The Art of... The Rescue

The novelisation of Doctor Who: The Rescue was the final work by Ian Marter. Best known for playing Harry Sullivan in Seasons 12/13 he had met representatives from Target at a BBC party, where he expressed an interest in attempting a novelisation. His first was The Ark in Space, as it was a story which featured his character prominently. The book was characterised by some graphic body horror, and by rewriting the means by which the Doctor and companions leave the station at the end (he has them leave in the TARDIS). His next novel was the next story as broadcast - The Sontaran Experiment - which entailed extending a two-part story to the range's then 126 page limit. He also had to work around his own changed ending to the previous book.

He wrote a number of other stories, including two Cyberman ones, despite hating them. He also contributed a spin-off book for the short-lived "Companions of Doctor Who" range - a conventional spy caper involving Harry. He was planning another of these - one that possibly killed off his character - when he died from diabetes complications on his 42nd birthday.

The predominantly green cover is by artist Tony Clark. We have a portrait image of Koquillion, and a full image of the Sand Beast. Unusually, the Doctor is caught in the act of turning - either towards us or away - and the final element is the wall sculpture from the tunnel which triggers the spike trap at the end of the first episode. I believe the Hartnell image comes from Marco Polo - he's opening the TARDIS door as he glances back.

The green colouring, Hartnell's Doctor, and the insect-like face of Koquillion (it was based on microscope images of a fly) often confuses this with the cover for Planet of Giants in my mind.

When BBC Video began releasing Doctor Who on VHS, fans were unhappy that stories were being edited together, or shown in condensed form (The Brain of Morbius was the 60 minute compilation version). When they stopped editing the stories, fans then complained about six part stories being split over two tapes, which you had to buy separately (so double the cost). Arguments then ensued over what to do with the two-parters. Some wanted them grouped together on a tape of their own (The Edge of Destruction sharing with The Rescue for instance). Others suggested adding it on to a reissue of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Instead, the BBC released The Rescue coupled with The Romans, which immediately follows it, and has a cliff-hanger connection - despite the BBC cutting this).

Released in September 1994, the artist is Andrew Skilleter. A side-on image of Koquillion and a portrait of Vicki  represent this story. The US VHS followed in March 1996.

The Rescue and The Romans remained linked for the DVD releases. The Region 2 disc arrived as part of a "Vicki Tales" box set in February 2009, with a cover design by Clayton Hickman.

The Region 1 DVD also coupled the story with The Romans. Unlike the UK release, however, the individual stories did not have their own artwork as this was a double DVD in a single slipcase. It was released in July 2009.

The audiobook of Ian Marter's novel was issued in April 2013, read by Maureen O'Brien. The cover makes use of the larger area available by placing the main image in a circle, surrounded by darkness - a clever way of using the same image but in a more interesting way.

The story was released on Blu-ray in December 2022. Koquillion featured on Lee Binding's cover.

What's Wrong With... The Ark in Space

Not a lot, is the obvious answer. It's a big fan favourite, often to be found in top tens lists of greatest ever stories. There are only a couple of issues I can see.

One thing about the story which has always really annoyed me, personally, is the extra in their sleep pallet who can clearly be seen blinking as they try to watch Tom Baker and Lis Sladen play a scene in the cryo-chamber.

There's a really obvious reuse of a Sarah "horrified reaction" shot.

Space station Nerva can be seen in close orbit above the Earth. The whole point of the "Ark" was to save people from intense solar flare activity. Wouldn't the flares have affected Nerva as well, if it was so close to Earth?

The defence mechanism instantly disintegrates organic material, like the Doctor's cricket ball and Harry's shoes - yet it only fatally wounds the Wirrn Queen. There's no sign of damage on the corpse and she's able to do an awful lot before dying.

Of all the sleep pallets that Sarah could have ended up in, she just happens to be placed right next to Vira, Noah etc. in the chamber where all the action is.

And how come there was a spare pallet anyway? Surely the Ark ought to have been full?

Noah believes the Doctor and his companions to be responsible for sabotaging the station. The Doctor and Harry showed Vira the dead Wirrn Queen, lying just a few feet away from Noah's pallet - so why didn't they show it to him as well?

Producer Philip Hinchcliffe elected to cut a corridor scene between the mutating Noah and the Doctor / Vira, due to the former pleading to be killed. This has left the scene as broadcast very disjointed. The door simply closes mid-conversation, for no apparent reason, and the characters just move away.

