Story 51 - Spearhead From Space

In which UNIT are investigating a mysterious meteorite shower which has come down in a forest in Essex. They are particularly interested as there was a similar, smaller shower in the same area some time ago. Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart brings in a scientist from Cambridge - Dr Liz Shaw - to help him with his investigations. He discovers that a battered blue Police Box has turned up in the woods - a man found unconscious beside it now taken to the local cottage hospital. The Brigadier takes Liz to the hospital - expecting to see the Doctor. The tall, grey haired man they see lying in the bed is a stranger to him. However, he appears to know the Brigadier...
A man named Channing is hanging around the hospital foyer, and he overhears someone theorising that the stranger found in the woods may know the whereabouts of one of the meteorites. Soon after, a pair of ambulance men try to kidnap the Doctor. They fail, but the Doctor is wounded by a UNIT soldier in error, and slips into a self-induced comatose state. Doctors have discovered that he has two hearts (10 beats per minute), inhuman blood type and other unusual physiology. A specialist is called in.

Nearby, a man named Ransome has just returned to his work at a plastics factory to find he has been sacked. Boss Hibbert has a new business partner - Channing - and the factory has been given over to automation. Ransome breaks into a high-tech restricted area - and is attacked by a living plastic humanoid. This is an Auton. He reports what he has seen to UNIT. Troops find one of the meteorites intact. It is a glowing plastic sphere. Soon after, and Auton steals it back after forcing a UNIT jeep to crash. Channing is also an Auton, but of a more advanced form. Hibbert is under his mental control. The meteorites are really carriers of an alien intelligence - the Nestene Consciousness. Each Auton is animated by a fraction of this intelligence. The vital control sphere is missing. It has been found by a poacher named Seeley, and hidden in a lead box at his cottage.

The Doctor recovers and steals the rather flamboyant clothes of the visiting specialist - as well as his vintage car. He has a homing device in his wristwatch which takes him to the TARDIS - now in a lab at UNIT's London HQ. The Doctor attempts to escape in the TARDIS, but discovers that his memory has been tampered with by the Time Lords, as part of his exile. He joins the investigation. There are three types of Auton which the Nestenes plan to use in their invasion of Earth. First are crude humanoids, such as the one seen by Ransome. Second are identical replicas of real people. The third are an army of shop window mannequins. Autons have a built in energy weapon in their hands. Seeley's sphere is found and brought to UNIT HQ. However, an Auton replica of Major General Scobie takes it to the plastics factory. The invasion begins with the activation of the shop window dummies. The replicas sow confusion. The Doctor creates a UHF device which can destroy the fraction of Nestene energy animating each Auton - but only at close quarters. At the factory, Hibbert is killed when he rebels. The Doctor destroys the Auton Scobie and Channing. In a tank is a tentacled creature made of plastic - a form for the Nestene Consciousness to use on Earth. The Doctor uses his UHF device to destroy it  - and all the Autons collapse. The Doctor agrees to stay on with UNIT on two conditions - that Liz remain to work alongside him, and that he get a vintage car of his own. He adopts the name of John Smith...

This four part adventure was written by Robert Holmes, and was broadcast between the 3rd and 24th January, 1970. It is the first story of series 7, with a new Doctor in comic performer Jon Pertwee, and a new companion played by Caroline John. It is the first story to be broadcast in colour. It was also recorded entirely on film and on location.
The reason for the unusual recording set up was a strike which meant that studio filming was unavailable. The launch of a new colour series of Doctor Who, with a new Doctor, could not be threatened by industrial action, and so the go ahead was given for out-going producer Derrick Sherwin to make the story on film and on location (mostly BBC premises).
Jon Pertwee famously said that when he asked how he should play the Doctor, he was told just to be himself. He replied that he didn't know who that was. Born in July 1919, he had led a highly eventful life. He was obsessed with transport of all kinds - especially of the fast variety - and had seen service in the Royal Navy. He was a keen scuba diver, hunting for treasure in the Mediterranean. He had a chequered educational history, having been kicked out of a couple of schools. He was told that he would never be an actor - partly due to a perceived lack of self-discipline in his earlier days, and a slight speech impediment. Desperate to be a performer, he drifted into stage and radio comedy and Variety.
Caroline John (born 1940) on the other hand was a classically trained actress. After a period out of work, she had decided to get some publicity photographs done in a swimsuit - and suddenly she found herself up for the role of companion in Doctor Who.

