Story 197 - Midnight

In which the Doctor and Donna visit the Leisure Palace on the planet Midnight. This uninhabitable world is bathed in X-tonic radiation, which destroys organic tissue in seconds, and there is no breathable atmosphere. The Palace had to be constructed elsewhere and lowered down onto the surface. The landscape around the complex is composed of crystals of diamond and sapphires. Whilst Donna elects to relax by the pool, the Doctor decides to take a trip to the Sapphire Waterfall on the Crusader 50 tourbus. The vehicle has sealed windows, and the tour party will only get a very brief view of the falls once they get to their destination - such is the danger from the radiation.
Joining the Doctor on the tour are Professor Hobbes, who has made a special study of the planet, and his student assistant Dee Dee Blasco. With them is the Cane family - comprising husband and wife Biff and Val, and their teenage son Jethro. The final passenger is a woman travelling on her own - Sky Silvestry. They will be looked after by a Hostess on the journey, which should only take a few hours. A son-et-lumiere show is provided to pass the time - comprising old cartoons, Euro-pop songs and psychedelic lighting, all played simultaneously. Horrified, the Doctor decides to sabotage this, and then gets the passengers to talk to one another instead.

The Canes tell everyone about some of their funnier holiday experiences, to the embarrassment of bored son Jethro, who would rather listen to his music. Hobbes and Dee Dee provide a lecture about the planet. The Doctor then joins Sky, who informs him that she has recently broken up with her partner and is enjoying travelling on her own. After a while the driver, Joe, announces that they will be making a detour to their normal route due to a rockfall. A short time after this, the vehicle comes to a halt. Hobbes announces that he has done this trip many times, and the vehicle never stops. The Doctor goes to the cockpit where Joe and his mechanic Claude tell him that they have some engine problems, but he does not believe them. He encourages them to open the window shutter for a moment so that they can look out onto the surface. Just as it closes again, Claude is sure that he has seen movement - even though nothing can live here. The Hostess gets the Doctor to return to the cabin where he tries to reassure the others, who are beginning to panic - with Val fearing they will run out of air. Something then knocks against the outside of the hull. It moves around the vehicle. When the Doctor knocks back, it seems to respond. The vehicle is then plunged into darkness as something tears away at the exterior. The Doctor discovers that the driver's cab has been totally ripped away, killing Joe and Claude.

Hobbes is shocked by these events as he has always insisted that there can be no life on Midnight. It soon becomes clear that the thing which had been knocking has now gotten inside the Crusader, as Sky begins to behave strangely. It appears to have possessed her in some way. She watches the others intently and begins to repeat everything they say - leading the Doctor to surmise that it is trying to learn to communicate with them. Her constant repetition gets on everyone's nerves. After a time, they are shocked to find that she has synchronised and is speaking at exactly the same moment as them. Fear and paranoia grow, and the passengers begin to talk about throwing Sky out of the bus. The doors can be opened safely for a few seconds due to an air seal. The Doctor naturally urges against this. His efforts to take charge only cause the others to resent him, however. It is then noticed that Sky is speaking before the Doctor does - anticipating his speech. The passengers begin to believe that the mysterious entity has moved from Sky to him, and she confirms this to be the case. His willpower is sapped, as he repeats what she says. The others then decide to throw him out of the vehicle. However, the Hostess notices that Sky is using certain phrases which she had heard the Doctor say, and realises that the entity has not transferred to him at all. Before the others can drag him to the door to throw him outside, she grabs hold of Sky and pulls her through the door instead, killing them both.
A subdued group of passengers then await the arrival of a rescue vehicle. They realise that they didn't even know the Hostess' name.

