Story 173 - The Idiot's Lantern

In which the Doctor decides to take Rose to New York in 1956, to see Elvis Presley's famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. To get to the studios, the Doctor drives a Vespa scooter out of the TARDIS. It quickly becomes clear that they are nowhere near New York. They are in London, and the city is gearing up for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. They meet Mr Magpie, who is selling TV sets for the big event. He tells them that the ceremony will take place the next day. Rose is surprised to see so many TV aerials on the rooftops, as she had always been told that people had to cram into their neighbours' homes to watch - so few were households with a set. On Florizel Street, the Doctor and Rose witness a man being bundled into a car with a blanket over his head. One of the neighbours - a boy named Tommy Connolly - tells them that this has been happening a lot recently. The Doctor pursues the car on his scooter, but loses it. Tommy's father, Eddie, orders his son not to say any more.

Intent on learning more about what is going on here, that evening the Doctor and Rose turn up at the Connolly residence, pretending to be employed by the Government to look into how the population is preparing for the big day. Eddie is clearly a bully, who terrorises his family, and so they find ways to embarrass and belittle him. It is clear that the family is hiding a secret, and that Tommy would like to talk. He tells them of the abductions, and of how people are being turned into monsters. This includes his own grandmother, who is being kept upstairs, The Doctor goes to see her, and finds that the old woman has been left completely faceless. The police turn up, led by Inspector Bishop. The Doctor is knocked out and the old woman is bundled away. The Doctor recovers and gives chase - this time seeing how the police cars enter a warehouse that has its entrance quickly hidden with a market barrow. He breaks in and discovers twenty or so faceless people held there. Rose sees a strange red glow emanating from the back of the Connolly's TV set. She goes to Magpie's shop to investigate. He tries to warn her away. One of the TV sets comes to life - showing a female continuity announcer. Rose is shocked when it starts to talk to them. It then sends out a beam of energy which starts to suck off Rose's face.

The Doctor has been arrested by Bishop, but soon turns the tables and gets the Inspector to tell him everything that has been going on. Bishop has been under orders to simply remove the faceless people, to be dealt with once the Coronation is over. Another victim is brought in - and the Doctor sees that it is Rose. The following morning, the day of the ceremony, the Doctor and Bishop go to enlist Tommy's help. They go to Magpie's shop, after the boy tells them all this happened after the neighbourhood began to take in his inexpensive TV sets. They find the faces of all the victims staring out at them from TV screens, silently appealing for help. The female face appears and reveals that she is the Wire - an alien entity who was executed by her own kind, but whose mind escaped through space. It arrived at Magpie's shop some time ago via his TV aerial. It spared his face on condition he worked for it. It is simply using the female face as an interface. It attacks them, but only Bishop loses his features, as it retreats on recognising the sonic screwdriver as advanced technology. It has Magpie transfer its essence into a portable TV set, and he flees.

The Doctor realises that the Wire intends to exploit the Coronation ceremony to harvest more people. He discovers that they are in Muswell Hill, in the north of the city, and close by is Alexandra Palace - site of one of the BBC's TV transmitters. Magpie will have gone there. They give chase after the Doctor cobbles together a rudimentary video recorder. At the Palace, the Doctor pretends to be the King of Belgium to gain access. Magpie is climbing the transmitter tower and the Doctor goes after him, whilst Tommy goes to a control room with instructions on operating the recorder. The Wire kills Magpie, then starts to feed on the mental energies of the people watching the ceremony. The Doctor traps the creature on the video recorder - intending to tape over it some time later. Returning to Florizel Street, a party is underway. All the faceless victims have been restored. It transpires that Eddie had been reporting his afflicted neighbours to the police. His wife Rita, fed up with his bullying, decides to throw him out, as the house belongs to her. The Doctor and Rose encourage Tommy not to become estranged from his father, despite what he thinks of him. Tommy is given the scooter as a gift.

