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Home , Carole Ann Ford, Deceit (novel), Donald Cotton, Donald Tosh, First Doctor, Genesis of the Daleks

1 me! I would like to express my thanks to every contributor. And on that note, regular readers of DWAS publications may note a number of new names amongst the contribu- tors. Regular, reliable writers are always the backbone of any such project but a request made via our The Celestial Toyroom Annual is Facebook pages resulted in a lot of becoming a tradition. This is the new (or new to DWAS) contributors third in the series, and once again, coming forward, which I am delight- we are concentrating on a specific ed about. I hope that this will go to Doctor’s era. The was further demonstrate that you do not an obvious pick, as it was in 2018 need to be part of any mythical ‘in that as fans, we raised the funds crowd’ to take part in DWAS. necessary to place a blue heritage plaque to honour at On that note, I shall leave you to Ealing Studios. This era of the show travel back to 1963, the beginning seemed the natural choice. of the show, and the man who for many people is still ‘’.. This book follows the usual format; an item on each story from the era, along with a few others such as ‘The Three Doctors’. We gave seri- Paul ous thought as to how far we should go, as in recent years, the first Doctor era has expanded quite significantly with the Big Finish ranges (both The Chronicles and the David Bradley series) adding a great deal to the story. This is in addition to the many novels published over the years by the BBC and Virgin. Eventually, we decided to limit the content to pro- grammes that actually featured Wil- liam Hartnell, with the one addition of ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’ which although Hartnell was not actually part of, still concentrat- ed on his role in the programme.

A book like this relies very heavily on those who contribute. Without people writing for us, the annual would either not happen, or might just have content exclusively by

2 It was the day that really changed my life, and all these years later I remember it well. It was not the twenty third of November 1963, but rather a week later. I had heard a lot of good things about this new serial that had just started on the BBC and that unusually the channel was repeating that first episode in time? They did – but I along with their first screening of wondered whether they would al- the second episode the following ways be that lucky! week. It sounded most interesting and I sat to watch the pro- Unfortunately, a Sunday School gramme with my father. party meant that I missed the first episode of the next story which Having enjoyed the first episode meant that when I caught up with very much with this mysterious the four characters they were al- Doctor and his granddaughter I ready in the city. By that time watched the second as well. With this new show had become my fa- the hero sharing my name and both vourite programme replacing Badg- my parents being teachers, I sup- er’s Bend the Animal Hotel which pose I found that I connected very had been my favourite up until then. well with this new serial. But I was There was something about this puzzled about the Doctor and I re- adventure show which was special. member asking my father whether Something about it that gripped me he was a goody or a baddy. He unlike any other programme before resembled the character of the it or since. Grandfather in The Old Curiosity Shop a serial I had enjoyed watch- I remember always hating missing ing the previous year. It was a Sun- an episode of any serial that I was day classic serial starring Patrick watching. However with Doctor Troughton and it was one of the Who I tried to make a real effort to programmes that we watched as a ensure that no matter what, I was family. Many of these classic seri- next to a at whatever time als were set in the past and I re- the programme was scheduled to member very much enjoying any start each week. I was not always programme which had an historical successful and I missed no fewer background to it. than seven episodes of the first season of the programme. But I eagerly awaiting the next two epi- none after that! sodes and through the forest was exciting. Would the four There is much talk about the huge travellers be able to get back to that ratings that programme is getting at 3 the moment. But I do not think that merchandise, despite what they they are comparing like with like. may think of some of the Doctors. Until the advent of the video record- er you simply had to be there at the To be honest I see the version of time when the schedulers decreed the programme in its earliest days that a programme should start, oth- to be a very different show to what erwise you missed it completely. it is today. Yes there is the Tardis, And for that you had to be dedicat- the Doctor and the companions but ed - otherwise you would miss epi- to my mind the stories and the way sodes. Perhaps that commitment they are told are very different. meant that the original watchers of became so passionate Back when it first started it was very about the programme because in much seen as one long story and order to see it, it usually meant they while the travellers had adventures had to make sacrifices as regards in different times and places for a other parts of their lives. time they were the same travellers. In the beginning Doctor Who was I have often wondered if I would very much about four characters have become a fan if I had started having adventures. Between them watching the show at another peri- these characters spanned three od of its life. Nowadays I really en- different generations. In the early joy watching the Pertwee adven- days Ian and Barbara were the hero tures but at the time I never enjoyed and heroine while the Doctor was them as much as the original sixties that ‘strange other character’ who series. And even now while I have was much more difficult to fathom all the surviving episodes on my out. shelves it is to the monochrome era that I return again and again – es- For me of all the Doctors the first pecially these Hartnell adventures. Doctor was the most complex. He The BBC nowadays I think. wants could be charming, amusing, abra- to have it both ways. It wants us to sive, thoughtful, wise, strong, trans- see the show as one continual un- parent, mysterious… the list could folding story from November 1963 go on and on. One never quite to the present. But at other times it knew where you were with him. He is quite happy to see it as a collec- has been described by some as a tion of different series all with the ‘wizard’ but unlike so many of the same overall title, but as different recent Doctors he had not got a versions of the programme accord- wand (i.e. ) to get ing to who is playing the Doctor. himself out of difficulties. He had to This means that it is acceptable to use his brains to get himself out of like some Doctors much more than problems. He also suffered quite a others. With the recent, to my mind lot during his adventures and one radical change with the thirteenth thing you could not say of the early Doctor, I can understand the BBC days was that it was ‘all jolly fun.’ wanting to keep Doctor Who fans The Tardis transported her occu- on board particular as regards the pants to many dangerous places

