criticism of this story is mostly reserved - deservedly - for the second half and I did like The Legend of Ruby Sunday, especially the whole "Sue-Tech" reveal, but even it had problems. I simply do not like what they have done with UNIT nowadays. Any notion that this might be a realistic scientific-military organisation of the 2020's is totally out the (Time)window. We have yet another scientific adviser who comes and goes and never gets another mention. What is the point of the Vlinxx? Even more pointless, what was Rose Noble doing in this? Things will get much worse when they are able to knock up a Zero Room in half an hour, but the rot is evident here.

Then there's the return of Mel - one of the positives, as the character was so badly developed back in the 1980's. Bonnie Langford always was a much better actress than people gave her credit for, and it's great that she gets to play a significant role here. If there's a problem, it's a minor one - the lack of any proper explanation as to how she got back to Earth in the present day.

Another positive is Susan Twist as Triad. Not only do we get an explanation for the recurring characters looking like her, but she is also well integrated into the story and delivers an engaging performance as both the likeable Susan and the evil "angel of death" version. That make-up is very good - which makes the use of CGI for Sutekh all the more frustrating.

Gabriel Woolf at least gets to voice the character once again, after originating him in Pyramids of Mars. He had, of course, already bridged the two iterations of the series by voicing the Beast in The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit.

Anita Dobson features only briefly as Mrs Flood - her mystery reserved for another time - and the story concludes with her once again breaking the fourth wall, dressed in white furs and holding a parasol on a rooftop. Fans had speculated about her as well - and this time they would be correct.

The latest scientific adviser is Morris Gibbons, played by Lenny Rush. He had been due to voice Space Baby Eric but the production team thought he deserved a much better role, and one on screen.

The only other new characters whom we haven't seen before are Ruby's birth mother Louise, played by Faye McKeever, and Harriet Arbinger, played by Genesis Lynea.

McKeever appeared in Sky One supermarket comedy Trollied, as well as real life crime drama serials Des (which starred David Tennant) and Little Boy Blue.

Lynea has appeared in Casualty and Silent Witness, but on stage she originated the role of Anne of Cleves in the musical Six, based around the wives of Henry VIII.

Overall, it gets off to a good start but begins to go off the rails the instant you see that Sutekh now looks like a big computer-animated dog...

Things you might like to know:

• The appearance of the Memory TARDIS would clearly be an attempt to canonise the Tales from the TARDIS, which first appeared for the 60th Anniversary as a framing device to get old companion actors to reprise their roles and introduce one of their classic era stories - a way to repackage repeats, basically.
• Apparently RTD2 was inspired to make Ruby's mother an ordinary human after watching The Last Jedi. And look how that turned out...
• Mel was originally to have perished with all the other UNIT characters at the start of the second episode.
• The Doctor claims never to have seen Susan since the day he left her behind in 22nd Century London. How that fits with all that spin-off material is anyone's guess - and what about The Five Doctors?
• He also claims to be able to recognise another Time Lord simply by looking into their eyes - even though he failed to recognise Missy and "O" as incarnations of the Master.
• Triad's little dance as she came on stage was a reference to one given by PM Theresa May during the 2018 Conservative Party conference.
• Other versions of Triad were to have featured in a longer pre-credits sequence, including one involving Zarbi.
• The Memory TARDIS was to have vanished once the Doctor regained his real one, but RTD2 decided to keep it for potential future appearances.
• Bonnie Langford's reaction to the Sixth Doctor's coat was a genuine one, as the actress recalled her time working on the show with Colin Baker.
• Some fans thought Mrs Flood might be Romana, purely because the final wintry outfit hinted at the one she had worn on the planet Ribos.
• Bizarrely, RTD2 introduces the concept that a Time Lord can have a grandchild before they have a child, being "non-linear" beings.
• But then he also came up with the concept of "the death of death means life" as a means of hitting his boringly predictable big reset button, and "intelligent rope" just to add to the cop-out ending.
• Finally, a good cartoon is worth repeating:

What's Wrong With... Remembrance of the Daleks

After the most popular story of Season 24, we get the most popular of Season 25, and some would argue the best of all the McCoy stories.

It tries to tie in with the earliest history of the series, but in doing so it creates problems.

The story is set in the Coal Hill district of Shoreditch in 1963, a short time after the events of An Unearthly Child. The Doctor has left the Hand of Omega there, secreted at a local funeral parlour, in the expectation that the Daleks will come looking for it, use it without fully understanding it, and destroy themselves. 

Two of the settings are the junkyard and the school, both if which featured in the opening episode back on 23rd November 1963.

Ace even finds a book about the French Revolution in the science lab.

Trouble is, none of this really matches with that original episode, or with the first Dalek story. 

We never saw the school exterior in An Unearthly Child, but what we did see was pupils wearing their own clothes. Here we only see pupils in school uniform, with one wearing jeans - which I don't think would be acceptable in 1963.