Midnight was written by Russell T Davies, and was first broadcast on Saturday 14th June, 2008.It was designed to be a very cheap episode, with a small cast confined to a single set, and to be the series' first ever "companion-lite" story. Series Two and Three had featured "Doctor-lite" episodes, which also had a minimal role for the companion (Love & Monsters and Blink). This was to enable the production team to realise 13 episodes plus a Christmas Special in the time available. For this season, it was decided to feature one story in which the Doctor would hardly appear, and another in which Donna would be mostly absent. We'll hear about the one with very little David Tennant in it next time, but Midnight only features Catherine Tate in two brief sequences which top and tail the episode, as she is seen to relax by a swimming pool.
The limitations imposed on this story by himself, allow for a highly claustrophobic little tale in which fear and paranoia run rife, and for once the Doctor gets caught up in it. His attempts to be the commanding voice of reason fall on deaf ears. Apart from some establishing shots of the Leisure Palace and Donna's pool, all of the action is contained within the Crusader tourbus. There is a brief moment when Driver Joe opens the window screen to allow us a view of the planet, but tellingly we only hear that Claude has seen something move. We all replayed this sequence in slow motion several times in the hope that there was a glimpse of some CGI creature, but of course there isn't anything to be seen.
The story is all about sound and atmosphere and performances. And what performances.

It is an excellent cast, headed by Lesley Sharp as Sky Silvestry. Davies could have gone down the cliched route of having her a very nice person taken over by the entity, but right from the off she is a bit of a cold fish, preferring her own company and not mixing with the others. Presumably this is why the entity chooses her - she has something in common with it to begin with. Professor Hobbes is played by David Troughton, returning to the series for the first time since The Curse of Peladon. The other monster on board the Crusader is Val - played by EastEnders star Lindsey Coulson. Val epitomises all the worst aspects of humanity. Close behind her is her husband Biff, played by Daniel Ryan. Biff and Val are basically the White Van couple you don't want to get stuck beside on a long journey. Son Jethro is Colin Morgan, who would go on to star as the young Merlin in the popular BBC series which began later in 2008. This was designed to plug the gap left when Doctor Who was off the air, following the end of the Robin Hood series. Jethro is a bit of a Goth, or Emo, and is much more of a sympathetic character than his parents. However, even he starts to get drawn into the paranoia, and the Doctor realises that he is fighting a losing battle when this happens. The other sympathetic passenger is Dee Dee, played by Ayesha Antoine. She manages to keep a more level head for much of the time, working things out rather than being pulled along by the others.

As far as story arc points go for this series, we get a brief glimpse of Rose Tyler calling out to the Doctor on the Crusader's TV monitors, which he fails to see, and Dee Dee has been studying the Lost Moon of Poosh. The Doctor - and therefore Sky - also mentions the Medusa Cascade.
Overall, a superb episode. Special mention for the performances by David Tennant and Lesley Sharp. It is worth watching the full length installment of Doctor Who Confidential which accompanied this story, to see the work that went into the shifting dialogue between the pair. It also highlights the sound design for this story. A very good 44th place in the DWM 50th Anniversary poll.
Things you might like to know:

• Actor Sam Kelly was originally cast to play Hobbes, but he broke his leg just before filming and so Troughton was brought in at only two day's notice to replace him.
• Working titles included "Crusader Five" and "Crusader 50". The 50 came from this being the 50th episode of he revived series to be filmed.
• Midnight was written quite quickly as it had to fill a slot which was to go to writer Tom MacRae. His story - "Century House" - featured TV ghost hunters investigating a haunted house, but elements of it were deemed too similar to The Unicorn and the Wasp, and it was dropped.
• This is the first story since Genesis of the Daleks not to feature the TARDIS.
• And this is the first story in which the Doctor has to cope without a companion to help him since The Deadly Assassin.
• Davies' inspiration for the repetition by the entity came from children copying what adults say as a joke - usually persisting beyond it being funny any more and becoming just plain annoying. A bit like "Are we there yet?".
• The in-flight entertainment sabotaged by the Doctor included Betty Boop cartoons, which dated back to the 1930's, and music from Italian pop diva Raffaella Carra. Before becoming a pop star she was an actress who appeared in many Sword & Sandal epics. "Do It, Do It Again" had been her only UK hit. The light show accompanying these is reminiscent of the psychedelic oil on water images pioneered by bands like Pink Floyd.
• The clip of Rose seen on the screen was filmed as part of Turn Left, and was done specifically for inclusion in this episode. Many people think it was simply copied from the Sontaran episode, but the reverse is actually the case. After filming it for this, it was then decided to go back and edit it into that earlier story.
• Dee Dee quotes a poem about goblins. This was Goblin Market, written by Christina Rossetti in 1859 and published in 1862.
• When you watch this story on DVD / Blu-Ray, or as a repeat on a cable channel or on-line service, you are not seeing it exactly as it was first broadcast. In the opening sequence where the Doctor speaks to Donna on the phone, the green-screen backdrop was briefly visible. This error was fixed later.

