C is for... Crane, Nurse

Nurse Crane was employed to look after the scientist Professor Judson, who had been confined to a wheelchair for many years. She accompanied him to a military base on England's north east coast in 1943, where Judson was building his Ultima decoding machine. The fiercely independent Judson hated being looked after, but the stern nurse put up with his insults and hectoring ways. When the Ultima Machine decoded the ancient curse created by Fenric and freed him from his imprisonment, it was Judson's body that he first took over for himself. Retaining the professor's memories, he took great relish in setting the vampiric Haemovores on the nurse.

Played by: Anne Reid. Appearances: The Curse of Fenric (1989).

• The novelisation fleshes out Nurse Crane's character, making her a Soviet agent who is part of the plot to steal the Ultima Machine.
• Reid returned to the programme in 2007, to play the Plasmavore Florence in Smith and Jones.

C is for... Crane, Mr

Crane worked for industrialist John Lumic on the parallel world where a new race of Cybermen were created. Crane had the job of procuring homeless people around London who could be converted into Cybermen, so that Lumic would have a force that would enable him to launch his full-scale conversion plans. Victims would be lured into the back of an International Electromatics truck with the promise of free food. Crane would then supervise the conversions at the Battersea Power Plant complex, where he would listen to 1980's pop songs to drown out the screams. When Lumic triggered the signal that would bring everyone wearing his ear-pods under his control, Crane rebelled - pretending that his pods had failed. Rather than be converted, he attacked Lumic, wrecking his life support unit. Crane was killed with an electrical charge from a Cyberman.

Played by: Colin Spaull. Appearances: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel (2006).

• Director Graeme Harper had used Spaull before, casting him as Lilt in Revelation of the Daleks back in 1985.
• One of his earliest roles as a child actor had been as Noddy, in the BBC's 1950's adaptation of the Enid Blyton children's stories.

C is for... Cowell, Emma-Louise

A young woman from the 1950's, who found herself in the Cardiff of 2007. The plane she was travelling on had passed through the Rift in time and space which was centred on the city. Emma had to get used to living in this modern world. She was befriended by Gwen Cooper, who pretended to her boyfriend Rhys that Emma was a cousin. He discovered from her mother that she had no such relative. Emma stayed at a hostel with her fellow time-travellers, and made friends with a couple of girls living there. Some drawings she had made of 1950's fashions chimed with current retro-fashion looks, and she found herself offered a job in London as a designer. Of the three people who had travelled through the Rift, Emma was the only one to embrace the new opportunities which this afforded and make a new life here.

Played by: Olivia Hallinan. Appearances: TW 1.10 Out of Time (2006).

Inspirations - The Faceless Ones

This story finally sees Malcolm Hulke get his name in the opening credits of a Doctor Who, though he has to share them with David Ellis. Hulke's name featured frequently back when the series first started, as he had a proposal for something that might have been called "The Hidden Planet" under consideration for the first season. This same story idea may also be the one known as "Beyond the Sun", as it featured a planet identical to Earth, but with some things in reverse, and which had Barbara Wright's double as its leader.
That story never did make it to the screen, although it sounds a bit like Gerry Anderson's Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (aka Doppelganger).
One element that does seem to have found its way into The Faceless Ones is the idea of doubles. This story features a new race of aliens who are known as the Chameleons, who have lost their physical identities in what is described as a "galactic explosion". From their lumpy, unformed features, it looks as if they are the victims of some kind of radiation mutation. Their idea to get round this is to travel to Earth and abduct thousands of young humans, keeping them miniaturised and in suspended animation whilst they take on their physical appearances, as well as their personalities. The process requires the humans to be kept alive, otherwise the Chameleons end up a puddle on the floor.

The initial story idea was called "The Big Store", and the action took place in a large high street department store. This had been infiltrated by aliens who came in two factions. There were human-looking ones known by a number, and some cruder types known by a letter. During the day, the crude ones were disguised as shop window mannequins. Hulke may have told his lodger, Terrance Dicks about this storyline, and he later told Robert Holmes - though Holmes may have just come up with the Autons all on his lonesome. The idea of shifting the action to an airport may be a leftover from one of the early Troughton scripts which failed to make it to the screen - William Emms' "The Imps", which was set in a spaceport.
Presumably the aliens do not actually call themselves Chameleons all the time - otherwise it would be a mighty big coincidence. They certainly have an airline set up, which specialises in cheap flights for young people, and this is called Chameleon Tours. In an earlier draft, it was Pied Piper Tours - as in they lure young folk away.