The junkyard is nothing of the sort - clearly recorded in a builders merchant yard which is something different entirely. The gates, as is well known, have the wrong spelling of "Foreman" on them. Apparently they were originally painted with the right spelling, but this was changed. (You'll note that this looks nothing like the yard we saw in Attack of the Cybermen either).

The biggest issue is with the idea that the Doctor took the Hand of Omega with him when he and Susan left Gallifrey - and he was already plotting the destruction of the Daleks even then.

It is pretty clear from The Daleks that the Doctor hasn't encountered the creatures before, and thinks he has seen their extinction by the end of that story anyway. 

We were always led to believe, also, that he was nothing special amongst Time Lords when he elected to steal the TARDIS and run away from home with his granddaughter. That he had access to an immensely powerful stellar manipulator device, which no-one seemed to ask for back in any of his subsequent encounters with his own people, just doesn't make sense. It might fit with Cartmel's alleged "masterplan" but bears little relation to anything we saw previously. Both The War Games and The Deadly Assassin would have played out differently if he was some sort of Super Time Lord who could be trusted with such powerful devices.

What exactly is Davros' plan? The Hand detonates suns, providing an immense power source. That's fine, but I'm pretty sure the Gallifreyans never detonated their own sun, in their own backyard.

And just having that power doesn't necessarily lead to mastery over time travel. I'm sure there was a bit more to it than that. Has he done all the other things which Omega and Rassilon had set up back home which would harness that power?

It might have been a smarter idea if Davros had perhaps tested the device somewhere safer first. Why not detonate the Earth's sun as a test, and get rid of the human race - and the Doctor into the bargain?

The book Ace finds cannot be the one Barbara gave to Susan, as that was with her in the TARDIS when it left the junkyard. It doesn't look the same anyway. Neither does the room Ace finds it in, if this is supposed to be Ian Chesterton's science lab.

The other issue everyone notices is the TV scene. We hear an announcer state that a new science fiction series is about to begin, but it's 5.15pm and it's broad daylight outside - impossible for November.

Also, Ace has only just had breakfast and we get a lot more subsequent scenes - again in daylight.

You don't have to look too closely to see modern 1980's buildings in the background of a few shots.

It is evident that the Dalek shuttle had landed in the playground before - we see the scorch marks on the ground. But none of the neighbours seem to have noticed this. When we see it land, it blows in all the classroom windows. The janitor must have done a very good job of repairing all the windows the last time the shuttle landed.

Why does the Doctor get everyone to make the hazardous slide down the rope into the shuttle when they could simply have walked down the stairs?

The transmat has a Dalek on guard, but it takes ages to show itself when the Doctor and Ace first go down to the basement.

Why pick the school as a base in the first place, when it's during term time and therefore in constant use Monday to Friday?

Finally, the Daleks wobble badly when out of location, and whilst we can imagine a blind vicar failing to realise that the Hand is floating by itself, it's hard to believe no-one else noticed this as it is transported through public thoroughfares between the funeral parlour and the cemetery, and all before Group Captain Gilmore has the district evacuated.

Episode 195: The Web of Fear (4)

Synopsis:

Professor Travers has found the body of Private Weams, smothered in web, and beside it one of the small Yeti models. One of the robots suddenly looms out of the shadows and attacks him...

Anne rushes to help but is thrown aside by the Yeti, which then drags the unconscious professor from the fortress. 

The Doctor has been reunited with Jamie and Victoria, who are accompanied by Driver Evans. He is concerned that Chorley is going to try to steal the TARDIS. They make for Covent Garden where it was left, only to find the way blocked by a mass of the fungus-like web. The Doctor decides to take a sample of the substance, which he deposits in Evans' tobacco tin.

In the tunnels, Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart and Staff Sergeant Arnold meet up with Captain Knight's party. They have separately been trying to get to Holborn but have found more web blocking their route. They decide to join forces and try to reach the station using another line.

They then come upon the Doctor's party, and on hearing that they have also encountered the web they decide to retreat to the fortress where the Doctor plans to show the web sample to Travers.

They arrive to find the doors open and soldiers dead, smothered in web.

Anne recovers and tells them of the Yeti attack, and they learn of her father's abduction.

The Colonel is informed that the Doctor and his companions were absent during the attack as they were hunting for Chorley. He fails to recall Evans from the ambushed convoy.

Corporal Blake then reports that the web is on the move again, slowly closing in on their location.

Thoughts turn to who among them might be working against them, and the Colonel enquires if it may have been Travers. Chorley is another obvious suspect, whilst the Doctor has quietly noted the Colonel's failure to recognise Evans.

He tells the Colonel about the Great Intelligence which is behind the Yeti and the web, and how it attempted to ensnare the TARDIS. On learning of the ship, the Colonel asks if it could be used to take them all to safety.

