The TARDIS materialises in mid-air, high above the grey waters of the North Sea. It slowly descends to rest on the surface, and the Doctor and his companions are forced to take to a rubber dinghy in order to reach the shore.
The beach appears to be deserted, windswept and covered in sea foam. The trio lark around in this for a while, until Jamie notices a pipeline running across the sand. They are unaware that they are being closely observed - caught in the crosshairs of a remote controlled weapon...
The Doctor decides to examine the pipe, which is stamped with the name "EuroSea Gas", and opens an inspection hatch using his sonic screwdriver. He is alarmed to hear a throbbing vibration, suggestive of a heartbeat.
All three are then shot down by tranquiliser darts.
They wake a short time later to find themselves inside the EuroSea Gas compound, under guard. They are interrogated by a man named Robson, who is accompanied by a younger man named Harris. Robson is in charge here, with Harris his deputy. He accuses them of trespassing in a restricted area and of sabotaging the pipeline.
Robson goes off to deal with other matters and Harris explains that they have been experiencing problems with the gas flow from offshore rigs, with which they have been having communications problems.
The Doctor informs Harris of the strange heartbeat sounds he heard from the pipeline. He suggests some marine life may have managed to get into the system - and that the gas flow be halted until an investigation is carried out. Harris admits that the stubborn Robson won't countenance any production delays
Robson has gone to the main control centre and has technician Price attempt to call the drilling rigs. Out in the North Sea, a group of these structures cluster around - and are connected to - a central command rig.
Contact is established with Rig D, but reception is poor and the engineer based there, Carney, speaks in a flat, halting manner - claiming all is well. He states that the repair crew sent out a short time ago must remain on the rig. Communications then break down again.
Harris advises that the system be shut down so that they can investigate thoroughly the blockages to the gas flow, but Robson refuses to cut production. He resents having Harris as his deputy, belittling his university education whilst he relies on his many years of practical experience - including an unbroken four years on a rig.
Harris has written some notes on the problem which he wishes Robson to look at, and his boss only reluctantly agrees to look at them. When he produces his file, the notes have gone. Thinking he must have left them at home, Harris contacts his wife, Maggie, who lives in family quarters on site, asking her to bring them to him as Robson refuses to allow him to leave in the middle of this crisis.
The Doctor and his companions have been locked in a crew cabin, and are trying to break free. Jamie tries unsuccessfully to climb through an opening above the door, but Victoria quickly opens the lock with a hairpin.
Maggie is searching for the notes and as she opens a folder she feels a sharp pain in her hand, as though stung. There is only a piece of seaweed visible. She tosses this out onto the patio, and fails to notice it then squirm to life, frothing with foam. She begins to feel faint.
EuroSea Gas is a joint venture between the British and Dutch governments, and on site is a senior engineer from the Netherlands named Van Lutyens. He and Robson do not get on as the belligerent chief refuses to heed anyone else's advice. Van Lutyens is concerned about morale on the rigs as well as being left out of the loop with updates on the current problems.
The Doctor and his companions are listening in from the corridor.
The Control Rig then makes contact, and lead technician Baxter reports the very issues which Van Lutyens had raised, annoying Robson. He also informs them that he and his crew have heard the heartbeat sounds from the pipeline and think something has gotten inside. The Doctor recognises the description of the noise and so he decides to investigate himself. Victoria is ordered to go back to the cabin and wait there.
Harris informs Robson that his wife has been taken ill, and is reluctantly allowed to go and see her as the chief will not allow a doctor to come in from outside. The compound is on security lockdown.
Hearing someone approach, Victoria hides in an oxygen supply storeroom which is rapidly filling up with the gas. She spots a tall, cadaverous-looking man who appears to have opened all the valves. As she closes them, he locks her in.
The Doctor and Jamie have entered the impeller room - the device which draws the gas along the pipes from the rigs and into the control area. One section of pipe is transparent, to allow for visual inspections of the flow.
Unable to pick the lock this time, Victoria hears a bubbling sound behind her and sees foam begin to pour from a ventilation grille. She is shocked to see something moving within it.
The Doctor is listening to the heartbeat sounds, confirming that there is some living organism in the pipes, when he and Jamie hear Victoria scream.
Tendrils of seaweed are emerging from the vent...