The Wirrn life cycle. They live mostly in space, visiting planets only to breed. How exactly do they land and, more importantly, how do they launch themselves back into space if they don't use spaceships?

If they can absorb knowledge from their victims, why aren't they a technological species by now anyway? It's suggested that they've been in conflict with humans in Andromeda for a while, so must have consumed a fair few of them by now.

The Doctor never does report back to Vira about the transmat, as he gets diverted to Skaro. How long does she wait before trying to use it?

Robert Holmes' scripts were the third attempt at this story. The first, called "The Space Station" was by Christopher Langley, and the second version was by Hartnell Historical writer John Lucarotti. He gave each episode a title - "Buttercups", "Golfball", "Puffball" and "Camellias". There were aliens (the Delc) who were just heads, and others who were just bodies. The Doctor ended up hitting the head-only aliens into space with a golf club...

It's no wonder that Holmes had to do a page one rewrite.

Colourised Episodes?

Have had a chance to look at the Mirror article. It is by the writer who has more often been proven correct than wrong. As well as the two stories to be animated, there is also mention of An Unearthly Child and perhaps other Hartnell / Troughton episodes being colourised for the anniversary. I know for a fact that a couple of Hancock episodes have been colourised. Not just rumour - they are being advertised on the UK Gold channel.

It may simply be that because the Hancocks are being colourised, someone has extrapolated with Doctor Who's forthcoming birthday - so once again file under 'Rumour' for now.

Two new animations for the 60th Anniversary?

According to UK tabloid newspaper The Daily Mirror, there are plans to release two more animated stories in 2023 to mark the Diamond Anniversary. They are the late Hartnell historical The Smugglers, and the partially incomplete The Underwater Menace (parts 1 and 4 are missing). Both belong to Season 4.

Not sure of all the details, like who might be funding this, as BBC America were doing it until last year but recently pulled the plug. 

Whilst I can understand the Troughton story being completed, I would never have thought of The Smugglers as an obvious candidate for animation. The Highlanders would have made a more likely one for me, what with it being the introduction for Jamie.

We should file under rumour for now...

Countdown to 60: "Oh, I dig your fab gear!"

Number 8 represents the shape of things to come...

The Doctor and Dodo have arrived in contemporary London where a full adventure is about to be set. Since leaving the junkyard in 1963 the TARDIS landed in miniaturised form in what might have been 1963 or 1964, and then made only very brief visits to New York, Liverpool and London in the mid-1960's - never stopping long enough to spend much time in each (mainly due to pursuing Daleks).

The War Machines is the first full story set in contemporary London. There's a threat to the human race, and the Doctor allies himself with a military force to defeat that threat (as with the UNIT adventures). We also get our first "mad" computer, which wants to dominate human beings as it thinks it's better than them, and it controls the mind of its creator (shades of BOSS and Stevens).

We've seen the Doctor in a range of bizarre environments, but he is most out of place here on the streets of the London of the Swinging Sixties - the age of Carnaby Street and the first era of 'Cool Britannia'. And yet to the people of this place and time, he fits in perfectly. He reminds nightclub owner Kitty of a well-known disc jockey (presumably the one with the initials JS, who is very much persona non grata these days).

One of the main fashion styles which came out of Carnaby Street and the King's Road  at this time was a form of mock Victoriana, for both men and women - so the Doctor's Edwardian garb looks perfectly normal, especially in the context of a Covent Garden basement nightclub.

As well as showing us what it might be like to see the Doctor operating in a present day setting, as would become the norm from Season 7 onwards, The War Machines also sees the introduction of young adult companions, after a run of more child-like ones. Dodo was the last attempt at replicating a Susan-like figure for quite some time. Ben and Polly are perfectly at home in a nightclub setting.

Despite coming from this time and place, Dodo just doesn't fit as well somehow.

Inspirations: Utopia

Utopia is basically a set-up episode. Russell T Davies has got his season finale all worked out, and needs to get all the pieces in place. The main thing is to resolve the series story arc, which this year has been the frequent mentions of one "Harold Saxon". He's the Master, so we have to introduce him. Rather than have him appear fully formed, we are instead introduced to a seemingly kindly old man. He's called Professor Yana.

The Master story arc has actually been going on for a lot longer than "Harold Saxon", which first featured on a newspaper in 2006's Love & Monsters. It begins with the Year 5 Billion trilogy and the Face of Boe.