The Doctor leaves to check on Anne and to resume her father's work - seeking a means of blocking the Yeti control signals - whilst the Colonel notifies Knight that he intends to retrieve the TARDIS. The captain is dismissive that such a craft could exist, but Lethbridge-Stewart seems to believe the Doctor's story.

The Doctor is impressed with Anne's work, and offers to help finish it. Evans appears and hands the Doctor one of the small Yeti models, saying he found it beside the body of Private Weams. The Doctor is shocked as he knows these are being used as homing devices for the robots - and the driver has just given it to him. They then discover that the other models have disappeared.

The Colonel has formulated a hazardous plan which will entail going up to street level at Covent Garden. Arnold will lead a second party through the tunnels with a trolley on which to place the TARDIS, using respirators to try to get through any web they encounter.

Knight will stay behind to protect the civilians.

The Doctor decides to examine the sample of web with Anne - only to find that the tobacco tin is empty, casting further suspicion on Evans. He, meanwhile, will be joining the TARDIS recovery mission in Arnold's party, much against his will.

The Doctor realises that he will need some electronic spares if he is to complete Anne's signal blocking device. He and Knight will also have to go up to street level to obtain this from a shop. 

Anne, Jamie and Victoria will need to lock themselves in the fortress until their return.

Arnold's party are heading through the tunnels with the trolley. Donning their respirators, Arnold and Corporal Lane enter the mass of web, whilst Evans plays out a safety rope behind them. On hearing screams, Evans pulls the trolley back - only to find Lane dead and Arnold missing.

The Colonel and his party are moving through the market area when they find a party of Yeti waiting for them. A fierce battle ensues, in which Blake is killed along with the rest of the soldiers - leaving the Colonel the sole survivor.

In a shop nearby the Doctor is gathering equipment when another Yeti appears. It kills Captain Knight. As soon as it leaves, the Doctor finds one of the missing Yeti models in the soldier's pocket. He hurries back to the fortress, where Evans has returned alone.

The Colonel turns up soon after, distraught at losing so many men. On hearing of the ambush, the Doctor has him search his pockets and they find the other Yeti model.

The doors suddenly burst open and a pair of Yeti enter.

Everyone is horrified to see Travers appear between them - possessed by the Great Intelligence...

Data:

Written by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln

Recorded: Saturday 3rd February 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 24th February 1968

Ratings: 8.4 million / AI 53

VFX: Ron Oates

Designer: David Myerscough-Jones

Director: Douglas Camfield

Critique:

The draft script had a wounded Corporal Blake urge the Colonel to make his escape after the battle in Covent Garden, staying behind to give him a chance to get away.

After rather stupidly telling Chorley about the TARDIS last week, Victoria was going to tell Evans about it in this episode. To save reusing the fortress entrance set, a scene with the Colonel and Blake preparing to lead their party to street level was dropped.

It had originally been hoped that filming outside Covent Garden station might take place on Sunday 17th December, showing the Colonel and his men assembling, but this was dropped when it became clear that London Transport would only allow work on their premises for too high a fee.

Instead other locations around Covent Garden would be used on what would be the main location filming day - covering the big battle sequences between the soldiers and the Yeti. 

All four of the creatures would be required, and it was discovered that the costumes - though made sleeker than the original ones seen in The Abominable Snowmen - were still very restrictive for the performers. It had been hoped that they would be able to pick up the soldiers and throw them about, but this proved impossible.

Whilst he looked forward to seeing the Yeti in action in the darkened tunnel sets, Camfield found them rather dull to shoot in broad daylight.

The main location venue was the yard of TJ Poupart, off Shelton Street in Old Covent Garden. This lies to the north of the Underground station and runs from Monmouth Street in a north-westerly direction to Drury Lane. Some filming took place at the junction of Shelton and Neal Streets, with the Yeti performers being filmed from different directions to suggest greater numbers.

Filming on a Sunday morning, commencing at 8.30am and in an enclosed yard, reduced the risk of interruptions from the general public.

Dialogue had explained that the deadly fog covering London was confined to a ring around the city centre, to explain why the location was mist-free.

Only Nicholas Courtney and Richardson Morgan (Corporal Blake) were required of the guest cast, so this marks the first occasion on which Courtney portrayed Lethbridge-Stewart - the character who would make him famous. It was also the first occasion on which he worked alongside John Levene, who was playing one of the Yeti.

Even though he wasn't featuring in these scenes, the location was attended by Frazer Hines. He and Levene would later share the anecdote that an impromptu ballroom dance competition was held between them, with his Yeti having a number on its back as on the popular Come Dancing TV series.

A number of the HAVOC stunt team were on hand to play soldiers, including Derek Ware, Tim Condren and Derek Martin. Actor Bernard G High, playing one of the troops, was due to participate in the location filming but had to drop out. He appears in studio in other episodes, and will later play a UNIT corporal in Terror of the Zygons, so was presumably another of Camfield's repertory of actors.

