Inspirations: Hell Bent

Hell Bent closes the ninth series of the revived Doctor Who, and has the main job of trying to tie up various story arc points - and of writing out Clara Oswald as the companion.

The arc this season has been the issue of "the Hybrid" with a number of candidates put forward - the Doctor himself, the Doctor / Clara, Davros, Time Lords / Daleks, Ashildr, Zygon Osgood...

Steven Moffat also wanted the Doctor to return to Gallifrey to explore some of its mythos - including that of regeneration. He would arrive there as a man out of control - out for revenge for what the Time Lords had done to him in the previous episode, and for what had happened to Clara, even though she had died through her own misadventure and had specifically asked him not to hold anyone but herself responsible for her fate.

One inspiration Moffat had for the Doctor at this time was the character Shane, as played by Alan Ladd in the 1953 Western.

This in turn inspired the director to give the opening sequences at the barn-like building (first seen in The Day of the Doctor and later shown to be a childhood haunt of the young Doctor in Listen) a Spaghetti Western feel.

As well as these elements, Moffat also wanted to conclude Ashildr's story - showing her still living at the end of the universe and therefore older, and somewhat wiser, than the Doctor himself - someone whom he would now listen to.

When it came to looking at regeneration, Moffat had noted that a number of Time Lords had properly died after being fatally injured instead of regenerating, such as the War Chief, Morbius and incidental characters in The Deadly Assassin and Arc of Infinity.

Moffat wrote a sequence in which the Doctor would deliberately 'kill' a Time Lord - though first checking that they were not in their final incarnation. This scene is contentious to say the least, as the Doctor is (a) seen to wield a gun and (b) has zero justification for shooting the General - who regenerates into female form (and a different ethnicity), and who suggests that they have usually been female throughout their existence.

The General, as played by Ken Bones, had been introduced in The Day of the Doctor.

Ohila of the Sisterhood of Karn appears on Gallifrey, having been seen earlier in the opening episode of the series, but first introduced in the 50th Anniversary prequel mini-episode Night of the Doctor. 

The Brain of Morbius had previously stated that Karn was in the same region of space as Gallifrey and there were ancient ties between the Sisterhood and the Time Lords. (Though for her to be here, when Gallifrey is time-locked in a pocket universe at the end of Time, she must have been there on the last day of the Time War - except she's on Karn in The Magician's Apprentice...).

Rassilon also returns, though in regenerated form. (Timothy Dalton was busy making Penny Dreadful in Ireland at the time and unavailable to reprise the role so it went to Donald Sumpter, who had previously appeared in The Wheel in Space, The Sea Devils and SJA: The Eternity Trap).

After banishing Rassilon,  the Doctor assumes the Presidency of the High Council of Time Lords - a role he previously adopted in The Invasion of Time, and which was offered to him again in The Five Doctors. By Trial of a Time Lord we learned that he had been deposed, though the Inquisitor offered the role to him once again - only for him to suggest she take it up herself.

Moffat wanted the original TARDIS console room design to be seen at some stage in the story. One had been recreated for the 2013 drama An Adventure in Space and Time, and this was currently on display at the Doctor Who Experience a short distance from the BBC studios. With the Doctor arriving on Gallifrey via the confession dial, leaving his own TARDIS behind, it was easy enough for a different one to be included as he would require it to get back to his own, left behind in present day London.

The implication is that this is the default interior design for all TARDISes. 

This one has a white console, whereas the Doctor's was seen to be pale green in the Pertwee era, however. (Painted this colour to appear white in B&W of course).

That TARDISes appear to be metal cylinders in outward appearance matches the scene in The Name of the Doctor where we saw the Doctor and Susan first steal the ship. The ones seen in Part 10 of The War Games were more box-like, as was the Master's in The Claws of Axos.

Moffat's decision on Clara's ultimate fate was that she would become a traveller in space and time just like the Doctor whom she sought to emulate - and so this TARDIS could then be given to her.

Moffat never intended Clara to stay dead - a trope of his going back to the many deaths of Rory Williams. (Unfortunately this simply undermines the conclusion to Face The Raven and much of Heaven Sent, which is why so many fans dislike the episode).

The diner is the same one seen in The Impossible Astronaut - really a venue located on Cardiff Bay - with its distinctive Elvis painting on the restroom door.

Making cameo appearances are a Dalek, Cyberman and Weeping Angel in the Cloisters, plus one of the Cherub angels introduced in The Angels Take Manhattan.

Next time: four weddings, but no funeral...

The Twin Dilemma & Extras Discs (S21 - The Collection)

The Twin Dilemma:

The last of the story discs is number 8, and this features Colin Baker's debut.

Often voted the worst story ever (though I'd argue there have been some right old clunkers recently), one of its problems is that it came the very next week after the story usually voted best.

This is the only story of the entire set not to have any new VFX as an option, either new or legacy, but it does finally get a Making-Of documentary. The DVD only really had a costume featurette (the one where they replaced Baker's costume with a dark suit, just to show what the actor himself wanted - though a darker Doctor in a black suit might have been just a little too close to the Master). 

Regarding the clown suit, it's interesting that the Doctor himself actually acknowledges that he no longer has any dress sense - so you'd think that they would have seen sense themselves and changed it for Season 22 (and certainly for Season 23).

Some of the model shots - the freighter and the surface of Titan 3 are rather good - and video effects are okay, which is why they probably thought it not worth commissioning new VFX.

The main issues with The Twin Dilemma are the variable acting on show, the presentation / character of the new Doctor, and the gaudy sets and costumes. It's the end of season, so the money has run out and that might go towards explaining some of the production values problems. Peter Moffatt's rather bland direction is another issue.

Watching it again last night - first time in a long time - I actually thought that the twins did a reasonable job considering they weren't really actors. They'd only done a stage version of Oliver! before this.

Performances such as Helen Blatch's - an experienced actor - are worse, though she's a victim of the material she has been given. (The story might be credited to Anthony Steven but the second half is basically Eric Saward's).

Edwin Richfield is totally wasted as Mestor. They could have simply employed him for his voice and had an extra play the Gastropod itself.

The biggest issue is the Doctor, of course. In hindsight it was certainly a mistake to launch the new Doctor at the end of a season when you are going to present him as a bit psychotic - murderous, manic, or cowardly in turns. When he says "I am the Doctor... whether you like it or not", it comes across more as a threat to the audience than a reassurance. Leaving this performance in the audience's minds for 9 months was a mistake, which even JNT finally acknowledged.

The documentary is very good. Presented by Toby Hadoke it interviews cast and crew, including Kevin McNally and Colin Baker at a pub near one of the quarry locations (which Baker claims is where his rubbish now goes - I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere...).

It starts by acknowledging the story's poor reputation, but I think you may have a little bit more respect for it after watching this. The Conrad twins and Noma actor Barry Stanton are amongst the interviewees. The latter has never watched it, and is quite impressed by Azmael's death scene when Hadoke shows it to him.