The production team had been planning a change of format for the programme for some time. Alien planets were losing their interest for the viewers due to the difficulty of realising them on low budgets. It was thought that Earthbound stories would be cheaper, as you could use real locations and everyday costumes. The programme needed a fresh relaunch, and it was proposed that the Doctor should find himself exiled on Earth, working with a military organisation against a variety of alien threats. The Invasion had been a deliberate piloting of this new format - and also a means of setting up the UNIT structure, though the Brigadier is the only character carried forward (for now). Malcolm Hulke pointed out to Terrance Dicks that this proposed format might limit the type of stories available - alien invasion or mad scientist. Fortunately this proved not to be the case.
Considering the weakness of his two Troughton adventures, it seems surprising that Holmes was entrusted to launch this new era. Sometime after The Space Pirates, a miracle appears to have occurred, as he has suddenly become the gifted - and slightly twisted - writer that we would all come to love. With the new Doctor pretty much sidelined for the first episode, the Brigadier and Liz get a chance to (re)introduce themselves and we get to learn about the impending threat. The Nestene / Autons are an inspired creation. The idea of everyday things becoming deadly - in this case shop window dummies - is a brilliant one. Children could imagine, on boring shopping trips, that those creepy looking dummies might secretly be disguised aliens. The moment when the Autons smash their way out of the shop window and march down the high street, blasting everyone in sight, is rightly one of the programme's iconic images.

Of the guest cast, plaudits have to go to the villainous double act of Hibbert and Channing. Hibbert is John Woodnutt, who will return to the programme as the Draconian Emperor in Frontier in Space, Broton / Duke of Forgill in Terror of the Zygons, and Seron in The Keeper of Traken. Channing is superbly played by Hugh Burden, a veteran of many movies of the 1950's and 60's.
Episode endings for this story are:

1. The Doctor, his mouth taped shut, has escaped from his abductors. As he pushes his way through the undergrowth, a UNIT soldier panics and shoots at him. He grasps his head and collapses.
2. Ransome is looking round the restricted area. A number of blank faced figures are lined up behind him. One of them suddenly stirs to life and advances towards him.
3. Scobie has just offered support to the Brigadier for his investigation of the plastics factory. His doorbell rings and when he opens the door, he is confronted by an exact replica of himself.
4. The Doctor presents his conditions to the Brigadier for joining forces with UNIT. He adopts the name of John Smith.

Overall, a superb start for the new series, and the new Doctor. The move to colour reinvigorates the series. Pertwee, John and Courtney are all well served. A brilliant new monster and the first real glimpse of how good Robert Holmes was going to be for the series.

Things you might like to know:

• Holmes reused elements from a low budget feature film he had written (Invasion, released in 1965). These were the alien goings-on around a quiet cottage hospital.
• The original title was Facsimile - but this rather gave the game away a bit too early.
• The new opening credits are actually black and white which has been colourised - as you couldn't achieve the "howlaround" effect in colour.
• The uniformed car park attendant at UNIT HQ is producer Derrick Sherwin. It's not the first time the former actor has been seen in the programme. When the Cybermen begin their Invasion, he is the guy in the car with his head resting on the steering wheel.
• Jon Pertwee's tattoo is visible in the shower scene. Some fans have made out that this is some kind of Time Lord criminal brand and this even finds its way into one of the novels.
• The Autons have the distinction of launching three new series of Doctor Who - and introducing two new Doctors. (Daleks have launched four series - but only one Doctor).
• That is the real Madame Tussaud's waxworks that is seen on screen.
• You'll spot the same factory location being reused from The Invasion - Cybermen and Autons bursting out of the same doors a year or so apart.
• There are lots of reused props from earlier stories in the UNIT lab, oldest of which is the Morok freezing machine, which had also appeared in The Wheel in Space as the X-Ray laser.
• Thanks to the serendipity of being made on film, this story is shortly to receive a Blu-ray release (June 2013, with extra items on both Pertwee and John).

