Episodes Afterlife: The Invasion Cyberships

If you've read the Episodes themselves, you'll know that two different designs of Cybership feature in The Invasion. Most look like a pair of drums with a large illuminated globe between, which we'll call warships. Then there is the bigger vessel covered in rectangular boxes at either end, which we'll take to be a transporter ship.

With budgets tight on the final season of the 1960's, one of these would feature as a prop in the very next story...

With some additional wheels attached, one of the warships appears as a piece of equipment which the Doctor and Zoe run past inside the Dynatrope in The Krotons.

Bill King & Trading Post were handling the VFX on both stories, so it was only natural that they might reuse items.

(This wasn't the first time a Cybership model had been reused as a prop, of course. The saucer from The Moonbase could be seen hanging above the inner door of the Dulcian war museum in The Dominators, from the same director, Morris Barry).

The larger transporter ship then turns up as a prop in a couple of Pertwee stories...

For its first appearance, it is standing upright in the background of the UNIT laboratory in Spearhead From Space, just beside where the TARDIS has been placed. The cargo containers are blue. You can see that it has the basic warship model as it's core. (The lab also features the Morok Freezing Machine prop, in its final appearance in the series).

With the containers now repainted silver, the same model makes another appearance amidst the alien technology of the planet Uxarieus, in Colony In Space. It appears in the room in which the Doctor, Jo and the Master are held prisoner.

The room also contains one of the warship models.

The Cyberships seen in Silver Nemesis were inspired by The Invasion design, being bulky (diamond shaped rather than circular) at both ends but narrow in the middle.

If there are any more appearances in Doctor Who - or in any other series / movie - of these Cybership models, do let me know.

This particular design of Cyber warship was popular with Steven Moffat, as it made two appearances during the tenure of the Eleventh Doctor...

One took centre stage in the skies above Stonehenge in The Pandorica Opens...

And they then formed the fleet of the Twelfth Cyber Legion in A Good Man Goes To War.

Episode 227: The Invasion (8)

Synopsis:

The Cybermen have turned on Vaughn, after accusing him of betraying them due to the destruction of their invasion fleet. They announce that they are going to drop a Cyber-Megatron bomb, which will destroy all life on Earth.

The Doctor angrily rounds on Vaughn, demanding to know if this is what he wanted - to be master of a dead world...
This has been overheard by Corporal Benton on the UNIT transport aircraft, picked up from the radio the Doctor is carrying. He contacts the Brigadier at Henlow Downs missile base, where everyone is congratulating Zoe. They will return to the mobile HQ, leaving Major Branwell to monitor for any further spaceships - and the approach of the bomb.

In his office, Vaughn continues to argue with the Cyber-Director, unwilling to accept that his partnership with the Cybermen is at an end. He tries to point out that they will be destroying their own kind if they drop their bomb, but the machine counters that this is a small sacrifice to pay for complete victory.

Losing control over his emotions, Vaughn aims the Cerebratron Mentor at the machine and destroys it.

The Doctor argues that they are now both on the same side, and their priority is to deactivate the radio homing beacon, as the Cybermen will use this to target their bomb. Vaughn tries to call Packer - only to see a Cyberman appear on the internal cameras. Packer rushes in, announcing that the building is being overrun. 

A Cyberman enters and Packer shoots it, with no effect. It kills him.

The Doctor has taken cover behind the desk, and uses the Mentor to destroy the Cyberman.

He then calls on the Brigadier to discuss the situation. They must either shut down the beacon, or destroy the Cybership which will deliver the bomb. However, Captain Turner reports that the Russian rocket would take too long to reach it.

Vaughn tries to justify his actions by claiming that he would have brought order to the world, but the Doctor gets him to agree to help. UNIT will send a helicopter to collect them from the roof and take them to the compound where the homing beacon controls are located.

Vaughn warns that it will be heavily guarded, but he will bring the Mentor with him.

The Brigadier and Zoe arrive at the aircraft and it is ordered to take off and land as close to the compound as possible.

The Russian rocket lifts off.

The Doctor contacts the Brigadier to inform him that they are about to land at the compound. He is advised to wait until a UNIT assault platoon can join him - but he argues that there is no time. He and Vaughn are going in alone.

Isobel and Zoe insist on joining the Brigadier as he leads the platoon.

The Doctor and Vaughn are confronted by a number of Cybermen as they make their way through the compound towards the building where the radio beacon is housed. Vaughn despatches them with the professor's machine.

The Brigadier and his men are also encountering stiff opposition. Only bazookas have any effect on the Cybermen. 

The Doctor and Vaughn reach their goal. Vaughn manages to destroy some of the guards, but is shot and killed. 

The Doctor flees, but manages to run into the Brigadier's platoon. He points out the beacon control room which they must destroy - before posing for some of Isobel's photographs.

A short time later, the Brigadier is updating the rest of UNIT and the missile base crew with the current situation. The beacon has been destroyed, but the Cybermen are still out in space sending their hypnotic signal to the Earth, and preparing to drop their bomb.

Sergeant Peters informs Branwell that a large object has just appeared on their radar, so he interrupts the Brigadier to notify him. It can only be the Cybership, moving in closer to drop its bomb now that it no longer has the beacon to guide it. It is beyond their missile range, however.

The Brigadier contacts Turner, who will have the Russian crew divert the missile. It is now some twelve and a half minutes from the target - long enough for the Cybermen to drop their bomb and move away.

After a tense wait, the Cyberman bomb appears on radar and Henlow Downs are able to destroy it with their missiles.

The Russian rocket then blows up the Cybership.

Soon after, Zoe finds herself once more being called upon to model for Isobel. Thanks to her photographs from the compound battle, she has been offered a big magazine contract. Turner arrives to take Zoe and the Doctor back to the field where the TARDIS landed, picking up a recovered Jamie on the way. Isobel will accompany them.

She and the Captain are bemused to see the Doctor and his companions wandering around the field with their arms outstretched - until they see the Doctor appear to vanish. The TARDIS is made visible again as he replaces the now-repaired visual circuits. Jamie and Zoe bid their new friends goodbye and enter, and they look on in amazement as the Police Box dematerialises...

Next time: The Krotons

Data:

Written by Derrick Sherwin (from a story by Kit Pedler)

Recorded: Friday 8th November 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 21st December 1968

Ratings: 7 million / AI 53

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Douglas Camfield

Critique:

After completing work on The Invasion, Derrick Sherwin temporarily stepped away from his script editor role to basically become co-producer of Doctor Who - working alongside Peter Bryant (who hoped to move on) and allowing Terrance Dicks to take over his old duties full time. This meant he would be given no on-screen credit for the next two stories, despite his heavy involvement behind the scenes.

Several sequences for this episode were reworked during the summer of 1968. The helicopter pilot who took the Doctor and Vaughn to the IE compound was a named character (Love), so this sequence may have been intended to be filmed, rather than audio only.

The scene with the Brigadier being informed about the Cyber-Megatron bomb was also amended.

It was originally planned that the battle at the compound would end with the Brigadier throwing a grenade into the building housing the homing beacon controls. A Cyberman would have staggered out and fallen over the railings - narrowly missing Isobel who was photographing the Doctor below.

UNIT troops used captured Cyber-guns during the battle.

One big change was to the scene where Vaughn turns on the Cyber-Director. It was intended that it would open up, and the Servo Robot from The Wheel in Space (1) would emerge. Vaughn destroyed this using the Cerebratron Mentor, before turning the device on the Director itself.