Written by Victor Pemberton
Recorded: Saturday 24th February 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 16th March 1968
Ratings: 8.2 million / AI 55
VFX: Peter Day (with Len Hutton)
Designer: Peter Kindred
Director: Hugh David
Guest Cast: Victor Maddern (Robson), Roy Spencer (Frank Harris), June Murphy (Maggie Harris), John Abineri (Van Lutyens), Hubert Rees (Chief Engineer), Graham Leaman (Price), Richard Mayes (Baxter), John Garvin (Carney), Bill Burridge (Mr Quill)
Back in 1964 Victor Pemberton submitted a story for the second season of Doctor Who. This revolved around earth tremors in England creating fissures in the ground, out of which a sentient, malignant mud emerged. Pemberton claimed to have a fear of earthquakes. It was rejected by David Whitaker, story editor of the time, who described it as "rather a stewpot of all the other science-fiction serials we have ever done, with bits of Nigel Kneale scattered about. I don't think the dialogue is very good and I'm quite sure it is not right for Doctor Who".
However, Pemberton had also adapted his story as a Doctor-less radio drama and, as The Slide, it was produced by the BBC's Third Programme - broadcast in seven instalments between February and March 1966. The man who commissioned it was Peter Bryant.
It tells of earthquakes in the vicinity of a New Town named Redlow in Kent. A huge crack appears in a country lane on the edge of the town, and a dense mud emerges which is soon found to be a living organism. Wildlife dies in the area and those living closest to the fissure begin to be affected, driven suicidally insane. A Chilean scientist named Gomez is brought in (played by Roger Delgado) and he comes into conflict with the local MP - Hugh Deverill - responsible for the building of Redlow (played by The Twin Dilemma's Maurice Denham). After his schoolteacher fiancée is affected, local doctor Ken Richards (played by Pemberton's partner David Spenser - Thonmi in The Abominable Snowmen) helps alert the authorities and aids in the fight against the mud.
After getting his foot in the door of Doctor Who as story editor himself for a short time, but opting not to take on the role long-term, Pemberton then rethought the drama to adapt elements of it back into a Doctor Who story. His old radio colleague Peter Bryant now produced the show and he was responsible for commissioning him once again.
Other than his earlier radio drama, Pemberton's main inspiration for the story, provisionally titled "Colony of Devils", was the increasing availability of North Sea gas, being pumped into homes across the country. The idea that something malignant could exploit this and so get inside everyone's home is what appealed to him - as did the notion that the Earth could be destroyed by some natural force unleashed by technology from within it.
Another inspiration was sea foam, or spume, seen washed up on the surf line of beaches. Seawater heavy with dissolved organic material, such as algal blooms, produces this when agitated.
Pemberton would prove to be highly proprietorial about his story, leading to conflict with the new story editor Derrick Sherwin. Neither he nor director Hugh David, who had previously helmed The Highlanders, particularly liked the story. Pemberton's background in radio meant the episodes were too dialogue-heavy, and Mr Oak and Mr Swan (as Quill was originally named) were presented much more as a comedy duo (Pemberton having been inspired by Laurel & Hardy, whom he had met in person on one of their 1950's British tours). The number of location sequences also had to be reduced.
One of the biggest changes Sherwin made, rewriting the early episodes over Christmas, was to sow the seeds of Victoria's departure into the dialogue. Watling had always stated that she would only do one year on the programme before returning to theatre, and had given a full three months notice. Bryant had hoped to change her mind and the character was still written into several forthcoming stories.
Differences from the initial script for Episode One included the fact that the TARDIS was to have materialised on top of a cliff rather than in mid-air or on top of the sea, and the Doctor and companions would have had to climb down to the beach.
Price was named Blake - changed because this name had only just been used in The Web of Fear. Swan was renamed due to the character Swann in the recent The Enemy of the World.
The story was retitled in January 1968 to avoid using the word "Devils", to avoid offending religious sensibilities. Pemberton was initially unhappy with this, but warmed to the new title later. (Ironically, the PA on this story would go on to direct a story with that word in its title only a few years later).
Filming for this episode got underway on Sunday 4th February, when the regular cast members travelled down to Botany Bay near Kingsgate, Kent. They had recorded the fourth instalment of The Web of Fear the previous evening. David had begun work at the location the day before.
16mm film was used to reduce costs, in preparation for the introduction of colour television. In the past, more expensive 35mm had been employed.