4 and it was not always easy for them But I find all the Tardis occupants in to extricate themselves from their the Hartnell years likeable. I have problems. to admit that I was sad every time one of them left and hoped that one Back then Doctor Who was filmed day I would see them in the pro- more like a stage play than a film. gramme again. But sadly it never The range of special effects that we happened. The only character who have now was not available. That left and returned in the Hartnell meant that the emphasis back then years was the Meddling Monk. And had to be on the stories and on the for me one of the wonderful thing acting. Both were exceptionally about the Hartnell years was that strong from the beginning. The four there was such a variety of different Tardis occupants were all experi- kinds of adventures. enced actors. William Hartnell him- self had been in many films prior to Sadly with the exception of The taking the lead in this Highlanders after the second Doc- serial. tor took over the historical adven- tures were removed from the pro- For me William Hartnell played a gramme. I really enjoyed them and huge part in the success of the se- I particularly liked it when one was ries. In a short space of time he set in an historical period that we became my all-time favourite actor. had been studying at school. I I have been lucky to have seen him have always maintained that Doctor in many of the films that he made Who encouraged my love of history over the years and I must say that so much so that I ended up teach- he always comes across as being ing the subject for a time myself. exceptional. He is always compel- ling when he is on the screen and I also rather liked the ‘sideways’ he plays many different kinds of stories which I would list as being characters. He is an extremely ver- Edge of Destruction, Planet of Gi- satile actor. He is by far and away and The . my favourite Doctor and always will Planet of Giants was one of my all be. time favourites and I was somewhat surprised when I later discovered that its original length had been four episodes. It was an interesting sto- ry to begin the second season with because it was quite unlike any- thing that had gone before. It had two contrasting elements to it. There was the fantasy one with the crew being shrunk set beside what was a traditional thriller.

Some of the adventures stressed the theme of travel.

5 had the Tardis crew moving from there are some Hartnell episodes place to place, as they did in The that I know better than others as a Keys of Marinus. There were jour- result of re-watching them on video neys in and in the and then DVD. I could never say Reign of Terror. In some more re- that the best episodes are the ones cent times an adventure has tended that survived. If I was asked to sin- to take place in a small region of a gle out which two episodes of this planet. But in the early days adven- era were the most interesting I tures took place over quite a large would say Bell of Doom from The geographical era in addition to them Massacre which has the brilliant being set over a large period of speech by the Doctor about all his time, which for me made the ad- former companions and the episode ventures somewhat more realistic. of Masterplan called ‘The Traitors’ which had the shock deaths of both Doctor Who became famous of its and Bret Vyon. alien creatures. Of course the most famous were the in the sec- I often ask myself what was it about ond Hartnell story and the Cyber- this show that made me such a men in his last adventure. While I great fan. So much so that I contin- liked the Dalek stories I must say ued to watch it during the years that that I enjoyed as part of shall we say, I was not enjoying it the programme. To me they were so much. I would say that first of all never the main that I en- it was a jolly good adventure. At joyed the show. All the Hartnell Da- the time I enjoyed reading books lek stories are very enjoyable in about people having adventures. themselves but I am particularly sad And this series was about interest- that my favourite one is the one ing characters having interesting which is incomplete. The Dalek adventures. You never knew where Masterplan like many of Terry Na- the Tardis would land next - tion’s stories is quite modern, in that whether it would be in Earth’s past, it has a number of mini adventures Earth’s future, some strange planet in it rather than having one long ad- or some other dimension. venture which most of sto- ries from this period were like. It In the early 60s for many of us was good that within its science fic- school was not a great place to be tion form Masterplan had time to go in and I certainly used to dream of into the past as well thus making it how great it would be to be whisked very much an adventure in space away from my present life into a and time. real life Tardis and visit lots of inter- esting places in space and time. I One of the great drawbacks to the would have liked to have been that Hartnell era is that not all the epi- fifth member of the Tardis having sodes still exist now. As that era is the exciting adventures that Ian, really one long story it is a pity that Barbara, Susan, , Steven, Do- there are missing parts of the jig- do, and Ben had. Perhaps saw. This means of course that one day someone would discover

6 how to construct a real life Tar- dis…?

