Inspirations - The Happiness Patrol

When Andrew Cartmel was interviewed for the post of script editor on Doctor Who he was asked about what he would like to do with the show. He said he would like to use the programme to bring down the government. At the time, this referred to the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. The Happiness Patrol is very much intended as a satire on Thatcher and her -ism.

It shows how little the media were paying attention to the programme at this time, that it took them about 30 years to notice this.

The popular press were interested in when the Daleks might be reappearing, or whenever some Light Entertainment luminary had been cast in the series, but they obviously weren't actually watching the show.

Helen A, the ruler of the planet Terra Alpha is obviously based on Mrs Thatcher. She rules with a rod of iron, has little regard for the planet's society, and certainly doesn't entertain industrial unrest - even employing snipers to assassinate demonstrators. The Thatcher era in Britain saw various industrial disputes, the biggest being the year long Miners' Strike. Mrs Thatcher once claimed that there was no such thing as "Society", so she couldn't see what damage was being done to it by her policies. How can you damage what doesn't exist? Helen As methods don't really match those of Maggie T - more her good friend Pinochet of Chile and his ilk.

If Helen A is Thatcher, then Ronald Fraser's Harold C is the Iron Lady's husband Denis. Seen by the general public as a tipsy, somewhat brow-beaten man, thanks to John Wells' impersonations of him.

Some have also seen a gay subtext to this story. Harold C runs off with the rather camp Gilbert M at the end. Cy Town plays a moustachioed man who is executed by pink fondant. Moustaches went out of fashion with heterosexual men in the 1980's, but did become popular with gay men. The leather scene had a subset known as "Clones", for whom a moustache was obligatory. The way that agent provocateurs entrap the sad members of this society mirrors the entrapment of gay men in cottaging stings by the police.

And let's not forget that the TARDIS gets painted pink.

We have said before that Cartmell gained a lot of his inspiration from comics and graphic novels, including the hugely influential 2000AD. A Judge Dredd story revolved around a sweet which killed people - Umpty Candy - "the sweet that's too good to eat", created by a character called Uncle Umpty. The Kandyman makes sweets which kill people. The bowler hatted Trevor Sigma looks like Max Normal, another character from Judge Dredd.

The exterior scenes, filmed in studio, are so obviously studio-bound that it looks like a cartoon feel was intended.

The design of the Kandyman is, of course, more than inspired by the Bertie Bassett character which advertises such sweets as Liquorice Allsorts. Back in the 1970's, Tom Baker swapped Jelly Babies for Liquorice Allsorts, even though he still described them as Jelly Babies. Most people think that Jelly Babies first started with Baker, but they were first seen being offered by Troughton's Doctor.

Once again music plays a significant role in this story, as it has done more recently in the series (see Delta and the Bannermen). Earl Sigma is a Blues musician - the blues being synonymous for feeling down / depressed, which is what Helen A wants to stamp out. His harmonica playing even leads to the death of Helen A's pet, which prompts her personal revelation about grief.

The director wanted to record this story in black & white, as he felt it had a film noir feel.

The story title - "The Happiness Patrol" - conjures associations with "Joy Division", a band who were, ironically, famously miserablist.

Next time: it's the Silver Anniversary story, so the monsters most closely associated with silver are back...

Revolution News & Trailer

 

A trailer has been released for this year's festive special, Revolution of the Daleks. It confirms the rumours that Chris Noth would be reprising his role as the Trump-like Jack Robertson, last seen in Arachnids in the UK. A lot of people hated that story (it regularly came in second from last in season polls), and many of these were US fans - so it'll be interesting to see what the reaction to this news will be.

Also joining the cast is Harriet Walter, who appears to be playing Britain's latest Prime Minister.

The trailer depicts several scenes set on the prison world, which some fans think might be Shada, and these are the only ones to feature the Doctor. Graham, Yaz and Ryan are left to defend the world, still in possession of the TARDIS they used to escape from Gallifrey. It looks like they team up with Captain Jack for much of the story. I had assumed that the Doctor would have been broken out of jail by Jack in the pre-credit sequence, but perhaps she only turns up near the end to resolve the problems posed by the Daleks. 