The Idiot's Lantern was written by Mark Gatiss, and was first broadcast on Saturday 27th May, 2006. As with his Series One submission, Gatiss was given a period story to do - this time one set in the 1950's - an era which fascinated him. He had hoped to dramatise his New Adventures novel "Nightshade" which also features a formless energy being, which makes use of an antenna tower, and which had Quatermass influences. Quatermass was the other big TV event of the 1950's.
Asked to come up with something new, Gatiss first thought about Rock & Roll, and had an alien taking over people's minds through a hit pop song. This wasn't deemed visual enough, so TV became the medium by which the Wire would attack.
The title comes from a slang term for a TV set - in that people would sit in front of any old rubbish rather than go out and do something more interesting.

The Muswell Hill location was well known to Gatiss. One of the residents of this area is actress Maureen Lipman. She was called upon to play the Wire. Unable to travel to Cardiff due to her work commitments, she filmed all of her material at Alexandra Palace itself. If you have ever seen any archive footage of the real early TV announcers, you will know how spot on her casting was.
The cast also includes Ron Cook as Magpie, and Sam Cox as Inspector Bishop. The Connolly clan are Jamie Foreman (Eddie), Debra Gillett (Rita), Rory Jennings (Tommy) and Margaret John as Gran.
Jennings was actually in his early twenties when he made this story. Like Florence Hoath in the previous season, he was one of those actors who could play much younger roles. Margaret John had appeared in Doctor Who before - having been Megan Jones in Fury From The Deep.
Gillett is best known these days for her role as Mrs Thursday, in ITV's Morse prequel Endeavour. Foreman tends to get cast as criminal types, apt as his family grew up in that milieu in the East End of London. He wore his father's period watch for the part.

Story Arc: Torchwood is mentioned as being behind the police cover up of events.

Tardisode: Not so much a prequel this time, more what happens between the pre-credits sequence and the start of the episode proper. Grandma Connolly is sitting down to watch her new TV when strange red lightning surrounds it. She gives it a thump, then the lightning reaches out to seize her face. We then see on the screen an advert for the Coronation broadcast.

Overall, a slight disappointment after Gatiss' first series script. It didn't fare well in the season polls. In the DWM Mighty 200 poll it managed position 138, but had dropped to 195th place (out of 241) five years later with the 50th Anniversary Poll. Perhaps it's a bit too preachy (Tommy's challenging of his father). Things aren't helped by the Doctor only seeming to get really angry when Rose falls victim, like the other faceless people don't seem to matter quite so much. You'd think she was his girlfriend or something...
Things you might like to know:

• Let's get the anachronisms out of the way first. The BBC ident seen on the screens in Magpie's shop - the "bat-wing" one - wasn't introduced until the end of 1953, whilst this takes place on 1st and 2nd June of that year. The Doctor claims to have invented the home video 30 years earlier. Yes and no. 10 years is more accurate for the video cassette, but he's right in terms of it becoming a household item. Magpie's van is four years too early.
• If Florizel Street is in Muswell Hill, then Alexandra Palace is facing the wrong way.
• Florizel Street was the original name for Coronation Street. 
• Rory Jennings will be familiar to Big Finish fans as the voice of the young Davros in their I, Davros miniseries.
• Viewers on 2nd June 1953 did not get to see every bit of the Coronation ceremony. The BBC weren't permitted to show the part where Elizabeth was anointed, as this was the religious bit. The rest was more about becoming a terrestrial monarch, whilst the anointing symbolised her becoming the Defender of the Faith and the head of the Church of England. It will be interesting to see if the same rule applies when it is Charles' turn. (Or William's, depending on how much longer Liz 2 goes on).
• Programmes seen or referred to next. We see clips from Muffin The Mule; Animal,Vegetable or Mineral; and What's My Line. The Wire says: "Are you sitting comfortably...", from Listen With Mother (radio rather than TV but it will go on the telly and give Dalek voice man Peter Hawkins a good living). She also says "Goodnight children, everywhere...", which comes from Children's Hour. Fans of the VFX in Doctor Who will be familiar with the Puppet Stage, as the location where many of the model shots for the series were filmed. This space got its name as it was where Muffin The Mule was recorded.
• Surprisingly, only the Doctor mentions the first ascent of Mount Everest - news of which reached Britain on the eve of the Coronation.
• When it was still going to be a story about a pop song, this had a working title of "Mr Sandman". Gatiss is obviously obsessed by this song, as it will crop up in his Series 9 effort, Sleep No More. 
• It was fellow writer Gareth Roberts, shortly to be given a commission of his own but at this point writing the Tardisodes, who suggested the on screen title. It was a phrase his father used to describe TV sets.
• Gatiss put some of himself into the character of Tommy. It is obvious that he is gay, but never explicit. Some critics at the time actually liked the Connolly family material, but others found it too preachy.
• The Wire's demands to be fed seem to have been influenced by the carnivorous plant Audrey II in The Little Shop of Horrors. You can also clearly see the reference to Kroagnon in Paradise Towers. Gatiss clearly rates this story, as the Seventh Doctor turns the tables on the Caretakers in exactly the same way that the Tenth does with Bishop in this.
• The TV aerials on Florizel Street look not unlike swastikas - suggesting the fascistic nature of the Wire, and tying in with Eddie having fought fascism only to become a bit of a fascist himself.
• Last, but certainly not least - the ongoing success of Magpie Electricals. Considering that this was a tiny one-man business, heavily in debt and selling TV sets for £5 when the average cost at the time was £70 - and its owner gets himself killed - the company seems to have done remarkably well for itself. It is still going strong in the 21st Century. Martha Jones has one of their TVs, and Sarah Jane Smith one of their computers. The Torchwood Hub also boasts one of their TV sets. They are still around far into the future, as a sign on Starship UK testifies. The Doctor even uses their products - such as his guitar amp - and the Eleventh Doctor's first TARDIS console used bits of Magpie products. Here's a picture I myself took, on a set visit in 2012, to prove it:

January's Figurines (2)

Three figurines to round off the month. The two regular releases are the Carrionite witch Mother Doomfinger, and the Cyber Controller as he first appeared in Tomb of the Cybermen. Alongside these we get the latest of the special Dalek figurines, and what an odd one it is.
First up, Mother Doomfinger. Very well modelled, with lots of detailing in the costume. The features are good as well, and you could guess which of the two Mothers this is supposed to represent.
The only thing I would say about the Controller is that he is a bit too silver. On screen, he looked to be darker than his underlings.
The Dalek hails from Evil of the Daleks. As you can see from the pair of images below, there is something definitely amiss with the proportions. This so called "skinny" Dalek had a much smaller base for some reason.The makers, Shawcraft Models, had no records about this version. It is believed that the slimmer base was created as this Dalek would have to traverse a real Victorian house - and so fit through the doors. Up until this story Daleks had only ever appeared in studio or on external locations.
This is the Dalek that orders Victoria not to feed the flying pests, and it was last seen in the Thought Channel sequence in The War Games Episode 10. VFX maestro Bernard Wilkie salvaged it when it was then discarded, and it is now owned by movie director Peter Jackson.
Next month sees the release of Commander Azaxyr, from Monster of Peladon.

Note the single column of hemispheres on the back panel, instead of the usual double column.

B is for... Bell Plants

A large plant species which is hostile to animal life, and is native to the planet Tigella. They appear to be carnivorous. Thick tendrils at the base of the plant can ensnare passing victims, whilst a red, bell-shaped flower sprouting from the top gives the plant its name. The main body comprises folds of thick leaves, which open up to seize the prey and envelope it whilst it is consumed.
Presumably they evolved to eat smaller animal lifeforms, as they are fairly ineffectual at capturing human beings (or similar). Romana, and later a squad of Gaztak mercenaries, were able to extricate themselves from their clutches quite easily.
If they are the only hostile plant form on the planet's surface then the Tigellans would not have had too much trouble reclaiming the surface, once they had been forced to abandon their subterranean city.

Appearances: Meglos (1980).