It's merely a bizarre background character in The End of the World (a rip-off of the Navigators from Dune) but in the next series - in New Earth - the Face starts hinting at a secret it needs to share with the Doctor. By Gridlock the Face is dying, and so finally imparts the secret - "You are not alone".

For watching fans, this was obviously a reference to another Time Lord still in existence. The Doctor had always maintained that he was the last, and that he would know if any other of his kind still lived. However, this series had just shown us the Doctor conceal his biological identity using a Chameleon Arch - which hid his true self in a fob watch.

All the clues were there as to who the big bad would be for the Series 3 finale, and how they would go about explaining it. The villain would be another Time Lord who had been hiding behind another Chameleon Arch. Series 1 had reintroduced the Daleks. Series 2 had brought back the Cybermen. So Series 3 could only be leading us towards the return of the Master - his alternative identity, Yana, derived from the initials of "You Are Not Alone".

RTD also needs his monsters for the finale, and these derive from the end of the Universe. This, therefore, provides the setting for Utopia. We have to have the last remnants of the human race, right at the end of time, still seeking somewhere to survive - the fabled Utopia. This all sets them up to become the Toclafane, who will come back through time to almost destroy their own predecessors. That would be a paradox - how can they exist if they destroy their ancestors? - so a mechanism to create and maintain a paradox is required. As well as providing a nice cliff-hanger, with the Doctor, Martha and Jack trapped on a remote planet without a means of escape, the episode has the Master steal the Doctor's TARDIS. He's lost his own, so needs a way to get to the 21st Century, and it will also provide the means of creating the paradox needed to facilitate the Toclafane plan.

Chantho's role is simply to give the Master a companion, in the same way that the Doctor has a companion. He'll get another in the finale - a wife this time - and Chantho's "killing" of Yana is there to foreshadow Mrs Saxon's "killing" of his next incarnation.

Captain Jack was first introduced into the series to be a soldier, as there was going to be a battle with the Daleks in the first series finale - a role unsuited to the Doctor or to Rose. He is reintroduced here for similar reasons, having been off enjoying his first series of  Torchwood. Martha will be leaving Doctor Who in a couple of weeks, but she is going to get a trio of Torchwood episodes to move on to - so Jack's appearance here helps introduce the two characters to each other and so get that out of the way now.

Utopia opens with the TARDIS landing in Cardiff Bay - taking us right back to Series 1 and The Unquiet Dead and Boom Town, with the Rift being introduced and later able to refuel the ship. Martha recalls an earthquake in the city (which was in the latter of the two Series 1 Cardiff-set stories). The final episode of Torchwood's first series had seen Jack hear the TARDIS materialisation sound whilst in the Hub. The implication there, however, is that the TARDIS lands within the Hub (the place is left in a mess as a wind blows through it), whereas here we see that the ship has arrived in the plaza above, and Jack has had enough time to put his overcoat on and grab the Doctor's severed hand (from The Christmas Invasion).

Whilst most of the episode is drawing together various story strands, and setting up others, Utopia still has to function as 45 minutes of adventure in its own right - which is where the Futurekind come in. They are the episode's villains, designed to make things interesting while all the structural stuff is going on.

The episode title derives from Utopia - a 1516 book by Sir Thomas Moore. It tells of a fictitious island and describes its socio-political systems, as well as its economy and religion. It strives to present the ideal form in each of these areas, which is why "utopia" now means a perfect situation.

In the Doctor Who episode, the people going there believe the sky is made of diamonds - as people  were once said to believe that the streets of London were paved with gold.

The young character Creet who talks about the diamonds is played by the winner of that year's Blue Peter / Doctor Who competition. For Series 2, the prize had been to create a monster for the series, but for Series 3 RTD thought they should up the ante and have a prize of an appearance in the series for one lucky young winner. The runners-up also feature as non-speaking children in the same scenes. The winner was John Bell of Paisley, who has gone on to feature in the second and third Hobbit movies and the Outlander TV series (both of which have Doctor Who connections).

It was only later that RTD claims he was told that 'Mister Saxon' was an anagram of 'Master No Six'. The Master started using anagrams when he was in his Anthony Ainley incarnation - either within the context of the story, or behind the scenes, attempting to conceal his presence in a story.

If John Simm is Master No.6, then Roger Delgado is No.1, Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers have to combine to be No.2, Ainley is No.3, Eric Roberts is No.4, and Derek Jacobi is No.5.