When discussing the previous story, we looked at the holiday camp option for cheap, affordable family holidays. The first organised foreign tours had been organised by Thomas Cook back in the mid 19th Century, but in 1950, the Horizon Holiday Group arranged the first of what we now think of as package holidays - flying out of Gatwick to Corsica. These package deals meant that the flights and hotel booking were all handled and paid for together. Similar deals were then launched by the company to Palma in 1952, Lourdes in 1953, and to the Costa Brava and Sardinia in 1954. There's no mention here of Chameleon Tours offering any form of accommodation (they wouldn't need to, as no-one is going to be staying there), and all their destinations appear to be short-haul European city breaks, so they are more like the budget airlines we have today. Chameleon Tours also seem to be foreshadowing the Club 18 - 30 type holidays, as they are aimed primarily at young people.
The original plan had been to film at Heathrow Airport, but this was refused and eventually London's second international airport at Gatwick was agreed upon. This turned out to be a good move as it wasn't quite so busy as Heathrow. Back in 1967, airports were still mysterious, glamorous places, and the production team got their monies' worth with lots of shots of Jamie wandering around the Terminal building in the earlier episodes.
"The Big Store" had been an alien invasion story, but here the Chameleons only want to take people away and steal their likenesses. To do this they have infiltrated the airport, replacing key figures such as Nurse Pinto and the Air Traffic Controller, Meadows. Presumably they did not go to the bother of setting up their own airline from scratch, and the Tours personnel have also been doubled as a job lot. This infiltration scenario is not dissimilar to certain spy features, where the Russians replace people in an out of the way community and they have to learn how to speak and act like them in order to become sleeper agents. Take as an example the first of the Emma Peel Avengers episodes, The Town of No Return, or the Danger Man episode Colony Three - though in the case of the latter story, the town is a replica one behind the Iron Curtain.

This story sees a number of notable departures. Behind the scenes, it is the last story to be worked on by Shawcraft Models, who had been handling visual effects work since the TARDIS console in the very first episode. They provided the aircraft whose wings fold back so that it turns into a space-going vehicle, but problems arose with the massive space station model. This proved too heavy to be hung and broke its strings. The internal lights also failed, and Shawcraft were slow to replace them. The decision was made to bring the VFX in-house from the next story, now that the BBC VFX unit had more staff and facilities than they had when the series first launched.
On screen, we have the departure of Anneke Wills and Michael Craze. The decision was taken to write out Ben now that Jamie was proving popular and Frazer Hines was getting a lot of fan mail. He was due to leave after the first two episodes of the following story, but the departure was brought forward to this story instead. Wills was invited to stay on, but was unhappy at Craze's axing, and thought that she might be tempted to stay on too long and so face type-casting. She therefore decided to leave with Craze. Both were paid up until the episode when they were originally due to depart. Both actors only feature in the first half of the story, after which they get abducted by the Chameleons - with Wills playing her Chameleon double for her last full episode. Both reappear to make their farewells to the Doctor and Jamie at the conclusion, in a scene filmed before the studio recordings - so shown after they had already left.
The reason given for their departure is that they have discovered that this is the same day when they first entered the TARDIS back in Fitzroy Square - July 20th 1966. This mean that the events at Gatwick have taken place concurrently with the WOTAN / War Machines incident only a few miles away in London - yet nothing of this is ever mentioned. Assuming that it takes some time for Ben and Polly to be returned to Earth, we also have the possibility that the First and Second Doctors could have spent some time in close proximity to each other - and maybe even met.

The departure of Ben and Polly naturally leaves a vacancy in the TARDIS for a female companion. In this story we have Samantha Briggs. This character was originally given the name Cleopatra. She is played by Pauline Collins, and - according to Frazer Hines - he and Troughton approached the production team to enquire if she could be kept on. They replied that they had already had the same idea, but Collins was not interested in tying herself down for at least a year on a TV show. Collins uses her broad Liverpudlian accent as Sam, and it should be noted that less than a year ago Jackie Lane was being asked to tone down her Northern accent. We're also about to get two companions who both hail from before the 20th Century - something which the previous Producer / Script Editor had thought a bad idea.
Next time: the Daleks are back for the very, very last time ever (honest), and we finally get that new female companion. And hold on to your hats because they are about to start playing musical chairs behind the scenes.