That Was The Year That Was - 2012

Or, more pertinently, that was my year that was. Everyone else has done their review of the year, so I thought I would do something as well, now that all the festivities are out of the way. Rather than a dull list of things that happened (on a month by month basis usually), I thought I would look at the year from my own perspective.
The year began for me with mixed feelings. I was looking forward to the official Convention in March, but was sad to know that there would only be a handful more Pond episodes. Whilst ambivalent about Amy, I have always had a soft spot for Rory. Often under-appreciated by the programme makers, the character was certainly popular with fans. (4 times as many of you went to my Top 10 Rory Moments as looked at the Amy equivalent).
I was also upset  to know that we would be getting the fewest number of episodes (apart from the Tennant Specials year - 2009), and we would have to wait 9 or 10 months for the first of them. We were continually being told that 2013 would see the most Who ever - but I knew that they were simply robbing 2012's Peter to pay 2013's Paul.
This blog was almost born in January, but I wanted to spend a bit more time working out what I wanted it to be.

Who on the box:
There was a little bit of Doctor Who earlier in the year - with the second of the schools writing project Script to Screen. With the Olympics in London looming, Good As Gold had a suitably sporty theme - and a Weeping Angel. It was broadcast during Blue Peter in late May.
A planned Doctor Who sequence for the Olympic opening ceremony didn't materialise, but the TARDIS did (the sound effect at least).

The first part of Series 7 finally aired on September 1st. There was a huge amount of pre-publicity. I had reached The Dalek Invasion of Earth in my on-going mission to look at every story in order, so decided on a Dalek themed week in advance of the first appearance of Asylum of the Daleks. This had to run side by side with the 5 part mini-series Pond Life. Whilst I try to concentrate on televised Doctor Who, I also took a detour to look at the two Peter Cushing Dalek films.
The big surprise in Asylum was obviously the unannounced appearance of Jenna Louise-Coleman. That, and the virtual absence of the classic Daleks from the story, despite all the publicity.
Next up was the effects laden Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, which was quite fun. Most notable for the introduction of Brian Pond - sorry, Williams - played by Mark Williams, and the controversy about the Doctor's apparent execution of the villainous Solomon.
This dark side to the Doctor was evident in the following story - A Town Called Mercy - where the Doctor has to be stopped from sending war criminal Khaler-Jex to his death. The Power of Three was our last chance to live life with the Ponds. Significant for the introduction of the Brigadier's daughter Kate.
And then we were suddenly at the end. The Angels Take Manhattan was marred for me by the rushed conclusion - especially Rory just disappearing in mid sentence. I posted about the ending at the time, of course. We got P.S. as an animated resolution to Brian's story on the BBC website.

And then we had a 3 month wait until the Christmas Special - The Snowmen. It reintroduced the Great Intelligence, but not the new companion (at least not until a glimpse at the end). New titles, music, and a TARDIS control room.
If I started the year upset at the long wait until the start of Series 7, I ended it just as upset that we have to wait until April for the second half.

The Convention:
It was the official Convention in Cardiff, during the weekend of 24th / 25th March, that gave me the impetus to start this blog. I attended on the Sunday, which coincided with the city's Sports Relief activities. So many happy memories from the weekend - the panels, costume displays, photos with Matt & Arthur, the first sight of the Series 7 trailer and news about the upcoming episodes - plus meeting lots of fellow fans. So many kids - which is good for the future of the programme. A particular highlight was the trip out to Upper Boat to walk around the TARDIS control room, which I did on the Monday morning before heading back to London.

The Experience:
If Cardiff was on my mind at the start of the year, it was back again at the end, as I made a trip back to the city to see the Doctor Who Experience in its purpose built new home by the bay. I will definitely be back again this year.