Joining the regulars was a helicopter pilot named Mike Smith - known as "Mad Mike" due to a number of stunts he pulled, and not just aeronautical ones. He swung from the base hotel's chandeliers and ate wine glasses at dinner. Debbie Watling actually went in a date with him.
A second, larger, helicopter was also required, with a different pilot.
Also present was actress Susan George - Frazer Hines' then girlfriend, who he was hoping to see cast as Victoria's replacement.
Smith's helicopter was required for the shot of the TARDIS descending to the sea. This was a quarter size prop, originally built for The Romans, and was hung from the helicopter on piano wire then shot soft focus to disguise this fact. Due to the windy conditions, several attempts were needed to have the prop land correctly, with PA Michael Briant - the future Doctor Who director who would add an initial E to his name - standing on the skids to manipulate the wire.
Aerial shots were captured of the Doctor and companions in the dinghy, rowing to shore. The BBC fire fighting foam machine came into its own once again to produce the foam - spread by the larger helicopter - across the beach at the tideline. The scene where the Doctor and Jamie lift Victoria and throw her into the foam was an impromptu bit of business from Troughton and Hines on an unsuspecting Watling.
Troughton ad-libbed the Doctor's "Come on in - the water's lovely".
For the pipeline inspection hatch sequence, Peter Day had created a special prop for the sonic screwdriver, but Troughton kept dropping it due to the freezing temperatures numbing his fingers. What Troughton would be seen to use on film was actually the whistle from Watling's life-jacket.
An RAF search and rescue team was on standby throughout the location filming.
VFX filming took place at Ealing from Wednesday 7th to Friday 9th February. Peter Day was assisted, uncredited, by Len Hutton. For this episode, the sequence of the seaweed writhing on the patio then producing foam was recorded - with the weed prop manipulated by pumping gas through it from an aerosol. Shots of the weed and foam emerging from ventilation grilles, to be used in several episodes including the cliff-hanger to this one, were also filmed. (This footage would simply be reversed to show it retreating).
A model was created of the impeller room, seen in this episode as a POV shot just before the Doctor and Jamie entered the set during studio recording.
The main guest artist for the serial was Victor Maddern (1928 - 1993), a popular character actor who had appeared in many film and TV productions since 1950 and would go on to be a regular on The Dick Emery Show (as pensioner Lampwick's son-in-law). He appeared in five Carry On... movies, most memorably in Carry On Spying. Often called upon to play criminal types, one fantasy genre film he featured in was Blood of the Vampire (1958), in which he played the villain's murderous assistant.
Peter Kindred had previously designed The Tenth Planet. Martin Baugh and Sylvia James continued to design costumes and make-up respectively.
During the week of rehearsals for this episode, news broke of a major incident on a gas drilling rig off the Yorkshire Coast. Gas was leaking from the borehole and the authorities used incendiaries to ignite it, as a warning to shipping to avoid the area until the issue could be resolved. The Doctor Who production team realised that this topical news item might help their upcoming story as the incident would still be fresh in people's minds.
Recording took place between 8 - 9.45pm on Saturday 24th February.
Crosshairs were overlaid on location footage of the Doctor and companions on the beach. A rippling effect was used for a POV shot of Victoria waking up from the tranquiliser and seeing ESGO guards looking at her.
Recording breaks were used mainly for camera moves, and to allow Troughton and Hines to move from the impeller room set to the corridor where they hear Victoria scream. The transparent pipe section was a photo-caption. An echo was added to the soundtrack as the camera zoomed into a close-up of the screaming companion.
Sadly, Fury From The Deep is lost to us today. We have telesnaps, the odd clip, and the soundtrack - and it's the latter which we should be most happy with, especially when it comes to these early instalments. This episode is one very much of mood setting, in particular the ominous heartbeat throbbing sound heard by the Doctor and his companions and reported by the rig crew. If there's a monster, we're not terribly aware of it yet as only foam and wriggling seaweed - something you could see most days on a visit to the beach - are seen.
Dudley Simpson's music helps considerably, complementing Brian Hodgson's radiophonics.
It's a near contemporary setting once again - only things like video phones suggest it's the near future - and we're still on Earth (an unbroken run since the opening instalment of The Abominable Snowmen. Even the exiled Third Doctor won't have this many consecutive episodes set on Earth).