B is for... Bell, Corporal

Corporal Bell was a UNIT member, who was based at UNIT HQ. Her role was administrative, acting as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's personal secretary. She first appeared during the period when UNIT was supervising security at an international peace conference in London, which coincided with the operation to dump a banned nerve gas missile at sea. The Master intended to hijack the weapon and use it to destroy the conference. She was later on hand when an alien spacecraft landed near the Nuton Power Complex on England's south coast. She relayed the information to the Brigadier that the craft's arrival had resulted in freak weather conditions in the area.

Played by: Fernanda Marlowe. Appearances: The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos (both 1971).

• Yes, Bell's most famous moment is when she tells everyone about the weather down at Nuton. This line had to be added in studio after the film crew had experienced wildly varying weather conditions whilst shooting at Dungeness in Kent. A similar thing happened with The Daemons the year after, but it wasn't quite so apparent on screen and so Corporal Bell wasn't called upon again.
• No, Fernanda Marlowe was never married to actor William Marlowe (convict Harry Mailer in her first story). He did however marry Catherine Schell (Countess Scarlioni), and later Kismet Delgado, widow of Roger (the Master) Delgado.
• Fan fiction has given Corporal Bell the first name of Carol. Might be something to do with the 1914 Christmas Carol of the Bells, by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. Or maybe not.

B is for... Belazs

Belazs was responsible for the day to day running of Iceworld, acting as lieutenant to its real controller - Kane. He was unable to leave the confines of his refrigerated inner sanctum, as the complex's normal temperatures would destroy him. Kane enslaved people, marking them as his own when he gave them a frozen coin that would burn the flesh on the palm of their hand. Belazs had such a mark, and she knew that Kane would never allow her to leave his service. She also harboured some unrequited feelings towards him. She was in charge of the white uniformed guards who kept order on Iceworld, and like them wore a distinctive Pickelhaube helmet.
At the time of the arrival of the Seventh Doctor and Mel on Iceworld, Belazs had started to make plans for her escape - knowing that Kane himself had a scheme to flee his imprisonment. She intended to steal the Nosferatu - the impounded spaceship belonging to Sabalom Glitz. She also conspired with her colleague Kracauer to assassinate Kane - raising the temperature in his vault whilst he slept.
The assassination failed, and Kane destroyed the Nosferatu when the staff and customers of Iceworld tried to flee in it. Knowing that she had conspired against him, Kane killed Belazs - his frozen touch being lethal.

Played by: Patricia Quinn. Appearances: Dragonfire (1987).

• Quinn's best known role will always be that of Magenta, in the stage and screen versions of The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show.
• She married actor Robert Stephens shortly before he passed away, and so is technically Lady Stephens.
• Two of her nephews are members of the band Snow Patrol, and so have a Doctor Who connection of their own.
• Belazs, like other characters in this story, is named after a film theoretician - in this case Bela Balazs (1884 - 1949).

B is for... Bedspread Monster

When the Doctor wanted Clara to use the telepathic circuits to pilot the TARDIS into her past, her thoughts of Danny Pink got in the way and the ship materialised outside the children's home where he once lived instead. The Doctor was seeking the origins of the popular fear people have of something lurking under their beds. He had developed a theory that some being existed which was so successful at camouflage that no one knew of it - having never been seen. It was the ultimate evolutionary form, since nothing could ever prey on it.
The Doctor and Clara met the young Danny - real name Rupert - and witnessed something appear in his room. When Clara and Rupert climbed under his bed, something entered into the room and sat on it. Looking up they saw a small shape hidden beneath his red knitted bedspread.
They turned away from it, and so did not see what emerged from beneath the covering. It left the room before it could be identified. The Doctor claimed that it could just as easily be one of Rupert's young friends, playing a prank - but neither Clara nor Rupert were convinced by this.
If this was one of the hidden creatures, then it, or another of its species, survived to the end of the universe.

Played by: Kiran Shah. Appearances: Listen (2014).