Unfortunately, filming in December meant little daylight and Camfield was disappointed not to capture all the action he had hoped for.

A photographer from The Daily Mirror was on hand to capture images of the Yeti in the street, including posing with a passing dog-walker.

A small amount of filming also took place on Wednesday 20th December on the backlot at Ealing Studios, of a scene involving the Colonel, Blake and one of their men in an alleyway.

Camfield was then able to complete his action scenes back at TJ Poupart on Sunday 14th January.

This episode went into studio shortly after the broadcast of the opening instalment. Two of the Yeti were required on the night - played by John Lord and Gordon Stothard.

It was light work for Jack Watling as he was only required for a reprise of the previous week's cliff-hanger, which was re-enacted, and then Travers' reappearance at the conclusion.

The first recording break took place immediately following the re-enactment, to allow Watling and the Yeti to move from the ops room set to the corridor. Watling adopted a rasping voice for when possessed by the Great Intelligence, recalling Wolfe Morris's performance as Padmasambhava in the previous Yeti story.

The body of Private Weams was never shown properly, to avoid having to rehire Stephen Whittaker.

For the sequence in which the Doctor procures a sample of the fungus, latex webbing was hung across the set and the stock footage of cells dividing, used for end credit sequences, was superimposed over the shot.

This was also used over the scene where Arnold and Lane pass into the web with the trolley. A second recording break allowed for the bodies of the soldiers to be covered in the latex webbing. Another allowed for Rod Beacham, as Corporal Lane, to be covered in the substance. Other breaks were for cast movements from set to set.

A distinctive piece of music was used for the start of the Covent Garden battle sequence - Space Adventure Part 2, by Martin Slavin. This piece of library music had become synonymous with the Cybermen, having been used by Morris Barry in both The Moonbase and The Tomb of the Cybermen for their appearances.

The day after recording, the regular cast travelled down to Margate for two days of location filming for the next story, still titled "Colony of Devils" at this point.

With the death of Corporal Lane in the tunnels, all of the named soldiers we first met in the opening instalment have now been killed apart from Staff Sergeant Arnold, who is missing, presumed dead. Craftsman Weams bought it in the previous episode, and now Captain Knight and Corporal Blake have perished. We've gotten to know and like these characters - especially Knight - and this would have been quite shocking at the time. It's a while since we've had such a high death count amongst the non-villain guest characters.

It is this darkness - both literal (gloomy tunnels and fortress sets) and figurative (death and paranoia) - which leads many to regard this story as one of the very best of the Troughton era.

For only the second time in the series we have a major pitched battle between soldiers and monsters - and yet again it takes place in the environs of Covent Garden (the other occasion being the confrontation with The War Machines).

The whole "who is the agent of the Great Intelligence" plot strand is further developed, with an increasing list of suspects. The Doctor remains unsure about the Colonel, who can't recall Evans and who is quick to believe the Doctor's story about the TARDIS - as though he already knew it existed and wanted it for himself? He's the only survivor from the battle as well.

Or perhaps he can't recall Evans because the driver was never there at Holborn... Evans also hands the Doctor one of the Yeti models, which mark people for death, and the fungus sample goes missing from his tobacco tin. Evans is also the only person to return unscathed from a mission.

Chorley doesn't appear at all this week, but he's another obvious suspect anyway - someone else who is looking for the TARDIS.

We see Lane killed by the web, but Arnold simply disappears - the man who seemed to know that the Yeti hadn't caught or killed the Doctor in Episode 2. And now this week we have the Colonel suspecting Travers. Has he been abducted, or has he been removed from the fortress for some other purpose?

Data: 

• The ratings see a big improvement this week of nearly 1.5 million, and the appreciation figure also rises by a couple of points.
• Had David Langton not pulled out of playing the Colonel, this might have been the second time that Nicholas Courtney's character got killed off in the fourth episode of a story directed by Douglas Camfield.
• This episode was singled out for praise by Huw Wheldon, controller of television programmes, at the BBC's weekly review meeting the following Wednesday. 
• Radio Times had two Doctor Who items this week. The first was a feature on Frazer Hines, which included a photograph taken during the making of the previous Yeti story - a photo they had only used a few weeks before. He was describing the location filming on the story that was to follow...

• Whilst the other was a small item about guest artist Tina Packer and an earlier Dickens adaptation she had appeared in:

The Art of... The Web of Fear

The Web of Fear was novelised by Terrance Dicks and was published in paperback in August 1976. Cover art was by Chris Achilleos, and it was another of his favourite pieces as he liked the way the web motif held the piece together. For the Troughton image he used a photograph from The Three Doctors, whilst the Yeti derives from a location shot of the original Mark I type, with the ribbon of skin added to the midriff. Staff Sergeant Arnold comes from a publicity image of the character, played by Jack Woolgar. 