Buying stuff:
Plenty of new merchandise in 2012, as usual. Again, this blog doesn't go in much for merchandise reviews etc. I will pick the book The History of the Universe in 100 Objects as a particular highlight - and me finally getting a Rory action figure.
After the usual festive break, the classic series DVDs resumed in January with The Unit Box Set. Sadly without CGI dinosaurs. Believing we are all flush with money after Xmas, January also saw the release of the The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe, and The Sensorites. The final 3 new adventures for Sarah Jane Smith were released in February. Doctor Who releases continued with The Face of Evil and the long awaited The Daemons. Less anticipated were releases for Nightmare of Eden and Dragonfire (part of an Ace Box Set). I think my favourite release of the year would have to be the colourised Ambassadors of Death.

Wish it'd never happened:
If there was loss in the programme, there was real loss in the big wide world. 2012 saw the passing of two companion actors - Caroline John and Mary Tamm, Other notable losses included Philip Madoc, Peter Halliday and Dennis Chinnery, who all played multiple roles in the programme.

TARDIS Musings:
Most significant Who experience for me in 2012 has obviously been the setting up and running of this little old blog of mine. After wandering a bit aimlessly at the beginning, it has settled down into a form which I'm quite happy with. No plans for any makeovers at the moment. Am very glad to say that I am not shouting into the wilderness, and that I do have a reasonable following.
I sincerely hope you will stick with me in this historic year for the programme. There is sure to be a heck of a lot to write and comment about over the next 12 months.

6(b) - or not 6(b)?

According to events in the closing episodes of The War Games, the Doctor has been on the run from his people - the Time Lords - for some time. To foil the alien scheme, he is forced to reveal his location to them - and tries to do a runner before they can arrive. He fails, and ends up back on his home planet (still unnamed at this point) to face trial for stealing the TARDIS, and for intervening in the affairs of other races.
For such a significant crime, the proceedings are dealt with by a three man tribunal only, and in rather speedy fashion. And, despite the seriousness of his offences, the Doctor is given a relatively lenient sentence (considering the tribunal has just erased the War Lord and his troops from time and imprisoned their planet for all eternity). The Doctor is sentenced to exile on late 20th Century Earth (tantamount to being sent to an open prison), and to have his appearance changed. We assume this to be a regeneration, though it isn't explicitly stated. When next seen, he is falling out of the TARDIS in an Essex wood.
Later stories, however, suggest that a lot may have happened in between the trial and the arrival on Earth - a whole set of adventures for the Second Doctor, working under duress for a shadowy Time Lord group later identified as the CIA - Celestial Intervention Agency. This might explain the low key tribunal - and those later Second Doctor appearances. Fandom has dubbed this period Season 6(b).

The Second Doctor is taken out of time by the Time Lords to help the Third Doctor when he and they were under threat from a power draining force emanating from a Black Hole - the work of Omega. Do the Time Lords now know where the Doctor was - retroactively? Could they plot his movements backwards from the time they captured him? Might they have always known where he was and only dragged him back home after the events of The War Games as he had gone a bit too far this time? Or is this the Second Doctor from events after the trial, when he is working for them? If the latter, then the most senior of Time Lords knew all about the CIA and its activities. If not from a point after the trial, then it has to be from sometime after The Invasion (as the Second Doctor knows Sergeant Benton).
We find out about the CIA in The Deadly Assassin. We assume it refers only to the occasions when the Time Lords sent the exiled Third Doctor to Uxareius, Peladon and to Solos, and later diverted the Fourth to Karn. One of the tribunal members appears to send  the Doctor to Uxareius, and Chancellor Goth also appears to have been a tribunal member. So the CIA might also have been working closely with the Second Doctor between the trial and the exile.

The next time we see the Second Doctor, in The Five Doctors, he is noticeably older. He can also pilot the TARDIS precisely. He mentions that he can't stop long and is bending the rules - having given the CIA the slip temporarily? Most tellingly, when confronted by the apparitions of Jamie and Zoe in the Dark Tower, he knows of events at the time of his trial - that they should not remember him. (The script is in error here, as they would have remembered their initial encounter with him, but the fact remains that this Second Doctor originates from a point after the trial).