As Yana opens the fob watch we hear snatches of dialogue by previous Masters. The clearest is Delgado, from The Daemons.

The Doctor is impressed with the last of humanity about to launch into space, and describes them as "indomitable". This is a reference to The Ark in Space, which also featured the supposed last survivors of the human race.

Saxon was simply a name which RTD liked, and he had tried to launch a soap in the 1990's called "Saxon House".

Episode 52: The Powerful Enemy

Synopsis:

The TARDIS materialises in a cavern. Ian and Barbara are concerned that the Doctor appeared to sleep through the procedure.

The ship's arrival is noted on the control panel of a nearby spaceship, by a girl named Vicki. She runs and tells her companion, a man named Bennett. He tells her that the ship sent to rescue them won't be here on the planet Dido for another 72 hours, and the location on the panel suggests the mountains, where no spaceship could safely land. He instructs her to go and check. She radios the rescue ship and they confirm they are still three days away.

The Doctor tells Ian and Barbara that he recognises this planet. He has visited Dido before, and found its people to be friendly. 

The teachers decide to explore and follow a tunnel. This brings them out on a mountain ledge from where they can see a spaceship wreck, and the ruins of a settlement. They spot that the ship - the UK201 - has a Union Jack flag emblem and realise it comes from home. 

They are confronted by a savage-looking insectoid creature who demands to know who they are. It sends Ian into the tunnel to fetch the Doctor, and when he has gone it advances on Barbara. She stumbles and falls from the ledge. The creature then uses a jewelled club-like implement to cause a rockfall in the tunnel.

The Doctor rushes from the TARDIS and Ian informs him about their attacker. The Doctor is surprised  as he found the Dido people to be passionate about preserving life as there were so few of them. They start looking for an alternative way out of the cavern and follow another tunnel.

Vicki finds Barbara and helps move her to the spaceship. Koquillion visits and goes to see Bennett. Later, he emerges from his room to tell Vicki that Koquillion killed the strangers on the mountain. Vicki reveals the hidden Barbara. He does not seem happy about this, especially when they talk of overpowering Koquillion. He argues that they must do nothing to jeopardise their lives until the rescue ship arrives.

The Doctor and Ian follow a passage that leads to a narrow ledge over a deep ravine. They discover that some savage-looking creature is following them at the bottom of the ravine. They come upon a wall sculpture depicting the features of Koquillion. A metal ring on a cord is easily pulled out. It has been oiled, and they realise that it is part of a trap. A number of sharp blades begin to emerge from the sculpture, trapping Ian and moving inexorably towards him - threatening to force him off the ledge and plunge into the ravine where the creature is waiting...

Next episode: Desperate Measures

Data:

Written by: David Whitaker

Recorded: Friday, 4th December 1964 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:40pm, Saturday 2nd January 1965

Ratings: 12 million / AI 57

Designer: Raymond P Cusick

Director; Christopher Barry

Guest cast: Ray Barrett (Bennett), Sydney Wilson (Koquillion), Tom Sheridan (Voice of rescue ship captain / Sandbeast).

Critique:

This was the first episode of the programme's second recording block, both Planet of Giants and The Dalek Invasion of Earth having been held over to open the second season as broadcast.

With the future of the series more secure, and the programme's production moved to Riverside Studios (much better than Lime Grove though the catering facilities were so bad that the cast started bringing in their own. Hartnell brought in Fortnum and Mason hampers), the decision had been made to wait and introduce the new companion in a short two-part story dedicated to her launch.

Two actors were under consideration - both hailing from Liverpool Thanks to the Beatles and the Mersey Sound, Liverpool was the trendy British location. Not that Maureen O'Brien or Denise Upson would be expected to use their native Scouse accents. The BBC was still all about Received Pronunciation at this time - "BBC English".

Of the two candidates, O'Brien won the role. She had just helped set up the Everyman Theatre in her home city. Her partner was working in London, so a job with the BBC would mean she could see more of him, and her agent simply thought TV exposure would be a good thing.

She would quickly realise this to be a mistake. Mellowed now, O'Brien was famous for her negative attitude towards the series for many years, refusing to engage with fandom.

Her uncompromising nature made itself felt right from the start. When Sydney Newman suggested she get a shorter hairstyle, dyed a dark brown, she told him she would change her appearance on leaving the show - not on arriving - and if he wanted a dark haired girl why not just get Carole Ann Ford back?