The beams of light were pure imagination though their glowing eyes do feature in the text, and the artist did like adding effects to help pull the overall image together. 

A close up on just the Doctor with web behind provided the cover for DWM issue 114, which included an interview with Achilleos.

This was the last time that the Second Doctor appeared on a new release until 1993, due to the introduction of the "Current Doctor Only" rule.

The book was reissued in 1983, with artwork by Andrew Skilleter. He also elected to use the light beams from the eyes so probably looked to Achilleos' original art for inspiration. It's clearly another Mark I. A close-up of the TARDIS caught in web in the background was used as cover for the 1986 Doctor Who diary.

A third version followed in December 1993 and the artist this time was Alister Pearson. The Troughton image came from The Mind Robber, and the TARDIS covered in web is direct from a screen capture. The Yeti is a proper Mark II this time, taken from one of the publicity photographs depicting Jamie, Knight and Arnold surrounded the the creatures.

The soundtrack was released as part of the BBC Radio Collection in March 2000, with linking narration provided by Frazer Hines. Only the photo of Anne Travers comes from the story itself. The Yeti shows that the designer had access to other images from the story as it is a passable depiction of the web gun it is holding.

This was later repackaged with The Abominable Snowmen as the "Yeti Attack!" set in July 2003.

The orphan Episode 1 was released on VHS in November, with a photomontage cover. That photo of Arnold which Achilleos had used featured on the back cover. 

It was accompanied by the two surviving instalments of The Faceless Ones and formed part of a box set packaged with the incomplete The Reign of Terror. This release brought the VHS range to an end in the UK as stories were already beginning to be issued in DVD format.

Both tapes were released in the US as part of the 11 tape "End of the Universe" set, which also closed the video range there.

That Yeti is another Mark I type with glowing eyes photoshopped on, and the Troughton image is well known from The Ice Warriors publicity images.

Episode 1 was later released on the "Lost in Time" DVD set (November 2004).

When four of the missing episodes turned up in late 2013, the story was quickly released onto DVD the following February, with cover art by Lee Binding. The still missing Episode 3 was covered by soundtrack and telesnap images but it was otherwise a vanilla release, lacking even a commentary.

There was also a Region 2 limited edition sleeve by the same artist, which came with a free T-shirt.

As the earlier DVD release had been devoid of extras, a Special Edition was released in August 2021 with Lee Binding once again providing the artwork - one of his best single story covers. The missing episode was available in three formats - soundtrack / telesnap as before, colour animation or B&W animation. Of the three stick to the first as the animation is truly abysmal. Terrible likenesses and characters move around so much it can induce motion sickness. You have been warned...

A steelbook was also available, with a web-covered TARDIS oddly parked in a tunnel rather than on a station platform. Atmospheric at least.

The novelisation was released as an audiobook in August 2017, using the Chris Achilleos artwork and read by David Troughton.

And finally, Radio Times produced a movie-style poster to tie in with the rediscovery of the missing episodes in October 2013, designed by Stuart Manning.

P is for... Preslin

When the TARDIS materialised in Paris in the late 1500's the Doctor decided to seek out some of the noted scientists of the era. One of these was Charles Preslin - an apothecary who lived near Port St Martin.

Preslin had investigated germs but his work had drawn condemnation from the Catholic church, including the Abbot of Amboise. He had previously been accused of heresy for his work. He was preparing to flee Paris when the Doctor visited. They spoke for a time and the Doctor told him of a man in Germany who was working on a device which would allow him to observe the germs he studied.

Steven Taylor later went in search of the Doctor but found Preslin's home empty. He went back there later with Anne Chaplet and this time found the Doctor present. On learning that the date was actually August 1572, the Doctor rushed his companion back to the TARDIS - knowing that the massacre of the Huguenots was about to begin. 

Played by: Eric Chitty. Appearances: The Massacre (1966)

• Chitty (1907 - 1977) would return to the series to play Coordinator Engin in The Deadly Assassin.
• He appeared in over 50 films during his 40 year acting career, as well as a great many television programmes.

P is for... President

The UK in the 2000's in a parallel universe was governed by a President rather than a Prime Minister. He was approached by the industrialist John Lumic to approve a new project. This entailed the preservation of the human mind when threatened by death or debilitating illness by transplanting the brain into a new artificial body. Lumic had been perfecting the process in South America, but wished it to be adopted in his homeland. He had a personal stake in this as he was suffering from a terminal illness which had already confined him to a wheelchair with a built-in life-support system. The President met with him and one of his employees - Pete Tyler - onboard his personal airship.

As he suspected, the President rejected the project on ethical grounds - but Lumic had planned to carry on regardless. Tyler's wife Jackie was hosting a birthday party that evening, and the President would be in attendance. Lumic had already carried out a number of transplants, using the conditioned brains of homeless people. In their new armoured bodies these were known as Cybermen.

