Synopsis:
The Doctor and Zoe have returned to the central chamber of the labyrinth where they are confronted by a statue of the Gorgon Medusa. It stirs to life and slowly approaches - reaching out to touch Zoe on the cheek. She struggles to accept that this isn't real as she can feel it - and is compelled to look into its eyes...
The Doctor picks up a sword and is about to use it - then remembers that you can't kill something which doesn't exist. He has almost fallen into a trap. He recalls the story of Perseus and produces a hand mirror from his pocket. Zoe is able to see the creature's reflection and finally accepts that it is just a statue. It reverts to lifeless stone.
This has been witnessed in a way by Jamie via text on a ticker-tape machine in the Apparatus Room - a high-tech chamber in a citadel atop a cliff. The print-out suddenly begins to report that the test on the Doctor is cancelled as a failure.
He goes to leave the room by a staircase but triggers a photo-electric cell. An alarm sounds and a mesh barrier drops over the window. The Master announces that there are intruders in the building and calls for a search to be made.
Gulliver then reappears. He claims not to know the whereabouts of the Doctor and Zoe and states that a search must be made under the law of this land, and that by rights Jamie should be put to death.
Jamie hears a familiar electronic noise approach and takes cover behind a panel - asking Gulliver not to give him away as he had with the Clockwork Soldiers in the forest of words.
This time it is a trio of White Robots who enter. Gulliver is unable to see them. Jamie emerges from hiding after they have gone, but finds himself still trapped.
The Doctor and Zoe have emerged from the labyrinth and are viewing the citadel.
A boulder nearby suddenly explodes as a masked, musclebound figure appears. He is armed with an anti-molecular disintegrator gun. When the Doctor dismisses the weapon as scientific nonsense, it vanishes - but the figure decides instead to physically tear him limb from limb.
Zoe recognises this figure as the Karkus, who is also fictional - but the Doctor has never heard of him and so initially struggles to accept this.
He ducks out of the way as the Karkus lunges towards him - and Zoe steps in to fight with him.
She quickly overpowers him and he is compelled now to obey them.
Zoe explains that the Karkus is a cartoon character from the hourly telepress of her time.
They order him to take them to the citadel, and soon arrive at its entrance.
The Karkus is dismissed, but the Doctor takes his cape and imitates his voice to gain access.
Jamie is arguing with Gulliver about the White Robots when he sees the Doctor and Zoe at the stairwell. He warns them about the alarm system and they jump over the photo-electric cell.
He then shows them the ticker-tape machine and explains how it narrated what was happening to them in the maze. The Doctor points out that when you write about something after it has happened, it is history - but to write about things which haven't happened yet is fiction. When his companions ask about getting out of here, the Doctor states that he has no intention of leaving. They are going to confront whoever is behind this domain.
Zoe panics at the thought of being turned into fiction and heads to the stairwell - triggering the alarm. They hear the White Robots approach - but the Doctor stands firm.
When they enter, the Doctor insists on being taken to the Master.
A door slides opens and they hear a voice from within, inviting them inside.
They find themselves in the control centre, confronted by an elderly man in early 20th Century garb. He wears a skullcap, which is linked by wires to a large multi-sided machine which glows with power. White Robots stand guard.
The old man comes across as an amiable figure and explains that he is responsible for everything which happens here, which is a great strain. One day, in the summer of 1926, he fell asleep at his desk and woke to find himself here. He was the writer of the prolific "Captain Jack Harkaway" stories for a popular boy's weekly adventure periodical - The Ensign.
He wrote thousands of words every week for a quarter of a century - and it was this talent which caused him to be brought here. Occasionally the machine takes over and the Master's voice changes - becoming more mechanical - and the Doctor realises that he is little more than a slave to it. He seems content to be here, however, having access to every book ever written.
As the Doctor and Master talk, Jamie and Zoe slip away behind the machine - finding themselves in a vast library.
The Master explains that he is getting too old to run this domain - and he wants the Doctor to take his place as he is ageless. The machine - the Master Brain - needs someone with the human imagination to function.
The Doctor refuses to co-operate.
Jamie and Zoe are confronted by White Robots, which force them towards a gigantic open book. The Master begins to narrate what is happening to them as he writes it in a notebook in front of him.