E is for... Eyesen

Chief Prosecutor of the city of Millennius, on the planet Marinus. This was the location of the fifth and final key needed by the scientist Arbitan to operate the Conscience Machine, whose power radiated across the planet to suppress evil actions and intent. When Ian Chesterton arrived in the city he found himself in the museum vault where the key was displayed, but he discovered a dead man lying there. Someone knocked him out and stole the key, and he awoke to find himself accused of the murder and theft. He was horrified to learn that the legal system in Millennius held that people were guilty until proven innocent. The Doctor elected to act as Ian's defence counsel, whilst the city appointed Eyesen to prosecute. Unbeknownst to Ian and the Doctor, Eyesen was the mastermind behind the theft of the key. He and his accomplices - a museum guard named Aydan and his wife Kala - hoped to ransom the key for a great deal of money. Aydan had killed the man in the vault - really one of Arbitan's followers - and framed Ian for the murder. When it looked as though Aydan might lose his nerve and reveal the truth, Eyesen and Kala had him killed, as they were having an affair and regarded him as disposable. Eyesen then ordered Kala to abduct Susan to deter the Doctor from investigating further - telling Kala that she should kill the girl as she could identify her.
The Doctor was able to work out the hiding place of the key - in a secret compartment in the murder weapon itself - but he needed to catch the mastermind red-handed when he came to collect it from the guardroom. After successfully prosecuting Ian, Eyesen sneaked into the guardroom that night - only to fall into the Doctor's trap.
Ian was freed, and presumably Eyesen was then put on trial and himself sentenced to death.

Played by: Donald Pickering. Appearances: The Keys of Marinus (1964).

• The first of three appearances in the programme for Pickering, the others being the Chameleon duplicate Captain Blade in The Faceless Ones, and the Lakertyan leader Beyus in Time and the Rani.

E is for... Exxilons

The inhabitants of the planet Exxilon had once been a technologically advanced race. They had travelled across the universe and visited many worlds, often bestowing some of their great knowledge on the native populations they encountered. The Doctor believed that it was they who had given the peoples of South and Central America the knowledge of how to construct their pyramids. The pinnacle of their achievements was the building of a huge city on Exxilon, which would act as a repository for all their wisdom. They gave it a brain of sorts, and a variety of defence mechanisms. It was powered by a massive beacon, which could draw energy to itself to feed its systems. However, the city developed an artificial intelligence which saw its creators as inferior to itself. It expelled them. Over the ensuing centuries, efforts to regain access to the city failed, and the Exxilons degenerated into a savage and superstitious state. They came to view the city as a deity, and offered sacrifices to it, declaring the region close to it sacred ground. Their High Priest became their leader, distinguishable by the red dye which stained his skin and robes. The Exxilons became hunters, leading a nocturnal existence, and wore cloaks which blended in to their rocky surroundings. Over time, some actually became petrified, as a result of their mineral rich diet.