For Behind the Sofa, the guest viewers are Paul and Andrew, the titular twins (Gavin changed his name). They join Baker, Langford and Bryant. 

Janet Fielding is very critical of the new Doctor's behaviour. Davison has mock annoyance at seeing Baker in his costume, and jokingly stomps off the set, leaving the others to carry on watching without him.

The rest of the disc is TV spots, and quite a mixed bag. Not just Baker items but Jon Pertwee on Pebble Mill at One and Mat Irvine on Saturday Superstore (visiting London's Science Museum with K-9).

Discs 9 & 10:

Considering that the special edition could surely have fitted onto the Planet of Fire disc, I'm not entirely sure why they felt the need to have two discs of extras. As well as that SE, Disc 9 has two of those dreadful Escape Room features - one each for the Fifth and Sixth Doctors. Other than that there is a 2013 Fifth Doctor overview and Matthew Sweet in conversation with Matthew Waterhouse. 

The fact that this appears on this set, as does the Earthshock Tales from the Tardis, gives the extras a bit of a Davison era leftovers feel.

Waterhouse does actually talk quite a bit about Doctor Who in his interview. We also hear about how he got into acting in the first place, his experience of conventions, theatre, working in New England, and moving into writing. Can't say I buy his interpretation of the exploding console scene in his final episode.

The only other big new extra is the latest road trip with Davison, Sutton and Fielding. Or rather, boat trip, as they take to the River Wey to journey to the studio to do a Behind the Sofa. Mark Strickson was supposed to be involved as well, but had to drop out.

This isn't a straightforward travelogue, as they have elected to employ elements of earlier extras - cooking from the Doctor Who Cookbook, and dining at the Doctor's Table (joined by Colin Baker). 

These were extras in their own right on other sets - so it feels like a bit of a jumble. The travel section I was fine with - the scenery is lovely - but the cooking session and the restaurant bit I could have done without.

How you take these all depends on how much you like the Davison / Fielding double act.

Last, but certainly not least, on Disc 10 we have the 50th Anniversary's wonderful The Fiveish Doctors, which comes with optional commentary. Great seeing this again.

Episode 201: Fury From The Deep (4)

Synopsis:

Watched by Robson, Maggie Harris - infected by the seaweed creature - walks into the sea until she disappears beneath the waves... 

In the control room, Price informs Van Lutyens that they have now lost contact with a third rig - Rig A. As a technical adviser only, the Dutchman informs the Doctor that only Harris can send someone out to the rigs to find out what is happening there.

The Chief Engineer and his technicians continue to hear the heartbeat sound emanating from the impeller shaft.

As Jamie sleeps in a crew cabin, Victoria speaks with the Doctor about her unhappiness at their hazardous lifestyle - recalling some of the monsters they have faced together.

Harris is searching everywhere for his missing wife and finds Robson on the beach. Asking him if he has seen her, he merely replies that Harris will see her again very soon before walking away.

Van Lutyens informs the Doctor that he is going to go down into the impeller shaft alone to see what is blocking it - much against the Doctor's advice. He dons an oxygen mask and mounts a moving platform which will take him down the shaft. It is operated by Oak and Quill.

At the base of the shaft is a hatch leading to a pipe, which Van Lutyens opens. Below, he sees a mass of foam which begins to surge upwards towards him. He lets out a cry as he is swallowed up by it, tendrils of weed dragging him down into the pipe.

The lift platform comes up empty. The Doctor realises that he must go down himself to find Van Lutyens and confront whatever is down there - and the reluctant Jamie will accompany him.

Price informs Harris that Megan Jones has arrived at reception. She is the Director of ESGO in the UK and Robson's boss - as well as being an old friend of his. With her is her personal assistant Perkins.

The Chief is appalled to learn from Victoria that the Doctor and Jamie have followed Van Lutyens down into the shaft. Harris arrives and orders the platform be raised - but Oak claims that it is too late to stop it.

Jones and Perkins discuss the reasons for their being called here, and she is sure it is simply a clash of personalities between Robson and Harris.

When Harris and the Chief inform her of the seaweed creatures she is dismissive. She doesn't wish to take the word of the strangers who recently arrived and thinks Harris is simply upset about his wife's illness. When he tells her about the loss of communications with the rigs, she authorises a helicopter to go out and check on them.

Oak and Quill were ordered to bring the platform up as soon as the Doctor signalled, but have left the room unattended. The Doctor and Jamie find no trace of Van Lutyens and see the foam and weed rise towards them, but the alarm bell goes unheeded. They are forced to clamber up the maintenance ladder as the weed reaches out for them.

They are alarmed to find the room above empty as they emerge from the shaft, with no sign of Victoria.

They split up to look for her.

The helicopter pilot reports that the rigs are covered in foam and weed. Harris insists that they be destroyed but Jones and Perkins won't hear of such drastic measures. Robson suddenly appears and demands that the rigs are his and must be left alone. It is clear that he is mentally unbalanced. He runs off again.

The Doctor arrives and tells everyone of Van Lutyens' disappearance, and he suspects that Robson is now under the control of the weed creature.

Harris points out to Jones that the Doctor has been right about things so far, and she agrees to listen to him.

He explains that the weed is a parasite which gets its intelligence from the human brain - from the people it possesses - and they have no idea how many others are affected. The weed is forming a colony, using the rigs as a base.

Price then reports contact with Baxter on the Control Rig, and they hear him call for help as they are being invaded by the weed.

Jamie finds Victoria lying unconscious in the pipeline room, locked in by Oak and Quill.

Worried that she is dead, he finds the key and enters. She wakes in time to hear his concern for her. She tells him about the two technicians.

They then hear the heartbeat sound and look to the transparent section of pipe, seeing it full of foam and weed.

The Doctor is warning the others that the weed might spread out to consume the entire country when Jamie arrives to tell them about the pipe.

They go to the pipeline room to see for themselves.

"It's begun", states the Doctor. "The battle of the giants...".

Data:

Written by Victor Pemberton

Recorded: Saturday 16th March 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 6th April 1968

Ratings: 6.6 million / AI 56

VFX: Peter Day

Designer: Peter Kindred

Director: Hugh David

Additional cast: Margaret John (Megan Jones), Brian Cullingford (Perkins)

Critique:

As previously mentioned, Victor Pemberton was not happy at some of the changes which Derrick Sherwin made to his story. He disliked the way in which Oak and Quill were made less sinister, but he was especially annoyed at the changes made to this and the fifth episode, for the Story Editor got rid of an entire subplot which bridged the two instalments.

The Doctor's warning about the weed creatures' objectives included the concern that they now had control over the pumps, and so their toxic gas could be pumped through the natural gas pipelines into any home in the country. An emergency conference was staged near the refinery, to work out how to defeat the threat, and the fourth episode cliff-hanger was to have been a race against time by the Doctor and his companions to prevent the weed attacking this, by attempting to cut off the pipeline. (We'll look at the intended resolution to this next time).

Sherwin's argument was that the conference scenes went on too long and brought the story to a crawl - another example of Pemberton's reliance on dialogue over visual action due to his background in radio drama presumably.