Events in the library appear on a screen and the Doctor can only look on helplessly as the Robots begin to close over the book, threatening to crush Jamie and Zoe between its pages...
Written by Peter Ling
Recorded: Friday 12th July 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.20pm, Saturday 5th October 1968
Ratings: 7.3 million / AI 56
VFX: Jack Kine & Bernard Wilkie
Designer: Evan Hercules
Director: David Maloney
Additional cast: Christopher Robbie (The Karkus)
Critique:
For this episode, Peter Ling introduced a spoof comic book superhero character, inspired by Batman (created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger for Detective Comics in March 1939). He was described as being a giant of a man, dressed in a black plastic catsuit with a cloak, and carrying a weird looking ray gun. He speaks with a "thick foreign accent".
In order to reduce the running time of the episode to 20 minutes or under - this one runs to 19' 14" - a scene between Jamie and Gulliver in the Apparatus Room was dropped entirely.
This episode would be recorded entirely in studio, with no filming material other than some animation effects which would be superimposed over the action.
Three of the White Robot costumes were brought back into use this week. Originally their role in this episode had been undertaken by the Clockwork Soldiers, but Derrick Sherwin had decided to replace them with the robots, who otherwise would only have featured in the white void.
Whilst it has been stated that the main inspiration for the Master was Frank Richards (pen name of Charles Hamilton), the creator of Billy Bunter, Ling would later claim that the character was as much inspired by himself. He felt that he was a prisoner of his own work demands - especially weekly serials he was contributing to the Eagle comic.
Emrys Jones continued to get into the light-hearted spirit of rehearsals with Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines by milking certain lines for their double-entendre value - such as "I have your dossiers here in front of me...".
Fight arranger BH Barry was booked for the week to work with Wendy Padbury and Christopher Robbie on their big fight scene, based around judo moves. Originally, it was intended that Zoe would give a running commentary on her moves as the fight progressed - learned from "mind training school" - but the actress was usually out of breath from the physical exertion and so these lines were dropped.
Robbie was primarily a theatre actor, who had also done some continuity announcement work for Anglia Television.
During camera rehearsals on the day of recording, publicity photographs were taken of Sue Pulford in her Medusa costume.
Camera Crew 5, who generally worked on the BBC's more prestigious plays and serials, were withdrawn this week for other duties and were replaced by Crew 6.
The reprise from the previous episode was altered slightly by reordering Jamie's scenes in the Apparatus Room.
The Citadel was established via a painting of a fairy tale castle atop a cliff.
A small flash charge was set off to indicate the arrival of the Karkus as he blew up a boulder. An animated star effect was superimposed over a fade between the empty set and then with Robbie in position. At one point David Maloney was going to drop this effect and simply have the Karkus standing there.
The disappearance of the anti-molecular disintegrator gun from his hand was achieved through camera cutting alone, with no requirement for a recording break.
During the big fight scene, Padbury realised that she had mistimed some her moves - evident on screen - and this rather threw the actress off her stride. As such she fumbled some her following dialogue with Troughton.
She would apologise for this to the director on the DVD commentary track.
A recording break allowed the regulars to move from the Apparatus Room to the control centre set. This was the first time it had been seen fully, and also properly introduced the Master of the Land of Fiction. Until now Jones had simply provided off screen voices or been seen briefly from the back.
He was seated in front of the Brain machine - a large rotating shape comprising Perspex hexagons, illuminated from within.
Maloney originally planned to use the positive / negative overexposure effect on Jamie and Zoe as they were trapped in the giant book - as he had intended for Episode 1. Instead, he opted to reuse the swirling concentric circle effect, generated by a lightbox, as had been seen when the White Robots used their weapons in that earlier instalment.
In later interviews, Maloney would state that he wasn't happy with the latter two episodes of this story as he felt there was too much dialogue and not enough incident, causing them to drag somewhat. The loss of his favoured camera crew may also have contributed towards his unhappiness.
The Master: "Won't you come in to my parlour...?"
The Doctor: "Said the spider to the fly..."
The Doctor and his companions finally reach the control centre of the Land of Fiction and confront the Master - and he turns out to be an amiable old man. He proudly shows them a copy of The Ensign (price tuppence) and eagerly tells them all about his career. The Doctor quickly realises that he is as much a prisoner as they are - enslaved to the Master Brain, which occasionally takes over his personality.
Ling could have made the villain of the piece a truly evil character - or gone down the rogue computer route. He manages to do both - and neither. The Master turns out to be one of the most interesting villains in the history of the series, as it's not his fault at all that he does cruel things. He's a victim - forced to do evil. He doesn't seek wealth or power from the Brain - just a good read. Other than the compulsions generated by the computer, he really only wants to retire.
How many other villains in the series have had a retirement plan as their principal motivation for conquering the Earth?
This week we move into more conventional science fiction territory, with the traditional literary figures bowing out for now after the defeat of the Gorgon.
Much of the action takes place either in the high-tech Apparatus Room or the computerised control centre. The one new fictional character we meet - the Karkus - is a futuristic superhero, armed with a ray gun, from the year 2000 (more of which shortly). He is not from a book, but from some sort of on-line newspaper.
His inclusion puts the Doctor on the back foot, as he has never heard of the character. As such, it is Zoe who gets to have an action scene, and this is very much her episode.
Jamie is side-lined, spending most of the episode in the Apparatus Room, having one-sided conversations with Gulliver.
We do see a slip in Zoe's mathematical prowess this week, however. She seems overly impressed that the Master has written over half a million words over his 25 year career. (The Master thinks this may be some sort of record). It's not really that impressive a tally at all. For instance, the Bible has around three quarters of a million words, depending on which version you use. The biographer of Charles Hamilton (see above) has worked out that he averaged some 1.2 million words per year. Zoe's sums are well out as well, as 5000 words per week over 25 years adds up to 6.5 million...
It may simply be that, by her time, people don't read and write very much at all (hence the telepress).
And when is her time?
Zoe: "We all follow his adventures in the strip sections of the hourly telepress"
The Doctor: "The strip...? Oh, a strip cartoon of the year two thousand?"
Zoe: "You've been in the year two thousand, haven't you?"
The Doctor: "Yes, but I hardly had time to follow the strip cartoons..."
And later, when impersonating the Karkus the Doctor gives his attribution as:
"... Year two thousand, comic strip creation, hourly telepress".
That's very specific. This on-screen evidence would seem to point to Zoe originating from 2000 AD, and therefore that must have been the setting for The Wheel in Space. If that was the case, why would Zoe ask the Doctor if he had ever visited that time - if that's when they first met?
However, there's nothing in her introductory story to suggest such an early date. The Moonbase is set firmly in 2070, and yet everything about the Wheel suggests more advanced technology. Looking at various sources - on-line and guide books - the date range for The Wheel in Space runs from 2030 to 2079.
All ignore what is stated, quite categorically, here.
There is one explanation, which hindsight allows us to use - and that's that this story never actually happens and is simply all a dream by the Doctor, so it's a slightly garbled version of reality.
We'll talk about this more when we get to the next episode...
- The ratings remain consistent with the previous week's episode, with the appreciation figure actually increasing.
- Christopher Robbie will be back to play the Cyber-Leader in Revenge of the Cybermen.
- In the novel, Ling has actual word bubbles appear when the Karkus speaks.
- The book in which Jamie and Zoe are trapped at the cliff-hanger has a chapter title visible - Un Renard Pris Au Piege (A Fox Caught in a Trap). This was the second story in an 1842 collection of fables, titled Scenes de la Vie Privee et Publique des Animaux (Scenes from the Private and Public Life of Animals). These stories were based on illustrations by French artist Jean Ignace Isidore Gerard - who also illustrated novels such as Gulliver's Travels...
- Captain Jack Harkaway - the name a probable inspiration for Torchwood's Captain Jack Harkness - is a genuine fictional adventure story hero, created by Bracebridge Hemyng in 1871. He started off as a schoolboy then went to Oxford University before becoming an adventurer and explorer as an adult. Launched in "Penny Dreadful's" he migrated to a series of books - 26 in all - which included the further adventures of his son and grandson.
- The Ensign publication is fictitious.
- Terrance Dicks was credited as Assistant Script Editor on some versions of the scripts for this episode. He was preparing to take over from Sherwin after the summer break, but claimed that he had little to do with The Mind Robber - describing it as "Sherwin's baby". He would later state that he didn't like the story very much, as he wasn't keen on fantasy.
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