An off-shoot clan took to living underground, evolving a smaller stature and bio-luminescent skin. They refused to treat the city as a god, and were persecuted by the surface-dwelling majority.
The TARDIS became trapped on the planet when its power was drained by the city's beacon. Also stranded here was a military expedition from Earth, which had come to look for the mineral Parrinium, source of the only known cure for a terrible space plague. Sarah Jane Smith was captured by the Exxilons as she had wandered into the forbidden zone near the city, and was due to be sacrificed. A Dalek spaceship was next to become trapped on the planet, and they lost the use of their weapons due to the power draining beacon. The Exxilons destroyed one of the Daleks and captured the others, along with the Doctor and the Earth force. When the Doctor attempted to rescue Sarah, he was also sentenced to sacrifice - by being forced into a tunnel beneath the Exxilon temple where one of the city's defensive probes lurked.
He and Sarah were saved by Bellal, leader of the subterranean tribe. The Daleks adapted their weapons to fire bullets and so took over, forcing the humans and Exxilons to mine Parrinium for them. The Exxilons asked them for help in destroying Bellal's people.
The Doctor and Bellal broke into the city and sabotaged its computerised brain, just as the Daleks blew up the beacon. The city was destroyed. The Doctor claimed that it had been one of the 700 Wonders of the Universe.
Presumably the humans would have sought to make peace between Bellal's people and the other Exxilons once the city was gone and the Daleks had been destroyed.

Played by: Mostyn Evans (Exxilon High Priest), Arnold Yarrow (Bellal). Appearances: Death to the Daleks (1974).

E is for... Eve

Sarah Jane Smith's young friend Rani was drawn to investigate reports of a "demon" which was haunting a fairground in a seaside resort. She was told about this by a friend named Sam, who now lived in an orphanage in the town. Rani decided to go and take a look on her own, having fallen out with her friends back in Ealing. She discovered that the demon was really a young female alien named Eve. Eve had been abducting homeless people and mentally enslaving them, making them ride on the fairground attractions. This was because she was really just a child, and wanted company. Her race had died out in a war, but she had been sent away in a sentient spaceship which crashed and was buried beneath the beach nearby. Eve's people could manipulate timelines, and when Rani said she wished her friends would go away and leave her alone, Eve took this literally. In an alternate timeline Rani then became a bitter old woman, living in the attic of Sarah Jane's house. A visit by a boy named Adam in 2059 allowed her to revisit the events at the funfair and change things back again.
Eve freed the people she had ensnared and set off into space to explore with two human companions - the fairground caretaker Harry, who had helped to protect her, and Rani's friend Sam.
It transpired that Adam, the boy from 2059, had been the son of Sam and Eve.

Played by: Eleanor Tomlinson. Appearances: SJA 3.2 The Mad Woman In The Attic (2009).

E is for... Evans

Private Evans was a rather cowardly Welshman who was part of the convoy bringing supplies and a new commander to the Goodge Street Fortress under central London. This was during the Yeti crisis, when a strange fog shrouded the city and Yeti began to appear in the tunnels of the Underground network. Driver Evans managed to escape when the convoy was attacked -by running away and hiding in the tunnels. The only other survivor was the Fortress' new commander - Colonel Lethbridge Stewart. Evans' untrustworthy ways led the Doctor and his companions to suspect that he might be the current host for the Great Intelligence, as various acts of sabotage struck the Fortress, and Evans disappeared into the tunnels on his own. This was merely an attempt to flee, however. Evans was present at Piccadilly Underground Station when the Doctor finally confronted the Intelligence, in the body of Staff Sergeant Arnold.

Played by: Derek Pollitt. Appearances: The Web of Fear (1968).

• The novelisation of the spin-off story "Downtime" gives Evans the first name Gwynfor. 
• Pollitt returned to the series on two further occasions - as a UNIT soldier in The Silurians, and as one of the mind-drained scientists in the abandoned story Shada.
• His brother Clyde Pollitt played Time Lords (or the same Time Lord...) on two occasions - in The War Games and The Three Doctors.

E is for... Evangelista, Miss

Miss Evangelista was the personal assistant to Strackman Lux, who financed the archaeological expedition to the Library planet. In charge of the expedition was Professor River Song. Miss Evangelista was belittled by her colleagues as they thought her rather dim. She was said to have mistaken the escape pod for the lavatory, ejecting herself into space. Twice. The Doctor's companion, Donna Noble, took pity on her and endeavoured to be kind to her. Her lowly status amongst the party meant that when she heard noises coming from an adjoining room, no one listened to her. She wandered in and was killed by the Vashta Nerada, voracious microscopic creatures which swarmed in shadows. Her consciousness survived for some minutes afterwards, thanks to a data chip which formed part of her spacesuit.
A short time later, Donna was uploaded to the Library's data core where she experienced a virtual reality life, wherein she got married and had children. She believed this life to be real. One night, she saw a woman dressed in black, her face covered by a veil, in the street outside, and a message was placed through her door asking her to come to the children's playground the next day. The woman in black told Donna that this reality was false - pointing out that her son and daughter were identical to the other children in the playground. Angered, Donna pulled away her veil to reveal Miss Evangelista. Her features were horribly distorted.