The Cybermen raided the Tyler mansion during the party. When the President challenged Lumic through one of them, much against the Doctor's advice, he was electrocuted by it.

Played by: Don Warrington. Appearances: Rise of the Cybermen (2006).

• Warrington first came to fame as boarding house lodger Philip in ITV sitcom Rising Damp. This ran between 1974 - 1978, and spawned a cinema outing.
• These days he is better known for playing Police Commissioner Selwyn Patterson in Death in Paradise.
• He was made an MBE in 2008. 
• He took part in Strictly Come Dancing the same year, getting knocked out after three rounds.
• Warrington voiced the Time Lord Rassilon for Big Finish.

P is for... Prentis

A funeral director who was a member of the cowardly Tivolian race. He visited a remote part of Scotland in 1980, transporting the body of the Fisher King for burial there. The Fisher King had conquered Tivoli before finally being overthrown and killed by another invader. However, the creature wasn't dead at all, and had prepared a rescue scheme. A mental message was implanted into people's minds, which caused them to turn into ghostly psychic transmitters after they died. This would summon his supporters to find an free him.

Prentis was the first to die, and his phantom image haunted the Drum 129 years later. This was an underwater mining complex situated at the bottom of the lake which later flooded the valley where his hearse had landed.

All of the "ghosts" were trapped by the Doctor in a Faraday Cage, which UNIT had launched into space where their psychic energy would eventually dissipate.

Played by: Paul Kaye. Appearances: Under the Lake / Before the Flood (2015).

• Writer Toby Whithouse first created the Tivolians for The God Complex, where Gibbis was played by David Walliams.
• Kaye first came to fame by playing the celebrity interviewer Dennis Pennis in The Sunday Show (1995 - 97). 
• His acting credits include roles in Game of Thrones and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
• An early job as a graphic designer involved designing merchandise for a number of football clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur.

P is for... Prem

Prem was the first husband of Yasmin Khan's grandmother Umbreen. They were married in August 1947 in the Punjab - just as the arrangements for the partition of India were being finalised. This saw the creation of Pakistan as the country divided along religious lines. Prem was Hindu, but was marrying a Muslim. His brother Manish zealously supported the Hindu cause, and had already murdered the man who was to have officiated at the wedding. The Doctor stepped in to conduct the ceremony herself. 

Manish killed Prem soon after, believing him a traitor to their faith.

Played by: Shane Zaza. Appearances: Demons of the Punjab (2018)

• Zaza is primarily a theatre performer, but made a rare film appearance in The Da Vinci Code.

P is for... Patanjali, Dr Rupesh

Rupesh Patanjali was a doctor working at Cardiff's St Helen's Hospital who alerted Captain Jack Harkness to a mysterious ailment affecting only elderly Chinese men. Jack found that these were caused by alien parasites known as Hitchhikers.

However, what Jack didn't know was that Patanjali was part of a huge security services cover-up. The alien 456 had re-established contact with the British Government, who had previously employed Jack in the 1950's after a brief initial contact with the creatures. Now that they had returned, anyone associated with the earlier encounter had to be eliminated. Torchwood itself was seen as a threat. 

Patanjali killed a patient who fitted the profile of a Hitchhiker victim, luring Jack to the hospital where the doctor shot and killed him. Before he could come back to life, Patanjali had a powerful bomb implanted in his abdomen. Unaware of this, he returned to the Hub which was destroyed when the device detonated.

His usefulness at an end, and his cover now blown, Patanjali was killed by Johnson - leader of the Government's clean-up squad.

Played by: Rik Makarem. Appearances: Torchwood: Children of Earth (2009)

• In the UK Makarem is best known for a long-running role in soap Emmerdale. He also appeared in Casualty between 2016 - 17.
• More recently he played the title role in the series Jesus: Crown of Thorns.

Episode 194: The Web of Fear (3)

Synopsis:

Jamie and Driver Evans have reached Monument Underground station - unaware that the mass of web is moving inexorably around the Circle Line towards them. They suddenly see it begin to pour from the tunnel mouth towards the platform...

A Yeti emerges, carrying a glowing pyramid, and Jamie urges Evans to shoot it. After a few attempts he succeeds and the creature pauses - but the web continues to flow forward.

Victoria at last comes upon the Doctor in one of the tunnels. He is accompanied by an army officer - Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart. He demands to know where she has come from and when she explains that she has just left the Goodge Street fortress, he asks if she has anything to do with Professor Travers and his daughter. Victoria confirms to the Doctor that this is the man they met in Tibet.

The Colonel instructs them to come with him to the fortress. There, Captain Knight is informed of their arrival.

The Doctor explains to Victoria that the blast at Charing Cross had merely knocked him out for a few moments, after which he had wandered lost in the tunnels until found by the Colonel.