The Brigadier was also due to accompany Captain Turner and Isobel to the field at the conclusion to the story.

The battle at the compound is obviously the highlight of the episode - meaning that the episode rather runs out of steam with some time still to go. Camfield tries to raise the tension for the later scenes, as everyone nervously waits for the rocket to reach its target. The actual conclusion to the action takes the form of more of that ropey stock footage - and the poor model work, filmed at Ealing on Friday 30th August. Camfield supervised this himself, and was disappointed with the results.

He was also unhappy with the destruction of the Cyber-Director, when only a few bits fell off the prop, and so opted to have the screen white out with a video effect for broadcast.

The battle itself was filmed over two days - Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th September - at the premises of TCC Condensers in Ealing. Work was scheduled from 8.30am to 5.30pm, and a photocall was arranged for the first day. The filming was also covered by the BBC's in-house magazine Ariel.

Six Cybermen were present, with three stuntmen playing UNIT soldiers - Alan Chuntz, Terry Walsh and Billy Corrigan.

This is the only episode in which the Cybermen are seen to fire their new guns, provided by Bill King's company, as they couldn't be used in studio due to the flame they produced.

The Ministry of Defence provided two Land Rovers and a lorry, as well as a platoon of the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, who were based at St James Barracks. Their commander was the appropriately named Major Courage. They wore their own uniforms, but added UNIT badges to their berets. Obsessed with all things military, Camfield was in his element.

One of the soldiers asked the Major if they should salute Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier. Courtney himself had never risen above the rank of Private during his time in the army on National Service, and was delighted to later be invited to dinner at the barracks alongside their overall commander, Second-Lieutenant Lord James.

The crew returned to the same venue on Thursday 12th September to film further Episode 8 sequences, including the Doctor and Vaughn moving through the compound towards the homing beacon building. Vaughn's death was filmed on this day, and another photocall was arranged for Troughton and Kevin Stoney.

The only other filming for this episode had taken place on Tuesday 3rd September, at Williamstrip Farm, Gloucestershire, when the TARDIS departure scenes were filmed - with Sally Faulkner and Robert Sidaway also present. A metal pole was set up in the middle of the field to act as a guide for Troughton to indicate where the TARDIS would be for the invisibility effect (split screen).

The final studio recording day was Friday 8th November. Frazer Hines was on holiday - Jamie's only contribution to the episode being on film for the episode's final sequence.

James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters) is conspicuous by his absence, and it has been stated by John Levene in several interviews that Benton was given a bigger role after one member of the cast was consistently late for rehearsals and so was dismissed by Camfield. Putting two and two together I think we can safely assume that this was a reference to Thornhill.

Only one Cyberman was required in studio and this was played by Pat Gorman, for the scene in which Packer is killed.

The episode was recorded out of sequence based on sets - first Vaughn's office, then the Henlow Downs command centre, then the UNIT aircraft ops room, and finally the living room at Watkins' home.

For this, a number of photographs were taken of Sheila Dunn to pin to the walls, as those of Sally Faulkner from the opening episodes had gone missing.

One of the evening's recording breaks was to replace the complete Cyber-Director prop with the damaged version.

A wrap party was held after recording, at which Peter Halliday read a poem he had composed about Terrance Dicks, which he performed in a Cyberman voice. Peter Bryant approached Nicholas Courtney about becoming a regular in the next season, since UNIT was to feature prominently in the planned revamp of the series. Having just started a family, Courtney accepted immediately.

The Invasion was sold to Australia, Hong Kong, Gibraltar and Singapore, who screened it in the early 1970's. New Zealand opted not to purchase any Season 6 stories. In Australia the story was broadcast with a number of cuts, including the killing of the policeman in the sewers and Watkins firing Packer's gun into Vaughn's chest.

The story was scheduled for wiping by the BBC in May 1971. As previously mentioned, Episodes 1 and 4 are currently missing from the archives.

Courtney filmed video links for the VHS release of the story, whilst Cosgrove Hall animated the missing instalments for the DVD.

As I've said, the final episode is let down somewhat by the anti-climactic conclusion to the action, once the Cybermen at the compound have been dealt with. The aliens appear to have only ever landed in the south of England - despite IE being a multi-national corporation. One wonders why they didn't establish troop assemblies in other cities around the world. There's also that business of them being unable to target the Earth without the aid of a homing beacon, despite their spaceship being on the near side of the Moon. (The Ice Warriors will shortly have the same problem).

That said, overall The Invasion is one of the best Troughton stories, for a number of reasons. They may only appear in significant numbers in three of the eight episodes, but the Cybermen are used effectively when they do feature - with the climax to Episode 6 and this week's big battle being stand-out moments.

When it comes to Cybermen of the B&W era, I'm often reminded of Christopher Lee's Dracula. He doesn't show up until the half way mark, and does less and less in each subsequent appearance, but when he does appear he dominates the screen.

Then we have the return of Nicholas Courtney's Lethbridge-Stewart, and the creation of UNIT. If the Doctor is to spend a lot more time on present day Earth, and he's encountering various alien or home-grown threats, then an outfit such as this is essential. If the Quatermass serials are a template, then he allied himself with the police and the military at times also. To fight invaders on his own, or with only his companion(s), every week would never have been sustainable.

It is a pity that we didn't get to meet Professor Travers one more time, and his daughter Anne. Isobel is too much of a stereotype (and more than a little bit annoying) and I just can't picture her as the companion for Season 7, which had been considered as a possibility. I think that the comparisons with Adam Adamant would have been too great had she been partnered with the flamboyant Third Doctor instead of scientist Dr Liz Shaw.

Next, there is Kevin Stoney's Tobias Vaughn, one of the great villains of the classic era. He and Mavic Chen - Stoney again - are arguably the best villains of the B&W era. (This is undoubtedly helped by the fact that both performances appear in the two longest stories to date, with Stoney appearing across 19 episodes and so really able to develop the roles).

We finally get to learn more about Vaughn's motivations, as well as the fact that this invasion has been in the planning for five years. We've already seen how his offices look identical and heard that he favours functionality and efficiency. He sees the Earth as a mass of conflicting social and political ideologies, and seeks to bring order to the chaos by imposing his own ideals on everyone. He isn't simply out for power for its own sake.

We earlier described him as a Bond-style villain, but there is one other inspiration which was topical at the time. Both ITV and the BBC ran popular series in the 1960's based around the machinations of Big Business. The Beeb had Mogul, which starred Geoffrey Keen (well known both for Bond and one of those Hammer Dracula's), whilst ATV had The Plane Makers and its sequel The Power Game. Both starred Patrick Wymark as ruthless business tycoon John Wilder. Innes Lloyd was desperate to get him into Doctor Who, and he was even considered as a potential Doctor. (Wymark appears alongside Wendy Padbury and Anthony Ainley in the folk-horror classic Blood on Satan's Claw).

The contemporary, mostly urban, setting, with the spy-fi trappings of the first half, also help the story stand out. 

The Web of Fear may have planted the seeds for the future direction of the series, but The Invasion is the actual trial run for what would follow in Season 7. It is very much a bridge between '60's and '70's Doctor Who, featuring elements of both eras.