She too had been uploaded to the data core, but something had gone wrong. Her features had been warped, but she had gained an enhanced IQ.
All of the archaeological expedition were eventually uploaded to the Library data core, apart from Lux. They were reunited in the virtual world where they could expect to live for as long as the Library existed, and Miss Evangelista's features were repaired.

Played by: Talulah Riley. Appearances: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead (2008).

• For some information about Ms Riley, I refer you to my recent piece about this story (Story 196, dated 04/07/18).

Inspirations - The Time Monster

The final story of Season Nine - though not the last to be made in the production block. The final story in production - Carnival of Monsters - will be held over until the beginning of Season Ten.
As you will recall, it had originally been intended that the Daleks would be brought back to close this run, in a story in which they manipulated time, but they were brought forward to launch the season instead. The writer of what would have been "The Daleks in London" - Robert Sloman - was tasked with devising a new storyline, this time featuring the Master. He would be joined in co-scripting this by Barry Letts, following their successful collaboration for the conclusion to the previous season - The Daemons. Once again they wanted to have a vaguely supernatural theme, touching on some ancient Earth mystery. Additionally, Letts and Terrance Dicks had been asked by fans to feature a story set in an historical period, as one of these types of adventure hadn't been done for a long time. They decided on the myth of Atlantis, and Sloman embarked on a holiday around the Greek mainland and islands for inspiration.

Atlantis - the Island of Atlas - was written about by Plato around 360 BC. He used as a source some writings by Solon from around 590 BC, who is supposed to have found Egyptian references to it. Plato claimed that the powerful island state had gone to war against ancient Athens and been defeated - demonstrating how his ideal state was a superior model. The island then fell out of favour with the gods and they destroyed it by sinking it beneath the sea. It was said to have been made up of a number of concentric islands, nestled one within the other, and been located beyond the Pillars of Hercules - our modern Straits of Gibraltar, and hence out in the Atlantic Ocean.
So, Plato was quoting from third hand accounts hundreds of years after they were first recorded. Historians have long sought to look for a real city state which may have provided the inspiration for Atlantis, but rather than look beyond the Mediterranean, they have looked within, or to the Aegean.
A popular candidate is the Minoan civilisation which dominated the region from the island of Crete.
Its power collapsed following the volcanic eruption on the island of Thera to its north. We know roughly when this eruption took place, as it led to a drastic climate change recorded by both the Egyptians and the Chinese, as well as appearing in tree growth rings and ice core samples. The generally accepted date is around 1628 BC (+ / - 65 years). Events of The Time Monster have been dated to 1520 BC, as this was the accepted date when the story was written.
The Minoan capital of Knossos was hit by a double whammy. First, as Thera was almost totally obliterated in the blast, the north facing coast of Crete was struck by a massive tsunami. Ash then fell over much of the island, leading to crop failures and famine. (The global impact of the eruption led to famine in China, and the collapse of a ruling dynasty, as well).
Today, Thera - or Santorini - has actually come to resemble Plato's description of Atlantis, in that from space it looks like a circle, with a smaller island within. The island remaining is merely the remnants of the original crater wall, and the small island at its centre is the growing dome of a new volcano, pushing its way up from the sea bed.