Pemberton was so unhappy that he actually asked for his name to be taken off the production for a time.

He was placated by being asked to become more involved in the rewrites.

We earlier said that Pemberton had a fear of earthquakes and a bit of a phobia about seaweed. He wrote the sequence of Van Lutyens being sucked down into the pipe because of another personal fear - that of being caught in quicksand. He had included similar scenes in his radio drama The Slide.

One addition to this script by Sherwin was an extra scene of Megan Jones and Perkins discussing what might be going on, when they first arrive at the compound.

In the broadcast episode, Jamie simply spots the key to the pipeline room to rescue Victoria, but in the original script he first tries to break down the door, before piling up boxes to climb up and break in through a ventilation hatch.

Tuesday 6th February saw scenes on the beach filmed, including the shots of Maggie walking out into the sea which formed the cliff-hanger into this instalment. Also filmed that day was the scene in which Harris encountered Robson soon afterwards.

Once again, scenes involving extensive use of the BBC foam machine were filmed under more controllable conditions at Ealing, for three days from Wednesday 7th February. 

For this episode they were primarily the two sequences at the base of the impeller shaft - first with John Abineri as Van Lutyens, and then with Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines as the Doctor and Jamie come looking for him. Abineri later stated in an interview that there was a small platform around four feet below the level of the foam on which he had to kneel and then crouch down on so as to disappear under the foam blanket. However, there was a significant drop to the side of this platform and had he missed his mark he would have had a nasty fall. The foam would have obscured him so that the studio crew would not have noticed he had fallen until too late.

Joining rehearsals for Episode 4 was the Welsh actress Margaret John, playing the no-nonsense Megan Jones. She had performed alongside Hugh David on a number of productions before he stepped back from acting - including a BBC TV adaptation of How Green Was My Valley and several radio dramas.

A late addition to the script was the extended scene in the crew cabin between Victoria and the Doctor, which was included as part of the process of paving the way for the companion's departure. At one point they mention some of the enemies they have encountered - including Daleks, Cybermen and Yeti.

The scene showing Van Lutyens preparing to descend the impeller shaft was condensed.

Troughton signed a new contract for a further 24 episodes the day before recording this episode.

The opening credits rolled over a filmed reprise of Maggie walking into the sea.

One recording break allowed Hines to move from the impeller room to the pipeline room where he found the unconscious Victoria.

The end credits ran over a shot of the weed and foam seen through the transparent pipe section. In the end, some of the new dialogue between Jones and Perkins was actually cut prior to recording.

David was unhappy with some of the material and so arranged for additional recording time the following week for a remount.

Victoria's departure is further sign-posted by the scene in the crew cabin where she talks with the Doctor about their dangerous lifestyle whilst Jamie dozes on a bunk.

It's a quiet, reflective scene, which mirrors in many ways the scene in Tomb of the Cybermen between Watling and Troughton, helping to top and tail her involvement with the series.

There is a definite feeling of the action beginning to ramp up now, after the very slow build-up and mood setting of the first half of the story.

Robson is now possessed by the weed, and Van Lutyens has been abducted by it, so no more scenes of the pair arguing about what is causing the blockages in the pipeline. The authorities, represented by Jones, have witnessed first hand the nature of the threat - so we won't have the Doctor spending time trying to convince people either.

It was one of the problems of the classic series that the Doctor always spent at least two episodes just trying to convince people that there was a threat, often locked up as well - one of the reasons why RTD introduced the psychic paper for the brisker 45 minute-long stories, simply to get the Doctor into the action quicker.

As mentioned above there are many similarities between Pemberton's The Slide and its adaptation back into a Doctor Who story. The role of the Doctor was taken up by the scientist Gomez, and in the radio drama he uses that same "Battle of the giants" line.

Trivia:

• The ratings have now fallen by more than a million and a half since the opening instalment, though the appreciation figure remains stable. The ratings may be due in part to the arrival of the better weather, with people going out at weekends more. (This wasn't the first episode to be broadcast after the UK's clocks went forward - the last weekend in March these days. In 1968 they changed in mid-February).
• Owing to a production error, the original 1963 arrangement of the theme tune was used on this and the subsequent episode.
• Peter Day retained one of the prop oxygen masks from this story, adapted from a pair of skiing goggles.
• Ironically, the last time we see John Abineri in Doctor Who, in The Power of Kroll, he is being grabbed by a tentacle in a gas refinery...
• Margaret John will return to the series to play Tommy's grandmother in The Idiot's Lantern. She found renewed fame late in life as Doris in Gavin and Stacey.
• Megan Jones' counterpart in The Slide is Margaret Griffiths, also Welsh, who is from the Home Office.
• June Murphy and Brian Cullingford met during the making of this story. Reader, he married her, as Charlotte Bronte would have said. The pair wed in August 1968.
• The sea fort used in the series as the offshore gas drilling rig complex was once home to a pirate radio station - and Brian Cullingford had been station manager at this very location in 1966 - Red Sands Fort. More on this location next time when it features prominently.
• The Highlanders had also featured an unctuous secretary named Perkins - the other story directed by Hugh David.

The Caves of Androzani (S21 - The Collection)

Disc 7 contains what has often been voted the greatest Doctor Who story of all time. More recent polls might favour some of the post 2005 episodes like Blink or Heaven Sent, but The Caves of Androzani still holds its own as arguably the best of the classic era.

It had a reissue in one of the "Revisitations" box sets, so we've already seen most of the extras. 

What we get here new is a version of the story with optional new VFX - the fifth story to feature this on the set.

Other than establishing shots of the twin planets and the Monument Valley-like TARDIS landing site, these effects mainly deal with the Magma Beast and spaceships.

The monster is a lot more mobile than the very static costume, though that hasn't been replaced totally here. It's primarily close-ups which benefit from the new CGI, giving it more animated features.

Model work of Stotz's ship is replaced on a couple of occasions.

There has been a lot of criticism regarding the use of AI in the recent box-sets. This has been used to sharpen the image, but on occasion has interfered with actors' faces.

Its use is particularly noticeable in Part One of this story, in the scene set in Morgus' office where he has his video-link chat with Chellak. Morgus' face loses all movement, the lips hardly matching his dialogue.

Quite unnecessary to have employed this at all, especially if it is actually going to spoil the image rather than improve it. You'll notice the AI in operation on other stories, especially in TARDIS scenes.

Luckily the Behind the Sofa panellists are only watching edited highlights of the regular version, so director Graeme Harper's thoughts on this go unrecorded.

He joins the Fifth Doctor sofa, and unlike other guest viewers so far has a lot more involvement in the discussions about what they are watching. 

Everyone comments on how adult and dark this story is, with Aldred and Padbury stating they would have liked to have seen at least a little humour to lighten the mood occasionally.

As a story it is unrelentingly bleak, like Logopolis having an ominous feel throughout. (We go into these knowing that the Doctor is going to "die" at the conclusion, and this mood permeates the entire story in both cases).

