Episode 80: A Battle Of Wits

Synopsis:

Steven and Vicki enter the Doctor's cell, only to find that he has vanished...

As they look around, they discover a loose stone and realise that there is a secret tunnel in the walls. They crawl into it, hoping it will lead them to the Doctor.

He, meanwhile, has found his way back to Edith's home, where she is recovering from her ordeal at the hands of the Viking scouts. She is able to tell him that his young friends had visited and been guided towards the monastery. He in turn warns her of an impending attack by the Vikings which he has learned about.

The Monk gives Eldred some penicillin as part of the treatment for his wounds, then finally manages to get Wulnoth to leave. He discovers that the Doctor and his young companions are no longer in the monastery. He produces a task list which outlines his plans, and ticks off those items which have already taken place. The two remaining Viking scouts - Ulf and Sven - have decided to hide out at the monastery and make for it.

The Monk's plotting is interrupted by a knock at the door. Investigating, he is waylaid by the Doctor - threatening him with a gun in his back. This proves to be just a stick.

Steven and Vicki, meanwhile, have discovered a powerful cannon hidden on the clifftop, overlooking the sea.

As the Doctor and Monk argue there is another knock at the door. The Doctor dons a spare habit as a disguise. They discover that the new arrivals are Sven and Ulf - come to hide out. The Doctor is locked up in the cell he earlier escaped from, whilst the Monk is able to flee after knocking out Ulf.

As Steven and Vicki head back to the monastery, the Doctor escapes his cell by knocking out Sven.

The Monk goes to Wulnoth's home and asks him to organise the setting up of beacon fires above the beach. He claims these are to guide in a ship bringing building materials for the monastery. However, the headman is immediately suspicious, having heard what the Doctor warned Edith about.

The Doctor recaptures the Monk whilst the two Vikings are still unconscious.

Steven and Vicki regain entry to the building through the secret passage to the cell.

Exploring the chapel, they discover a power cable emerging from a great stone sarcophagus. They bend down and push their way through a set of doors - only to find themselves in a familiar futuristic control room. The Monk has a TARDIS...

Next episode: Checkmate

Data:

Written by: Dennis Spooner

Recorded: Friday 25th June, 1965 - Television Centre Studio TC4

First broadcast: 5:40pm, Saturday 17th July, 1965

Ratings: 7.7 million / AI 53

Designer: Barry Newbery

Director: Douglas Camfield

Critique:

Whilst The Time Meddler was in production, writer John Lucarotti approached Donald Tosh about contributing a third script for the series. He had previously written Marco Polo and The Aztecs for the first season - both based on his past experiences (he had previously written a radio serial about the Venetian explorer, and had lived for a time in Mexico and become fascinated by Aztec culture). He claimed that he had been given a promise that he could contribute three stories, and so one submission was still outstanding. 

The idea he had in mind was an adventure involving Eric the Red and his discovery of the North American continent. Thinking that his idea had been accepted, he went ahead and wrote a set of scripts.

Tosh accepted that a verbal agreement had been made with him, but had to point out that a story involving Vikings was already being produced. The new story editor wanted to use an experienced writer of Lucarotti's calibre, but this particular story could go no further. He was given another historical subject to consider - one he never felt comfortable about. We'll see how that worked out when we get to the episodes which comprise The Massacre...

William Hartnell returned from his holiday, and the break seems to have done him the power of good. That, and the fact that he was once again being allowed to use his comedic skills, honed by years of quota-quickie comedy films before the war. It is noticeable that he often rises to the occasion when confronted by an actor whom he admires, and who doesn't necessarily intimidate him (such as classically trained stage actors). The last time he could be seen enjoying a story this much was when he was partnered with Derek Francis on The Romans - another actor better known for light-hearted roles, whose background was in media other than the live stage, and in a script with more than the usual amount of humour (both from the pen of Dennis Spooner, of course).

Tosh had very little to do on this set of scripts - apart from an aspect of this episode. He was unhappy with the Doctor's dialogue with Edith, in which he described events which were about to unfold (such as the landing of the Viking fleet on the Humber and William the Conqueror's invasion) - feeling that the Doctor would never do such a thing as to reveal the future, thus potentially changing history. Tosh attempted to get Hartnell to drop these lines on the day of recording, but he greatly disliked change once he'd committed his lines to memory at the very start of the rehearsal week. He would often attempt to reduce his line-learning burden - but only at the start of the process.

As it was, Tosh later reported that Hartnell had ad-libbed much of the sequence anyway.