Trivia:

• The ratings end pretty much where they started. As with last week, festive activities might have led to some potential viewers being away from home that evening.
• This was the longest of the eight episodes, running to just over 25 minutes.
• This episode marks Kit Pedler's final contribution to Doctor Who. Frustrated at only being used as an "ideas man" of late, he and Gerry Davis would soon collaborate again on their own series Doomwatch, which ran for three seasons. Later in life he became interested in ecological matters as well as showing an interest in parapsychology - writing books on both subjects. In May 1981 he was working on the TV series Mind Over Matter, which dealt with the paranormal, when he suffered a fatal heart attack, aged only 53.
• Kevin Stoney would have another encounter with the Cybermen in his final appearance in the series, when he played Councillor Tyrum in Revenge of the Cybermen.
• Vaughn manages to survive, according to the 'New Adventures' novel Original Sin - having downloaded his consciousness into a number of cybernetic bodies at the point he is blasted by the Cybermen.
• The TCC Condensers site will appear again soon, as the premises of "Auto Plastics" in Spearhead From Space. Some of the exact same locations will be used, almost shot for shot, only with UNIT fighting Autons instead of Cybermen. It also features in The Ambassadors of Death (the warehouse battle). The BBC bought the derelict site, upon part of which the famous "Acton Hilton" rehearsal block was built. The VFX Department were also based here for a time, as well as the BBC wig and costume stores and the offices of Children in Need. It was all demolished around 2010 and is now residential.
• Other than brief cameos in The War Games, The Mind of Evil and Carnival of Monsters, The Invasion was the only appearance for this particular design of Cybermen. The image of them marching down the steps near St Paul's inspired their depiction on the two sets of Weetabix figures (1975 and 1977), as well as a Doctor Who Top Trumps card. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who turned a duplicate 1975 figure into a Cyber-Leader using a black felt-tip pen...

• The Top Trumps card adapts publicity images to reflect their recent appearance in Revenge of the Cybermen, with the thicker ribbed handles and piping. It is also worth pointing out that the 1975 Weetabix figure, whilst striking a pose from the St Paul's photoshoot, is actually based upon the hybrid Cyberman costume put together for Radio Times, appearing on the wraparound cover of its Doctor Who 10th Anniversary Special:

• The Invasion featured prominently in a double page photo spread titled "Dr Who and the Robots", which appeared in DC's Giant Superman Album:

• And finally - my favourite of the two movie-style posters from Oliver Arkinstall-Jones:

What's Wrong With... The Long Game

Generally regarded as the weakest story of the first revived series, The Long Game proves important for the season finale - but of course we only know this in hindsight. At the time of broadcast, it was simply regarded as being rather dull. Following Dalek probably didn't help.

Nor did the introduction of a new, male, companion in Adam Mitchell. He proves to be quite an interesting character in this, after failing to make much of an impact in his debut episode. Having a flawed companion in the TARDIS for a while might have been a good idea, had they handled it better than they did with Turlough, or Adric to an extent. A big problem is that this potential is squandered and he is never properly developed - ditched very quickly after just this story.

One problem, for me, is RTD's insistence that this series would not venture far from Earth - arguing that the audience would not be able to relate to "Zogs, from the planet Zog". Whilst we have some impressive sets here, and nice CGI of the space station, everyone looks far too normal. We're thousands of years in the future, and everyone looks like it's 2005. You can argue that fashion travels in cycles, but it just looks cheap. Dialogue does mention the lack of aliens, and a handful are said to be no longer visiting Earth, but you would have expected at least some different species. What about ones who had actually settled on Earth, or home-grown creatures such as Silurians?

The station uses news broadcasts to deliberately isolate the human race from the rest of the universe, but does so by fairly mundane, actual news items. Why not simply create one big false news item like a massive galactic plague?

If everyone has a chip implanted in their head, which the Editor can access and monitor, why doesn't the Jagrafess simply use these to achieve its aims? 

Then there's the monster, which seems to be there purely to have a monster. RTD is clearly having a pop at the corpulent media mogul Robert Maxwell, but you just can't equate this slab of fat with the complex scheme it is carrying out. A human villain would have worked a lot better, and you've even got one there in the shape of the Editor. As the Jagrafess doesn't have dialogue, the Editor actually makes its presence redundant.

The Jagrafess has lots of sharp teeth, suggesting a carnivore, but it doesn't appear to eat anyone or anything. Its victims are merely rendered frozen zombies.

If terrestrial biology is anything to go by, the species with the longest life spans tend to be cold-blooded and so need heat to function.

Satellite 5 sits in space, so you would have thought that the Jagrafess would have sorted out this overheating business a lot more efficiently than simply pumping it through the station - instead of, say, channelling it into space?

Floor 500 is freezing, yet Suki doesn't react to the cold when she first arrives there, wearing nothing heavier than a blouse. And no-one's breath mists.

The satellite is monitored closely by CCTV, yet the sudden materialisation of a Police Box on Floor 39 goes unnoticed.

In the series finale, heavy sunspot activity cuts off all transmissions from the station. This episode is set a century before then, but the reported heavy sunspot activity (as seen on the "Bad Wolf" channel) doesn't seem to have the same effect - despite this being much older technology.

Going back to Adam, the Doctor thinks he will simply keep his head down and not cause trouble, otherwise he will find himself a laboratory specimen. But what happens if he has an accident or illness and has to go to hospital? What happens when he dies? The technology he has in his skull will eventually be found out, at a point in time when it shouldn't exist, and so the Doctor is tampering with human technological progress by leaving him in 2012 - doing the very thing he has accused Adam of doing.

Answerphones of 2012 employed a tiny magnetic tape cassette, so quite how Adam intended to use this to retrieve all the information about future technology he's acquired is anyone's guess.

Actually, the first big new development in computing is only a few years away from 2012. Who's to say it isn't Adam himself who is behind it? At the very least he could make a fortune on the stock market with the knowledge he has in his head.

The little forehead hatch opens at the sound of a click, and is said to be the default setting. In an advanced technological society you would be surrounded by clicking sounds, so it's a pretty stupid thing to have as the default. (It may be that users can train themselves to override this, but if that's the case then it is never stated).

Finally - hindsight again - the Daleks are simply going to bomb the Earth when they get there, so what was the point of playing the long game anyway?

TARDIS Crew

The BBC released the first image of the new pre-school animated series yesterday. As it's definitely not aimed at someone like me, it's not something I'll be covering here, though I will probably watch the first one just to see what it's like. Certainly looks far too cute for my tastes.

It's not due until sometime in 2027.

R is for... Ravon

Mocked by the Doctor as a "Boy General" Ravon was an overly zealous Kaled military commander on the planet Skaro. The Doctor, with companions Sarah and Harry, had been diverted by the Time Lords to the planet at a time just as the Daleks were being created by the Kaled scientist Davros - his mission to avert their creation or at least ensure they would not pose so great a threat to the entire universe. After a gas attack in the wastelands which lay between the domed cities of the Kaleds and Thals, the Doctor and Harry were captured by Ravon and his men and taken for interrogation to the bunker where Davros and his scientific elite worked.

They later escaped and made their way to the Kaled dome so that the Doctor could try to convince their leadership of the threat which Davros' creations posed. Ravon was present at this meeting, and gave the Doctor information as to how he could get into the Thal city to rescue Sarah and attempt to speak with their leaders.

Ravon perished when the Kaled dome was destroyed by a Thal rocket, after Davros had given them information on how to breach it - prepared to see his own people wiped out rather than allow them to interfere with his Dalek project.

Played by Guy Siner. Appearances: Genesis of the Daleks (1975)

• Siner is best known for playing the camp Lt Gruber, he of the little tank, in wartime comedy 'Allo, 'Allo!. (In 2007 he reprised the role for an Australian stage version, which co-starred Katy Manning).
• He is one of a small number of actors who have appeared in both Doctor Who and the Star Trek TV franchise, having played Malcolm Reed's father in ST: Enterprise.
• He also played a Minbari religious leader in Babylon 5.

