P is for... Peth, Astrid

Native of the planet Sto, Astrid was a waitress on a luxury spaceship which copied the Titanic. This was on a cruise to Earth's orbit at Christmas 2008. The Doctor befriended her after saving her from a bullying passenger. When the opportunity arose to join a shore party, the Doctor added her as his guest as she had told him that she had never set foot on an alien planet before. Arriving on a deserted street, empty except for a newspaper vendor named Wilf, they learned that people shunned London at this time of year due to previous alien activities.

The party was recalled to the Titanic as it was threatened by meteoroids. These crashed into it, causing the spacecraft to begin a slow descent to impact the Earth. Astrid helped the Doctor and surviving passengers get to a place of safety, their progress hampered by the Heavenly Host service robots which had been reprogrammed to kill. The whole disaster had been engineered by the ship's owner, Max Capricorn, in revenge for being ousted from his company. The Doctor discovered he was on board and went to confront him, but Astrid followed and discovered what was going on. The Doctor had been captured, but Astrid took to a forklift truck and used it to ram Capricorn's life support unit - pushing him into the ship's reactor. Unfortunately, Astrid fell with him.

The Doctor realised that her body print would still be in the teleport buffer and attempted to bring her back, but she only existed as a disembodied spirit. The Doctor allowed this to go free, so that she could travel the universe.

Played by: Kylie Minogue. Appearances: Voyage of the Damned (2007).

• After coming to fame internationally in Australian soap Neighbours, Minogue went on to have a successful music career. Her creative designer, Will Baker, was a huge Doctor Who fan, who had used the Cybermen as the basis for a set of backing dancers on the 2006 Homecoming tour. (This section of the show was titled "Dance of the Cybermen"). It was through Baker that approaches were made for her to guest on the series.

• Fan speculation prior to broadcast was that Kylie would play a personification of the TARDIS - Astrid being an anagram.

Inspirations: Mummy on the Orient Express

This story had its origins in a seemingly throwaway line in the closing seconds of The Big Bang, the Series 5 finale. The Doctor took a phone call from someone asking him to help out with "an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express - in space".

Writer Jamie Mathieson was already working on his Flatline submission when the title of this episode was handed to him, so impressed was Steven Moffat with the way the other script was developing. Mathieson had contributed to supernatural series Being Human and Dirk Gently.

The title is obviously a play on the Agatha Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express, published in 1933. It was filmed in 1974 with an all-star cast, including Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot. David Suchet gave his (definitive) version of the Belgian detective in a 2010 ITV adaptation, and Kenneth Brannagh has since also featured as Poirot in a 2017 movie adaptation.

Christie also gave us the idea that this space-going Orient Express was visiting the Seven Wonders of the Galaxy, lifted from Death on the Nile. The same idea had previously been used in the 2000AD comic in 1980.

Mathieson was initially concerned that the Mummy was not as versatile a creature as the vampire or werewolf, both of which could hide in plain sight. He worried how something like a Mummy could stay hidden in such an enclosed space as a train - so came up with the idea that it only became visible to its victims just before it killed them.

Initially the Mummy's wrapping were to have had a life of their own, able to sneak under doors etc, and the victims would be mummified themselves.

At one stage it was also envisaged that the Mummy would teleport onto the train in order to kill, residing in a stone tomb the rest of the time, and Clara and Maisie would be transported there for a time instead of being stuck in the baggage car.

(This scene is a prime example of the Bechdel Test in which, in fiction, two women can't hold a conversation without talking about men - the narrative defining them by their relationship to men).

Not quite as popular as vampires or wolfmen, there have been a number of stories and movies about the creatures over the years. The best known cinematic appearances are the Universal and Hammer ones. The first of these - 1932's The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff - isn't actually connected to the subsequent 1940's four film cycle, though they used footage from it for their flashback sequences. Hammer also delivered four Mummy movies, starting with the 1959 film starring Lee and Cushing, and ending with Blood From the Mummy's Tomb in 1971, an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Jewel of the Seven Stars.

The biggest Mummy movies were those starring Brendan Fraser, the first of which was released in 1999. The least said about the execrable Tom Cruise film, the better. It effectively derailed the whole "Universal Dark Universe" franchise before it had really gotten off the ground.

A couple of other early literary works include The Mummy: A Tale of the Twenty Second Century, by Jane Webb (1827), and The Beetle by Richard Marsh (1897).

It was decided that this episode would be double-banked with Mathieson's other story - making it more sense to have the same writer for both - and this meant that Clara had to take more of a back seat here, since Flatline confined Peter Capaldi to the TARDIS and left Jenna Coleman with the lion's share of the plot.

The casting of pop star Foxes came about after she participated in a BBC Showcase event in Liverpool, which Moffat had attended.

Frank Skinner had watched Doctor Who since the very first episode and was a DWM subscriber. He had already featured on a Big Finish audio, and mentioned a desire to appear in the series during several TV interviews.

The first victim, Mrs Pitt, is played by Janet Henfrey - the latest actor to have featured in both the classic series and its revival, having played Miss Hardaker in The Curse of Fenric. Former Doctor Who costume designer June Hudson was also in the running for this part).