The Doctor and Jo discuss Thera after he has woken from a nightmare in which he has seen the Master towering over him, in an ancient temple. The dream included a trident-shaped crystal and images of volcanic activity. Clearly it is too much of a coincidence that he should have such a dream, so it looks like evidence of the telepathic abilities shared by Time Lords. The Master is concentrating so hard on his plan that the Doctor picks it up, mentally. The Doctor wants to know more about the recent volcanic activity recorded in the newspaper, and so declines the chance to visit the Wootton Institute near Cambridge to witness a demonstration of the TOMTIT device. This stands for Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time. The Brigadier decides to co-opt Benton into accompanying him instead. It is a flaw in the scripting that the Doctor should not put 2 + 2 together, and work out the possible connection between what the Master might be up to and a new Time related piece of equipment. The Doctor wastes time finishing his TARDIS detector - only for it to point straight towards TOMTIT. Meanwhile, over at Wootton, the Master is posing as the Greek scientist Professor Thascales to develop TOMTIT, along with his assistants Ruth and Stu. Again, it seems odd that the Doctor hasn't read any papers on TOMTIT and noticed the name of its creator - Thascales (or Thascalos) being Greek for Master. (There is a Derby based IT consultancy firm called Thascalos Ltd. Has anyone notified UNIT?). Actually Kyrios, or Kurios, would have been a better match than Thascales.

The Doctor isn't the only person being somewhat inattentive around here. Ruth and Stu never comment on the Professor's roving accent, and the Head of the Institute only starts querying how the Master got a job there in the first place after things have gone pear-shaped - describing TOMTIT as nonsense when it has obviously been there taking up space and resources for some time. The Brigadier doesn't bat an eye-lid when the Professor starts shouting "Come, Kronos! Come!" in the middle of his demonstration.
Yes, the Master has a plan. He wants to control a powerful being called a Chronavore, who goes by the name of Kronos. It had previously been imprisoned on Atlantis through the use of a trident-shaped crystal, and he has got his hands on this. His plan initially fails as the real crystal is back in time in ancient Atlantis, in the Temple of Poseidon. Poseidon is often shown with a trident - hence the shape of the crystal.
The mythical Kronos was the king of the Titans, and son of Uranus and Gaia. He overthrew his father and took over the heavens, but was warned that he would one day be deposed by his own sons. To prevent this, he ate all his children. When it came to his sixth son, Zeus, the baby was swapped for a stone, which Kronos swallowed instead. Zeus grew up secretly on Crete and he gave his father an emetic which caused him to disgorge the other children he had eaten, including Poseidon and Hades. The stone - the Omphalos - was deposited on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. The children then ganged up on dad and overthrew him, along with the rest of the Titans - imprisoning them in Tartarus. Kronos, in this story, has a habit of eating people - inspired by the myths - and Chronavore is Latin for Eater of Time. Shame they couldn't have stuck with the Greek theme (or Cretan Jazz, as Jo might have called it).

The Master's Plan B is to bring the High Priest of the Temple - Krassis - forward in time to the 20th Century to learn from him the secret of how to contain the Chronavore. The Doctor has finally turned up at Wootton now, and noticed that the Professor's computer, linked to TOMTIT, is the Master's disguised TARDIS. He has his own TARDIS sent for, to be brought by Captain Yates. He has an eventful journey getting from UNIT HQ to Wootton, as elements of the discarded Dalek story come into play. In messing about with time so that their 22nd Century invasion was a success, the Daleks caused all sorts of temporal anomalies to occur - with people and things being brought to the present day from Earth's past. Yates first encounters a knight on horseback (the filming of which did not go to plan, and the horse was injured). Next he is attacked by Roundhead soldiers, from the 17th Century. Finally, the Master summons up a V1 "doodlebug" flying bomb, to blow up the convoy. This sequence has caused some consternation for fans, as a local farmer (presented as a bit of a simpleton yokel - a recurring problem throughout this era of the show) recalls how a doodlebug fell here back in the war - the implication being that it is the same bomb. But if the Master took it out of time to the 20th Century, how could it have fallen back in the 1940's to be remembered by the farmer?
After three episodes of UNIT / Cambridge shenanigans, we get the fourth part, which is set almost entirely inside the TARDIS - or rather both TARDISes. The Doctor tries to land his ship around the Master's to stop it from leaving, only to end up inside it. And the Master's ends up inside his. (And yes, we will be revisiting this story when it comes to looking at the inspirations behind Logopolis, which Letts also had a hand in).