• From the tiny, out of focus glimpse we get, it does not look like another little boy, so presumably it is one of the Doctor's sought after ultimate evolutionary creatures.
• Like his fellow countryman Deep Roy, for whom he is often mistaken, Shah has a huge number of fantasy credits to his name - having been body doubles for Bilbo and Frodo in the Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit trilogies. He was also the scavenger who tried to steal droid BB-8 in The Force Awakens.
• The "Bedspread Monster" - the only apt title - was on display at the Doctor Who Experience last time I visited - certainly one of the more unusual exhibits.

Inspirations - An Unearthly Child

Before we look at the story itself, a quick recap on where Doctor Who came from. In 1960, the BBC's Donald Wilson formed a working party to look into ideas for new drama series. Come 1962, they're looking at the opportunities afforded by Science Fiction. Two of BBC TV's biggest hits have come via Nigel Kneale - the Quatermass trilogy, and his adaptation of Orwell's 1984. ITV have started screening Sci-Fi, either as part of the Armchair Theatre run, or with series such as the Pathfinders in Space trilogy and Out of this World, which was introduced each week by Boris Karloff.
One of the people responsible for this output was Sydney Newman, who will shortly bring his love of Sci-Fi from ATV over to the BBC.
Wilson's researchers had watched some of their rival's programmes, and decided that aliens and robots didn't work. They thought that two areas worth exploring further were Time Travel and Telepaths.
Once we get to 1963, Newman has been headhunted by Wilson to the BBC, and the Corporation is looking for a half hour family drama that will plug a gap in the Saturday evening schedules, and help stop the adults switching over to the opposition after Grandstand.
Time Travel will be intrinsic to this new show, and it will feature telepathy in its first season - albeit fleetingly.
Doctor Who is born - the story of a mysterious time-traveller and his grand-daughter, and the two hapless school teachers who get caught up in their adventures. The series will feature a strong educational remit. There will be stories set in historical periods, and ones in the future, which will discuss scientific ideas. Good job Ian is a science teacher, and Barbara teaches History, rather than Home Economics. (Saying that, some future stories might have benefited from a thrilling Bake-Off challenge at its conclusion).
There will be a third type of story - described as "sideways", as opposed to past or future. These will look at the everyday from a new, distorting angle.
The first adventure was supposed to be one of these sideways stories, as the travellers get shrunk to an inch tall and have to negotiate Ian Chesterton's science lab at the school. When it was realised that this would be too technically demanding at this early stage, the idea was put on the back burner, and another story by Anthony Coburn was brought forward to launch the series - the one we generally call An Unearthly Child.
Stories did not have overall titles at this stage, as I'm sure you know full well.

So where does this first story come from?
Pretend for a moment that you are a viewer back in 1963, sitting in front of the TV on Saturday 23rd November. You're probably a bit shell-shocked by the news of President John F Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, so are looking for something to take your mind off this terrible event. You've failed to win the Pools as well. Round about 5.15pm a new series begins on the BBC.
After the very weird music you see a policeman in a foggy lane. Is this going to be some sort of Z Cars style crime show? What's a Police Box doing behind that gate, and what's with the funny noise it seems to be making?
Suddenly we're in a school. A strange looking school, where the pupils don't appear to be wearing a uniform. Is this a Teen school-based drama?
You glance at this week's Radio Times, and there's Kenneth Horne on the cover - plugging his latest series on the Light Programme. On screen, one of the boy pupils is doing a Kenneth Williams impression.
We then get 10 minutes of Ian and Barbara, two teachers who are worried about one of their pupils - Susan Foreman. This first episode is called An Unearthly Child, so we can safely assume that refers to Susan. So far, this could be leading to some social commentary drama - where the two teachers find out about some abuse or neglect in Susan's home life, and it will all be sorted out by social services. (Imagine 48 weeks of Ian and Barbara sorting out the trials and tribulations of a teenager-of-the-week...).
Susan lives in a junk yard, with her grandfather. That's a seemingly miserable, grumpy old person, and a young trendy person keen to dive in and see what this society has to offer, and they're living together in a junkyard, with theme music by Ron Grainer. A Steptoe and Son spin-off perhaps?
Susan's home turns out to be a huge, brightly-lit, futuristic spaceship, somehow fitting inside that Police Box we saw at the start - and it can travel anywhere in Space and Time.
All those drama or comedy styles this was hinting at - all wrong. This is a Science Fiction show.