The Colonel informs Knight that he is his new commanding officer, and had been caught up in the ambush at Holborn. Knight is suspicious that Evans hadn't mentioned any other survivors but accepts his authorisation.

Travers then arrives, overjoyed to see the Doctor again. He is able to vouch for him and his companions.

Knight and Lethbridge-Stewart leave the scientists to get on with their work as they head for the laboratory.

There Travers and Anne apologise to Victoria for their earlier suspicions, and all agree that the Great Intelligence tried to bring the TARDIS here for a purpose.

Jamie and Evans, meanwhile, have managed to get onto the Central Line and are approaching St Paul's station.

Having observed the advance on the illuminated map of the Underground, Chorley is beginning to panic that they will soon be trapped here. He asks Staff Sergeant Arnold if there are any exits still free onto street level, and learns that there is only one in the Bloomsbury area.

Travers fills the Doctor in on how he came to reactivate one of the control spheres, which in turn made its way to the Yeti in Silverstein's museum - which the Intelligence would then have homed in on.

Knight appears and informs them all that the Colonel is holding a briefing session in the common room, which will allow everyone to get up to speed on developments.

Aerial photographs are able to show the spread of the dense fog patch covering central London as Lethbridge-Stewart runs through the timetable of events, which now includes the movement of the web through the Underground.

Chorley demands to know about the exit and if a helicopter could pick them up, but the Colonel is dismissive, claiming that the fog is too thick and Yeti roam within it.

Anne informs everyone that she and her father are working on a means to block the control signal to the Yeti. This will mean obtaining more electronic supplies, however.

Chorley plots to flee by himself, asking Private Weams about tall buildings in the area which would allow a helicopter to pick him up. Weams then spots that the web is now moving onto the Central Line, where Jamie has learned that Evans intends on abandoning him at the first opportunity. He tries to escape but finds the way barred, so reluctantly agrees to go with Jamie to the fortress.

The Doctor devises a scheme to hold the web at bay for a time at least, by blowing up the tunnel near the fortress. As the Yeti always smother explosives with their web-guns, it is decided that they should be loaded onto a trolley and detonated whilst on the move.

As everyone is busy, they fail to notice that someone has opened the main doors.

Victoria is examining one of the small Yeti models which the Intelligence used to position the robots, and the Doctor learns from Anne that one of these is missing.

A Yeti enters the fortress and goes to the munitions store.

Corporal Blake notices the broken padlock and the missing model in the corridor and brings them to Knight. He, the Colonel and Arnold go to the store and open the door - to find the room filled with glowing web.

The Doctor points out that they have an enemy in their midst. The Colonel leads the explosives party to the tunnel, leaving Weams behind to guard the others.

Chorley is speaking to Victoria and learns about the TARDIS from her, and that it is currently at Covent Garden. He notes that the Piccadilly Line is web-free. The Doctor appears as he leaves, and is horrified to hear that she told him about the TARDIS - especially when they realise that he has locked them in the common room.

Chorley exits the fortress just as Jamie and Evans arrive, and they free the Doctor and Victoria.

In the lab, Travers and his daughter hear a scream. They find Weams dead, his body smothered in web.

The Professor finds a Yeti model beside the corpse, and is suddenly attacked by one of the creatures...

Data:

Written by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln

Recorded: Saturday 27th January 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.25pm, Saturday 17th February 1968

Ratings: 7 million / AI 51

VFX: Ron Oates

Designer: David Myerscough-Jones

Director: Douglas Camfield

Additional cast: Nicholas Courtney (Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart)

Critique:

Having reached the mid point of the story, this episode takes some time to remind the audience of events to date as Travers tells the Doctor of how the control sphere was reactivated and brought a Yeti robot to life. This is followed almost immediately by the Colonel's briefing, which allows for more backstory to what happened between the scenes in the museum and when we next saw Travers and Anne already established at the fortress.

Interestingly, the briefing includes the fact that the fog first began to emanate out from the area of the Natural History Museum. In the original draft the defunct Yeti had been on display there rather than in a private museum, so it's a throwback to an earlier version of the script.

In the first draft of the story, it wasn't until this episode that Harold Chorley was introduced. He arrived with the Colonel as part of the ambushed convoy, and was a politician charged with fact-finding for the Government rather than a journalist. A scene was also intended showing Jamie and Evans being pursued down a disabled escalator at Monument station.

Three short scenes were deleted before recording, in one of which Travers told Anne that he suspected the Colonel of being the Intelligence's agent.

This episode featured only a small amount of filming - model work depicting the web flowing into the Underground station, as already seen at the conclusion to Episode 2, plus shots of Evans and Jamie being confronted by this, filmed at Ealing on Monday 18th December.