R is for... Ravio

One of the last surviving humans at the end of the Cyber-Wars. She had originally been a nurse. The Doctor and her companions met her on a planet which was about to fall to the Cybermen, led by Ashad, who retained emotions and saw himself as the saviour of the Cyber-race who would purge them of the remnants of their previous humanity.

In fleeing the planet in search of a sanctuary world known as "Ko Sharmus", the Doctor's party became separated. Ravio joined Graham and Yaz on a stolen Cybership. They came across a seemingly derelict Cyberman transport ship. It proved to be full of Cyber-Warriors awaiting activation.

Ashad followed, and at one point the group had to disguise themselves as Cyber-Warriors.

It transpired that Ko Sharmus was actually a person, an old man who guarded a space / time barrier known as the Boundary. This led to a place which was free from Cybermen and to where many human refugees had fled. However, the Master diverted it to lead to Gallifrey, which he had recently destroyed.

Embittered by her wartime experiences, Ravio was initially somewhat hostile towards the Doctor's group, but soon warmed to Graham.

After the defeat of the Master and Ashad on the Time Lord homeworld, Ravio and the remaining survivors escaped to present day Earth in a fully-operational TARDIS, which materialised as a house. There they could start a new life.

Played by Julie Graham. Appearances: Ascension of the Cybermen / The Timeless Children (2020)

• This wasn't Graham's first involvement with the world of Doctor Who. In 2010 she had played alien villain Ruby White in Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith - the final story of the fourth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

R is for... Ravensworth, Lord

Lord Ravensworth was a progressive landowner whose estate in North East England included the mining village of Killingworth. He had a passion for science and engineering, and employed George Stephenson. He conceived a plan to convene a meeting which would be attended by as many of the greatest minds of the Industrial Revolution as he could muster, so that they could share ideas.

Unfortunately for him, the rogue Time Lord the Rani was active in the village, posing as the local bathhouse keeper. She was harvesting chemicals from the brains of miners who frequented her establishment, those that promoted sleep. This was in order to pacify the inhabitants of the planet Miasimia Goria which she ruled. She had tampered with their brain chemistry so that they would need less sleep and so work work more - only to find them becoming ungovernable.

Her tampering with the miners led to an outbreak of Luddite-like activity, which distressed Ravensworth as it seemed to affect hard-working, loyal men whom he knew personally. One was the father of Luke Ward, who assisted him and Stephenson.

Purely by coincidence, the Master also visited the region - intent on sabotaging Earth's industrial and scientific progress through an attack on Lord Ravensworth's proposed meeting. He lured the Doctor here so that he could destroy him. The Doctor advised Ravensworth to postpone his meeting until the threat from the two rogue Time Lords had been dealt with.

Played by: Terence Alexander. Appearances: The Mark of the Rani (1985)

• Based on a real historical figure - Thomas Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth and 6th Baronet (1775 - 1855). He employed Stephenson at Killingworth in 1804 and encouraged him in his work on developing steam powered transport so that his coal could be more easily carried from the pits to the ports on the River Tyne. His grand-niece was Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.
• Alexander had a hugely successful career as a character actor in film and television spanning five decades, but is best known for playing Charlie Hungerford - father-in-law to Bergerac.
• He played multiple guest characters in series such as The Avengers and The Persuaders!
• As Major Rupert Rutland-Smith, he was one of The League of Gentlemen (1960) - the movie which gave the comedy troupe their name.
• Amongst the many other actors considered for the role in The Mark of the Rani were Peter Cushing, Patrick Stewart and Michael Gough.

R is for... Ravens

 

Corvus Corax - the raven - has played a significant role in the lives of the Doctor and his companions on several occasions.

Leonard de Vries, who owned Boscombe Hall in the south west of England, had a pet raven. He was the leader of a Druidic sect which worshipped the Celtic witch-goddess Cailleach. The bird was one of her symbols and they acted as her eyes and ears. Romana was troubled by the sight of the bird as it perched on the roof of the TARDIS.

Alien criminal Cesair of Diplos, posing as local Vivien Fey, had taken on the role of the Cailleach whilst donning a bird-like costume.

The Tower of London is famed for its raven population, and legend states that England will fall should they ever leave (which is why the ones kept there have their wings clipped). Kate Stewart of UNIT revealed to the Doctor that they were actually artificial, running on batteries.

Quantum Shades were creatures which could kill anyone at a designated time and space location, and so could be used as assassins or executioners. The immortal Ashildr, now known simply as Me, used one in the form of a raven to enforce the rules of the London Trap Street of which she was mayor. These were small pockets of space / time cut off from the rest of the universe which could be used as refuges for various alien species.

The intended victim was marked with a chronolock - a tattoo which counted down the minutes until their death. Once branded in this way, the only way someone could escape their fate was if another person willingly took it on themself. A young man named Rigsy, who was a friend to the Doctor and Clara Oswald, found himself marked after being accused of murdering an inhabitant of the Trap Street. Clara decided to take his chronolock due to her over-confidence that the Doctor would save her.

However, the whole set up had been a trap for him and he was powerless to stop it killing his companion. On attacking, the Shade would assume the form of smoke and pass through the body, killing the victim.

Appearances: The Stones of Blood (1978), Face the Raven (2015).

• Ravens feature in a number of mythologies. Odin had a pair named Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory) which flew across the world every day to spy on his behalf.
• In Native American tradition, the raven is seen as both a creator spirit and a trickster. They brought the sun, moon and stars to humanity.
• The Celts believed that Morrigan, the goddess of war and death, transformed herself into a raven to fly over battlefields, and the sight of a raven before battle could indicate a warrior's fate.
• Greek god Apollo was angered when a white raven delivered bad news, so he scorched its feathers and so all ravens are now black.
• The Japanese have a legend of a three-legged raven, Yatagarasu, which symbolises the sun.
• And a raven was the first bird which Noah is said to have sent out from the Ark to see if the flood had abated.
• Some of these legends refer to ravens and crows equally. The crow features prominently in The Eaters of Light (2017), and its call is even supposed to echo the name 'Kar', a young woman who sacrificed herself alongside some Roman soldiers to imprison the monsters in another dimension.

R is for... Ravagers

A pair of ancient beings who acted as agents for the entity Time - a sentient force which waged an eternal battle against Space. They were brother and sister - Swarm and Azure.

The Division - a secretive Gallifreyan organisation which once actively intervened in the affairs of other planets and species - created the Temple of Atropos, on a planet called Time, as a means to capture and imprison them. Creatures known as the Mouri dwelt in the temple, where they were able to control the flow of Time.

Swarm was held captive on a barren planetoid, whilst Azure was transformed into a human woman and placed on Earth with her memories of her true self suppressed.

Swarm was able to escape and regenerate into a younger version of himself, and he freed his sister. Together, they were responsible for an anti-matter force known as the Flux, which they exploited to destroy the universe in revenge against the Division, as well as acting to free Time by sabotaging the Temple.

The leader of the Division, Tecteun, decided to travel to a neighbouring universe and allow the Flux to do its work. She was based on a vessel which was travelling through the void between the universes, and captured the Doctor in the hope that she would join her - claiming that this other universe might even be where she had originally come from. 