Like all good imaginative fiction Doctor Who was a programme that Most fans know about the ‘pilot’ epi- fed and inspired the imagination. sode these days. We know that And what was so good about these there were two versions of the sec- early days was the programme took ond sequence inside the Tardis, we itself seriously. Yes, there things in know that Susan was deemed too it that made you smile. But these ‘weird’, that there were problems came from character interactions with the inserted film sequences, and seemed perfectly natural. and that in the opening minutes the There was never the feeling that the camera hit something. We know programme was talking down to that the character of the Doctor was you. A trait shared with the Sunday deemed too harsh and of course, classic serials of the time as well. some of the sound effects were just too loud. We even know, or at least we think we know, how Sidney If these early days had not been so Newman and Donald Wilson react- successful then it is unlikely that a ed to it. But whilst the existence of show called Doctor Who would still and the subsequent re- be on television today. Right from mount were never actually a secret, the beginning it got people interest- they were not exactly widely known ed and talking about it. Something about for a long time either. My first that they have never stopped doing memory of knowing about the un- ever since…… screened pilot’s existence was reading the in-depth article about the state of the holdings in the BBC Archives, back in Doctor Who Monthly in the early 1980s (and what a shock the facts contained in that were).

Initially I do not think many fans thought they would ever see this unscreened episode – after all, the recent ‘Five Faces of Doctor Who’ series had been quite an extraordi- nary event, but nonetheless the programme was subsequently made available for screening at a DWAS convention. It later appeared on various VHS and DVD releases and finally, in 1989, made it onto the TV (although without any expla- nation leaving many viewers to

7 probably believe it was the first have caught the imagination of the screened episode from 23rd Novem- public? Susan is hard to identify ber 1963). I remember getting my with, not just when she draws that first look at it on a dodgy VHS copy odd picture in the classroom but in – back in the 1980s that was how her attitude towards the school- you saw old Doctor Who episodes, teachers later on. The Doctor, unless of course you were in any whilst not exactly loveable in the country other than the UK! early parts of the first season, is plain nasty at points in the Pilot. But what of it? Well, the very name Hartnell would soften the character we now assign to the programme – as the show went on but had this ‘The Pilot’ is probably wrong. Aside been the true start of the series, he from the fact that we now have a would have had a longer road to Capaldi era story called that, this travel. one from 1963 was never intended to be a pilot in the true sense. It And so, at the behest of Newman was the first episode, and not in- and Wilson, we got something tended as a teaser for an as yet un- much better. The cast and crew get commissioned series. It is just that more time to become familiar with it was viewed, critiqued and reject- the material, leading to a more ed. And quite right too because competent piece of direction from frankly, it is not very good. It has Waris Hussein. Susan becomes some nice touches – I like the thun- more but with some nice derclap in the opening titles and I touches (such as her comment on wish they had left it in. I like the the French Revolution book) let in, point of view shot of the junkyard and the Doctor becomes more like- gates in the fog with the policeman able. More minor changes also take checking the lock. I really like the bit place. The more familiar Tardis de- when the Tardis door opens and materialisation sound is heard (just Ian and Barbara hear Susan’s radio what were they thinking before with playing. But there is so much those oscillating beeps?), the ori- wrong. The camera crash, the loud gins of the Doctor and Susan are sound effects, the mistimed inserts, no longer the 49th century and we the good old Tardis doors in the first get what turned out to be some Tardis sequence (then reshot) and ‘classic’ Doctor Who dialogue – a few lines seemingly fluffed. Addi- ‘The children of my civilisation tionally, the cast do not seem very would be insulted’ being one exam- comfortable and whilst it is tricky to ple. put your finger on why, the narrative does not seem to flow at all well. It I am glad that they remounted this seems a bit ‘under-rehearsed’ and episode. ‘’ re- probably was. mains a superb piece of television to this day. The pilot, really is not It is still an interesting piece of TV though. but I do wonder if this show would