Then there's the issue of the menace being something which could easily invade the viewers' homes.
It's also a base-under-siege story, like many others since The Tenth Planet. Hobson in The Moonbase is just one letter away from the chief here - and that was a story which Pemberton had acted in.
Once again we are presented with a man in charge of a major scientific project who, psychologically, really ought not to be in that role.
If The Web of Fear was a forerunner of the UNIT years in general, then Fury From The Deep is a forerunner of Season 7 in particular in its setting and atmosphere.
Something which has always puzzled me about this opening episode - and some later scenes set on the beach - is why no-one seems to remark on the fact that there's a Police Box sitting on top of the waves just off-shore. Did no-one notice it when they came to collect the tranquilised travellers? We'll later see Maggie Harris walk into the sea, but there's no sign of the TARDIS.
This episode is notable in the history of Doctor Who as it sees the introduction of the sonic screwdriver. "Never fails" says the Doctor of it, even though we've never seen him use it before, despite it proving invaluable on countless occasions before now, and Jamie has to ask what it is.
Troughton will use it on a couple more occasions, and it will become an iconic part of the programme during the Pertwee and Tom Baker years, before JNT and Christopher Bidmead removed it early in Davison's tenure. Back in the new iteration of the series, mainly for merchandising reasons one suspects, and because of the speed of plotting required for 45 minute stories, it has become a magic wand - capable of doing almost everything.
Quite who invented the sonic is a contentious issue. Pemberton claims that it was he, as writer, and his initial script did state that the Doctor "takes from his pocket something which looks like his own version of a screwdriver". Michael E Briant has also claimed credit, saying that he thought using an ordinary screwdriver would make the hatch scene look dull and the Doctor really ought to have some sort of special gadget to do this sort of thing.
Fans have noted the similarity between this early version of the sonic and Hartnell's pen torch.
- The ratings get off to a very good start, in terms of both viewers (over 8 million) and the appreciation figure. Whilst the latter will actually improve, this will prove to be the highest audience figure for this story.
- From this week, the series was broadcast 10 minutes earlier than previous stories due to a Tom & Jerry cartoon being dropped from the evening schedule.
- The New Statesman critic Francis Hope was not terribly impressed with the episode, disliking the messing about in the foam and its reuse so soon after being employed to act as web / fungus in the previous story.
- The Slide has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra several times in recent years and is also available on CD as part of the Radio Collection. It was included as an extra on the Blu-ray / DVD of Fury From The Deep.
- Milton Subotsky, of Amicus portmanteau horror film fame, and one of the producers of the Peter Cushing Dalek movies, was interested in buying the rights to The Slide.
- John Abineri will return to the series on several occasions - as General Carrington in Ambassadors of Death, Railton in Death to the Daleks, and as Ranquin in The Power of Kroll. He had also been considered for Decider Garif in Full Circle, and Maylin Renis in Timelash.
- He was a regular in Terry Nation's Survivors, played Herne the Hunter in Robin of Sherwood, and features in a Season 2 episode of Blake's 7 as Blake's uncle. That B7 role is an interesting one in that Abineri was the third actor cast. Ronald Lewis had to be dismissed due to his alcoholism, and Duncan Lamont was given the role - only to die suddenly early in production. Lamont played Galloway in Death to the Daleks - alongside John Abineri.
- Roy Spencer had previously played Manyak in the first two episodes of The Ark.
- June Murphy will return as WREN Jane Blythe in The Sea Devils, directed by Michael E Briant.
- Hubert Rees will be back in the next season as Captain Ransom in The War Games, and later as Stevenson in the opening Antarctic section of The Seeds of Doom. In 1982 he portrayed Inspector Lestrade opposite Tom Baker's Sherlock Holmes.
- Graham Leaman will return to the series on several occasions, the first time as the Grand Marshal in The Seeds of Death. He then portrayed Time Lords twice, in Colony in Space and in The Three Doctors. Prior to this story he had appeared as the Controller in The Macra Terror. He suffered from mobility issues and always appeared in roles where he could be seated.
- Bill Burridge had been an extra on the series since the Hartnell era. He is noticeable as one of the soldiers in The Romans, for instance.
- There is a fear of seaweed - Fykiaphobia.
- Radio Times had its usual introductory feature on the new story, whilst the programme listing was accompanied by another portrait of Troughton from the same location photo shoot.