Ford visited to wish her replacement well on Monday 30th November, the first day of rehearsals - a visit which also helped settle Hartnell, who did not like change. Little did he know that the end of this second season would usher in a period of almost continual change, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, until he left the series.

Luckily, Hartnell found in O'Brien a keen ally, who would be as passionate as he was about the scripts and who would back his arguments. She also found that she could help him keep his anger and frustration in check. His, as yet undiagnosed, arteriosclerosis was beginning to affect his memory.

The name they finally settled on for the new companion was Vicki. For a long time it had been Tanni, and scripts can be seen called "Doctor Who And Tanni". Before either of these, Milli and Lukki (pronounced "lucky") were considered. Millie was inspired by the My Boy Lollipop singer. Clearly a short and snappy two syllable name was the preferred option.

When I wrote the "Inspirations" post on An Unearthly Child, I pointed out the resemblance of the Doctor and Susan, hiding out on Earth, to the magician Prospero and his daughter Miranda on their island, from Shakespeare's The Tempest. The similarity with the Bard's late play is much more of a fit here. Vicki is Miranda, stranded on her desert island (Dido), with Koquillion taking the place of the monstrous Caliban. Bennett is a magician only in that he can appear to be in two places at once, in two different forms.

To conceal the fact that Bennett is masquerading as Koquillion, the alien was credited as "Sydney Wilson" in Radio Times. Of course, no such actor exists. The name was made up from Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson, the series' creators.

To ease the changeover of story editors, Spooner was commissioned by Whitaker to write The Romans, whilst he wrote The Rescue. This way Spooner could concentrate on his story, and basically edit himself, and Whitaker could do the same with his two-parter. As it was generally taboo for story editors to write for their own shows, neither of these two stories has a story editor credited.

Partly due to these arrangements, it was decided that The Rescue should be made back to back with The Romans, being treated as a six part adventure with two settings, introducing Vicki to the series in a futuristic story and in an historical adventure. 

As it was Spooner found Whitaker's scripts overlong and lacking in humour. He added the charming TARDIS scene with the Doctor sleeping through the landing. The episode ended up just over 26 minutes long, even after Spooner's cuts. In studio, the production had overran by 15 minutes. In-lay shots had to be carefully lined up, and Barrett had to make a number of costume changes between playing Bennett and Koquillion.

Christopher Barry, who had last worked on the first Dalek story, was appointed director, and Ray Cusick designed both stories. For this first section, he made sure to provide Shawcraft Models with a detailed drawing of how he wanted the crashed spaceship to look - providing an image of it broken as well as one of it intact. As set dressing , he reused a number of control panels seen previously in The Sensorites, as well as the corrugated wall material. Most of the set dressing was provided by a company called Trading Post, run by Bill King, which also furnished the film industry.

One further change behind the scenes was the role of Associate Producer. Mervyn Pinfield had held this post since the beginning, mainly to help with technical aspects of the series and to potentially help the inexperienced Verity Lambert settle into her role. However, she had hit the ground running and he wasn't really needed in that capacity. He would continue to be credited on screen for a while longer, but Pinfield basically stepped down from the role with this episode.

Trivia:

• The model spaceship filming took place on Friday 16th November, 1964, at Ealing Film Studios.
• Barry's first choice to play Bennett was Bernard Archard. He would later employ him as Bragen in The Power of the Daleks, and he would also appear as Marcus Scarman in Pyramids of Mars.
• Ray Barrett was a regular voice artist on Gerry Anderson serials. The voice he uses for Koquillion was one he already used on Stingray.
• Lying in bed for parts of the episode, Barrett fell asleep at one point and the crew turned out the lights then pretended he had slept in studio all night.
• In the draft script, Koquillion's weapon was actually capable of hypnotising people. He used it on Barbara and Ian to compel them to lure the Doctor out of the TARDIS, but he was suspicious of the way they spoke.
• The TARDIS materialisation was achieved this time by simply mixing between two still photographs of the set - one without the ship and one with, with the lamp cut out and a bulb flashing behind.
• As the rescue ship captain is only ever heard, not seen, Tom Sheridan was able to also portray the Sandbeast in this episode.
• Future director David Maloney acts as Production Assistant on this block of episodes.
• Radio Times, as was now customary, featured the opening episode of the new story with a photo-feature - this one introducing O'Brien as Vicki.