8 An Unearthly Child was not my first encounter with Doctor Who. That would have been , part four when we had a regeneration and on my part won- der, fear and confusion lifted only by the promise of an extra fish fin- ger and the reassurance that this was par for the course with the a wall as a band played. Doctor. The first time I was made aware of An Unearthly Child would is listening to the have been at the Woodside Library meetings in late 1989. I had invad- radio. Some pretty cool tune is play- ed the group aged 13 with friends ing. Susan is rocking to the beat and family from outside of Glasgow. just like any other teenager on the People spoke of stories that I was telly. But Susan is not human. She is probably not even a teenager. only aware of from looking up the This otherness catches the atten- microfiche files in Motherwell Li- tion of Barbara and Ian. They are brary. Lots of stories with the word Dalek as part of the title. A few Susan's school teachers and are struck me in the way that the name pure baffled by her, so much so that of the tale gave away little to what they stalk her to her home and spy one could expect be going on within on Susan and her Grandfather. At this point we can but speculate on the story. Some of the names that the relationship between Ian and stood out and fired up my imagina- Barbara: did they often spend an tion out were , In- ferno, Edge of Destruction, and An evening following students in the Unearthly Child. I finally saw the dark or was this a onetime only first episode sometime in 1990, and deal? Any thoughts of sinister moti- then later once the video was re- vations behind their clandestine ob- leased, I was able to watch the oth- servations are laid to rest when we spend time with them and learn that er 3 episodes that make up the sto- their actions arise from a curiosity ry. It seemed strangely familiar, and possibly misplaced concern. It very much in the style of television programmes of its time but none- is safe for us to assume we are theless enjoyable, and it felt like a dealing with two good eggs. Next, pivotal moment in my Doctor Who they blow their cover and are inside fandom. Then something really the Tardis. strange began to occur to me. It And that is how the show begins. was about halfway through the epi- The episode An Unearthly Child sode three the penny dropped. I had seen this footage before, feels like smog and cold. In a junk- around 1986 at an afternoon con- yard almost all the space is occu- cert in a church hall projected onto pied, not so in the barren wilder- 9 ness of the vast past. I got the nov- Road was built sometime in the el from Obelisk Books in Virginia 1960's and my family moved to the Galleries, Glasgow. It was at Christ- parish in 1981. I attended the boys mas time and the school was club run out of the church hall and closed. I started reading it in the was an altar boy in the church. As a evening and on what I remember as result of this I would be around the the first page it describes a police- church hall a fair bit and from time man walking about the exterior of to time on a Sunday afternoon there the Tardis while thinking about get- would be band rehearsing. Most ting home and having a cup of tea were heavy metal or hard rock and and a sausage sandwich. I put the almost all would be playing covers. book down and went to the kitchen One Sunday afternoon there was a to prepare tea and square sliced. I sign on the noticeboard that there can't remember anything else in would be a visit from The Tribe of relation to reading the novel, not Gum at 4 pm on this day. The use like I can for say Power of Kroll, of the word visit intrigued me as which was read on a bench across usually it would be the performers from the wee cafe at the back of the name, but a visit? It marked it as Atlantic Apartotel in Bundoran dur- something that might be worth hav- ing the fair fortnight. The way that ing a look at. I could tell from the Susan shouts at her Grandfather, noise that it must already be 4 pm she knows what is going down, so I opened the door and entered these poor wee creatures whose the Tardis so to speak. The Tribe curiosity led them to enter a dimen- were comprised of four percussion- sionally transcendental object are in ists playing a heavy relentless pulse for a real trip, even more out there with two synth players. In the mid- than the Owsley Sunshine that dle of all this were another four, would be consumed at Grateful playing bass, guitar, sax and Dead happenings over the next few drums. The synths were holding a years. These two are getting taken long-sustained chord droning on for into the land of fantasy and imagi- eternity with one of the players us- nation. All points in space time are ing a box that generated insane ar- possible locations and destinations. peggios that floated in and out of They could die in ways that they the wall of noise. The bass, sax, would have never considered. And drum and guitar sounded like they the Doctor takes them without con- were playing off whatever they sent or warning. Curiosity moved could hear in the synth mix and the the teachers to stalk Susan and I percussionists, playing a mixture of feel that it is an anger at their intru- marimba, wood block, bongo, bells, sion that motivates the Doctor to a giant hotel kitchen soup pot being abduct them and take them into the beaten with a rolling pin. I loved it. It unknown. From this point the show was the moment when I understood can now begin. From Foreman to that you could find patterns of com- before man mastered fire. plexity and spirituality within an all- enveloping sound. Years later I St Bernadette's church on Logans think this was the trigger that ena-