Captain Jack Harkness - Torchwood 1.12

In which Jack and Tosh go to investigate reports of ghostly sounds coming from an abandoned dance hall. Neighbours have reported hearing music coming from the venue. As they look around, Jack and Tosh hear the music - playing tunes from the big band era. They suddenly experience a time slip and find themselves in the hall as it was in 1941. There is a dance on, and the room is full of RAF personnel and other military people. When one of the RAF men takes exception to Tosh, his commander steps in to calm the situation. He introduces himself as Captain Jack Harkness. Jack hurriedly renames himself "James Harper". He reveals to Tosh that this is the man whose name he took, as the mission he will fly tomorrow will be his final one. Realising that the others will come looking for them, they decide to leave a message that might survive to the 21st Century. They must work out a way of opening the Rift in order to get back to their own time. The dance hall manager, Bilis Manger, takes a photograph of them with an instamatic camera.

In the present day, Gwen goes to the dance hall in order to look for them as they cannot be contacted. She finds their vehicle parked outside. Within, she also catches faint hints of the wartime era music. When she calls out for them, Jack and Tosh can briefly hear her. Gwen meets the caretaker of the hall - Bilis Manger, looking exactly the same as he did back in 1941. Back at the Hub, Ianto and Owen try to operate the Rift Manipulator. Ianto has reservations, as failure to operate it properly could devastate the city. Owen wishes to push ahead regardless of the risks. However, they find that a vital component of the device is missing. They inform Gwen after she reports seeing the faded photograph of her friends, with the same man she has just met. Gwen suspects that he might be some kind of time-traveller, and may have stolen the component, so she starts to search for it.
Back in 1941, an air-raid begins and everyone seeks shelter in the cellars. Tosh writes down the equation needed to open the Rift and photographs it using Manger's camera. This is hidden in a tin which is placed in a cupboard, and a message is left on a card in an electrical junction box just outside the hall. Manger deliberately erases part of the equation.

Jack discovers that his namesake is attracted to him, and he seems to have worked out that he does not have long to live. Gwen finds the messages from Tosh and informs Owen and Ianto. She also finds the missing component hidden in an old clock. In the Hub, Ianto and Owen begin to fight over the opening of the Rift. Ianto holds a gun to Owen but he carries on working. Ianto shoots and wounds Owen, but his colleague goes and ahead and activates the Manipulator. In the dance hall, the assembly is shocked to see Jack and the real Captain dance together. As the Rift opens they kiss. Jack and Tosh pass through the Rift to return to the 21st Century.
Back at the Hub Jack agrees with Ianto that Owen may have caused all manner of problems in opening the Rift in the way he did. He and Tosh raise a glass to toast the real Captain Jack Harkness, who died on a training flight the day after the dance.

Captain Jack Harkness was written by Catherine Tregenna, and was first broadcast on 1st January, 2007.
The dance hall scenes are set on 21st January, 1941, making these some three and a half months before Jack appeared in London to meet the Doctor and Rose Tyler in The Empty Child. We get to meet the man whose name Jack adopted. In many ways this could be seen as the first half of a two-part story, as this episode and the next feature the enigmatic Bilis Manger, and events in the following story come about because of Owen's actions here. Owen's mental deterioration continues here as he recklessly opens the Rift without thinking of the consequences, is abusive towards Ianto, and eventually drives his colleague to shoot him.
It is one of the only episodes of the first series to really highlight Jack, as he enters into a brief and doomed romance with his namesake, as well as being a strong episode for Tosh. who - along with Ianto - is normally sidelined.

Playing Bilis Manger we have Murray Melvin. He began his acting career under Joan Littlewood, and came to the public's attention when he played Geoffrey in the play, and later film adaptation, of A Taste of Honey. Later film work saw him act in roles for Ken Russell and Stanley Kubrick. Matt Rippy plays the real Captain Jack Harkness. Playing George, the RAF crewman who almost starts a fight with Jack, we have Gavin Brocker, who appears in the Sarah Jane Adventures story Sky.