During the rehearsal period, Hartnell, O'Brien and Purves took time off to attend Ealing, for filming work on Galaxy 4 with one-time associate producer Mervyn Pinfield. This story would be held back to open the third season after the summer break.

One recording break allowed the crew to add more trees and bushes to make the forest look larger, and another was used to allow Hartnell to change into his monk's habit. Another allowed O'Brien and Purves to move on to the Monk's TARDIS set - simply reusing elements of the Doctor's.

Despite being described as a sarcophagus throughout, the TARDIS exterior designed by Newberry was actually based on a Saxon altar.

Trivia:

• The ratings take a big tumble this week - losing more than one million viewers. This resulted in A Battle of Wits becoming the lowest rated episode of the whole second season. As well as its lack of Daleks - or any monsters - and that trouble comprehending the anachronisms, we are now into mid-July and the summer holiday season. 
• The AI figure, on the other hand, rises 4 points - so once again we have fewer people watching, but those who are viewing are enjoying what they see.
• After a brief stop in TC3 last week, the story reverts to TC4 at Television Centre.
• There were a couple of brief trims for timing - Sven looking through the cell door to see the Doctor sitting on the bed, and a longer sequence with the Monk treating Eldred.
• The Monk converting kilometres into miles was actually an ad-lib by Peter Butterworth.
• Daleks were discussed on the Friday evening following broadcast, on Late Night Line-Up. The first Peter Cushing / Aaru Dalek movie was in cinemas at this time.
• On the Wednesday, on Junior Points of View, it was revealed that viewer Lorna Goldsworthy had written her own story, titled "Where Death Walks!", in which Vicki was captured by a race called the Kratonians and threatened with imprisonment in their purple cave. Not sure what Freud would have made of that one.

Happy Birthday No.7

Many happy returns to this wee lad, who has turned 80 today. Born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith today in 1943, in Dunoon, he changed his name to Sylvester McCoy for professional reasons in the 1970's.

He shares his birthday with his Doctor's companion Ace - Sophie Aldred. Born in Greenwich in 1962, she's 61 today.

Their Survival co-star - Master actor Anthony Ainley - also had his birthday on this date, having been born in Stanmore, West London, on 20th August 1932.

DWM 60th Anniversary Poll (6)

The last of the individual Doctor heats - covering the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors - has been published in the latest DWM. Both of these Doctors arrived after the last big poll, so we have nothing significant to compare back to. (There will be differences between this and the season polls - but those are rarely reliable. People have a kneejerk reaction, one way or the other, but quickly change their minds after thinking about it later).

Top of the poll for the Peter Capaldi stories is the Series 10 finale - World Enough And Time / The Doctor Falls. The return of the Mondasian Cybermen, and the John Simm Master. Missy and the departures of Bill and Nardole. The actual "killing" of the Twelfth Doctor. (It was supposed to be Capaldi's swansong - until Moffat discovered that Chibnall was abandoning the prestigious Christmas Day slot and was far from ready to produce his first episode).

These episodes could have been called "Genesis of the Cybermen", or "The Two Masters".

In second place is Heaven Sent - the remarkable one-hander episode which sees the Doctor trapped in his own personal torture chamber, hunted by a monster from his childhood fears. It's a remarkable piece of television, with an amazing central performance.

In third place we have a more conventional monster of the week / base under siege set-up in Mummy on the Orient Express.

Just outside the top three were Flatline, and Oxygen. 

At the other end of the poll we have, propping up the bottom, In the Forest of the Night in 35th position. A very unconventional story - fairy-tale like, it's the sort of thing you would either love or hate - and most people seem to have hated. It has some of the stupidest science ever seen in the series (trees wilfully growing overnight because they know that a solar flare is approaching - which they have the power to deflect. Then, once the threat is over, the plants and trees vanish as rapidly as they came). At least in the Hartnell / Troughton days they attempted to explain their dodgy science.

Talking of bad science, just above the bottom spot is Kill The Moon. I don't know what is worse about this - the terrible science, or the fact that it promised so much then went downhill so quickly. You know a story is bad when even the Doctor bales out halfway through.

Third from bottom is the dull and derivative Sleep No More. To do a found-footage story when they were already more than a decade out of fashion, and have it used in a story which made little sense, was an idiotic move. All of Mark Gatiss' Twelfth Doctor stories sit in the bottom third of the poll.

Just outside the bottom three are The Caretaker (31) and The Woman Who Lived (32).

A couple of points of interest: whilst Extremis managed a respectable 10th place, its other two episodes - supposedly part of the same overall story - managed only 22nd and 28th positions. (And yes, it was The Lie of the Land which was 28th).

The Husbands of River Song was the most popular Christmas Special, coming in at 9th place overall. The Return of Doctor Mysterio was least favourite special (26th).

In the same way that a recently seen anniversary special topped the DWM poll in 2014, so the BBC Centenary Special The Power of the Doctor tops the Thirteenth Doctor poll this year.

It was Jodie Whittaker's swansong (and Chris Chibnall's) and - as I mentioned in my review at the time - it would be remembered for three things in particular. They being: the old companions, the old Doctors, and the return of David Tennant as a new Doctor, who looks, sounds, and seemingly acts like the popular Tenth one.

Apart from the nostalgia factors, it has a few good points of its own - such as Sacha Dhawan's manic Master and his allying with both Cybermen and Daleks. At the same time it demonstrates a few of the Chibnall problems - like having the Doctor multiplied to resolve the different story strands - a straight steal of the cheat from Flux.

In second place is The Haunting of Villa Diodati. In its review I mentioned that I would like to have seen this as a stand-alone story, rather than as part of a three-part finale. It is certainly strong enough to stand by itself.

In third we have Fugitive of the Judoon. I suspect that this is down to just two things - the return of Captain Jack, and the surprise reveal of a hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor. It's really a rather dull story when you take these out.

Just outside the top three are the Series 11 historicals - Rosa and Demons of the Punjab. perfectly fine stories - apart from the fact that the Doctor needn't have bothered turning up for either. They are not good Doctor Who stories.

To the bottom now, and we have Orphan 55 quite rightly bringing up the rear. A dreadful story in every way possible - be it preachy messaging, a stupid squirrel alien, undercooked characters, and that annoying "Benni!" woman. Cheap and unoriginal. The Dregs were good, design-wise, so totally wasted here.

Just above sits The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos. To call it this then have everyone turn up after the battle has already ended, and have this a series finale, were just two of the missteps here. Ripping off The Pirate Planet, bringing back an alien no-one actually wanted to see again, and having a religious pair thousands of years old renounce their entire faith system just because the Doctor tells them to, were others.

Third from last is Legend of the Sea Devils. On paper this should have been great. You ignore continuity at your peril, and whoever edited this down to 45 minutes should have been shot. (And if you tell me this was always supposed to be this length, then it's an even worse story than I thought).

Just missing the bottom three was a story I really loathe - The Tsuranga Conundrum.

A couple of points of note here: Flux ended up sitting squarely in the middle of the poll in 12th place. I suspect that had it not been for the Angel episode it wouldn't have fared so well.

Ascension of the Cybermen / The Timeless Children came in at No.16. I would say that the first half was dragged down by the second - or the second only did so well because of the first.

Top New Year / Dalek Special was Eve of the Daleks (7th), with Resolution 9th and Revolution 14th. The top New Year story was the only one not to have Daleks - Spyfall - which managed 6th place.

The final stage of the polling process is now to pick your favourite 5 stories from the top three for each Doctor (plus the 1996 Movie) - so a choice of 37 stories overall.

This has flagged up the stupidity of the polling format this time - designed so that certain individuals would not be offended. You can select The Two Doctors and the aforementioned McGann nonsense, but you can't select The Ark in Space, The Talons of Weng-Chiang or Terror of the Zygons, or the first Dalek story or Evil of the Daleks.

The Top Five stories, to be published later this year, will be nothing of the kind.

Riverside III Report

Holiday over, so as promised a quick word about the event at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, last weekend. This was organised by the DWAS, and was the third such event held at the venue. The first didn't have any sort of theme, whilst the second was based around The Crusade. This one was built around The Moonbase.

As I mentioned on the day, John Levene had to pull out due to a family illness.

Riverside Studios lie right on the Thames, a couple of hundred yards east of Hammersmith Bridge. The event was held in the basement cinema area. 

Present was an original Cyberman costume - refurbished now - as used in both The Moonbase and Tomb of the Cybermen. It had been given the rubber boots from the latter story, rather than the lace-up boots.

The event kicked off with a brief introduction then the surviving Episode 2. Have watched these episodes many times, but it was great to see them on the big screen.

This was followed by the first interview / Q&A panel, comprising behind the scenes personnel - Margot Hayhoe and Dudley Darby. The latter didn't actually work on this particular story, but was a cameraman in stories around it - and well into the 1970's. Hayhoe was an AFM then became a Production Assistant. 

She featured with Barry Letts in that CSO training film which was released on the The Carnival of Monsters DVD, and provided one of the names for Reegan's van in The Ambassadors of Death. She told of how she was at school with Anneke Wills, had once been a child actor, and provided the screaming which destroyed the seaweed monster in Fury from the Deep, after Debbie Watling got a sore throat that day. This was Dudley's very first convention appearance. He seemed perfectly comfortable, so I suspect he'll happily do some more.

There then followed a break, during which the photograph studio sessions took place. The Cyberman was moved upstairs to the bar to provide a backdrop to these. Frazer Hines was certainly the most on-demand for the photos (I got one taken with him). Rather than have people stand, as usually happens at these things, nice comfy chairs were supplied.

After the break / photo sessions it was time for Episode 4 of The Moonbase. 

The following image was not taken by me - because I was sitting in the front row left at the time, watching the episode. It was posted on the DWAS Facebook page:

One thing about the episode being shown in a cinema setting, the talkback on this instalment was far more noticeable than I'd ever spotted watching the DVD on an ordinary TV. On the previous episode, Dudley had heard a particular "clunk" which he identified immediately as a specific camera manoeuvre being carried out.

The second interview / Q&A panel then took place. This one featured Frazer, Derek Chafer and Martin Cort. 

Derek was one of the Cybermen, and went on to play a large number of background / extra roles in the series, including one of Salamanders' guards, UNIT soldiers and a Primitive in Colony in Space. He spoke about the discomfort of wearing the Cyberman costume, and told a story about an incident on location - which I was able to work out took place during the location filming for Death to the Daleks (2), as it involved a director asking a lot of aliens to line up on a ridge above a sandpit so they could feature in silhouette. (The incident was that they - the Exxilon extras - were unable to see due to their masks and one fell over - taking the rest of the line down with him like dominoes).

Martin stepped in as a very last minute replacement for John Levene (at only an hour or so's notice). He only ever worked on The Keys of Marinus (three different roles), but could speak of working on TV in the era, and of working with Patrick Troughton on other productions. A very witty man, who could give Frazer a run for his money in the joke department, I'd like to see a longer session with him. 

Frazer is - well, Frazer. Just a very funny bloke, with loads of stories.

These are mini-conventions. Doors opened at 1:30pm for a 2pm kick-off, and the scheduled close was 6.30pm. After the second Q&A that was us finished in the cinema. The autograph panels then set up. If you weren't going to wait and buy one of these, you could head off home - or make use of the Riverside's other facilities.

Overall, I had a very pleasant afternoon. A couple of episodes, a couple of interview panels, optional pictures and autographs - a convention in miniature. 

There is a fourth one already scheduled - October 14th - with another two Troughton episodes (The Underwater Menace (2) and The Wheel in Space (6)). Wendy Padbury and Michael Troughton are amongst the planned guests. I'm now having to get serious about job-hunting (have been unemployed since my health issues) - so can't commit to the next one at this stage. 

If you're going to be in London in mid-October, I'd recommend booking for Riverside IV. Even if you're a convention regular, these are nice, small scale events that have a cosier, more personal feel.

The Moonbase - Riverside Event

Attended the event in Hammersmith this afternoon. Sadly John Levene had to pull out at the last minute, but they got Martin Cort to step in. Will write a piece when I'm back home at the end of the week, but for now here's a couple of images.

The Underwater Menace Animated

Still on holiday (attended the Star Wars Fan Exhibition this morning - fantastic) but thought I'd best mention the November release of The Underwater Menace Special Edition, with the missing episodes animated. The existing ones can be watched this way as well, in colour or in B&W. One extra is an episode of a vintage programme which starred Troughton and Joseph Furst - mad old Zaroff himself.

Judging from the images, it's the same team who animated The Macra Terror.

No release date, other than November. Is The Smugglers yet to be announced as well?

Destination: Moon

Just to let you know that I am taking another short holiday, and just like the last time it will have a Doctor Who dimension. I'm off to London for a few days, during which I'll be attending the latest of the mini-conventions being held at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, where a number of Hartnell and Troughton stories were made. This now sold-out event is based around one of my all-time favourite stories - The Moonbase.

Guests include John Levene, who played a Cyberman in the story, Frazer Hines and AFM / production assistant Margot Hayhoe. An original Cyberman costume will be on display, and there will be photo and autograph sessions.

I may stick some photos of my own on the blog on Sunday, with a fuller report when I get back home, otherwise the blog will be on hiatus after today - back Friday 18th August.