10 bled my entry into albums such as the video and read the book Charles Mingus Presents or Miles though. But now 30 years on from Davis On The Corner or bands like then it has so much more meaning Sonic Youth. I then became aware in what we go through in the story. after a few minutes that there was a We see glimpses of ideas that we projection on the wall behind me will go on to explore, the French that the band were watching. The Revolution book, the idea that images worked so well with the someone reading about a historical sound that I assumed that the band event might not be how it was re- must have been responsible for membered by someone who was them also. It was black and white present at the time of the event. and really fuzzy. There were primi- The story ends on a cliff-hanger tives and for some reason there that will result in us being intro- were also people wearing what duced to a character that becomes seemed like contemporary clothing. arguably bigger than the show and The footage seemed to be cut up that would eventually play a pivotal and I could gather no discernible role in defining the mythology of our plot or direction to the action accept pal the Doctor. that it was directing and being di- rected by the roar from the band. I continued to watch the footage and glance round at the band. In The Cave of Skulls, The Forest of the projection, the mouths silent, Fear and The Firemaker. These black and white flickering. The band three episodes make up the first were transfixed to the wall. The per- Doctor Who adventure. We can formance went on for another 10 now follow the Tardis through our minutes and then stopped. There avatars of Barbara and Ian. The must have been about eight people Tardis goes to the stone age to see in the room, I recognised none of some people who are attempting to them. No reference to Doctor Who make fire. We can move through was made by the band and they time and space and meet just stopped as the footage ended. who can't even keep warm. The The audience clapped, and the mu- helplessness of Barbara and Ian as sicians started taking apart the they are now very much far from stage set up. I went outside and off home contrasted with the stone age on my bike feeling good and full of human desperation in the dark, wonder at what I had experienced grabbing out for the future. This though I really had no idea what it show takes us right into the past of was I had just seen. humankind to a place of unknown location beyond this. We are at the I asked the caretaker of the church point when human is hall years later when I discovered about to make a leap, like the what I had seen that day, but no wheel, the printing press and the one could remember The Tribe of internet. This story really sets up Gum, though it was known that the next 50 plus years in a fantastic sometimes people would just phone way. I don't think for one minute up to use the hall for a small fee. that I held this view when I watched When I watched the video of those 11 3 episodes, I realised that yes, I opened it to the possibilities of won- had seen this footage before, but it drous things! must have been in an edited form as they could only have played for Over this summer I got back into half an hour at most. There was a watching the Classic show by way staircase leading from one road to of the Twitch stream. I had been another near the church that had a away since 1992 when I sold al- wall at the side and this was full of most all of my Who collection to buy bands names. It was the Band Wall albums and instruments, playing and along with Beatles, Lou Reed, and making music that bore a lot of Cream, Jackson 5, Motörhead was influence from the incidental music some local names: Blue Kanues, featured in the show. I have fallen DioBane, Comic On The Shore (like in love with Doctor Who again! Pet Shop Boys fronted by Madon- Watching the stream brought back na, I saw them twice and thought so many memories and feelings of they were the best thing ever!) and exploring the universe of Doctor also in slightly faded white paint Who first time around. I tuned in to there was The Tribe Of Gum. I have the first episode of the Whittaker enquired with old friends if they Doctor and it hooked me the same knew what might have been going way the classic show did what now on. The only information I have is seems like a long time ago. I am that a girl called Clemson Marian anticipating watching all the doctors from the area was at the Glasgow and episodes I have never seen so School of Art had a weird band and in a way it is almost like those early would put on performances during days when there was so much still the mid-eighties. No one I spoke to to see! I keep hoping that one day i knows what happened to her be- will find in a record fare a cassette yond that she moved to Costa Rica labelled The Tribe of Gum and final- in 1989. Cheers Clemson. You ly get to to that huge noise might just have blown my mind and again.