The new black Dalek, first seen on location and currently starring on the cover of the Radio Times, is seen. We also see Yaz attacked by a casing-less Dalek mutant. The black Dalek is a repurposed version of the remote control one seen in Resolution.

From the trailer it looks like the Prime Minister has been duped by Robertson into accepting Daleks as "defence drones" - shades of Victory of the Daleks' Ironsides.

It has also been confirmed that this will be the final story for Graham and Ryan. Of the three companions, Yaz was the most underdeveloped - and yet she's the one they are sticking with.

Will a new male companion be joining, and if so will it be in this story or in the opening episode of Series 13? If he's joining in this story, then might it be Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, who appears in these images with Noth?

UPDATE: It's now confirmed this episode will be broadcast at New Year, rather than Christmas, as with the last couple of Specials. 

Planet of the Mechanoids / DALEKS!

The third episode of the Daleks animated series sees the Emperor head for Mechanus, seeking assistance from the Mechonoids (although they're named Mechanoids in the title).

While it has a lengthy chat with the blue Mechanoid leader, the Strategist insists that a scientist helps repair the planet's defence screens - despite the fact that it was the Daleks who broke it in the first place.

Whilst these two characters have their lengthy chats, the rest of the Daleks throw a wobbly and decide to attack the Mechonoids for no real reason - resulting in them all being wiped out. Stupid Daleks.

The Emperor then tells the blue leader that the green lighting effect extra-temporal entity has followed it.

And that's it. A rather pointless one-sided battle, and some robots talking to each other.

It was basically a retread of the conversation between the Emperor and the archive robot in the first instalment. The Mechonoids on screen were one-hit wonders, who featured only in a single episode. They were simply servo-robots left to get on with their mission, and weren't hot on conversation.

The ones in this have been taken from those '60's Dalek comic stories, where they have a rival space empire. Having a Mechonoid, with a female voice, chat about beauty, just didn't look or sound right at all. The only way they can make these things - Dalek and Mechonoid - interesting is to change everything about them.

I'll stick with this, but it's not something I could ever see myself revisit.

Season 8 Blu-ray Boxset - Confirmed

News today that Season 8 will indeed be the next one to be released as a Blu-ray box set. There's a rather nice video trailer for it which you need to check out, featuring Katy Manning and Stewart Bevan as Mrs and Mr Jones, under attack from carnival-masked Autons.

Lots of extra material is promised, and the picture remastering looks great - including on the technically challenging The Mind of Evil.

Terror of the Autons is given the optional new special effects treatment, with a CGI troll doll appearing in the trailer.

The Mind of Evil has a feature in which three Doctor Who directors visit its location of Dover Castle - Tim Coombe, Michael Briant and Graeme Harper, who all contributed to this season (Harper as Briant's PA on Colony In Space). 

The Claws of Axos has an extended version, presumably using elements from the studio footage of the first recording block. 

Nothing extra mentioned specifically for Colony In Space, but The Daemons is presented in a feature length version, and we have a feature called "Devil's Weekend", which sees Manning and John Levene visit the Devil's End location of Aldbourne.

Two other features of note are an in depth interview from Matthew Sweet with Manning, and a tribute to the late, great Terrance Dicks, fronted by Frank Skinner.

There appear to be three "On The Sofa" sittings. As well as Manning and Bevan, we also have Janet Fielding paired with Sarah Sutton, and Anjli Mohindra with Sacha Dhawan. It'll be interesting to hear the latter's thoughts on the original Master, who features in all five stories. 

No sharing of Fielding's blanket this time, as the sitters have a perspex screen between them - so maybe they need to temporarily rename these segments "On The Armchair". I'm assuming that Covid-19 restrictions are the reason for the most obvious panel not being present - Manning, Levene and Richard Franklin, who together appear in four of these stories.

No release date yet on Amazon, though Zoom have it as 31st December 2099. Clearly something wrong with the year there, but the day and month may be correct (though these usually come out on Mondays), as the US retailers had a February 2021 release date and they usually have to wait a couple of months longer than the UK. In some ways the release date is immaterial, as they frequently get pushed back in the schedules, sometimes more than once.