Swarm and Azure arrived and killed Tecteun. They could harvest the lifeforce of physical beings for their regeneration, and could disintegrate people and objects with their touch.

Other powers included telepathy and the ability to teleport across both time and space.

Swarm revealed that he knew the Doctor's true history, which was contained within a fob watch. The Doctor later obtained this - but chose not to open it.

Time was eventually released, but because the Doctor had stopped the Flux, the entity destroyed Swarm and Azure. They accepted their fate as they deemed this an ascension from the spatial plane to become purely creatures of time.

Played by: Sam Spruell (Swarm), Rochenda Sandall (Azure), Matthew Needham (Old Swarm).

Appearances: Flux / Series 13 (2021) - The Halloween Apocalypse, War of the Sontarans, Once Upon Time, Survivors of the Flux, The Vanquishers.

• It was originally intended that the Ravagers (also known as the Ravages) would be adolescents, who slowly grew older until they resembled the Old Swarm. They could only communicate telepathically due to their underdeveloped features, becoming more crystalline as they matured. Masks were even made for them, and some scenes filmed on the Temple set - but these were then cut.
• The Older Swarm is played by an actor seven years younger than the one who plays the regenerated version.
• Sam Spruell's biggest screen appearance to date was as the brother of the witch-queen in Snow White & The Huntsman (2012), but more recently he has featured in GoT spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. He is currently working on the second season of Alien: Earth.
• Rochenda Sandall has appeared in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and the hugely popular crime drama Line of Duty. She was also a regular on the ecological sci-fi series The Rig.
• Matthew Needham plays Lord Larys in House of the Dragon. His first movie role was a minor one in folk horror The Ritual in 2017, and he has also featured in an episode of Sherlock.

Episode 226: The Invasion (7)

Synopsis:

As a strange alien tone sounds across the city, people fall into a catatonic state whilst Cybermen begin to emerge from the sewer system and march unopposed through the streets of London...

At Professor Watkins' home, the Doctor has also been affected due to his depolariser falling off. His friends quickly recover it and he revives. 

Captain Turner radios to UNIT HQ.

Reports have come in of Cybermen appearing everywhere. The Brigadier informs them that he will be sending a jeep to collect them all as they will be safer at the HQ.

In his office, Vaughn is consulting with the Cyber-Director. It announces that the main invasion fleet will now move in, and the radio homing beacon at the IE compound must be activated.

Vaughn informs it that his organisation will now take over, with the Cybermen already on Earth to remain under his control. 

The Cybermen see this as opposition to them, but he argues that he is more familiar with the way things work on Earth. They counter that all humans are now under their control and he begins to lose his temper, revealing his personal ambitions. He manages to end the meeting with an agreement from them to continue as he had advised.

However, as soon as he terminates the discussion he summons Packer and orders him to fetch Watkins, who they know to be at his home. His machine must go into mass production immediately. They do not expect any resistance from UNIT.

Sergeant Walters pulls up in front of Watkins' house - but closely followed by an IE vehicle.

Watkins is shot in the leg as they flee, and then Jamie is hit and wounded.

Turner calls the Brigadier who arranges for a helicopter to pick them up.

Packer reports to Vaughn what has happened - guessing correctly that it was through the Doctor that UNIT evaded the Cyber-control signal. He argues that the Doctor should have been killed when they first had the chance, and worries that without the Cerebratron Mentor they are powerless against the Cybermen. Suppressing his anger, Vaughn simply claims that he has the Doctor and his friends where he wants them, but orders that the radio beacon be activated. The full Cyberman invasion force must be brought in as soon as possible.

The UNIT transporter is now in flight.

The Doctor argues that their first priority is to destroy the Cyber-control signal, as there will be thousands of Cybermen approaching from space and Earth must be able to defend itself. The Brigadier points out that they would need a missile to achieve this as it is being beamed from space - then recalls that the Russians had a manned rocket about to launch. A warhead could be fitted to this instead of an astronaut capsule.

Captain Turner will travel to Russia with depolarisers to organise this.

The second priority is the destruction of the homing beacon at the IE compound, to prevent more Cybermen landing. 

The Brigadier orders the aircraft to take him to Henlow Downs missile base. They may be able to destroy the Cyberships as they approach. The aircraft lands at an airfield where Turner has arranged for a supersonic craft to take him on to Russia. 

The Doctor suggests that the Brigadier take Zoe with him to the missile base, as her computational skills may prove very useful. He, meanwhile, plans to go and see Vaughn...

The Doctor drives off in a UNIT jeep, with the Brigadier ordering a helicopter to tail him and remain close by should he need it. 

The Doctor soon reports that he is going to enter the IE building via the sewer network, assuming that it is now empty of Cybermen.

Vaughn and Packer are meeting in the office when an alarm sounds. The Doctor appears on the internal camera system, announcing his arrival to the bemused Vaughn.

The Doctor keeps his UNIT radio switched on so that they will be able to listen in.

The Brigadier and Zoe arrive at Henlow Downs where they begin reviving the ground crew, who are commanded by Major Branwell.

The Doctor is trying to reason with Vaughn, pointing out that the Cybermen will destroy all life on Earth. Vaughn, however, sees this as merely a delaying tactic and is trying to second-guess what UNIT are up to. He has ordered the radio homing beacon to be aligned, and assumes that this is what UNIT will target. They will be too late as far as he is concerned. He refuses to put a stop to what has taken years to plan, with success within his grasp.

Zoe learns from Branwell and Sergeant Peters that the radar at the base will only pick up the Cyberships when they are practically on top of them.

The Cyberships begin to appear on radar - far more than Henlow Downs has missiles to intercept.

Zoe asks for the countdown to be paused - which the Brigadier authorises against the complaints from the Major - then makes some rapid calculations. She shows Branwell and Peters how their few missiles could be used to set off a chain reaction that would wipe out the entire fleet.

The missiles are launched...

The Cyber-Director reports to Vaughn that the fleet is being destroyed, and he is accused to betraying the Cybermen. They will now take over the invasion. 

When Vaughn tries to argue with it, he is sent reeling by an energy pulse generated by the machine, which announces that a Cyber-Megatron bomb will be delivered. This will kill every living being on the planet.

"Is this what you wanted?" demands the Doctor of Vaughn. "To be the ruler of a dead world?"...

Data:

Written by Derrick Sherwin (from a story by Kit Pedler)

Recorded: Friday 1st November 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 14th December 1968

Ratings: 7.2 million / AI 55

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Douglas Camfield

Additional cast: Clifford Earl (Major Branwell), Norman Hartley (Sergeant Peters)

Critique:

Before we look at the making-of, let's get some negatives out of the way first. It comes as a bit of a disappointment, after the big invasion set piece at the conclusion to Episode 6, that the Cybermen do not feature in this episode at all, save for the reprise at the start.

Then there is the model work. They are great models, but the filming of their destruction is far from satisfying. They are simply shot at by fireworks, some of which clearly miss their target, and the sequence fails to match what Zoe has so cleverly organised for the missiles.

Lastly, there's the overuse of rather ropey stock footage employed for the missile launches. This is made even worse when the whole story is watched in one sitting as the exact same material is used in the final episode as well. Some is even repeated within this episode.

The draft script for this episode once again described the Cyberships as looking exactly as they had done in The Wheel in Space - cylindrical and covered in a pattern of hexagons.

Sherwin specifically recommended stock footage of Nike-Zeus missiles, presumably because he already knew about this material in the library.