Christopher Villiers was another returnee, having played Sir Hugh in The King's Demons.

The Doctor cracks the "Are you my mummy?" joke (The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances) for the second time - having earlier used it to confront gas-masked UNIT soldiers in The Poison Sky.

Among the other Seven Wonders were the Diamond Falls - a reference to Midnight.

Next time: the Doctor's experiencing reduced circumstances so Clara has to play detective to get to the bottom of things, before the situation flattens out completely. Luckily Banksy isn't the only street artist active in Bristol...

Episode 170: The Tomb of the Cybermen (1)

SEASON 5

PRODUCER: Peter Bryant (The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Web of Fear - The Wheel in Space), Innes Lloyd (The Abominable Snowmen - The Enemy of the World)

STORY EDITOR: Victor Pemberton (The Tomb of the Cybermen), Peter Bryant (The Abominable Snowmen - The Enemy of the World), Derrick Sherwin (The Web of Fear - The Wheel in Space)

REGULAR CAST: Patrick Troughton (The Doctor), Frazer Hines (Jamie), Deborah Watling (Victoria, to The Wheel in Space Ep.1), Wendy Padbury (Zoe, from The Wheel in Space Ep.2)

Synopsis:

The TARDIS departs Skaro, and the Doctor and Jamie welcome Victoria Waterfield into the TARDIS. They explain to her the nature of the craft, and the Doctor at one point admits that he is around 450 years old in human terms.

On the desolate planet of Telos an archaeological expedition led by Professor Parry is searching for the lost city of the Cybermen. The group comprises Parry and fellow archaeologists Viner and Peter Haydon, as well as their financial backers Kaftan and Eric Klieg. Kaftan is accompanied by her mute servant Toberman. They have arrived here in a chartered spaceship piloted by Captain Hopper.

They have just blasted apart a rock face and uncovered a pair of huge metal doors when they hear the TARDIS materialise nearby. When the Doctor and his companions appear, Viner takes them to belong to a rival expedition. 

The doors are flanked by stylised images of Cybermen, and the very mention of their name causes the Doctor to insist on remaining here.

When one of the spaceship crew attempts to open the doors, following Kaftan's offer of financial reward, he is electrocuted. The Doctor realises that the stored electric charge has been dissipated and it is now safe to touch them. Jamie tries and fails, but Toberman succeeds in opening them.

They enter a large vault dominated by a circular wall panel covered in strange symbols, with controls set in front. There is also a massive metal hatch on a raised dais.

The Doctor points out two other doorways leading to other parts of the complex. 

Klieg is a member of the Brotherhood of Logicians, and he decides to set to work in deciphering the symbols in order to activate the controls. Suspicious, the Doctor elects to help him.

The others agree to split up into two groups to investigate the other sections. Victoria will join Viner and Kaftan, whilst Jamie goes with Haydon.

Parry and Toberman will remain in the main chamber with Klieg and the Doctor. Parry surmises that the tombs of the Cybermen must lie underground, accessed by the hatch. The creatures are thought to be extinct, having been absent from the galaxy for some 500 years.

Victoria's group find a chamber in which there is a large gun-like device, standing in front of a sarcophagus shape. Viner deduces that this is where the Cybermen may have recharged themselves.

Jamie and Haydon, meanwhile, have entered a room in which they find a small metal creature with a segmented body. It appears to be dead. 

Operating a control activates a swirling pattern of lights on one of the walls, and Haydon takes this to form a subliminal pattern. He believes it to be a weapons testing room, with the wall pattern acting as a target.

Victoria is examining the sarcophagus when Kaftan locks her in and activates the recharging machinery, unseen by Viner. The Doctor arrives in time to rescue her.

Realising the dangers of this place, he goes to find Jamie.

He has been instructed by Haydon to operate the rest of the controls to see the entire cycle.

Just as the Doctor and the others arrive, a Cyberman suddenly appears from behind a hidden panel and Haydon is shot dead...

Data:

Written by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis

Recorded: Saturday 1st July 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.50pm, Saturday 2nd September 1967

Ratings: 6 million / AI 53

VFX: Michealjohn Harris & Peter Day

Designer: Martin Johnson

Directed by: Morris Barry

Guest cast: George Pastell (Klieg), Shirley Cooklin (Kaftan), Aubrey Richards (Parry), Cyril Shaps (Viner), Bernard Holley (Haydon), George Roubicek (Hopper), Clive Merrison (Callum), Roy Stewart (Toberman)

Critique:

As can be seen from the details at the top of this post, Season 5 was another one of transition with two producers and three story editors. Unlike Season 3, however, these big changes in behind-the-scenes personnel were carefully planned ones - and could have gone even smoother than they did. Innes Lloyd had been grooming Peter Bryant for some time in readiness to replace him, whilst Bryant himself was readying Victor Pemberton as his own replacement. The two had worked together in radio drama for many years and were friends - and Pemberton was already associated with the show thanks to a story contribution - more later - and an appearance as a crewman in The Moonbase. Unfortunately Pemberton preferred to write his own material rather than edit others' work, and so decided to withdraw after this story. His script submission would be commissioned by Bryant for production later this season. To replace him, Bryant and Lloyd looked to another one-time actor with writing experience, Derrick Sherwin. He had featured in the football drama United!, previously story edited by Gerry Davis, before contributing scripts for soap opera Crossroads.

Whilst this is the only story to have Pemberton credited as story editor, he also helped prepare the next couple of stories during his brief tenure.

The Moonbase had seen an increase in viewing figures and the production team knew that the Cybermen were popular with the audience. Before its final episode had even broadcast, Gerry Davis approached Kit Pedler to provide another story featuring them. Director Morris Barry had written to the actors portraying the Cybermen to thank them for their work - and to put them on standby for further Cyberman adventures.

This next story would be recorded as the final production of the fourth season, but held back to launch the fifth, which it was now known would be the first not to feature any Dalek involvement.

This was the reason for the TARDIS scene at the beginning of this episode - a way to reacquaint viewers with the basic premise of the series.

Having been encountered on Earth and on the Moon, Davis suggested a story set on another planet, possibly looking into the origins of the Cybermen. He also decided to move away from another "base under siege" scenario, going for something even more claustrophobic.

With both Davis and Pedler sharing an interest in Egyptology, it was therefore decided to set the new story against an archaeological backdrop, with a party excavating their tombs after they had vanished from the universe.

Pedler came up with the idea for the Cybermats, which both men hoped could be marketed by the BBC like the Daleks. Spotting that the Cybermen were popular, Pedler had tried to get his writing fee increased, but this was rejected.

The character of Kaftan was written especially for Shirley Cooklin, who was the wife of Peter Bryant - the pair having met during the making of The Grove Family, and both had been members of the same theatrical company. For this role, she was to have a "near Eastern accent". The scripts gave little detail about any of the guest characters, other than that Toberman was to have been deaf and to have worn a hearing aid, and Viner was described as "nervously cleaning his glasses".

Toberman's hearing aid was to have been a visual nod to the way in which technology is used to help with physical impairment or weakness - the process which, taken to extremes, had led to the creation of the Cybermen, and hints at Toberman's eventual fate. Bryant decided to veto the idea, however.

The "Cyberman Leader" - the Controller - was described only as having an unusual head design, which was illuminated.

Much more detail was given of the Cyberman complex on Telos, which pretty much made it to screen.

The Egyptology references in this first episode begin with the whole archaeological expedition to a desert-like environment. At one point we see a pyramidal mountain in the background. The Cybermat represents the sacred Scarab Beetles which were of significance to the ancient Egyptians, and the tomb complex features large bas-reliefs - just as we see adorning the walls of the temples and civic buildings of Egypt.

The story initially went by the provisional title of "The Ice Tombs of Telos", and a caption was even prepared with this for the final episode of The Evil of the Daleks, when it was at first thought that it might be shown immediately after.

When it came to other casting, a couple of James Bond actors were considered. Desmond Llewelyn ("Q") was a possible Professor Rufus Parry, and Vladek Sheybal (Cronsteen in From Russia With Love) was offered the role of Klieg. This went instead to Cypriot actor George Pastell, who was well familiar with the Mummy Horror genre. He had played a similar role to Klieg in Hammer's The Mummy (1959), co-starring with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee; and he also made an appearance in the company's Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964).

Welsh actor Aubrey Richards was cast as Parry, with Cyril Shaps making his debut in the series as Viner.

Jamaican actor and stuntman Roy Stewart also ran his own gym in West London, and had just appeared with Shaps in a BBC production of The Count of Monte Cristo. Bernard Holley had just started to appear in Z-Cars, following a stint on soap opera The Newcomers.

Filming got underway at a sandpit in Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire on Monday 12th June, featuring the actors playing the archaeological party and the spaceship crew. There was some model work on location using false perspective - of Hopper's spaceship and the metal doors uncovered by blasting.

The guest cast were joined by the regulars in the afternoon, on what should have been their day off from rehearsals for the sixth instalment of The Evil of the Daleks.

Frazer Hines and Shirley Cooklin have told the story of how she was already in costume and make-up when he arrived and he did not recognise her - then proceeded to chat her up before realising who she was.

The following day saw the guest cast only assemble at Ealing to film sequences at the doorway. Photographs taken at Gerrards Cross were blown up to act as backgrounds.

The afternoon session saw the filming of the electrocution of the crewman.

The opening TARDIS scene was filmed at Ealing on Friday 16th June, allowing Barry to have the biggest console room set seen in the programme since its first season. Back projection was used to show the fault locator bay, and the set was furnished with items seen on and off in the ship since November 1963.

With only a single TARDIS scene, Barry had opted to film it separately here, rather than fit it into what would be a cramped Lime Grove. The three regulars had been released from rehearsals to attend.

During rehearsals, at St Helen's Church Hall, some dialogue at the doorway was dropped, in which the Doctor would have explained in more detail the science behind the crewman's electrocution and the subsequent safety in now touching the doors. Some of Victoria's dialogue was amended to make her sound more of her time - changing a "Wow!" to "Mercy!" as an exclamation, for instance.

The regulars were pleased to note that Bryant was much more easy-going than Lloyd, though Barry could be overly strict. He kept his scripts on a music stand, and at one point had insisted that an entire studio set be physically moved four inches when it did not fit his camera plans.

The first thing shot in studio on Saturday 1st July was the TARDIS standing on the Skaro landscape. This was a half size model, first seen in The Romans.

The bio-projector in the recharge room had an extra inside operating it, whilst the weapons testing room used Polaroid slides back projected for the subliminal patterning.

Being claustrophobic, Deborah Watling struggled with the scenes were she was shut up in the sarcophagus form. One very small cut was made to the episode before transmission from these sequences, as Kaftan initially thought that her actions weren't working.

The only recording break came for the effects crew to set up Haydon's death, with smoke pumped up though his costume. The empty Cyberman suit was dubbed "Fred" by the crew - a name they also gave to one of the Cybermats in a later episode.

Barry opted once again to use library music rather than a composed score, and sound effects came courtesy of Brian Hodgson of the Radiophonic Workshop.

The final scenes were captured on 35mm film as well as 405-line video, for use in the cliffhanger reprise for Episode 2.

A trailer was prepared, which included the appearance of the Cyberman at the end of the episode.

Rereading an old Doctor Who Monthly recently, I was amused to see someone write in insisting that this story was inspired by Dracula, with the Cybermen being undead vampires.

They were in the right area, but it is obviously based on the Mummy movies of both Universal and Hammer. Add to the references already mentioned above, we also get the recharge unit, which resembles a mummy case / sarcophagus. The logic symbols on the panel in the main chamber can also be said to represent hieroglyphics.

And, of course, bad things start to happen to the archaeologists as soon as they uncover the entrance to the tombs, beginning with the electrocution of a crewman. This ties in with the supposed curses said to be placed on those who disturb the tombs of the Egyptian dead, most famously that associated with Tutankhamun. Shortly after his rediscovery, the financial backer Lord Carnarvon died in Cairo - on 5th April, 1923 - from an infected mosquito bite. The story goes that the bite matched a blemish on the face of the boy king, the city was blacked out at the moment he died, and back in England his dog also dropped dead at the same moment. Others associated with the opening of the tomb are also supposed to have met untimely deaths - but can all be explained away through non-supernatural causes, and well within the bounds of probability.

Back in 1963, the notion that the Doctor was hundreds of years old had been written into the very first character outlines, but on screen this had never been discussed. All we knew was that Susan appeared to be just the age she presented as - 15 - and the Doctor was an old man. Even when his old body wore a bit thin, his true age was never mentioned. The regeneration was never adequately explained, with Lloyd and Davis sometimes describing it as a rejuvenation in interviews, whilst on screen the parallel is made with a butterfly trying to go back into its cocoon - a metamorphosis. The Doctor simply states that he has been "renewed".

Here, the Doctor for the first time gives an actual age - though he has to think about it and it looks like he's converting it for the benefit of his human companions. He says he's about 450. As a year is defined by a planet's orbit around its sun, it doesn't necessarily follow that a Gallifreyan year is exactly the same as an Earth one - which would explain his pause to calculate it. This may go a little way to explaining the oddities in the Doctor's age over the years, such as why he can be 953 in Time and the Rani but only 900 at the start of the revived series. In the former he's talking about Galifreyan years, shared with the Rani, whilst on other occasions he's talking to humans so converts for their benefit.

Now that the orphaned Victoria has arrived in the TARDIS, we see the Doctor having quieter, more contemplative moments with her - something absent with previous companions, or indeed with most of the later ones. He is taking on the role of the protective guardian / father figure with her.

Trivia:

• The ratings get off to a slow start, consistent with the end of the previous season but hardly great for the launch of a new one. The main competition was talent show Opportunity Knocks! or westerns such as Bonanza and Daniel Boone.
• During its summer break, Doctor Who had been the subject of a few letters to Junior Points of View. One suggested a story where the Doctor went back in time and met God; another suggested a series of repeats; whilst another simply stated that the programme should return soon "... or we will kill you all".
• The return of the series was promoted in August as part of the BBC's Autumn schedule of drama, which this year would include colour productions on BBC 2. Deborah Watling was amongst the stars used in this promotion, with an article about her home life.
• Patrick Troughton was profiled in The People the day after broadcast, in which was noted his lack of interviews. A number of newspapers praised the episode.
• The series was also welcomed back by Huw Wheldon at the BBC's weekly programme review meeting on Wednesday 6th September.
• First appearances for a number of actors who will feature in more than one role in the series. Cyril Shaps will be back as Dr Lennox in The Ambassadors of Death, then as Professor Clegg in Planet of the Spiders, and finally as the Archimandrite in The Androids of Tara. 
• Bernard Holley will play the Axon leader and provide the voice of Axos in The Claws of Axos.
• Clive Merrison will later appear as the Deputy Chief Caretaker in Paradise Towers. He's the only actor to have played the title role in every one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, which he did for BBC Radio.
• George Roubicek appeared in both You Only Live Twice and the similarly plotted The Spy Who Loved Me, and featured in the very first Star Wars movie - becoming the first of the Doctor Who actors to have also played an Imperial Officer, though others had multiple roles in the series.
• Aubrey Richards featured in two TV adaptations of Under Milk Wood, some 24 years apart. Other roles included I, Claudius, Doomwatch and two different roles in The Avengers.
• Designer Martin Johnson was primarily employed on light entertainment shows, and this will be his only Doctor Who story. Judging by the tomb designs, this is a great shame.
• Radio Times gave readers a small preview in the issue published on Thursday 24th August:

• The magazine then gave Doctor Who the front cover the following week - the first since The Power of the Daleks. Once again, the monsters were prioritised over the regular cast members. Inside was the usual preview article, this time partly in the form of an extract from the Doctor's 500 Year Diary, accompanied by a couple of photographs - one of which actually spoils something from the final episode, had anyone studied it too closely...

Blake's 7 Season 2 in November

The second season of the series with more Doctor Who connections than you can shake a stick at is finally being released on Blu-ray on 10th November in the UK. I pre-ordered mine back in March, so it's been a long wait just to get a release date.

Links to Doctor Who this time include an appreciation of the life of Jacqueline Pearce (The Two Doctors), which features contributions by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant; Matthew Sweet on Terry Nation; interviews by him with Brian Croucher (Robots of Death) and designer Roger Murray-Leach, who worked on several of the classic Hinchcliffe-Holmes stories. There will be a lot of archive contributions from director David Maloney as well.

As with the Season 1 set, there's some nice CGI effects upgrades on view, which can be seen if you check out the new trailer on YouTube. (Not just CGI - there's quite a bit of proper model work courtesy of Mike Tucker).

As for Doctor Who's Season 13 box set, DWM has a preview in the next issue, and Terror of the Zygons is getting a screening at the BFI on 20th September, so its release should follow soon after that.

Story 303: The Giggle

In which the Doctor and Donna learn of the chaos which has enveloped the globe since they left London...

It transpires that everyone is behaving as though they are absolutely positive that they know everything and will fight to defend their opinions or force them on others. Only they know the truth, and they are determined that everyone else knows it. The Doctor observes a strange figure, dressed in top hat and tails, dancing through the carnage going on around them. 

UNIT troops under the command of Colonel Ibrahim arrive and take them to their HQ building by helicopter after Wilf has been taken to a place of safety.

Here the Doctor is reunited with his old companion Mel, who has been recruited to the organisation, whilst Donna is reunited with her daughter. Kate Stewart updates the Doctor on recent events. 

In the London of 1925, a man named Banerjee - assistant to John Logie Baird - visits a novelty shop to purchase a ventriloquist dummy for use in one of his employer's television experiments. The shopkeeper appears to be German but his accent slips as he makes a racist remark. 

Banerjee selects a dummy named "Stooky Bill". In the experiment the dummy is tested to destruction, emitting a strange giggle before bursting into flames.

In 2023, Kate shows how everyone at UNIT is wearing an armband known as a zeedex which makes them immune to the bizarre behaviour which everyone is exhibiting. Ordering that her own be turned off, the Doctor and Donna see Kate suddenly begin to act in a paranoid and aggressive manner until it is reactivated.

They identify a hidden waveform which is being broadcast globally. Once isolated, they hear the same giggle which Stooky Bill had made back in 1925, and see its image on their screens. This waveform began broadcasting just as the world's satellites began to synchronise a few days ago - just as the chaos erupted.

Realising that the answer lies in the past, the Doctor and Donna travel in the TARDIS back to 1925 and visit the novelty shop, which sells jokes and games.

The Doctor identifies the shopkeeper as the Toymaker, who he last encountered in his first incarnation whilst travelling with Steven and Dodo.

He initiates a game of hide and seek in the labyrinth of his shop. 

Donna becomes separated from the Doctor and finds herself trapped in an attic room, where she is attacked by a number of ventriloquist dolls - the wife and children of Stooky Bill. The Doctor finds Banerjee, transformed into a dummy.

They are reunited in an auditorium where the Toymaker puts on a puppet show - which includes representations of some of his more recent companions. The Toymaker attempts to blame him for the deaths of Amy, Clara and Bill Potts, though he counters by pointing out that they all had a life after they left him. The Doctor is also blamed for the destruction wrought by the Flux, which he failed to prevent.

Amongst the things the Toymaker claims since entering this universe is that he played a game with the Master which he lost - trapping him in his gold tooth. He also makes reference to "One Who Waits", whom he hasn't challenged.

The Doctor then challenges the Toymaker to play a game with him - a straightforward cutting of a pack of cards, highest wins.

The Toymaker wins, but the Doctor points out that he won the last time they met - so they are now even. They must play one further game - best of three. The Toymaker agrees and the shop begins to collapse in on itself. The Doctor and Donna escape just in time, realising that the final game will be played back in the present day.

Back at UNIT HQ the Doctor tells Kate and the others what they are up against. The satellite link is broken so that the whole world is no longer affected by the wave form. The Toymaker suddenly makes a bizarre appearance in the control centre accompanied by music and showers of rose petals.

The Doctor and Toymaker convene for their final game on the UNIT helipad high above London. He has taken control over a powerful galvanic beam weapon. An offer to play away from Earth is declined. The Toymaker decides that as their first game was with an earlier incarnation, the next should be with a future one - and fires the weapon at the Doctor to trigger a regeneration. However, instead of simply transforming into a his incarnation, the new version emerges from out of him - his body splitting into two seemingly independent individuals. He has heard of bi-generation, but always thought it a Time Lord myth. The Toymaker now finds himself playing against two Doctors. They play a simple game of "catch", and the Doctors win. The Toymaker is imprisoned in a box will which be sealed up forever by UNIT.

It transpires that there are now two of TARDISes as well - one of which has come from his future thanks to some residual influence of the Toymaker. The new, Fifteenth, Doctor will travel on alone - whilst the original, Fourteenth, is talked into taking a well deserved break and contemplates retirement. He will spend some time with Donna and her family, whilst the new Doctor sets of on new adventures...

The Giggle was written by Russell T Davies, and was first broadcast on Saturday 9th December, 2023.

It is the third and final of the 60th Anniversary Specials, and marks the introduction of Ncuti Gatwa as the full-time Fifteenth Doctor, David Tennant only having come back to the show for these special episodes. With Disney+ now involved as co-producers, RTD2 intended this to be a drawing of a line under the series which had begun on 23rd November 1963, with the Doctor as we had always known them effectively going into retirement after their millennia of adventuring. 

It was planned that the next full series would be deemed "Season 1" - so we would basically be getting Doctor Who II from 2024 onwards.

The episode also sees the return of a villain not seen since 1966 - the Toymaker. Seen only once in The Celestial Toymaker, when played by Michael Gough, it had been planned to bring the character back in 1986 with Gough reprising the role, in a story written by ex-Producer Graham Williams. However, the series was placed on hiatus, and all the planned stories for Season 23 were replaced with new ones comprising Trial of a Time Lord.

There was no great mystery about the character's return, as set dressing on location featured visual clues as to the villain's identity - such as the toy shop, having a sign that included a stylised image of the clown Joey from the Hartnell story.

To play this key role, RTD2 looked to a big US name and Neil Patrick Harris was cast. First coming to fame in the juvenile medical comedy series Doogie Howser MD, he had gone on to have a successful career on TV and on Broadway, starring in musicals, presenting award shows and featuring in series like How I Met Your Mother, Glee and - more recently - RTD2's own AIDS-era drama It's A Sin. 

The part called for an all-rounder such as him. As well as his acting and musical talents he is also a magician, which tied in with the character.

RTD2 had decided that the next two seasons, already commissioned by the BBC and Disney, would dispense with the usual type of monster / villain, and concentrate instead on a pantheon of malevolent or amoral deities, and the god-like Toymaker fitted the bill in this regard, as well as bringing an old foe back for the diamond anniversary.

Another returnee from the Classic Era of the show is companion Mel, played by Bonnie Langford. Last seen in a cameo as part of the Companions Support Group in The Power of the Doctor, she is now working with UNIT. It is never explained quite how she got back to contemporary Earth after heading into space with Sabalom Glitz (who is reported to be dead now).

Also representing UNIT we naturally have Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart and Ruth Madeley as Shirley Bingham. Joining them is a new senior military figure - Colonel Ibrahim - played by Alexander Devrient, who will go on to become a UNIT regular.

There's a totally pointless appearance by the robotic Vlinx, played by regular monster performer Aiden Cook.

Of the guest cast, John Logie Baird is played by John MacKay and Banerjee by Charlie De Melo. MacKay had previously played the TV pioneer in another RTD series - Nolly, a biographical drama about Noele Gordon of Crossroads fame. (A young Gordon had been a model for Baird's early experiments with colour television). De Melo spent five years as a regular on Coronation Street.

Lachele Carl makes a reappearance as news anchor Trinity Wells.

Donna's family - Shaun (Karl Collins), Rose (Yasmin Finney) and Sylvia (Jacqueline King) are all present for the final garden party sequence. We get a piece of audio of Bernard Cribbins as Wilf, from The Poison Sky, as well. He was to have featured in the episode but his failing health prevented it.

Gough appears as the Toymaker in a brief colourised flashback clip, and Hartnell is also seen. This had previously been seen at the end of the colourised The Daleks.

When the Toymaker speaks of having imprisoned the Master in his gold tooth, we hear snatches of archive dialogue from previous actors who have played the part.

Overall, it's how you regard the whole bi-generation thing which will determine how much you like it. Personally, as much as I enjoyed the story, such tampering with the series structure I prefer to do without - especially as it is never properly explained what the implications are.

Neil Patrick Harris gives a great performance as the Toymaker, though there are so few similarities to the original character that you wonder why they didn't just create a new villain (we'll see this as a recurring problem for RTD2, in a very big way). We could also have done without the "you know I'm a baddie because I have a silly Allo' Allo' Germanic accent" etc. Don't treat the viewers as if they're idiots - you might find they stop watching...

Things you might like to know:

• The Doctor seems to think that it was the business with the salt and the Not-Things in the last episode which allowed the Toymaker into this universe.
• Donna believes that the Doctor having an old face again was a subconscious decision by him that he needed to settle down with her and her family.
• The Master made an entrance to a musical number in The Last of the Time Lords, in which the Doctor also had an offer to fight his foe across the stars rejected. Then there's the whole "waveform broadcast via satellite network affecting the entire planet" business. RTD2 is continuing to raid old scripts for ideas...
• And let's not forget that the Toymaker's gold tooth, containing the Master's spirit, is picked up by a female hand, wearing red nail varnish...
• Regeneration quotes referenced include the Fourteenth Doctor's "Feels different this time...", as previously said by the Fifth, and he also says "Here we go again...", as the Brigadier said when witnessing the end of the Third.
• Glitz's demise is said to have occurred when he was 101 years old, tripping over a whiskey bottle. He had a Viking funeral.
• As well as defeating the Master, the Toymaker claims to have turned the Guardians of Time into voodoo dolls.
• He also claims to have "made a jigsaw" of the Doctor's life - presumably intended to explain away any inconsistencies in canon, past or future. Technically, the Doctor can be the Timeless Child if you want, but can also be a runaway Time Lord who first looked like William Hartnell if you prefer.
• Having done research on Baird for the Noele Gordon drama, RTD2 decided that the creepy Stooky Bill puppet might make for a good Doctor Who character, but not enough to carry a story by itself.
• Having previously been said to have passed away only in one of the short Lockdown pieces, the parent series acknowledges that Sarah Jane Smith is now dead.
• Considering NPH's considerable musical theatre talents, a double was used for some of the Toymaker's dancing - Luke Featherston.
• Mel was to have spoken to Donna about having witnessed a regeneration before, mentioning plot elements from the first episode of Time and the Rani, but this was cut. 
• Kate mentions having encountered the Yeti. The only time this has ever happened was in the unofficial spin-off video "Downtime".
• Planned initially was for the story to have referred to Wilf's death, presumably in the garden party epilogue. Phil Collinson decided against it, so he is simply absent from the lunch.
• The barber shop next to the toy shop is named "Grade's". A reference to Michael Grade having once tried to give the series, now celebrating its 60th birthday, the chop?

What's Wrong With... The Two Doctors

If there's one thing that Robert Holmes disliked, it was being forced to adapt to the "shopping list" of story elements imposed by the producer / script editor. He struggled when asked to include the biggest monster ever seen in the show in The Power of Kroll, and he quickly pulled out of writing the 20th Anniversary story when he realised what JNT and Eric Saward wanted it to include - often at the last minute, as actors dropped in / out of the production.

He would later claim The Two Doctors as one of his least favourite stories. It's not just JNT's shopping list that's at fault, however - there are some narrative issues and some pretty unimaginative direction as well.

First of all, the shopping list. When called upon to provide the 20th Anniversary story, this had proven too much for Holmes and so he pulled out. What he would have given us, ironically, is partly what we see here. His 20th Anniversary story - "The Six Doctors" - would have seen the Cybermen trying to identify the genetic imprint which allowed safe time travel, and they would have kidnapped the First Doctor and replaced him with a robot double - hence the title and also to explain the change in actor's features.

Never one to let a good idea go to waste, Holmes uses the basic premise again here, but he had already been asked to come up with a multi-Doctor story, featuring an old companion of the earlier Doctor, and set overseas - originally New Orleans. It also had to be the equivalent of an old six-parter - a length he never liked.

With the setting handed to him, Holmes could only think of jazz music and cuisine as emblematic of the city and so opted for the latter - devising a race of aliens named Androgums, which was an anagram of gourmands.

When it became clear that Louisiana was way out of his budget, JNT decided on somewhere closer to home where he'd like a nice free holiday and Spain was chosen - the city of Seville to be exact. It has a lot of fine eateries, but is hardly best known for this, so Holmes found his new aliens quite redundant - but still had to fit them in.

Preferring his own new creations, another item on the shopping list was the return of the Sontarans, which he was not happy about out, even though it was he who had created them in the first place.

They are very poorly used here, so you can tell he begrudged including them. He is clearly far more interested in Chessene and Shockeye.

The manner in which the Sontarans are introduced is terrible - in a long shot, with no big iconic reveal despite their popularity and lengthy absence from the show.

The new masks look plasticky, the heads don't fit properly at the neck, and we have the problem of the obvious height disparity between Stike and Varl. Sontarans are supposed to be a clone species (even though no two consecutive previous stories had shown us identical specimens).

Attending far too many conventions, sometimes to the neglect of the programme itself, JNT had formed the silly idea that the Doctor actors never behaved themselves when they got put together, which is why he split them up for The Five Doctors until the very last sequence, and a single day in studio. The story was criticised for this, but JNT never learned - probably too busy thinking of the stage antics between Troughton and Pertwee at those events.

Here, we get very few scenes involving the two Doctors together, which is a real shame. Troughton gets shunted off into his own plot, whilst Baker takes an age to get to him.

Fans want to see the different incarnations interact - something which the new series does a lot better.

Holmes once again gets round the six-parter problem by having two of the episodes (or equivalent) in a different setting.

Here we get the opening episode set primarily on the space station.

The Time Lords once again this series aren't the only ones who can travel in time (all those other customers for Zeiton 7 ore). At least here we see them doing something about it - challenging Dastari's work.

This, however, leads us into one of the story's biggest issues. Just when does this take place in the time-stream of the Second Doctor and Jamie?

At no point could the Second Doctor control the TARDIS, and he was on the run from the Time Lords, clearly never having interacted with them since he ran away from Gallifrey.

But here we are expected to believe that he is carrying out jobs for them, and they have given him a remote control device. The TARDIS can go exactly where planned to go.

Troughton and Hines look a lot older than they did in The War Games, which can't be helped, but the story seems to be set at a time when the Doctor and Jamie are travelling with Victoria, and have been able to drop her off somewhere to do a course, fully expectant of successfully collecting her again.

All this smacks of what is known as "Season 6b", which Terrance Dicks was favourable towards as he set novels in the period. It is posited that after his trial he was not immediately despatched to Earth with a new face, but instead was used by the Time Lords for a period to carry out missions on their behalf. To help him in these, he was given Jamie and Victoria back as companions (though you would have expected it to have been Zoe - unless she declined the offer this time).

The other option is that the Doctor has been taken out of his timestream at a much later date, long after his capture - but this doesn't explain why they didn't use the Third incarnation, who they had working for them already anyway, or the Fourth, who also carried out some work for them.

Another obvious thing to say about this episode is the amount / nature of violence - something only to be expected from Holmes, especially if he has included "cannibalistic" aliens. The Doctor once again comes across badly as he indulges in humorous quips about the deaths of sentient beings.

The murder of Oscar is unnecessarily brutal - stabbed in the guts - especially after he has been set up as a funny, gentle man. 

We also have torture and the murder of an old woman, whose corpse is apparently eaten.

It's claimed that the old woman was reclusive - yet Shockeye somehow manages to learn all about the fancy eating places from her mind.

Chessene talks of killing "the other Time Lord" - despite never having met the Sixth Doctor at this point or having any way of knowing that he is a Time Lord.

Dastari balks at the thought of killing a Time Lord, due to the repercussions - after just spending two and half episodes planning to do just that to the Second Doctor...

And how exactly do you study someone chromosome by chromosome using a surgical saw? Just a few cell samples would have sufficed, surely.

How could the Doctor have been affected by the death of the Second if it never happened? It was just a holographic projection, so he should never have experienced anything.

If you want peace and quiet to carry out a sensitive medical procedure, why go anywhere even remotely close to a city on Earth that's popular with tourists. A lab set up on an uninhabited planet or moon would have made sense, but this is just daft. (Apparently Earth was selected to please Shockeye, but why would the wishes of a mere servant come under consideration for such an important mission?).

Why does Stike order their commodious and well-equipped spaceship to be self-destructed, when they're only going to be left with a tiny time capsule that they don't even know works properly yet? If they still draw their energy through their probic vent then they've just blown up their only lifeforce source.

Bottom line: with this set of ingredients it ought to have been a classic - Sontarans, the return of the Second Doctor and Jamie, an exotic foreign location... but it doesn't work, and even its author disliked it.

Peterborough Changes

Hi all. Back from holiday, and I did manage to make it over to Peterborough whilst I was away (who can resist seeing a Quark?). They sent out an update on the very day I was flying down to London, so that made up my mind to go.

Usual blog business resumes later this week, but for now here's a little update on the exhibition. As well as the Quark they have also added Lord Kiv from Trial of a Time Lord (Parts 5 - 8, aka Mindwarp). This is the green-skinned pre-transplant version.

The other big change since my first visit is that the green Voc Robot has gone, but it has been replaced  by SV7...

And the Argolin wearing the Helmet of Theron has gone. Layout changes have been made to accommodate the new figures - one of which was not for the better, I felt. Last time, you had clear, up close, views of the Dalek Emperor, but they've moved Davros and the Death to the Daleks Dalek in front on it now. The Ogron is also more obscured.

You lose a lot of floor space in front of the Emperor (note where the barrier cord is, bottom right) and don't get as good a view of it now.

The Quark is in between the Ice Warrior and the 1980's Sontaran. The Flux Sontaran has been moved to the display of post-2005 costumes opposite.

One final addition - a prop this time instead of a costume - is a reproduction of the TARDIS console as first introduced in The Masque of Mandragora. It has been placed in the middle of the Time Lord display just as you first enter the exhibition.