Other than the Magma Beast costume, which was never all that prominent in the original broadcast, you really can't fault the story. Casting is perfect for every role - no stunt casting this time; the lighting is kept low and atmospheric; and - despite rehashing elements from the less than perfect The Power of Kroll - the writing is some of Robert Holmes' best. It just goes to show the difference it makes when the same material, more or less, is given to an innovative director.

Interestingly, it's not Davison who gets teary-eyed at the regeneration scene, but Colin Baker, who has nothing but praise for his predecessor's Doctor.

Of the extras we've seen before, this being Davison's last story, they have included the regular stuff like "Tomorrow's Times" and "Stripped For Action" covering the Fifth Doctor era. 

That big documentary presented by Davison's son-in-law (what ever happened to him?) is also included here.

This is the last time we'll see Davison watch his own stories. Hopefully he'll be back on a sofa for some of the Troughton ones when they finally get round to releasing them, as that was his favourite Doctor.

Planet of Fire (S21 - The Collection)

Disc 6 of the set could be described as the runt of the litter.

If you want a Special Edition of Planet of Fire then you have to look to Disc 9, one of two Extras discs in this set, for the previously released 75 minute omnibus version. As well as new VFX, director Fiona Cumming drastically edited it down and added a prologue featuring the crash of the Trion spaceship carrying Turlough's father and brother.

As for the main story disc, apart from the Behind the Sofa there are no new extras either - and this doesn't even have a guest viewer on the Fifth Doctor sofa.

Personally, I wasn't too keen on the SE as too much detail was cut, and the prologue rather jarred with the broadcast version in its look and feel.

The similar re-edit on Cumming's Enlightenment worked a lot better.

As for the story itself, Peter Grimwade was given a huge shopping list of things to include - writing out Turlough, including providing some background to the character; writing out Kamelion; writing in new companion Peri; having the Master involved (and potentially writing him out as well); plus making extensive use of a foreign location.

He argued that he should have been invited to the location recce, as he could have fed this into his writing. But JNT didn't want another director possibly interfering with Cumming's ideas for shots. Also, JNT had fallen out with him by this stage due to his perceived snub following the postponement of "Warhead", when Grimwade didn't invite him to a meal.

Saward did attend the recce, but claimed he was employed as little more than a chauffeur.

This will prove to be the writer / director's final contribution to the series.

Considering the shopping list, Grimwade does well incorporating everything in a fairly satisfactory manner. Turlough gets his background (the writer having introduced him and already plotted a backstory for him) and it's fitting that the Master be involved in Kamelion's demise as he was there in the beginning. Peri takes some getting used to, as initially she's a bit of a spoiled brat.

The plot is a bit clichéd, with a society worshipping an ancient alien visitor, and there's the obvious inspiration from She, which had already inspired The Brain of Morbius. (I find it hard to believe the similarity in planet names is just coincidence).

The location looks great - just a pity they couldn't have used a British location for the opening to act as contrast. It looks like the TARDIS has simply moved elsewhere on the island.

The Art of... Fury From The Deep

Victor Pemberton was quite insistent that he be the only one to novelise his story, and managed to convince Target to allow him to do so with an increased page count, usually only 127 or so pages. Range editor Nigel Robinson worked with Pemberton to try to reduce it but found this impossible, so it went out as a "Bumper Volume" with 189 pages - but at a higher price.

Pemberton gave some of the characters first names - such as Harris being Frank, Van Lutyens being Pieter and Price being David. Background motivation is added for Robson - his wife died in a car crash whilst he was at the wheel some 20 years beforehand. Blaming himself, he has thrown himself into his work to the point of obsession.

Interestingly, despite Pemberton's claims to have invented it, the sonic screwdriver does not appear in the opening beach scene with the pipeline inspection hatch.

The cover is a rather low-key affair by artist David McAllister, depicting a conventional drilling platform far out at sea, with tendrils of seaweed rising in the foreground. Perhaps more ominous weather conditions might have given the cover more atmosphere.

Paul Mark Tams had put forward an art concept following his commission to provide the cover for the novelisation of Doctor Who radio drama Slipback, but this was not taken up as it featured a Doctor other than the current one. (Tams, who was also involved in the music industry, had previously contributed artwork for the Doctor Who and Dalek annuals, and would go on to be one of those responsible for the single "Doctor In Distress". He later championed attempts to get K-9 back on screen, collaborating with Bob Baker).

The novel was published in 1986. A reprint was scheduled for June 1994, but the reprint range was discontinued before this could happen.

The soundtrack was first released as part of the BBC Audio Collection in cassette format, featuring a photomontage cover depicting images from the location filming of the opening episode - Troughton wearing his distinctive woolly hat.

The narrative was linked by Tom Baker, in character as the Fourth Doctor recalling this adventure.

This was released in October 1993.

February 2004 saw the soundtrack re-released on CD, this time with narration by Frazer Hines. The colourful cover montage once again relied on location images from Episode One, but also found room for Mr Quill from the recovered Australian censor clips, as well as an entirely made-up gas rig design.

Those censor clips had featured on the Lost In Time DVD set, released in 2004. This also included film trims from Episode 6 as well as some colour home movie footage of the climactic scenes.

The story was animated and released on DVD / Blu-ray in September 2020 on Region 2, though US fans had to wait until the following March for the Region 1 version. (Australia only had to wait two months).

As usual there was an expensive steelbook release to accompany the regular one. Its artwork opted to concentrate on the sequences added to the story depicting giant tentacles of seaweed threatening the helicopter - scenes which never appeared in the televised programme. We also see them grabbing the TARDIS, something which doesn't even appear in the animation.

The novelisation was released as an audiobook in July 2011, read by David Troughton, and using the McAllister artwork.

And finally, another photomontage piece of artwork used to illustrate the story on the moviedb website prior to the animation being released. This actually uses the correct sea fort locations used for the rigs as filmed by Hugh David.

Resurrection of the Daleks (S21 - The Collection)

The first of the Season 21 stories to have had a Special Edition release on DVD with lots of extras, so Resurrection of the Daleks covers Discs 4 and 5. 

On the first we have the original two part, 45 minute episode version - necessitated at the time due to the BBC's coverage of the 1984 Winter Olympics.

The four part version - how it was meant to be screened had it not been for Torvill & Dean - is on Disc 5. Whichever version you choose to watch, the option to do so with new VFX applies to both.

The most noticeable changes are that the Dalek battlecruiser and the prison space station have been replaced, so the brief attack by the former on the latter looks much better. Their final destruction is also new.

Other than that, new effects work is light - mainly weaponry energy beams. The Daleks now have a slight blue outline added when hit by a gun - suggesting some sort of forcefield or the energy is simply bouncing off their armour.

The Supreme no longer appears against a bright white backdrop on the TARDIS scanner. It's now backed by the red-lit control room.

Leela has now been included in the flashback sequence as the Doctor's memories are being drained.

Resurrection of the Daleks is a story which was fairly rapidly reappraised after being repeatedly voted second best of the season (after The Caves of Androzani, though one Australian fan poll placed it top).

It was popular for being the first Dalek story for several years, the new iteration of Davros, and lots of action. It was always claimed it had more on-screen deaths than The Terminator.

However, it soon began to be looked upon less favourably - mainly due to the script. It simply had too much crammed into it, with subplots which weren't terribly well developed - the main one being the sudden plan to have a duplicate Doctor assassinate the High Council of Time Lords.

The violence isn't really an issue - even though it includes the use of non-fantasy pistols and machine guns. The toxic gas effects are a different matter, however.

Eric Saward has himself claimed it's the worst script he ever contributed to the series. (In the new documentary he steps back a bit from that comment).

Watching it again (the two part version) some of the violence does stand out, and not always in a good way - and you can see problems with pacing and those non-starter subplots.

Tegan's departure isn't terribly well set up. It's a lovely scene, but there's just no build-up to the moment - it just comes out of nowhere. Fielding herself now claims to be okay with it - arguing that motivation for actions often lies beneath the surface, and only seems to spring from nowhere.

The Behind the Sofa is on Disc 4, and the guest viewer for this one is Rula Lenska, who played prison medic Styles.

They all comment on the fact that one of the characters is seen smoking. There's regret from Padbury, Waterhouse and Sutton that they never got to do a Dalek story - but then they are all pleased to see themselves included in that flashback sequence.

This disc also has a brand new Making-Of documentary (50 mins), with Davison and Fielding interviewed at the Butler's Wharf location. "Terror on the Thames" includes contributions from Saward, Mark Strickson, Terry Molloy, director Matthew Robinson and surviving guest cast members, plus an archive appearance from JNT.

The rest of the material is a collection of brief TV spots. One of these is the odd Walrus piece - a BBC Wales series, in which a housewife talks with the Dalek Invasion of Earth Supreme.

A compilation of clips from Saturday Superstore all deal with JNT's threatened scrapping of the Police Box TARDIS.

Disc 5 is given over to Janet Fielding, this being her final story. As well as a couple of archive interviews we have her in conversation with Matthew Sweet. The most interesting part of this is the story of her journalist ex-husband and his arms dealing. There's also much talk about her days with experimental theatre companies. She speaks about her cancer diagnosis, though this is covered more in the latest Toby Hadoke "Weekend With..." feature. Usually recorded over a weekend as the name implies, Fielding only had limited time to film this so it's simply "48 Hours of Fielding".

Recorded in and around her current home town of Ramsgate, she introduces Hadoke to some of her friends oveer coffee, visits the local wildlife sanctuary, and they pay a call on the youth club which she is involved with. There's a bit more mention of Doctor Who this time.

I've been critical of Fielding in the past, but this has been when she has been part of a larger group - on the sofa, in documentaries, or as part of the DVD commentaries, especially if Peter Davison is also present. She tends to dominate in such settings and others - notably Sutton - tend to be frozen out.

I enjoyed a lot more seeing her speak just on her own - showing more of a vulnerable side. Like her companion co-star, it's a remarkably eventful life she has led.

Frontios (S21 - The Collection)

Disc 3 covers Frontios, and it also has the option to watch with new VFX. 

The first thing you notice is the view of the planet on the TARDIS scanner. It was grey originally but is now red, to match the studio establishing shot of the crashed colony ship. This looks a lot better. We also have new meteorite effects.

For the scenes where Tegan, Turlough and Norna go up to the top of the ship with the acid battery, the sky is now reddish. It was an annoying brilliant white in the broadcast version.

Victims of the Tractators are still bathed in a purple light, but the creatures themselves now have a purple glow at the tip of their antennae when they use them. 

The biggest change comes with the sequence in which the Gravis reconstitutes the TARDIS in Part 4. As well as an overlaid video effect we have some CGI scenes of the rocks dissolving. We also get a glimpse of other parts of the TARDIS interior.

As well as a hitherto unseen area - almost TV Movie-ish - there's actually a glimpse of Kamelion in one of these. It was always an annoyance that he was never even referred to in any of the stories between The King's Demons and his departure in Planet of Fire, with one scene in The Awakening being deleted. He should certainly have been talked about when the TARDIS is seemingly destroyed in this story.

As far as the extras are concerned, the sofa panels all seemed to like this one. On the Fifth Doctor sofa for this story is Jeff Rawle, who played Plantagenet.

There is a short (3' 53") interview with Verity Lambert from the Did You See? programme as well as other TV spots and trailers.

A series I used to watch due to its sci-fi trappings was The Adventure Game. The butler always reminded me of the First Doctor. We have an instalment of it here, featuring Janet Fielding as one of the trio of competitors. I shan't say how she got on...

The Awakening (S21 - The Collection)

On to Disc 2 of the Season 21 Blu-ray box set, and The Awakening also offers viewers the chance to watch with new VFX. But if you're expecting any new Malus - big or small - you're in for disappointment. The only new effects concern the apparitions, getting rid of the blocky BBC Micro computer graphics and replacing them with twinkling lights. The phantoms also fade in and out in more satisfying fashion - but that's your lot. There's not a lot you could have done with the big face in the church, other than to give it more expression, but I did think they might have replaced the smaller creature which appears in the TARDIS. Even the church's destruction remains intact from the broadcast version - a none too bad model sequence.

This two-parter had a larger than usual percentage of location filming, and this is where this new remastered version really impresses. The footage looks great, and there's not really much more to say about this one - other than I think it is the best of the three Davison two-parters.

As the Behind the Sofa teams say, everyone really looks like they enjoyed making this. After the overly-lit studio work in the season opener, we have a lot more atmospheric lighting in the secret passages and church crypts designed by Barry Newbery - his final contribution to the show after joining it for the very first story back in November 1963. The BBC always excelled at historical costume drama, and this little story certainly benefits from that expertise.

Keith Jayne, who played Will Chandler, joins the Fifth Doctor sofa line-up for this one. Sadly he doesn't contribute much. Waterhouse and Padbury get competitive as to who was the greater genius - Adric or Zoe. It's a shame no-one pointed out to Padbury that writer Eric Pringle had Peter Bryant for an agent - the producer who cast her as Zoe.

This disc is the new home to The (TV) Centre of the Universe - originally split across two DVD releases.

A highlight of this disc - and of the set as a whole - is the Matthew Sweet conversation with Mark Strickson. Fascinating mainly due to the fact that he has led such an eventful life. As with all these items, there isn't a great deal of talk about Doctor Who, but in Strickson's case this is no big deal as his career, and personal life, have been so full of incident - especially his later vocation as a wildlife filmmaker. Definitely one of Sweet's more memorable interviews.

Warriors of the Deep Special Edition (S21 - The Collection)

On previous occasions, when it's come to The Collection box sets, I've waited until I've watched all the stories plus the extras before posting one big review of the whole set. This meant me not reviewing until almost 2 weeks had passed, by the time I'd worked through everything.

This time, as most of the stories of Season 21 have been given updated VFX and there is a lot of additional material, I thought I'd do it differently and post individually on each disc.

We start with Warriors of the Deep, which not only gives you the option of watching new effects but has been quite radically reworked.

Usually, new VFX means replacing model shots with CGI versions, but in this case all of Mat Irvine's model work is preserved. They've simply overlaid new effects to make the models look as though they really are underwater. The only CGI added is an exterior shot of Sea Base 4 with the missile silos opening in Part 4, plus internal shots of the base seen on the control room screen, depicting the missiles in their bay and a small internal harbour in which a mini-submarine can be seen.

The biggest change to the broadcast episodes is the total replacement of the Myrka. The only time you see the original costume is when the beast is already dead, and Nilssen falls on top of it.

The Myrka does other things now as well. Its first victim is killed by it lashing out its tongue to electrocute him.

The notorious scene in which Ingrid Pitt's Dr Solow attempts to kung-fu it is now quite different. We see only her begin her moves, then the Myrka lurches forward and snatches her up in its jaws. This scene was followed by a shot of the command disc lying on the floor, with the dead Solow's outstretched arm. The arm is now seen to be detached from the rest of her!

If you've read the recent DWM Chronicles 1984, you'll know that additional Silurian and Sea Devil material was filmed and edited into the episodes. This comprises mostly close-ups, either of them speaking or of their weaponry in action. All the weapons now fire VFX shots.

One thing you'll notice right away on watching is that the Silurians' third eyes no longer light up when they speak, and the rather squeaky voices have been deepened to make them sound more menacing.

The only time a third eye lights up is when Icthar uses it to show some clips from their previous stories on the control room screen, when he tells the Doctor about their earlier disastrous encounters with humanity.

The episodes have also been reedited to tighten up the pace, so there are fewer scenes of the Sea Devils ambling rather slowly down corridors.

We no longer see any wardrobe malfunctions either, of which there were several on view back in 1984. CGI has also been used to add the occasional eyeball movement to the Sea Devils.

One thing this Special Edition might have benefited from was an omnibus version, if they really wanted to make it feel more fast paced.

Of course, no amount of CGI and reediting can fix all of the problems. The sets are still over-lit, the performances variable, and the continuity errors with those earlier stories persist. Actually, The War Between the Land and the Sea now fits chronologically between this and The Sea Devils - but as that didn't feature the Doctor, the Myrka or Silurian battle-cruisers then those problems remain.

Apart from trailers and other brief TV spots, the only new extra for this story is its Behind the Sofa. They're doing it differently this time by having a guest actor from each story on the sofa with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton. For this story we have Tara Ward, who played Preston.

The two other sofa line-ups comprise Matthew Waterhouse, Sophie Aldred and Wendy Padbury forming a companions one, and Colin Baker with his two companions, Bonnie Langford and Nicola Bryant, making up the third.

Having just watched the Special Edition, it is a little jarring to watch them watching the original broadcast version. It would have been nice to see their reaction to the new Myrka, but of course these panels will have been recorded long before that work was completed.

Personally I found the Aldred / Waterhouse / Padbury one the most entertaining. When one of them observes "Look at them trying to look macho, in their camp outfits", Waterhouse replies that they've just summed up 1980's Doctor Who in a nutshell...

It's a long time since I watched Warriors of the Deep, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I actually enjoyed watching it again, thanks to this new version. I know there are a lot of purists out there who are only interested in watching the original versions, but I really can't see myself ever revisiting the broadcast version.

Worth the price of the box set alone? Maybe not quite, but there are another 9 discs to come...

Episode 200: Fury From The Deep (3)

Synopsis:

The Doctor warns his friends not to touch the piece of seaweed they have found on the floor of the Harris' living quarters, pointing out that Victoria has said that it can move. He sends Harris back to the compound to arrange for Maggie to be transferred to its medical bay, then carefully collects up the seaweed - intending to take it to the TARDIS to examine it properly there.

As they leave, they fail to notice fronds of seaweed sprouting from the comatose Maggie's sleeve.

Van Lutyens informs Robson and the Chief Engineer that he is sure there is some living organism at the base of the impeller shaft, and it is this which is causing the blockages. Robson dismisses the idea and sticks to his own belief that it is a mechanical fault - even though they have all heard the heartbeat sound.

The TARDIS has drifted to shore. The seaweed sample has been taken into the Doctor's laboratory where Victoria is running some tests on a small piece of it - the rest being placed in a glass tank. They have discovered that it emits a toxic gas, and under the microscope see movement.

Harris learns from Price that their doctor still hasn't returned from D Rig, and communications are still down. Harris begins organising his wife's transfer to the medical bay, telling Van Lutyens and Robson that she has been poisoned by some form of gas. The latter is more concerned that Harris has lost their prisoners, whom he still believes to be saboteurs.

The impeller starts up again - only to stop moments later. Robson is becoming increasingly agitated by events and continues to ignore the Dutchman's advice to shut off the gas flow and conduct a thorough inspection. He accuses Harris and Van Lutyens of deliberately trying to damage his reputation.

He goes off to rest in his cabin for half an hour, and Van Lutyens lays out his plan for what they ought to do next - including locking down the compound and evacuating the rigs.

The Chief reluctantly agrees to approach Robson with their plan, hoping he will listen if they all present a united case.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor has found an old book which has an illustration of a ship being attacked by tentacles rising from the sea. It dates back to the 18th Century. Showing it to Victoria, she confirms that this resembles what she saw in the oxygen storeroom.

The main mass of seaweed they brought has been fed natural gas, and they suddenly discover that it has grown in size and is emitting toxic fumes. It threatens to climb out of its tank. Victoria screams and it retreats before the Doctor seals it in. He deduces that the creatures feed on natural gas, converting it to a toxic form.

Robson refuses to listen to Van Lutyens, Harris and the Chief, and they see that he is becoming increasingly unhinged. Van Lutyens approaches Price and asks him to contact his superiors in The Hague. He will ask them to put pressure on Robson's own superiors in London for action to be taken.

Mr Oak creeps along the corridor and locks Robson in his room, before operating the ventilation controls. Robson cries out for help as he smells the room begin to fill with gas.

Luckily Harris is nearby and he frees his boss - and spots seaweed tentacles and foam emerging from the vent just before he slams shut the door. Robson runs off.

The Doctor and his companions return to the Harris home and find it once again full of gas. The Doctor and Victoria go to the bedroom and find it full of foam, with a seaweed tentacle lashing around in its midst. Victoria screams and it retreats. They notice that the bed is empty, and assume that Maggie has been taken to the medical bay already.

They then hear a shout from Jamie, who had gone to the kitchen to check for the gas source. He has been forced to climb up onto a table as the room is filling up with foam. Another tentacle is reaching for him. The Doctor and Victoria mount an external set of stairs to the roof and open the kitchen skylight. They are able to pull Jamie to safety.

Harris takes Van Lutyens to Robson's room, but there is no trace now of gas or the creature responsible for it. The Dutchman still accepts his story, however.

He orders Harris to take charge and suggests Robson be found before he harms himself or causes any damage.