Early rewrites to the scenes set at Watkins' home were carried out in early August. This included the wounding of both the professor and Jamie. The former was not needed for the remainder of the story, whilst Frazer Hines would be having a holiday during the week of recording of the eighth instalment.

(As this incident takes place so early in the episode, it's a pity Camfield couldn't have recorded it during the making of the previous episode and so free Hines, and Burnham, from both episodes. Presumably it would have meant an extra set - the hallway - and he may have lacked the time in studio anyway).

Earlier in the story, Watkins' front door had been recorded in studio, based on an actual location used on film. This was at No.18 St. James' Gardens in Kensington, filmed on Wednesday 11th September.

The only other filming for this episode was the model work, undertaken at Ealing on Friday 30th August.

There were two different types of Cybership model. One comprised a pair of drums with a glowing globe between, representing warships, whilst another type was covered in rectangular pods, suggesting transporter ships. These had been built by Bill King's company.

They were filmed sitting on tables covered in black cloth and with black drapes behind. The camera tracked past the stationery models to suggest movement. The attack on the ships was achieved by firing small explosive charges at them, which proved less than successful.

I'll have a separate "Afterlife" post about these Cybership models, as they turn up in some unexpected places over the next couple of years.

No Cybermen were required in studio on Friday 1st November, when recording began with two scenes set in Watkins' home, after which recording followed story order. 

One of the recording breaks was to allow extras wearing UNIT uniforms on the transporter aircraft set to change into conventional army attire to become Henlow Downs ground staff.

The Doctor flipping a coin to decide which direction to go in the sewers was a visual ad-lib from Troughton. His POV of the empty tunnels came from still images of the full sewer set taken during the making of the previous episode.

The big new set this week was the command centre at Henlow Downs. This was dominated by a large illuminated display which showed the launch status of its eight missiles.

The stock footage of the missiles came from Visnews and from the Ministry of Technology. As this material was silent, Brian Hodgson provided radiophonic sounds to overscore the images.

A bright lighting effect was used to indicate the attack on Vaughn from the Cyber-Director.

The closing credits began to roll over a close-up of the shocked Vaughn.

We've talked about some of the negatives, so what are the positives - for it is actually a very good episode. It's an especially good episode for Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier, who up until now has been pretty much confined to his aircraft headquarters. He finally gets out and about and has a lot more to do.

The Brigadier as we know him from the Pertwee era isn't quite there yet, but he's starting to develop.

There's a lovely little exchange between him and Zoe where she complains that a helicopter won't be of much use to the Doctor down in the sewers. He isn't at all concerned, and simply asks her if she fancies a cup of tea. The look on Padbury's face is priceless. (This sequence, as well as one from the missile control room, was used to illustrate the somewhat sexist nature of the series in its early days, in the documentary (More Than) 30 Years in the TARDIS).

With Hines starting his holiday early - Jamie being injured and no longer playing any part in proceedings - this is very much Zoe's turn to shine. She changed back into her iconic glittery catsuit in the last episode, and here she is seen coming up with the plan to use a limited number of missiles to take out the entire Cyberman invasion fleet. The scene is let down just a bit by the soldiers ogling her derriere as she goes from display to display taking notes of the readings.

The episode ends with a couple of great scenes between the Doctor and Vaughn, initially dancing around each other until the would-be dictator sees his dream of conquest suddenly torn away from him.

The Doctor has only sneaked into the IE building to avoid the Cybermen. As soon as he's in, he announces his presence. They may oppose each other, but the Doctor and Vaughn clearly have some mutual admiration for each other, as can be seen by the way in which the pair sit and chat in the office.

You do have to wonder about the Cyber-Megatron bomb business. If the Cybermen were never interested in enslaving or converting the population of Earth - that was only ever Vaughn's intention - and they simply want the planet's mineral wealth, then why did they enter into this arrangement with him and invade in the first place?

Trivia:

• The ratings see a sizeable improvement this week, despite the new competition from Gerry Anderson's Joe 90 in some ITV regions, plus the fact that many people would be out Christmas shopping or attending events in the run-up to the festive period.
• Amongst the Henlow Downs personnel is background artist Reg Cranfield. He had been the very first person to ever appear in Doctor Who - the policeman who checks the junkyard gates in the broadcast version of An Unearthly Child. Previous appearances included walk-ons in The Massacre, The Gunfighters and The Underwater Menace, and he would later feature in The Silurians, The Mutants and The Green Death. His final Doctor Who role was as a Time Lord in The Deadly Assassin.
• Clifford Earl had played the desk sergeant in The Feast of Steven. He was often called upon to play policemen of one rank or another - a staggering 42 times according to his IMDb listing.
• Like Earl, Norman Hartley had been employed on the series previously by Douglas Camfield - playing the Viking raider Ulf in The Time Meddler.

Inspirations: Empress of Mars

It's a Mark Gatiss story - so expect a lot of literary and movie references...

He originally intended his next episode to be a sequel to Sleep No More, but that had been very poorly received. 

Had he written it, it would have been set on Earth in the present day, with the same sleep compression technology being introduced into the world's financial sector - so more of a prequel actually.

Deciding that he would step back from the series along with the departing Steven Moffat, and knowing that the next showrunner might want to do his own thing, with his own writers, he also realised that this might well be his final story for Doctor Who - at least for a while.

Whilst in Morocco with Moffat writing Sherlock, he asked if he could write the story he had always wanted to do.

It had been Gatiss who single-handedly got the Ice Warriors back into the series, when Moffat had been resistant - thinking them clichéd lumbering big green monsters. Still reluctant, Moffat only agreed to the story if Gatiss did something new with them, which is how he came up with the concept of an "Ice Queen".

Gatiss wanted to see them on their own planet - Mars - where he could expand their mythology.

However, his first idea had been to set this story on Peladon, as this was the time of the "Brexit" referendum - The Curse of Peladon having been inspired by the UK joining the European community, so sort of full circle for Britain in Europe.

After receiving a text message from Ian McNeice, enquiring if he could feature in the series again, Gatiss initially considered setting the new story during Churchill's time.

The Ice Warriors had simply been somewhat stereotypical alien invaders to begin with, until creator Brian Hayles chose to shake them up by showing them in a good light - still as noble warriors but now peacefully involved in the diplomatic manoeuvres of the Galactic Federation. He then had them revert to villains for their final appearance in the classic series, though stressing that Azaxyr's was a militaristic breakaway faction.

Gatiss brought them back in Cold War, a story very much influenced by their very first appearance.

That episode, however, had hinted at their wider culture, which had also been expanded upon in spin-off material.

Had Hayles been able to write the second Ice Warrior story he wanted - "Lords of the Red Planet" - then he would have shown a lot more of their origins and social structure. However, Terrance Dicks had pretty much rewritten it to become The Seeds of Death.

The design for the Empress' helmet, more domed and with the open mouth area, derives from the so-called "Ice Lords", played by Alan Bennion in a trio of classic era stories. They're never called this on screen, though Ssorg does refer to his superior as Lord Izlyr at one point in The Curse of Peladon. It's a name from fandom which has sort of stuck.

Ice Warrior 'Friday' derives his name from the character Man Friday in Daniel Defoe's The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) - named by the title character after being rescued by him on that day of the week. The novel was supposedly inspired by the real life castaway Alexander Selkirk, who survived four years stranded on an island off Chile.

Beyond the Ice Warriors, there are two obvious inspirations for this episode - both with a Victorian setting.