12 lished in the first story is incredible. The odds are stacked highly against our heroes – and from what ostensibly counts as their own side, A new science fiction series has too. Add to that the xenophobic, started on television. It’s been run- mechanical horrors they find living ning for four weeks already, forming in the city and a knowledge of what roughly one story, although the nar- ’s exterior has actually been rative appears to be continuous. doing to them, and you have an al- Our heroes, Ian and Barbara, most insurmountable problem. caught up in a world outside the norm of 1960s Britain, have man- Never again are the odds so entire- aged to escape from the cavemen ly stacked against Ian and Barbara through sheer, adrenaline-fuelled, – but that’s partly because during bloody-mindedness and an adapta- the course of this story the Tardis bility above and beyond. Their self- crew becomes much more of a co- ish, single-minded captor, the Doc- hesive team. By the end of the sev- tor, rather than pausing to consider en weeks we, the viewers, have his next action, activates the con- taken the strange, alien Doctor and trols of his amazing machine to get his granddaughter Susan much the travellers away from the cave- more to heart and the two school- men and their spears, and we go teachers are no longer our sole fo- forward into the world of the Daleks. cus. After The Daleks, Doctor Who becomes a story of thrills and ad- The first trip was a disarming voy- venture for the Tardis crew – and age back in time. The second takes by then they are a crew; whereas everything we’ve seen so far and up to now it has been an uncomfort- cranks it up to another level. Doctor able tale of captor and hostages on Who isn’t going to be a simple a voyage of jeopardy and unwilling ‘there and back again’ fairy story for discovery. For any viewers who’ve Ian and Barbara. The Doctor can’t missed this organic growth and de- control his Tardis for one thing, so velopment over these seven weeks, will our heroes ever get home? The and the four weeks prior, there’s a Tardis controls themselves don’t two-part summary after The Daleks, appear to be reliable, giving a false set inside the spaceship, which re- radiation reading at first. Then the views and confirms all of that for Doctor shows himself to be implac- good measure. But in the main it’s ably stubborn. He creates a further all laid out here. fault in the machine in order to force his hostages, even his own grand- There’s so much solid character daughter, to explore a distant city work and development in this story. that they’ve spotted, in the hope The Daleks form a single character that the city contains mercury – in themselves. They have minimal simply because he is curious about variation within their ranks. But, first the place. The level of jeopardy this and foremost, they are a catalyst; story piles on to the premise estab- they bring the crew together. The

13 imposing, implacable threat of the ’s performance. It Daleks, as a race, can only be over- ups the expectancy and, could have come by the Tardis crew accepting backfired seriously if what we even- and utilising each other’s skills and tually saw the following week wasn’t abilities, and by looking out for one up to much. But the bottom line is another. On a darker level, the fact they don’t disappoint, and because that the Tardis crew actively cajole Barbara was so terrified of them we the Thals into risking their lives to are already scared of them too. help them shows that, when push comes to shove, we can all be as The story could and would have single-minded as the Daleks are, worked with the Thals and Kaleds and as the Doctor has been. It’s a that Nation eventually gave us in ‘do or die’ situation for everyone. years later, because the moral stance is essen- Daleks are an integral part of Doc- tially a basic black and white, ‘good’ tor Who, now. Their influence and versus ‘evil’. And it could be argued presence has expanded so much that having the Daleks as totally since this first appearance that it’s non-humanoid mutants with a nasty virtually impossible to see them as voice in a personal battle tank very they were originally intended, and much leads the audience, underlin- not as some scheming supervillain ing the story’s moral to an excess hell-bent on universal domination. before it has time to put forward its When we meet them here they are arguments. But, regardless, the Da- a colloquial people, scared; little lek as a coherent whole is a huge more than raging bullies comforta- symbiotic success; it captures the bly at home in their metal shells audience’s imagination in a way within their mechanised city. The that mere humanoid characters Thals are like Gypsies or Travellers could never achieve (and which the to them, settling somewhere they’re series would never do so success- not wanted. The Daleks are, basi- fully again until the Cybermen in cally, NIMBYs with guns. 1966). Are we that interested in the pacifist Thals and their jazzy It is not difficult to see the immedi- cloaks? Really? No, it’s the Daleks ate appeal of the Daleks, but I’d like all the way. They are pure night- to suggest that our acceptance of mare creatures in their stuffy, clini- them owes a great deal to Jacquel- cal, unnatural environment, living ine Hill’s performance of that iconic their manufactured lives out of episode one cliff hanger. In every touch with nature. But they are also possible way she sells the horror of concurrently the stuff of fun, be- the Daleks before we see any more cause they can be copied, imper- of them than a tentative plunger. sonated, mocked – and yet simulta- Her scream is one of sheer terror; neously feared. It is no wonder the she can’t even bear to keep looking viewing public fell in love with them at the horror that is approaching and clamoured for a re-match. her, and in that physical gesture, that turn of the face, lies the integri- The Daleks are as one with their ty both of Barbara’s reaction, and of environment. In fact, set design, 14 costume, sound design all work to- Polo where the series changes gether brilliantly – it feels as if there slightly) its success with the viewing was an overarching design concept public made it the linchpin of the for this story, rather than an acci- show’s coherency, the milk that dental coming together of various sustained Doctor Who’s birth. It has BBC production strands. There’s a since become the default template sense of solidity, of scale, of robust- for alien planet stories – which is ness to these episodes. Yet also somewhat unfair, since if you look there’s an intimacy which, coupled at what the story does to develop with the integrity of the performanc- the regular characters, it is clearly es, really draws the viewer in to that so much more than just an alien small screen. It is easily the best planet / alien race story. But, as the realised of the sci-fi stories in Doc- big screen version shows, if you do tor Who’s first season. At seven away with much of the grittier, more episodes it looks pedestrian on pa- personal character detail, then yes, per, to our modern eyes. But if you what remains is very much that follow the character journeys the template – and in the case of the story is very well paced from start to film, much the poorer for it, too. finish. All this consistency is even more surprising when you consider Whether we remember the story the serial had two directors, swap- better, or prefer the story, as a col- ping over after a few episodes ourful feature film, or as a strikingly each, as both Richard Martin and personal novelisation, we cannot Christopher Barry were being escape the true brilliance of the trialled on the show. original television serial. An Un- earthly Child may have given us Earlier in 2018, on a whim I decided Doctor Who, but The Daleks for the first time ever to watch all of changed the world. the extant 1960s Doctor Who epi- sodes in order. I’ve always been fond of The Daleks but I was struck this time, in particular, by the story’s brilliant consistency and realisation. It really is great TV of its period, well-made within its restrictions, and from an ongoing narrative per- spective it offers challenges and scenarios to the Tardis team which help galvanise them into that very team that we, as fans, associate with that period of the show. And, of course, in the Daleks themselves the show gave the world a new cul- tural icon. As the middle act of the initial, three-act series launch for Doctor Who (leading up to Marco