Overall, a lovely episode with a great performance from Melvin. There's something obviously bad about him, but he is not an out and out villain here. Everyone gets to do something in this episode, but at its heart there is that bittersweet romance between Jack and Jack.
Things you might like to know:

• Searching for the operating instructions for the Rift Manipulator, we see Owen handle a couple of props from earlier stories - the Ghost Machine and the multi-bladed weapon known as the "Life Knife".
• Screened several months before Series 3 of Doctor Who began, we see a "Vote Saxon" poster outside the dance hall. Inside, during the present day segments, we see "Bad Wolf" written across a poster, and there is also a letter P in a circle - the Preachers symbol from Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel.
• It has to be asked - why do Jack and Tosh not just contact Torchwood, who are operating a couple of miles away in 1941? They ought to be used to time slippages, and Jack should have been able to get his earlier self not to ask too many questions and upset the time-line.
• By the end of series two we will discover that there is a third Captain Jack in 1941 Cardiff, as he is also in stasis in the Hub morgue after being dug up in the Edwardian period. A fourth may well be a few hundred miles away in London, setting up the Chula spaceship con.
• Whilst we can accept that something hidden inside the dance hall might still be around to be found 70 years later, it seems highly unlikely that in all that time no workman threw away the message that was placed outside in the junction box. Manger may have removed it, then replaced it just before Jack and Tosh arrived.
• There's a lovely extra on the Series 1 DVD box set recorded during the making of this episode, as John Barrowman sings "Anything Goes" with the band, adding little Torchwood elements to the lyrics.

C is for... Cotton

A senior security guard on Skybase One, which orbited the planet Solos. He and his partner Stubbs were playing chess one day when an alarm sounded indicating that a storage bay door had malfunctioned. This was the work of the Doctor, who had been sent to the Skybase by the Time Lords to deliver a message capsule to someone on the station. This proved to be the young Solonian rebel Ky. Cotton and his partner were unhappy at being away from Earth, and this dissatisfaction led them to co-operate with the Doctor against their commander - the Marshal. Unhappy that Solos was to be handed back to its native population, the Marshal had decided to seize control of it for himself, changing the toxic atmosphere to make it breathable for humans. He arranged for the Administrator sent to Solos to arrange the handover to be assassinated. Cotton and Stubbs joined the Doctor and Jo on Solos, where they took refuge in the thesium mines. The Marshal discovered their treachery and tried to seal them all in the tunnels, which were pumped full of poison gas. Cotton and the others took refuge in the home of Prof. Sondergaard. On returning to the Skybase, Stubbs was killed. Cotton and Jo were imprisoned with Ky and Sondergaard in the station's refuelling chamber. They were freed when Ky evolved into a super-being. Once the Marshal had been destroyed by Ky, Cotton was placed in charge of the Skybase - to begin preparations for the return to Earth.

Played by: Rick James. Appearances: The Mutants (1972).

C is for... Costello, Suzie

Captain Jack Harkness' second-in-command at Torchwood's Cardiff base. She became obsessed with her investigations into the Resurrection Glove - a metal gauntlet which could bring people back to life for a minute or so. This obsession led her to steal an alien weapon and use it to murder people, so that she could use the Glove on them. Torchwood was then called in to investigate these same crimes. WPC Gwen Cooper saw the alien bladed weapon when she visited Torchwood's Hub - being worked on by Suzie - but Jack Retconned her so that she would not remember the visit. The image stayed with her, however, and she realised who the killer was. On going to the Hub she met Suzie as she was about to flee. Suzie explained that it was impossible to walk away from Torchwood, and that her crimes were sure to be found out soon. She was going to shoot Gwen when Jack appeared. She shot him instead, then killed herself.
Her body was stored in the Hub's vaults. Some time later, the police called in the team to help investigate a number of murders where the victims' blood had been used to write "Torchwood" at the crime scene. A link between the victims was found - a support group which Suzie had attended. Jack decided to bring her back with the Glove to learn more. It was Gwen who successfully resurrected her, and bizarrely Suzie stayed alive for more than a minute or two. She had planned her resurrection well in advance, by overdosing one of the support group with Retcon to the extent that he had become psychotic. He was caught and locked up in the cells, where he recited a poem on hearing the word "Torchwood" which voice-activated a power failure and lock-down of the Hub. Suzie had worked on Gwen, convincing her that she only wanted to visit her terminally ill father who was in hospital, and that she posed no risk. Gwen smuggled her out of the Hub before the power failure. The Glove had created a link between the two women, however. Suzie was being kept alive by draining Gwen's life-force. She would live, whilst Gwen would die. At the hospital she murdered her father, whom she had always despised. Trying to flee the country at a ferry port, Torchwood caught up with her. She could not be killed until the Glove was destroyed. Her body was returned to the Hub.

Played by: Indira Varma. Appearances: TW 1.1 Everything Changes, TW 1.8 They Keep Killing Suzie (2006).

• Suzie Costello was scheduled to reappear in the second series of Torchwood, being resurrected once again, but Indira Varma was pregnant at the time and so this never came to pass.