Nicholas Courtney joined rehearsals on Tuesday 23rd February, having already portrayed the Colonel on film for the battle scenes at Covent Garden which would feature in the next instalment. The actor was already a good friend of the director and got on well with Troughton and Hines especially, joining in the games they always played during breaks. Douglas Camfield brought in his guitar to play at these breaks.

Ralph Watson became concerned at the number of notes he was receiving from the director and was worried that he was giving a poor performance - or that Camfield didn't like him. Troughton and Courtney took him aside and explained that their director had hoped to be a soldier and still maintained a very militaristic way of working - and Captain Knight was the character he most identified with. He was therefore giving Knight more attention. Courtney wanted to include some humour into the Colonel, and Hines ribbed him for his false moustache. (The actor wouldn't sport his own moustache as Lethbridge-Stewart until The Five Doctors, 15 years later).

Only a single Yeti was required in studio on the day of recording, played by Jeremy King.

A BBC photographer took several pictures of Jack Watling being attacked by a Yeti, as seen at the conclusion to the instalment.

For the briefing scene some stock aerial photographs of central London were used, which had been touched up by graphic design to show the fog bank. Other photographs were specially taken of certain London landmarks on a quiet Sunday morning - including St Paul's, the Tower of London, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Downing Street. Yeti were superimposed onto some of these, and not all of the photos were seen on screen. The Doctor identified the newly designed robots as "Mark II" Yeti.

The small Yeti models previously seen in The Abominable Snowmen were reused. This time they acted as homing devices, whereas in the earlier serial they had been used simply to move the robots from location to location.

The munitions store was a small set off a corridor, which was dressed with latex web for the conclusion of the episode.

Recording breaks were used to move cast from set to set only, five in total through the evening.

As is well known, Nicholas Courtney was originally cast by Douglas Camfield as Captain Knight in The Web of Fear, and it was actor David Langton (1912 - 1994) who was to portray Colonel Lethbridge. 

Courtney was one of the director's repertory of favoured actors, and he had previously cast him as Space Security agent Bret Vyon in The Daleks' Master Plan - having previously considered him for the role of King Richard in The Crusade, should first choice Julian Glover turn it down.

Camfield had used him on other projects, including the starring role in the thriller Watch The Birdies, in which he played a fashion photographer. (It is now sadly lost).

Langton was best known as a film ad theatre actor at this point in his career, though appearing more and more on the small screen. Shortly before production on the Doctor Who story began, he was offered a role in a TV play and decided to accept.

Camfield then decided to ask Courtney if he wanted to take on the role, which he agreed to as it was a promotion - both in terms of the military rank he would play and because the Colonel was a more prominent character (and survived to the end of the story). Initial concerns that he might be too young to play a Colonel were dismissed as Camfield was thinking of Colin Mitchell - "Mad Mitch" - who had led British forces in Aden in 1967 whilst still in his early 40's. His regiment had been the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and, though born in Croydon, he had a Scottish father. Mitchell was famous for never asking his men to do something he wouldn't do himself. 

Basing the Colonel on Mitchell led to Camfield and Courtney reasoning that Lethbridge would hail from an old Scottish family though educated in England. "Stewart" was added to the surname and his uniform gained a Glengarry cap - just as Mitchell had worn.

Ralph Watson was then brought in to play Knight.

Had Langton not decided to leave the production, the future of Doctor Who might have been very much different. There is no guarantee that he would have wished to reprise the role and another military character would have had to be created for The Invasion - again played by someone who might not have wanted, or been able, to come back for Season 7. We may have had a Brigadier - but not the Brigadier. It's now impossible to think of the character played by anyone other than Nicholas Courtney.

Sadly, the episode in which the Doctor first meets the future Brigadier remains lost to us - at least for now. Philip Morris rediscovered the episodes in Nigeria in 2013, along with all six parts of The Enemy of the World. He claimed that The Web of Fear was also complete when he first viewed the film cannisters - only for Episode 3 to have disappeared by the time he took possession of them. If true, then it would indicate that the thief was someone who knows the programme well and realised the significance of this particular instalment - so either stolen by a fan, or for a fan. Had the TV station simply retained it thinking it more valuable, I think we'd have heard about it by now.

Trivia:

• The ratings see a slight improvement, but only by some 200,000 viewers.
• The series had now returned to its regular slot of 5.25pm. Competition on ITV consisted of Bugs Bunny, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and repeats of swashbuckler Sword of Freedom, a series which had originally run from 1958 - 1961.
• David Langton would go on to find fame as Richard Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs - a series co-created by Jean Marsh who had played Bret Vyon's sister Sara Kingdom under Douglas Camfield, and who would act opposite Courtney again in Battlefield.
• Coincidentally, the Edwardian drama series was set in Eaton Square, London - and this is where Langton himself actually lived.
• At least one of the Yeti control figurines still exists. It was auctioned by Bonhams in December 2013, fetching £8,125.