15 great deal after this - and we do learn much more about the ship and its possible consciousness - forty-seven years before The Doc- tor’s Wife removed any ambiguity. We could have endless discussions about the correct title for this story I am not entirely sure about the sto- couldn’t we? The 10th Anniversary ry itself. It is known that the cast Special called it ‘The had some initial difficulty under- Edge of Destruction’ but then again, standing the early parts of the script it gave a number of stories titles with the ‘amnesia’ affecting the based on the first episode, resulting crew. The method of communi- in the mammoth ‘The Daleks’ Mas- cating by ‘giving us time and then ter Plan’ being billed as ‘The Night- taking it away because it is running mare Begins’. For a while it was out’ - well it seems a bit convolut- ‘The Brink of Disaster’ and then, ed. However there is a real sense quite incorrectly, ‘’, of peril towards the end, even when actually Malcolm Hulke’s aban- it is apparent that there are no mon- doned script. I am going with ‘Inside sters aboard - unless you count the the Spaceship’ dull though it is. Doctor of course!

But how did this story come about? Written in a bit of a hurry, having Much has been said over the years two directors across two twenty-five suggesting more scope was need- minute episodes, only stock inci- ed for character development , that dental music and no additional sets viewers wanted to see more of the or cast, the story could have gone ship, or just that Marco Polo was quite wrong. It doesn’t though, and not ready to go. However a closer whilst it is not the finest example of reading of the situation (and I refer early Doctor Who, it is a milestone you to the excellent ‘The First Doc- in many ways in our understanding tor Handbook) suggests a more of the Tardis, of the Doctor and his mundane reason. Doctor Who was companions. It also cements the commissioned in thirteen week show as being not a children’s pro- blocks, the cast usually being con- gramme, but a programme for chil- tracted as such, with an option on a dren of all ages. further thirteen. Having almost been axed after just four episodes the first block of thirteen was confirmed with an option. So lets see - four episodes, plus seven episodes is eleven. That leaves two to fill the block. There is no money and so David Whittaker writes this story on the cheap. And it genuinely does allow for substantial character de- velopment - the Doctor changes a