There are four great fantasy writers influencing this programme. Three English, and one French. The box that can transport you to magical worlds would appear to be not unlike the Wardrobe in the Narnia tales of C S Lewis. He happened to pass away the day before you tuned into this new show, though the news would obviously have been swamped by that coming out of Washington and Texas. The TARDIS is a time machine - so H G Wells is obviously somewhere in the mix. The Doctor dresses in clothes that his time traveller might have worn. The Doctor and Susan are separated from their own home, as though marooned on a desert island. He is like some sort of magician. Prospero to Susan's Miranda?
The French writer is obviously Jules Verne. The Doctor is certainly reminiscent of Captain Nemo. He was a scientific genius who also abducted some people so that they couldn't tell the world all about his amazing craft. He wanted to explore, without anyone knowing about him. Nemo wants to stop warfare and build some kind of utopia - ideas not unlike earlier visions for the character of the Doctor.
Doctor Who? Captain Nobody. (Nemo is Latin for Nobody, in case you didn't know).
Talking of Doctors, let's go back to that initial mystery about Susan and her strange grandfather. Susan acts as though she were a very badly briefed foreigner. She talks about the English fog like she doesn't come from England. She doesn't even know the currency. He, meanwhile, is obviously hiding something. It's the height of the Cold War, and spies are being discovered in the most humdrum of suburban settings.
Doctor Who. Captain Nobody. Dr No...

That's a heck of a lot, all going on in just the first 25 minutes. Intrigued, you tune in the following week, and the next two after that, and you get an adventure with some cavemen trying to obtain the secret of fire-making. And there aren't any dinosaurs!!!
Everyone in 1963 knew that where there were cavemen there were dinosaurs.
Raquel Welch and her rabbit skin bikini is still 3 years away, but you may have gone to the flicks and seen the 1940 version of One Million Years BC. The main star is Victor Mature, but it also features Lon Chaney Jnr in one of the few roles when he wasn't playing one of the monsters. The dinosaurs in this movie are the ordinary-lizards-with-fins-glued-on variety, rather than stop-motion animation of real looking ones. The George Pal version of The Lost World also used this lizard trick. The Doctor has a touch of the Professor Challenger about him too - another grumpy old scientist who recklessly endangers his companions in the pursuit of knowledge and discovery.
One Million Years BC tells of the ructions that occur when a stranger joins another tribe - just like Kal in An Unearthly Child. And this story is often called "100,000 BC".
Another influence - literary this time - would be The Quest For Fire. You might have seen the 1981 movie, but it comes from a 1911 book by Belgian writer J-H Rosny (really the nom de plume for a pair of brothers). This is about the conflict between nice homo sapiens and nasty neanderthals - and not a Daemon in sight.
We mentioned the Cold War earlier. It's now two years on from the Cuban Missile Crisis and people are worried about the Bomb. Everyone assumes these three episodes are set on prehistoric Earth, but it could equally be some alien planet where human-like beings are evolving. Maybe Kal's a Thal, and the Doctor's just helped the future Kaleds on the road to the technology that will one day produce the Daleks...
Equally, this might be a future Earth - one destroyed in a nuclear war. Lots of Sci-Fi stories have the "surprise" reveal that a desolate wasteland is really our world, post apocalypse. Charlton Heston finding the ruins of the Statue of Liberty on the Planet of the Apes, for instance. That movie is also still in the future, but you'll find similar reveals in any number of short story anthologies of the post war period.
Who can say how much of this was going through the minds of Anthony Coburn, Verity Lambert et al. As stated in my introductory post on "Inspirations", this is what I can see, and you might well have your own ideas. By all means, do use the Comments to let me know.
Tune in next time, when the Doctor will be in full Prof. Challenger mode, and Terry Nation really goes to town on the The Time Machine...