The strongest evidence for a Season 6(b) is The Two Doctors. The Second Doctor is explicitly stated to be working on a mission for the Time Lords. They have given him a remote control for the TARDIS and he can again pilot it precisely. He is even more noticeably older than he was at the time of his trial - as is Jamie. He is travelling with Victoria also, and has been able to drop her off somewhere - confident of picking her up again afterwards. The CIA have obviously taken into account that the Doctor works best with human companions and have allowed him to pick up a couple of his old travelling companions.
Season 6(b) is the only way this story can possibly work without throwing Second Doctor continuity out of the window. Remember also that Robert Holmes, who wrote this story, was the writer of the first Earth exile story and he was the creator of the CIA.

As far as Terrance Dicks is concerned, Season 6(b) is a reality. His 2005 novel World Game covers the period immediately following the trial and recounts the Doctor's first mission for the CIA - to prevent temporal interference in the Napoleonic era - and it ends with him getting his old companions back and sets up his mission to confront Dastari.
Now, my remit on this blog has always been to concentrate on televised Doctor Who only, but if Season 6(b) is good enough for Terrance Dicks, co-author of The War Games and story editor of the subsequent story, then it's good enough for me. I think it is the only way to explain the later Second Doctor appearances - especially The Two Doctors.

Story 50 - The War Games

In which the TARDIS crew think they have materialised in France during the First World War. They come across an ambulance driven by Lady Jennifer Buckingham. After being captured by German troops, they are saved by a patrol led by Lieutenant Carstairs and are taken to the British trenches. When they try to get back to the ship - which is in the direction of the enemy lines - they are assumed to be spies and sent to a chateau which is now the British HQ. General Smythe conducts a court martial and the Doctor is sentenced to death by firing squad. Zoe will be sent to prison in England, and Jamie is assumed to be a deserter from a Highland regiment. The Doctor has noticed that Smythe exerts a strange hypnotic power over his men. Escaping, the Doctor and Zoe discover that the General has a futuristic communications device in his quarters. All is not as it seems here. Jamie meets a Redcoat soldier from 1745 in the military prison. They convince Carstairs and Lady Buckingham that they are being duped and all flee in the ambulance. Passing through a dense fog bank, they find themselves far from the war - but threatened by Roman soldiers.

The Doctor deduces that they have passed through a time barrier. They are not on Earth at all. Returning to the chateau they discover a map which shows that there are many war zones - surrounding a mysterious blank space. They discover that fresh troops arrive in machines similar to a TARDIS. The Doctor and Zoe use one of these to travel to the central region and find themselves in a high-tech domain. Soldiers from different periods of Earth history are mentally processed here and sent to fight in the war zones. The Doctor discovers that this is all the work of a powerful alien race who are being aided by the War Chief - a renegade member of his own race. In command is the War Lord. The War Chief is in a bitter dispute with the alien Security Chief who does not trust him. The War Chief has supplied time travel technology to achieve this plan - the dimensionally transcendental craft known as SIDRATs.

The alien plan is to forge the survivors of these war zones into an invincible army - to conquer the galaxy. The War Chief has a hidden motive for helping - wanting the army for himself. He wants the Doctor to help him - as the SIDRATs have a limited life span. A rebel force is assembled - of other soldiers whose conditioning has broken down. They take over the chateau as a base. In each zone are alien supervisors - people like Smythe and Von Weich, who supervises the WW1 German forces and the Confederate forces in the American Civil War zone. The War Chief kills the Security Chief when he learns of his true ambitions. The rebels undermine the alien plan. The Doctor realises that he cannot return all the soldiers to Earth and put a stop to this atrocity without help. He decides to summon his own people - the Time Lords.

The War Lord kills the War Chief. The Doctor tries to flee before the Time Lords arrive, but he is captured - taken back to his homeworld along with Jamie and Zoe. The soldiers are all returned home, and the War Lord faces trial. He is sentenced to dematerialisation, and his belligerent planet is imprisoned forever. The Doctor must then face his own trial. Time Lords observe the universe, and are not allowed to intervene in the affairs of other races. The Doctor did not want to merely study - he wanted to explore and experience. He stole the TARDIS and went on the run. By interfering he has broken one of the principal Laws of Time. His defence is that he has saved many worlds from alien domination. It is decided that he should be exiled to Earth - at the end of the 20th Century - and forfeit a regeneration. He bids a sad farewell to Jamie and Zoe. They will be returned to their own times and have their memories wiped - apart from their initial encounter with him. After they have gone, the Doctor finds himself spinning into a black void - his features blurring and changing...