The first is H.G. Wells' The First Men on the Moon, which was first published in 1901 but had been serialised the year before. In this Victorian explorers - a scientist named Cavor and his businessman neighbour, Bedford - travel to the Moon. Bedford has money troubles and participates in the expedition as he believes that the Moon's mineral resources can be exploited. Once there, they find the satellite to be inhabited by the Selenites. It was filmed in 1964, with visual effects by Ray Harryhausen.

Mark Gatiss had played Cavor in a 2010 BBC version, which he himself had adapted.

The imagery of futurism combined with Victorian heavy engineering would later come to be known as "Steampunk" - a literary and fashion movement which envisaged certain scientific advances taking place a century earlier than they did in reality. The phrase was coined in 1987, first associated with Japanese manga and anime, but the genre can be traced back to the likes of Wells and Jules Verne.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special A Christmas Carol has very definite steampunk design elements, but it can be seen in the series as far back as Pyramids of Mars.

The other big inspiration is the film Zulu, also 1964, which revolved around the Battle of Rorke's Drift, fought in January 1879. Some 150 British soldiers defended a mission station from a Zulu army, numbering in the thousands, over a two day period. 11 Victoria Crosses were later awarded. The soldiers in Empress of Mars wear the same uniforms (those of the 24th Regiment of Foot and the Royal Engineers), as it is stated that they too have come from the African continent after finding Friday there. (Friday is the third Ice Warrior to have crash-landed on Earth - so I don't think much of their piloting skills...).

Gatiss also claimed to have been inspired by Victorian adventurers in Journey to the Centre of the Earth (filmed in 1959), and the movie adaptation of At The Earth's Core (1976), which featured a very Dr. Who-like performance by Peter Cushing.

Another obvious inspiration would be Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, who features in a whole series of stories, the first of which was A Princess of Mars (serialised in 1912), which presumably inspired the episode's title. Queen Victoria was also known as Empress of India during her reign, so the Empress of the title could refer to her as well as Iraxxa.

The Ice Warriors having Hives on their homeworld came from a throwaway line in Gatiss' own Robot of Sherwood.

The imagery of the Warriors emerging from these was inspired by Tomb of the Cybermen.

The portrait of Queen Victoria in the army camp depicts Pauline Collins as the monarch rather than an image of the real Victoria, she having played her in Tooth and Claw.

The character of Captain Catchpole was derived from Harry Flashman, the school bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays - written by Thomas Hughes in 1857. He later appeared as an adult in a series of novels by George MacDonald Fraser. Gatiss was specifically thinking of Flashman as he appears in Flashman and the Tiger (1999).

Gatiss found Godsacre's name on a tombstone in a Dorset graveyard. He is said to have "danced the Newgate jig" - a reference to the fact that criminals were publicly hanged at Newgate Prison from the late 18th Century until 1868.

Jackdaw was inspired by Dickens' Bill Sykes (Oliver Twist) and Vincey got his name from a character in H Rider Haggard's She.

Next time: Stone the crows! There's Romans, in the gloamin'...

TARDISMusings Is Back From Holiday...

A week in Italy and another in London, but back home now. I will be posting again regularly from tomorrow (Thursday 1st October), with The Invasion (7) following on Sunday.

I don't appear to have missed any news while I was away, other than this tendering business, which states that the BBC want to see a new series ready for 2028/9. Whilst there are some who would welcome the series back tomorrow, there are many who might want to see a longer break before they attempt a relaunch.

Episode 225: The Invasion (6)

Synopsis:

Jamie, Zoe and Isobel have found themselves trapped in the sewers. There are two Cybermen further along one stretch of tunnel, who have just witnessed killing a policeman - and they see another lurching towards them from the opposite direction...

This is the Cyberman driven insane by exposure to the Cerebratron Mentor, however, and it staggers past.

Captain Turner has arrived, and he descends into the sewers accompanied by Sergeant Walters, Corporal Benton and Private Perkins.

They shout out, but Jamie and the others don't want to reply as it will alert the Cybermen to their presence. They stand between them and their rescuers.

The two Cybermen approach the UNIT party, who are about to defend themselves when the deranged unit emerges from the gloom and begins to attack the others.

Turner orders his men to attack using grenades, but Perkins panics and tries to flee. He is shot down by the Cybermen. The grenades are thrown and two of the creatures are destroyed - but the third begins to rise.

Jamie and the others are urged to run towards Turner before it can recover fully, and everyone ascends a ladder up to street level, emerging through a manhole. The damaged Cyberman pursues them and seizes Jamie by the leg. Corporal Benton throws another grenade down into the manhole after Jamie has broken free.

The Brigadier is with the Doctor in the laboratory at Watkins' home. The latter still cannot work out the function of the strange circuits found in all IE equipment. The Brigadier is waiting for Isobel's photographs before flying to Geneva to force some action against Vaughn.

She arrives with her freshly developed prints - but the Brigadier is less than impressed. He points out that they could be construed as fakes - an observation she is forced to agree with.

Packer is reporting to Vaughn about the incident in the sewers, but he is unconcerned. Even if UNIT attempt anything, it will be too late. He looks out over London, relishing the fact that he will soon control it along with the rest of the planet.

Gregory and Watkins are summoned to report progress on the Cerebratron Mentor. It now has directional control and more power, and the professor is appalled that his work has been transformed into a weapon. Vaughn decides to test it by blasting Watkins with crippling fear. Gregory stops him from going too far, which infuriates his employer. He argues that they need the professor unharmed to help produce copies of the machine, but Vaughn is already aware of this.

Watkins recovers and vows to kill Vaughn if given the opportunity. Vaughn orders Packer to hand the professor his gun, then goads him into shooting him. He fires into his chest at point blank range - but Vaughn is unharmed. He simply laughs as Watkins faints at his feet.

In the laboratory, Jamie sleeps as Isobel talks with Turner, recognising the folly of her expedition into the sewers. She has now heard the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe tell the Brigadier all about the Cybermen.

UNIT have had their communications relayed to the house, and a report comes in that Watkins is being transferred by two armed IE men, accompanied by Gregory. 

Isobel urges the Brigadier to intervene and rescue her uncle, and the Doctor agrees as he could do with the professors' help. Turner is ordered to mount a rescue mission.

A short time later, a battered and bruised Gregory is reporting the freeing of the professor in a UNIT ambush to Vaughn. He insists that, given time, he can get the Mentor into production - but Vaughn knows this highly unlikely.

Packer takes Gregory down to the sewers, where he is executed by Cybermen.

Watkins is unable to tell the Doctor anything about the micro-monolithic circuits, but is able to describe his own machine in more detail. The Doctor realises that Vaughn intends to use it against the Cybermen, rather than as a weapon to help them. He then deduces that the mysterious circuits are emotional circuits - artificial nervous systems - which will be employed to paralyse the population of Earth and so allow the Cybermen to invade unopposed.

He demonstrates on paper how the Cybermen have a spaceship located on the dark side of the Moon. It will move around to the side facing the Earth and beam a signal at the planet's communications satellites - which will then broadcast the Cyber-hypnotic force across the globe via the circuits.

They realise that the invasion could begin at any moment, and the only defence will be a depolariser worn at the back of the neck. They begin searching the lab for neuristors with which to make a batch, so they at least can be protected.

With one hour to go, Vaughn is in his office, making final preparations with the Cyber-Director.

With thirty minutes to go, the Doctor's party are still trying to make more depolarisers.