PS: if you want to hold out for the steelbook of The Web of Fear, according to Amazon you'll have to wait until June 1st - 2022!

News Update

 

Hope you had a lovely Doctor Who Day yesterday - the 57th anniversary of the programme. I rewatched the More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS documentary to mark the occasion. 

Very little from the BBC itself, other than a promotional image for the forthcoming Christmas Special (above), and a tiny teaser clip with Captain Jack, and therefore final confirmation that Barrowman is in the episode - something we've known for the last 8 months thanks to the BBC themselves issuing a photo with him in costume in the background. So much for their obsession with spoiler avoidance.

Still no word of when Revolution of the Daleks will actually be broadcast, though many people think it will be Christmas Day rather than New Years Day. This will be known at the beginning of next week.

The people who make the Blu-ray box sets gave us absolutely nothing.

The people behind the animations at least gave us the news I reported earlier about the rerelease of The Web of Fear, with the missing third episode animated. Great news - until I saw the teaser for it.

I sincerely hope that the whole episode isn't as awful as this.

One other release due next year will be a steelbook of the 50th Anniversary Specials - The Day of the Doctor, The Time of the Doctor and the Hartnell docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, along with all the associated extras, such as the McGann mini-episode Night of the Doctor.

Specific dates for the Troughton story and this steelbook are yet to be released.

The Web of Fear Special Edition

Just browsing Zoom.co.uk website to look at their Black Friday deals, and came across a new release scheduled for The Web of Fear, which is going to have the missing third episode animated. The release date is still TBC. DVD, Blu-ray and Steelbook versions will all be available. 

We all hoped that that missing episode might have been obtained, as we know it exists, but this suggests that they don't expect to see it back in the archives any time soon.

Story 235 - Cold War

 

In which the crew of a Soviet nuclear submarine discover a figure entombed in the ice near the North Pole. The year is 1983, and the Cold War between East and West is at its hottest. One of the crew decides to thaw out the figure, but it comes to life and kills him. It then sabotages the vessel, causing it to sink, out of control. In the middle of the emergency the TARDIS materialises on board. The Doctor and Clara had been aiming for Las Vegas, but the ship has gone off course. Shortly after they emerge, the TARDIS dematerialises on it's own, leaving them stranded. They are confronted by Captain Zhukov and his crew, who assume them to be spies. The Doctor gives Zhukov some advice on how to stop the submarine sinking further, by moving itself laterally onto a rocky shelf. He then discovers the reason for the emergency, as an Ice Warrior storms onto the bridge. It identifies itself as Grand Marshal Skaldak, who is known to the Doctor due to his fearsome reputation. One of the crew uses an electric prod, intended to ward off polar bears, to disable the Warrior.

Stepashin, the submarine's political officer, wants the Doctor and Clara locked up, but Captain Zhukov decides to trust him due to his saving of the vessel, and his knowledge of the alien. A scientist named Grisenko, who had the icebound figure brought on board in the first place, also wants the Doctor and Clara to remain free. Clara finds that he is more interested in western pop music than their current predicament. The Doctor is concerned about the attack on Skaldak, as this will automatically trigger a response. To do any less would be dishonourable to the Martian.

He advocates a parlez with Skaldak, who is now chained up. He and the submarine crew will be regarded as enemies, so it is agreed that Clara should be the person to negotiate with him as a neutral figure. She goes to see the Ice Warrior and speaks with him, but the Doctor becomes suspicious. Clara discovers that she has been talking to an empty shell. Skaldak has emerged from his armour and is now running loose in the vessel. The Doctor warns that this will make him even more dangerous.

Skaldak runs amok, killing anyone he encounters. Stepashin attempts to forge an alliance with him, but fails and also dies. When he captures Grisenko, however, Clara manages to talk him into letting him go.

The Ice Warrior regains his armour and takes control of the submarine's nuclear missiles. He plans to trigger a full scale war in retaliation for his treatment. He has attempted to call on his own people for rescue, but has received no response. The Doctor succeeds in convincing him that starting a war which would kill millions of innocent people could never be an honourable course of action. 

A Martian spaceship suddenly arrives above the submarine, and Skaldak is teleported away, but still has control over the missile launch sequence. This deactivates after a few minutes, and the Doctor realises that Skaldak had taken on board what he had said about honourable actions. 