This ten part epic was written by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, and was broadcast between 19th April and 21st June, 1969.
It is one of the most significant stories in the history of the programme. It is the last story of the Second Doctor's era - meaning a farewell for Patrick Troughton after three years in the role. Leaving with him are Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines. The three regulars had all agreed to step down at the same time. Frazer had held off his departure, and Wendy was actually offered the chance to continue in the role of Zoe to help bridge the transition to the new Doctor.
It is also the last story of the black and white era. And it introduces the Time Lords - finally giving us the Doctor's back-story.
The story came about when two stories fell through late in the day - a 6 parter and a 4 parter. One of these would have been a story called The Impersonators. Script Editor Terrance Dicks was asked by producer Derrick Sherwin to devise a 10 part story to end the sixth season. It was Sherwin who suggested the inclusion of the Time Lords and the Doctor's history. Dicks couldn't tackle the project on his own due to the limited time available - so he approached his friend (and mentor) Malcolm Hulke to co-write with him. Dicks had gotten to know Hulke after renting a room in his house, and they had worked on other writing projects together - such as the wobbly-setted Crossroads soap.

On the DVD commentary for The War Games, Terrance Dicks says "World War One didn't go on half as long" as this story. It is an epic - but a flawed one. The problem is with the padding in the middle four episodes. Basically, The War Games is the greatest six parter we never had. There is a ridiculous amount of capture / escape - in different war zones. New characters like the cartoonish Mexican bandito Arturo Villa are introduced late in the day to try to infuse a bit of freshness into a flabby, flagging storyline. The only new arrival who really makes an impact is Philip Madoc's War Lord - one of the series' finest villains.
There is other villainy on show. Early on, it is the wonderful Smythe and Von Weich - alien manipulators in the war zones. Smythe is played by Noel Coleman, and Von Weich by David Garfield (who will be back in The Face of Evil as Neeva). Both are excellent. Not quite so successful are the sparring War and Security Chiefs, who can sometimes be slightly OTT. The War Chief is Edward Brayshaw, and the Security Chief is James Bree (Decider Nefred in Full Circle, and the Matrix Keeper in the concluding chapters of The Trial of a Time Lord).

Other performances of note - representing the goodies - are Jane Sherwin as Lady Jennifer, David Savile as Carstairs, and Graham Weston as the sturdy Boer War Sgt. Russell. Weston returned to the programme as Morestran crewman De Haan in Planet of Evil, whilst Savile played Winser in The Claws of Axos, and Crichton in The Five Doctors).
Though the Doctor's own people, the Time Lords transcend good and evil. They arrive like the cavalry to save the day, yet the Doctor fears them and is put on trial by them. They are presented as almost god-like beings, who oversee the cosmos from on high. We see some technicians and a three man tribunal who conduct first the War Lord's trial - then the Doctor's. They are played by Bernard Horsfall (of several Doctor Who stories - all by the same director as this, David Maloney), Clyde Pollitt and Trevor Martin. Horsfall played another Time Lord - Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin - and Pollitt played the Time Lord Chancellor in The Three Doctors - so possibly the same Time Lords as seen in this? Trevor Martin also went on to play a Time Lord - the stage Doctor in Seven Keys To Doomsday.

Episode endings are:

1. The Doctor is tied to a post in front of a firing squad. The order is given and shots ring out...
2. After passing through a dense mist, the Doctor and his friends find themselves somewhere else. Roman soldiers charge towards them...
3. The barn in the American Civil War zone comes under attack. Jamie watches helplessly as the SIDRAT dematerialises with the Doctor and Zoe onboard...
4. Carstairs has been reprocessed. He recognises Zoe as a German spy and aims his revolver at her...
5. As the Doctor, Zoe and Carstairs watch, Jamie and Russell - along with other rebels - walk into a trap and are shot down by the aliens...
6. The Doctor, Jamie and Carstairs are trapped in a SIDRAT as the War Chief reduces the dimensions to crush them to death...
7. The Security Chief leads a mission to the chateau - recapturing the stolen processing machine - and the Doctor...
8. The Doctor has delivered the rebel leaders and his own companions into the hands of the enemy...
9. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe race towards the TARDIS but are caught up in a powerful force. The Time Lords have arrived...
10. The Second Doctor finds himself spinning into a dark void, his features gone...