Turner and Isobel are watching as dawn breaks over the city. They suddenly hear a strange electronic tone and go to alert the others - but all can now hear it. The streets of the city are relatively quiet at this time of the morning, but those few who are out and about begin to collapse into a catatonic state due to the alien signal. The Doctor realises that his depolariser has fallen off, and collapses before the others can help.

Across central London, Cybermen begin to emerge from the sewers onto the streets.

Unopposed, they march relentlessly through the city...

Data:

Written by Derrick Sherwin (from a story by Kit Pedler)

Recorded: Friday 25th October 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 7th December 1968

Ratings: 6.5 million / AI 56

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post

Designer: Richard Hunt

Director: Douglas Camfield 

Additional cast: Stacy Davies (Perkins), Pat Gorman, Derek Chafer, Charles Finch, John Spradbury, Terence Denville, Ralph Carrigan (Cybermen)

Critique: 

Captain Turner was originally to have had another soldier named Harris with him, who was wounded by shrapnel from an exploding grenade.

The biggest change to the episode, from script to broadcast version, was the ambush by UNIT which freed Watkins. This was to have been a location sequence, using a country road rather than a London street. The professor is in an IE car with Gregory and a couple of security guards, and they are being tailed by Benton in another car. He radios ahead to Turner, who is sitting in a jeep further along the road, accompanied by three UNIT soldiers. The jeep pulls out in front of the IE car, with Benton blocking it from reversing. A gunfight then ensues as Watkins runs towards Turner. Gregory is about to shoot him in the back but is himself shot and wounded by Benton. The IE guards then ran off into the woods.

This was followed by a scene at Vaughn's office as Gregory reported back. In this instance, Vaughn was not unduly upset as he knew that Watkins could be recaptured in a few hour's time when the Cybermen activated their hypnotic signal.

The sequence was planned to be shot on Friday 13th September - the last day of location work, when production had moved to Ealing Studios. Douglas Camfield ran out of time, and so this action set-piece had to be dropped. Derrick Sherwin then added the brief sequence in which Gregory is killed by Cybermen in the sewers, in order to give Ian Fairbairn a decent death scene.

The montage of people being affected by the signal was to have included a milkman and a paper boy.

A number of photographs were taken of London locations on the morning of Saturday 7th September, to be used as establishing shots of the deserted city at dawn. This included Australia House at Aldwych.

Filming for the episode centred on the climactic scenes of the Cybermen launching their invasion in Central London. This took place on the morning of Sunday 8th September, commencing at 8.30am to try to avoid onlookers. As it was, word got out and Camfield found himself falling behind schedule to the crowds which built up.

The filming took place primarily around St Paul's Cathedral - St Peter's Hill and the adjoining Knightrider Street, which is the lane with a pub at the corner along which the Cybermen are seen to march (see images below).

Permission had been given to remove some of the manhole covers, which were replaced with lightweight props for the Cybermen to cast aside.

That afternoon the scenes on Fore Street, Moorgate, were filmed - of the UNIT rescue party arriving then departing with Jamie, Zoe and Isobel from the manhole. Pat Gorman played the Cyberman who attacks Jamie and has to be fought off with a grenade. You can see that his arm has extra padding, for when he is hit with a rifle butt.

A small number of extras were filmed on Distaff Lane and Queen Victoria Street (at St Nicholas Cole Abbey church and the College of Arms) - victims of the Cyberman hypnotic signal. These included a char lady, a window cleaner and a City gent, as well as a man slumped forward over the steering wheel of his car (an uncredited Derrick Sherwin).

It had been hoped to film the Cybermen at other famous landmarks, including Tower Bridge, Hyde Park, the Houses of Parliament and emerging from a number of Underground stations, but Camfield ran out of time as work had to be completed by 4pm.

Stacy Davies was a late replacement for actor Tony Wright, who had originally been booked to play Private Perkins.

The Cybermen were first seen to carry their guns in this episode - though they couldn't be used in studio as they fired a smoke charge which produced a burst of flame. They could only be used on location for safety reasons. These Cyberguns were the work of Bill King's company.

The battle in the sewer was accomplished mainly off camara through sound effects as it was being mounted in studio.

Two specially blurred photographs had been taken of Cybermen, representing Isobel's failed efforts to capture them on film.

Kevin Stoney agreed with Edward Burnham that his slap to the face should look as realistic as possible, and it certainly shows on screen.

One recording break was to allow Stoney to change his shirt from the pristine version to the one with smoking bullet holes.

The static images of deserted London locations were turned into slide captions, some of them supplied by the Visnews agency.

The end credits rolled over footage of the Cybermen marching along Knightrider Street.

If anything, it is the most iconic image from the classic era of Doctor Who. You can talk about Daleks on Westminster Bridge - but that was only a publicity photograph and the scene never actually appeared in the programme in that form.

Cybermen marching down the steps of St Paul's Cathedral is so iconic it was not only recreated for the 30th Anniversary documentary, using 1980's versions, but it reappeared in the series itself - in the closing moments of Dark Water.

Fans of a certain age were first introduced to the image above through Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who Monster Book (Target, 1975), a double page spread introducing the section "Monsters Who Came Back For More".

Of course, the Cybermen don't actually march down the steps of the cathedral itself until the Capaldi story. They're really a short distance away on St Peter's Hill, which ran down towards the Thames from St Paul's Churchyard. It is now simply Peter's Hill. The area has been heavily redeveloped, and it's now the pedestrianised route to the Millennium Bridge.

It is unfortunate that Camfield ran out of time and was unable to capture the Cybermen at other London landmarks, and the image of them emerging from the Underground would have been a striking one.

After the opening sequence in the sewers, neither of the Doctor's companions has much of a role to play in this episode. Indeed, Jamie actually falls asleep at one point whilst the Doctor discusses events with the Brigadier. The Doctor himself has very little to do this week, with Troughton only featuring in a handful of scenes, all in the professor's home laboratory. (It's a bit of a coincidence that Watkins just happens to be an expert in both the means to destroy Cybermen, and the means by which they intend to attack the Earth).

We see instead the beginning of a romance between Captain Turner and Isobel, and an excellent scene between Vaughn and Watkins - the one with the ferocious slap from Stoney which practically knocks Burnham off his feet. One slight problem with this sequence is, of course, the fact that Vaughn has a cybernetic body - but presumably only from the neck down. It was very lucky that Watkins chose to shoot him in the chest and not in the head. (Either that or he is cybernetic from head to toe, so didn't care where the professor shot him).

If they had managed to film the rescue sequence, how would they have fitted it in? The episode as it stands runs to 23' 20" - the shortest of the eight - but the UNIT ambush as written would surely have taken us up to or over the 25 minute mark. I suspect that it was this scene between Vaughn and Watkins which might have been expanded to make up for the missing material. It's a character scene, not vital to the plot. We already know that Vaughn has a cybernetic body as he said so in the last episode - "My body may be cybernetic but my mind remains human. That is final!".

The scene of Gregory's demise in the sewers is very rushed - so much so that one guidebook even questioned if it was Ian Fairbairn who appears, claiming it doesn't look like him.

It's a pity that the UNIT ambush sequence had to be dropped. It would have added some extra action, but this episode has already gone down in Doctor Who history for its closing moments.

Trivia:

• The ratings see only a slight dip in viewers, but there is a small improvement in the appreciation figure.
• Derek Chafer had previously played a Cyberman in The Moonbase.
• Ian Marter reinstated the rescue of Watkins for the Target novelisation - a sequence which ends with Gregory being shot dead by Benton.
• The first of two movie-style posters for this story by the talented Oliver Arkinstall-Jones: