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'...