Earlier, we had a rather nonsensical sequence when the Doctor tried to interfere with the Master's scheme - the building of the time-flow analogue. As might have been guessed, this was inserted due to the episode under-running. The Doctor claims that he and the Master used to build these things at school to upset their respective time experiments. The Doctor takes a number of household items, which Stu conveniently has lying round his bachelor pad, to create something which looks like a trident. Apparently, apart from some tea leaves, the materials themselves are, well, immaterial. It is the shapes and their ratios which count.
Anyway, back to the TARDIS within TARDIS within TARDIS episode. Some fans dislike this, feeling that it is a whole episode of padding, but I have always liked it. The interplay between the Doctor and Master as the former tries to lecture the latter, only for his efforts to be thwarted, are rather fun. It's a whole episode of Roger Delgado getting to be clever and funny.
The last two episodes finally see the action move to the studio-bound city of Atlantis. The designers have also gone for the Minoan look, with costumes and sets clearly based on the discoveries of Sir Arthur Evans during his excavations at Knossos. Unlike the wall paintings Evans uncovered, the ladies of the Atlantean court wear dresses that go above the bosom - though Ingrid Pitt's fights valiantly against this. (Her cat, by the way, was not very well behaved and continually scratched her, and it took a distinct dislike to Delgado).

Some cut dialogue had King Dalios claim that King Minos of Knossos was his cousin. Knossos is raided once more by the script as the crystal in the Temple is guarded by a Minotaur - the legendary half-man, half bull. This one, played by both Dave (Darth Vader) Prowse and stunt regular Terry Walsh, isn't the Minotaur (which means "Bull of Minos"). It's just a Minotaur, created by Kronos when a young nobleman asked for long life and strength. Greek gods were notoriously fickle. The reason two people played him was because Prowse refused to do the fighting, insisting he was an actor and not a stuntman. The despatch of the creature was inspired by bull-fighting matadors, as the Doctor waves his hankie at it and quotes yer genuine Spanish.
If there is one scene from this story which is guaranteed to be picked out for praise, it is the one with the Doctor and Jo locked up in the dungeons, where he tells her of the childhood incident on Gallifrey when he went to see an old hermit. If I were to remind you that Letts was a practicing Buddhist, then you'll realise that the story he tells is lifted from a Buddhist tract - the Lesson of the Lotus Flower.
There was more cut material which would have given us more of a build up to the death of King Dalios. On screen, he just gets thrown into the dungeon and promptly dies. The Master finally gets to release Kronos, having seduced Queen Galleia and seized power. In revenge for its imprisonment, it destroys the city - by dangling from a kirby wire and flapping its wings. Of course, just the year before, and from the same authors, we had an entirely different account for the destruction of Atlantis, which an even earlier story had simply put down to volcanic activity. Steven Moffat would later play with this discrepancy by having all three versions as really having happened.

Ruth, Jo and the Doctor are all making eye contact with Benton - but I can't say the same for the Brigadier...

Did we mention that Benton had earlier been turned into a baby? Best not. Now, there is a lot of talk about the break up of the "UNIT Family" when looking at Season 10. Roger Delgado was killed soon after working on Frontier In Space, and then Katy Manning left at the conclusion to The Green Death. Pertwee then used these, plus the impending departure of both Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks, to reason that it was time for him to relinquish the role of the Doctor and leave as well. This story was produced in such a way as to release Courtney, Levene and Franklin after the pre-filming and first studio recording block. As such, this story was the last time that the entire UNIT Family - if you take it to include Delgado - were all together in the same studio at the same time.
So, lots going on in what is a very bitty and rather clumsily plotted story. If Letts and Sloman hoped that lightning would strike twice, they were very much mistaken.
Next time: it's the story that everyone thinks of as the Tenth Anniversary One - except that it wasn't. We will be talking about Ingmar Bergman and The Wizard of Oz, as we welcome back Bill Hartnell and Patrick Troughton to the show...