He, Clara, Zhukov and Grisenko see the spaceship depart. The Doctor receives a signal from the TARDIS. He had set the HADS - the Hostile Action Displacement System - and it had automatically relocated to the Pole when it found the submarine on the point of destruction. Unfortunately it is at the South Pole, rather than the North. The Doctor enquires of Zhukov if they can get a lift...

Cold War was was written by Mark Gatiss, and was first broadcast on 13th April, 2013. It marked the first appearance of the Ice Warriors after an absence of almost 4 decades (their final on screen appearance having been in The Monster of Peladon, which was on screen exactly 39 years before). At the time, this was the only Ice Warrior story not to have been written by their creator, Brian Hayles. (It's also the first Ice Warrior story not to feature Sonny Caldinez).

Gatiss, a big fan of the Pertwee era, had asked Steven Moffat about bringing the Ice Warriors back, only to be told that the showrunner wasn't too ken on them. He regarded them as stereotypical big green monsters, who could be easily outrun as they were so slow and cumbersome. Gatiss managed to convince him, and resolved the mobility issue by having Skaldak able to emerge from his armour and move quickly around the submarine.

The Ice Warrior first appeared in two stories during Patrick Troughton's era - and this is reflected in some aspects of the script. Skaldak is found entombed in ice, just as the original Warrior Varga had been, and the HADS is mentioned. This had only appeared once before - in The Krotons.

The submarine setting came from Gatiss' love of movies set on such vessels - especially The Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide, which have a Cold War setting.

The story has an impressive cast list, though some of the actors are poorly served. As Zhukov we have Liam Cunningham, who was one of the strongest contenders for the role of the Eighth Doctor back in 1996. As Grisenko we have David Warner, a friend of Gatiss. He had portrayed an alternative Doctor on audio. Stepashin is played by Tobias Menzies, who took over from Matt Smith as Prince Phillip in The Crown, and who, like Cunningham, had appeared in Game of Thrones. In a minor role, as a crewman named Onegin, is James Norton, who was just about to become a big TV star thanks to his role in 1950's detective drama Grantchester.

Playing Skaldak is Spencer Wilding, who had previously played the Minotaur in The God Complex, and the Wooden King in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe. He would go on to play Darth Vader in Rogue One. The Ice Warrior is voiced by Nick Briggs, meaning he had now voiced the "top three" monsters.

Overall, a reasonably good story with a strong cast, the return of a fan-favourite monster, and a claustrophobic setting. However, fans have never really warmed to it.

Things you might like to know:

• One reason why fans might not have taken to this story is the way the Ice Warrior is represented. The controversial thing is Skaldak's abandoning of his armour and running around like Gollum. Original costume designer Martin Baugh stated in interviews that, as far as he was concerned, the armour wasn't something which the Warriors could remove - it was part of their body. The creature's elongated hands don't fit with the claws of the armour, which are no longer large clamps as in their previous appearances. The fur sticking out of the joints is also missing. It does seem rather pointless bringing back the Ice Warriors, to then not show the Ice Warriors for most of the episode running time. Why not just have a new monster for this story?
• Grisenko's love of music is mainly a devotion to what was known as the New Romantic style - Ultravox and Duran Duran.
• Skaldak is a Grand Marshal. One Ice Warrior of this rank was seen in The Seeds of Death, but then he was of the "Ice Lord" design, like Slaar, Azaxyr and Izlyr.
• Many aspects of the Ice Warrior' s background come not from their original creator but from subsequent books and comic strips.
• This is the first story since 1978's The Power of Kroll to have no female characters other than the Doctor's companion.
• An original draft had Skaldak not being found in the ice, but travelling back through time from the 31st Century to destroy the Earth in 1983 and prevent a future human invasion of Mars. Grisenko was a villain in this version, and the Doctor and Clara would have been rescued by a British submarine at the conclusion.
• Stepashin gest his name from Sergei Stepashin, Prime Minister under Boris Yeltsin. Zhukov led the Russian European forces during World War II, and Onegin comes from the novel Eugene Onegin, by Alexander Pushkin.