Harris notifies the Chief and Price that he is taking control, and instructs the latter to contact Megan Jones in London, British director of ESGO.

As they head back to the compound, Victoria expresses her disquiet about their lifestyle to the Doctor - how they are seemingly always being put in danger.

Harris announces that Jones will be here in a few hours, but worries how he is going to justify taking over. Robson was placed in charge here at Jones' insistence and she regards him highly.

The Doctor arrives and informs them of his findings regarding the seaweed creature. It is a parasite, which latches onto other organisms - including people - and produces the toxic gas as a means of defence.

Harris is then shocked to learn that his wife wasn't brought to the medical bay after all - and the Doctor tells him she wasn't at their home.

She is on the beach with Robson, her hands and face now covered in weed-like fronds. She confirms with him that he knows what he must do, before calmly walking out into the sea.

Robson watches silently from the shoreline, until she disappears beneath the waves...

Data:

Written by Victor Pemberton

Recorded: Saturday 9th March 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 30th March 1968

Ratings: 7.7 million / AI 56

VFX: Peter Day

Designer: Peter Kindred

Director: Hugh David

Critique:

In the third of his scripts Victor Pemberton outlined the fact that seaweed was feeding on natural gas, which it then converted to a toxic form. Maggie was said to be transforming into a weed creature at the conclusion. Her infection was described as a "frond-like weed formation growing down her exposed arm", and later "a small formation of hair-like weed on her neck and face".

When the Doctor examined the weed sample in the TARDIS - "its tendrils hanging menacingly over the side of the edge of the tank, covered in foam" - he pressed a button and "the lights dimmed to near darkness as a flap on the wall reveals a projector screen. He presses another button and the microscope slide appears on the screen".

In his radio drama The Slide, the scientist Gomez (Roger Delgado) had examined some of the sentient mud in similar fashion using the local school's aquarium.

Derrick Sherwin rewrote a number of sequences including the rescue of Jamie from the kitchen, Robson's near breakdown in the impeller room, and Van Lutyens urging Harris to take charge.

This episode included more filming than the previous week.

On Tuesday 5th February the sequence was filmed at Botany Bay of Maggie (June Murphy) walking out into the sea, watched by Robson (Victor Maddern) which would form the cliff-hanger to the episode. Murphy, wearing latex seaweed make-up, did not realise that the shallows were so extensive and so had to go quite a way out into the freezing waters. She eventually had to go down on her knees and duck down under the water to fully submerge. She was then unable to hear the crew calling the end of the action, and someone had to wade out and fetch her.

Later that week filming moved to Ealing and the scene with the foam retreating from Victoria's scream at the Harris home was recorded - the film being reversed to show it withdrawing.

Use of the BBC foam machine in the TV studio would be difficult to manage (and dangerous, as the foam was water-based) so any scene involving it was mounted at Ealing where conditions could be better controlled. This included the sequence where Jamie is threatened by the foam in the Harris' kitchen, and his rescue by the Doctor and Victoria through the skylight. Putting ceilings on sets was a problem in studio as well, due to the need to light sets from overhead rigs and get microphones into position.

During the period of rehearsals for this instalment, additional filming took place at Ealing on Monday 4th - Wednesday 6th March for scenes which would go towards the climax to the final episode.

Doctor Who's 200th episode went into studio on the evening of Saturday 9th March. The session began with a re-enactment of the ending to the previous instalment, but then the episode proceeded with recording out of order. All of the scenes in the Harris' living quarters were recorded first.

The weed emerging from the vent in Robson's cabin as seen by Harris had been filmed earlier at Ealing along with the similar shot seen at the cliff-hanger to part one.

A new set this week was the TARDIS laboratory, seen for the first time. This was simply a small set with a television monitor on which the microscope slide could be shown - actually the same footage which had represented the fungus in The Web of Fear - plus a fish tank in which the latex weed prop could be held. Sherwin had reworked this scene just before recording.

Shortly after completing this episode Patrick Troughton accompanied Frazer Hines and Debbie Watling to a pub and told them about his wish to leave the series. However, he needed the regular income due to having two families to support, plus a large tax bill to pay. He already knew that Watling was leaving, and learned that Hines was also looking to go soon. Troughton then decided that he would stay in the role for one more year, by which time he would be financially stable. With his contract up for renewal that week, he asked for some better conditions such as an extra week for filming, to avoid giving up days off, and hopefully a reduction in the number of episodes each year. These were some of the things he had previously discussed with director Barry Letts during the making of The Enemy of the World. 

In the end he would be granted an extra week's holiday, and be excused location filming on two of the stories planned for Season 6.

Another famous scene from the story, noted for its creepiness, is when Maggie Harris calmly walks out into the sea as Robson watches from the beach. It's certainly a striking image and the viewers of the day would have assumed that Maggie might be committing suicide. You'll recall last time that the script had been amended to ensure that the audience knew that she wasn't killed by the toxic gas - for fear they would assume she was some sort of zombie in this episode.

Considering that they cut one short scene where you saw the seaweed fronds on someone's arm later in the story, I'm surprised that the Australian censors did not eliminate this sequence, or at least trim it down a bit.

The suggestion in the dialogue is that the creature isn't actually the seaweed itself - Victoria talks of microscopic things wriggling on its surface - and the Doctor claims he hasn't worked out the relationship between the creature and the weed yet. This implies that the real threat comprises millions of tiny organisms which simply use the seaweed as a host and manipulate it.

It is unusual at this time to feature a TARDIS scene in the middle of a story. Some recent stories such as The Ice Warriors and The Web of Fear didn't have a TARDIS interior scene at all, whilst the console room only featured at the beginning of The Abominable Snowmen, or at the conclusion of The Enemy of the World. In the first Yeti story, the Doctor does return to the TARDIS mid-story to fetch some equipment, but there wasn't an interior scene accompanying this. Usually, if the TARDIS interior is going to appear, it is only at the start of the opening instalment, designed to introduce viewers to the new storyline and deliver the regulars to their latest destination.

The reason for this is generally the desire not to have to erect the TARDIS console room set for an episode, freeing up studio space for that week's sets.

This week we are actually being treated to a brand new room in the TARDIS - the Doctor's laboratory. The only time we had seen anything similar was in The Web Planet, when an alcove off the main console room seemed to be used as a work area for the Doctor.

As mentioned previously, one of the main rewrites Sherwin carried out on Pemberton's story was to pave the way for Victoria's departure. In the opening episode she was unhappy at having to go and wait in the crew cabin whilst the Doctor and Jamie went off investigating - leading to her coming under attack by the weed creature. 

In this instalment she begins to voice her desire for a quieter life:

Victoria: "Doctor, why is it that we always land up in trouble?"

Doctor: "Well Victoria, it's the spice of life, my dear".

Victoria: "Oh well, I'm not so sure. I don't really like being scared out of my wits every second".

Doctor: "Is something wrong?"

Victoria: "Well I just wish that once... Oh, never mind".