Overall, as I've already said, it is a bit bloated due to the extended episode length. A lot of capture / escape padding. Best enjoyed a few episodes at a time. The initial set up is excellent and intriguing, and the reveal of the alien plan and the Time Lords summoning to put a stop to it are brilliant. Just a bit too much unnecessary to-ing and fro-ing in between. The regulars do get a good send off - with moments of drama and comedy throughout.

Things you might like to know:

• Jane Sherwin (Lady Jennifer) was married to producer Derrick at the time. No big deal, as previous producer Peter Bryant had employed his wife on The Tomb of the Cybermen.
• Bryant should have also produced this - but Sherwin had to step in as he was ill.
• The WW1 location was Brighton rubbish tip. It had just been used by Richard Attenborough for his film of Oh! What a Lovely War - the satirical musical also set in the First World War.
• As the Doctor and his companions try to escape the Time Lords, we see short clips of the TARDIS from The Web of Fear and Fury From The Deep. We also get a glimpse of The Wheel - taken from The Wheel in Space.
• Zoe's photographic memory lets her down again. She got lost in the air ducts of the Moonbase in The Seeds of Death, and in this she forgets some of the memorised rebel leaders and their locations. And she had that problem with candles...
• Part 8 had the lowest viewing figures of any episode until 1989 (with just 3.5 million). Just shows how much the story length was wearing people out.
• Episode 10 is the last time that we get a rolling caption for the end credits - until part four of Earthshock.
• It's also the last time the Doctor is credited as "Dr. Who". He'll be "Doctor Who" from now on - until David Tennant comes along.
• Neil Gaiman references this story with the Time Lord message cubes in The Doctor's Wife.
• The War Chief features in a couple of DW novels - Divided Loyalties and Timewyrm: Revelation.
• Monster cameos in the final trial sequence include a Dalek, Ice Warrior, Yeti, Cyberman and a Quark. 
• There was also supposed to be a Kroton, but both costumes were damaged. 
• The Yeti is played by John Levene, in the last of his monster roles before becoming Sergeant Benton.
• A rubbishy Quark? Why no Sontarans - which the Doctor and Jamie encountered in Seville and on the space station Camera? Why, season 6(b) of course...

Sweep-ros

You will have noticed this if you also follow Tardis Newsroom. I always knew there was something dodgy about this guy. Of course there are a couple of Sooty / Doctor Who connections. Son of original Sooty-wrangler Harry Corbett - Matthew Corbett - appeared in 1971's The Daemons as one of the Master's coven. He even gets a line - "But it's not right!" or something to that effect. Matthew took over the Sooty Show after his father had to step down due to ill health.

And more recently, Rory himself - Arthur Darvill, going through a hair gel fixation phase - had to contend with the usual chaos that ensues when Sooty, Sweep and Sue get together.

I actually used to have Sooty and Sweep glove puppets (I was about 5 at the time), and did have a soft spot for Sweep as he was the naughty one. Sue was boring and a bit of a do-gooder. Never liked her...

Ark In Space SE Cover

Was scrolling through forthcoming DVD releases on amazon.co.uk and spotted the cover for February's The Ark in Space Special Edition. The spine is a turquoise colour. I have a thing about Doctor Who DVD cover spines. All that effort that goes into the cover, but no-one has ever thought what the releases will look like when they're arranged in chronological order on my bookcase... There's something to be said for the uniform, black R1 spines.