Trivia:

• The ratings continue their gradual slide - but the appreciation figure actually improves.
• In interviews Frazer Hines would always claim that his reason for leaving was due to pressure from his agent to return to higher profile - and more lucrative - movie work. He had appeared in films as a child actor - including Hammer's X... The Unknown (1956) and A King In New York (1957), starring Charlie Chaplin.
• Watling, on the other hand, hoped to do more theatre work - though her agent stated that they were working on a film role for her.
• The animated Episode 3 includes a little visual in-joke. In the Doctor's laboratory is a test tube labelled RR-200 - "RR" being the production code for Fury From The Deep and this being the 200th episode.

The Master Plan Find

The finding of the two missing episodes was announced by the Film is Fabulous team. They were in the collection of someone who has recently died, and who is said to have mostly collected transport material - dealing with trains and canals. His family wished the collection catalogued and preserved. Some films were water damaged, but the collector seems to have looked after The Nightmare Begins and Devil's Planet.

How they came into his possession, no-one knows.

We already have the second episode of The Daleks' Master Plan, so these now give us the whole first quarter of the story.

As well as having more Daleks material, and more of William Hartnell's performance as the original Doctor, these episodes are significant for being among the very few to feature companion Katarina, as played by Adrienne Hill. She joins Peter Purves as Steven. The Nightmare Begins also provides us with the very first appearance by Nicholas Courtney in the series, as he plays space security agent Bret Vyon throughout.

We can also look forward to more of Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chen, and the alien Planetarians.

Devil's Planet, meanwhile, introduces the criminal inhabitants of Desperus, including Kirksen.

If you're familiar with the soundtrack then there'll be a lot of sequences to look forward to actually seeing, be they the Doctor's magnetic chair in action, the Dalek spaceport or the execution of Zephon.

What will the Screamers look like, if they are seen at all, and are there any spaceship model shots other than at the spaceport?

With five episodes now in the archive, it would be nice to see this story animated for completion and released, as Season 3 is likely to be the last to be added to The Collection due to the amount of missing material and absence of telesnaps.

Update: Apparently the episodes will be available from Saturday 4th April on the BBC iPlayer.

More Master Plan!

It's been announced this morning that two more episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan have been found, and will be released on the BBC iPlayer at Easter. The episodes are the first and third of the adventure - The Nightmare Begins and Devil's Planet. 

This brings the missing episodes total down to 95.

What's Wrong With... Silver Nemesis

When you've only got four stories to produce in a season, you would think that the producer and script editor could at least make them different...

The first thing that strikes you about Silver Nemesis is its similarity to the season 25 opener, Remembrance of the Daleks. 

Once again we have the Doctor revisiting something he did a long time ago - though we never got to see it - which is going to have an impact on the present. It's the Earth which will be affected once again. The threat revolves around some ancient Gallifreyan device which can be used as a super-weapon, which the Doctor was somehow able to take away with him when he left the planet with Susan.

The Doctor basically tricks the villains into using said device, so that it destroys them instead.

By screening the Dalek story first, this looks like a weak imitation.

Remembrance of the Daleks featured the junkyard at 76 Totters Lane and Coal Hill School and other references to An Unearthly Child - yet Silver Nemesis is supposed to be the anniversary story?

There's cameo appearances by a number of people associated with the show - actors, writers and directors, including Nicholas Courtney - but they all appear in group shots with their backs to us, so what was the point? If you hadn't read about this somewhere, you'd never know they were there - just a bunch of extras.

The story really isn't very good, and certainly isn't well regarded - so why give it to someone who had never written for the show before and was relatively new to the business anyway?

As for the plot, we're told that the Doctor sent the Nemesis statue into space to stop it falling into the hands of Lady Peinforte in 1638 - though she clearly must have possessed it at some point for her to have fashioned the living metal into a likeness of herself. Did the Doctor deliberately put it into an orbit which meant it passed the Earth every quarter century?

As each orbit results in some major upheaval on Earth, then isn't the Doctor responsible for centuries of death and destruction? If launching it into space was just to get it out of Peinforte's hands, then why not simply move it somewhere else afterwards - like parking it on the dark side of the Moon or in orbit around Pluto? Why leave it going round the Earth for 350 years?

And why have it land in 1988? It can't have been in a decaying orbit as its passing was too regular. It must have been programmed to come back in November 1988 - but the question is why.

How could the Doctor have known that Lady Peinforte would be able to time travel to her home in that year, or that the Cybermen were going to turn up looking for the statue? Or that a bunch of mercenaries led by an old Nazi war criminal would come looking for it. Is it all just coincidence? A very big one if it is.

If it's been going round and round for 350 years, why did the Cybermen not simply hijack it in space?

And one everyone knows - the mathematician employed by Lady Peinforte couldn't possibly have known that the calendar was going to be amended, losing 11 days on the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by Great Britain in 1752. His calculations ought to be out.

Do we know if major upheavals actually occurred every 25 years between 1663 - its first pass - and 1963 - it's last pass? JFK was assassinated in '63, but the world was much closer to disaster two years before that with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

If the statue only reaches critical mass when complete, you also have to ask why the Doctor didn't do anything sooner about the bow and the arrow.

There's mention of Roundheads being about when the Doctor first launched the statue into space, and it's the Doctor who says this early in Episode 2. But the Roundheads weren't founded until 1641. (It refers to their haircuts, not their helmets, and was initially a term of abuse).

When the Doctor first visits Lady Peinforte's home with Ace he states that it has been months since he was last there - so it has to already be 1639. But all the dialogue, and even captions, state it's 1638.

Another timing issue is the speed with which De Flores and his mercenaries manage to get from South America to Windsor - managing it in a matter of hours when they've only just worked out the date and location of the landing.

And did they book into their hotel and hire the van dressed like that?

It's looking unseasonably warm for late November in England, and an awful lot seems to happen in broad daylight, which would only be about 8 hours maximum at that time of year.

As for the Cybermen - they are at their weakest here (until their heads start exploding due to the power of Love). Their spaceship manages to land and move around without the military swarming the area - considering they're next door to Heathrow Airport and Windsor Castle, and the Queen in is residence.

(Talking of which, the Doctor and Ace manage to get extremely close to the monarch before security bother doing anything about it).

The Cybermen are actually scared just to be in the vicinity of gold now, and are easily despatched by gold coins fired from a catapult - despite having armoured bodies.

Why do the Cybermen bother capturing De Flores and Karl - why not just shoot them? De Flores is given the earmuff-like devices, presumably to mentally condition him, yet they don't appear to have any effect on him.

The silvered coating on the new helmets of the Cybermen oxidised and turned a golden colour, rather defeating the whole "silver" theme of the story.

The Cybermen falling from the gantry are all too obviously dummies.

Another big problem for me is that there are far too many incidental characters in what is only a three part story - and yet it still feels padded. The skinheads are utterly pointless and add nothing to the story, as does Dorothea Remington. Dolores Gray was only cast in this so that JNT could have a big Broadway / West End star in the show for publicity value - even though she wasn't terribly well known to the general public. The peak of her career was in the 1950's. Her scenes with Lady Peinforte are at least funny.