Story 49 - The Space Pirates

In which the TARDIS materialises aboard Beacon Alpha 4, out in the deepest reaches of space. These structures are made from the much sought-after mineral argonite, and are being targeted by a group of pirates led by Caven and his accomplice Dervish. The Interstellar Space Corps has been hunting them for some time, but the criminals are usually long gone by the time they arrive at the scene of a Beacon theft. Caven has the structures blown apart and the pieces floated off to his hidden base.
The pirates attack Beacon Alpha 4. The security guards are killed, and the Doctor and his companions are trapped in one of the sections when it is broken up. The Doctor realises that each section is connected to its neighbour through electro-magnetism. When he tries to bridge the gap with their nearest neighbouring section, he makes a mistake with the polarity and sends them shooting off in the opposite direction. With the air running out, they are saved by the arrival of Milo Clancey - an eccentric, old time argonite miner.

Clancey has a mine on Lobos, and has been suffering repeated thefts of his argonite shipments. His presence in the area causes ISC General Hermack to believe that he is actually responsible for the piracy. Hermack sets up base on the planet Ta - where there is a highly successful mine run by Madeleine Issigri. Her father, Dom, had been a business partner of Clancey. Dom is believed dead - murdered by Clancey. Caven decides to send the sections of Beacon Alpha 4 to Lobos - to cast further suspicion on Clancey. His real base is actually on Ta. Not knowing this, Clancey decides to go there with the Doctor and his companions.

The Doctor decides to warn Madeleine that the pirates are hiding on Ta - only to learn that she is in league with them. They are the secret of her great success. He and his companions are locked up, and discover that Dom is still alive - Caven's prisoner. Clancey and Issigri escape and make off in Clancey's antiquated ship - the Liz 79 - unaware that Caven has sabotaged it. The pirates also set explosives to blow up Madeleine's mining complex. The Doctor uses a radio to tell Clancey how to repair his ship and then defuses the explosives. The pirates try to flee, but are destroyed by the ISC. Madeleine is reunited with her father, now reconciled with his old partner.

This six part adventure was written by Robert Holmes, and was broadcast between 8th March and 12th April, 1969. His second story for the series was again a late replacement for a story that collapsed at a late stage (The Dreamspinners, by Paul Wheeler). It wasn't his first storyline submitted for the slot. That was Aliens in the Blood - about mutant telepaths. This fell through, and Holmes replaced it with what is basically a Western in Space. We have claim jumpers and cattle rustlers, old 49'ers, the 7th Cavalry and so forth, all transposed to a futuristic Sci-Fi setting.
Only part two still exists in the archives, but the audio soundtrack is available for the missing episodes. It is a rather workaday effort, full of cliché and dodgy Americanised accents. Probably the best thing about it are the special effects - with some wonderful model shots.
This was Peter Bryant's last story as producer, and Derrick Sherwin returned to Script Editor duties.
Of the guest cast only Jack May as General Hermack, and Gordon Gostelow as Clancey really stand out. May was famous as Adamant's butler Simms in two series of Adam Adamant Lives! (He was also butler to Count Duckula). Gostelow plays Clancey very much in a comedic vein.
Episode endings are:

1. The Beacon is blown apart, and the Doctor and his companions are thrown to the floor.
2. Clancey boards the Beacon section. As Jamie moves towards him, thinking he is one of the pirates, he is shot down.
3. The pirates chase the Doctor and his companions through the tunnels of Ta. They fall into a chasm.
4. The travellers go to Madeleine's office and discover she is in league with Caven.
5. Caven launches the Liz 79 by remote control - and the Doctor is caught in the take-off blast.
6. In order to retrieve the TARDIS from Lobos, the Doctor and his companions will have to travel once more in Clancey's old ship.

Overall, the story fails to hold interest for 6 episodes. The Western trappings are a little too evident - making it feel unoriginal. The regulars are sidelined for the first third of the story.

Things you might like to know:

• Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury weren't in the studio when episode six was recorded. They were off doing location work on The War Games. They had pre-recorded material for the episode which was then played in.
• When the travellers fall into the chasm at the end of part three, their cries suggest a very deep drop - but in the opening of the next episode they have only fallen a few feet.
• The Doctor isn't carrying his sonic screwdriver (he uses an ordinary one).
• Despite knowing all about candles back in The Mind Robber, Zoe doesn't know what they are in this.
• Episode one was the final Doctor Who to be recorded at Lime Grove Studios.