16 There is also the point that back then I saw Doctor Who as a contin- uing serial – like a soap opera alt- hough unusually set in many differ- Marco Polo is the ‘missing adven- ent places and times – and so the ture’ of Doctor Who that I would episodes of Marco Polo to me were most like to be found. The simple just part of the bigger story. I prob- reason for that is that its seventh ably saw these episodes as epi- and last episode – ‘Assassin at Pe- sode fourteen to twenty of Doctor king’ is the only Doctor Who epi- Who more than anything else. sode that I have never seen. What is very obvious about many of In these early days of the pro- the early series is that they contin- gramme it was quite easy to miss ued to emphasise the programme an episode now and again because as a ‘journey.’ The Tardis lands on the only way of seeing it was to be the ‘Roof of the World’ in the first beside a television at the time that it episode and it dematerialises in Pe- was transmitted. Unfortunately I king, many miles away from there. was in when the episode During the course of the adventure was shown staying in a hotel. They the travellers have done a great had a television but unfortunately at deal of travelling via Marco’s cara- the time it was tuned to an episode van, and a lot of time had passed, of ‘The Buccaneers’ and I was not unlike some of the more recent ad- confident enough to ask those ventures of the Doctor. whose hotel it was to ‘please change the channel.’ One of the interesting things in Marco Polo is the role of the Doctor This meant it was much later that I himself. He was not in it for much learned through a story synopsis of The Singing Sands and it is not from the DWAS, just what I had the Doctor who wins the day in the missed. At the time I had not real- end because of something amazing ised that Assassin was going to be he does. The climatic sword fight at the final episode of the Marco Polo the end of Assassin at Peking is not adventure. It was later the follow- resolved by the Doctor triumphing ing week when reading the Radio in some way or another. Times that I discovered that a new adventure for The villain of the story, Tegana, ac- was to begin. Nowadays with ad- tually dies by his own hands rather ventures of a shorter length and than by one of the heroes. The tale with all the means of catching up of of Marco Polo is more about the episodes that you missed on their battle between Marco and Tegana original transmission, Doctor Who than it is about the Doctor and his fans can never really miss out on friends defeating some evil force. seeing new adventures. When I watched these episodes Marco Polo is often hailed as a clas- originally I enjoyed them immense- sic adventure - as indeed it was. ly. I did find it somewhat unusual Back in 1964 younger viewers had that there was someone doing a various chances of watching dra- voiceover to explain some of what mas set in various historical eras was going on as well as revealing with the ITC action adventure series something about Marco’s character. and the BBC classic serials.

17 Something that was never really well. But all the companions had attempted again. something interesting to do in this serial. Unlike many modern versions of the programme in this serial all the There were some quite grownup main guest actors had important themes throughout the narrative. parts to play, and in many ways There were many deaths and the these seven episodes were very idea of Ping Cho being married to a similar to some of the classic serials seventy five year old man was quite of the time which were screened on an interesting part of the story. Be- Sundays. The story could have fore seeing the story I did not know substituted the Doctor and his much about Marco Polo and his friends for another group of people travels, but throughout the serial who had some precious thing that there were various educational Marco wanted to give to Kubla points made which did not sound Khan (as opposed to the Tardis) forced, but were part of the story. and there would not have been too many differences made to the Derren Nesbit and Mark Eden were script. excellent in their roles with Tegana having a believable reason for be- The only time that the Doctor really having in the way that he did. saves the day is when he finds the Marco was also depicted as a multi condensation in the Tardis and layered individual and you could therefore provides much needed understand his point of view as well water for those travelling in the car- as being somewhat frustrated with avan. him for denying the Tardis crew their spaceship back. Zienia Mer- I have always liked it that this ad- ton (Ping Cho) was also very likea- venture unfolds naturally. The trav- ble and impressive in her first major ellers have to keep moving and as TV role, before she went on the they do so they encounter various greater success in Space 1999 and problems which are overcome in later on in East Enders. realistic ways. No magic sonic screwdriver here! I remember be- Throughout the serial not only was ing particularly impressed by the the Doctor was shown as being vul- sandstorm in The Singing Sands and wondering whether Susan and Ping Cho would survive their or- deal. Susan’s friendship with Ping Cho was an interesting aspect of the serial and played an important role in the unfolding narrative as

18 nerable but the Tardis was too. In previous adventures the Tardis was the safe haven. The place to es- cape to – away from all the prob- lems of whatever place or time they had ended up in. Now it had not only been captured, it was also not working properly and had to be fixed before the time travellers could make their escape.

Looking at the surviving stills from the serial one can see the inside sets were very impressive. The outdoor (but studio-bound) scenes at times look less so, but in 1964 that was the norm for many taped drama series and the viewers of the time would think nothing of it. I cer- tainly didn't because I was so caught up in all the drama. The words that were spoken, the acting and the storyline made it an adven- ture that I enjoyed watching at the again – or in the case of the last time and would really like to see episode, see for the first time!

19 falls over its own flipper, which had to stay in given the con- sequences of halting studio record- ing sessions back then. Having said that, some of the model shots, in- ‘The Keys of Marinus’ is where a cluding the marvellous opening se- number of pieces of accepted quence to part one when the Tardis ‘Doctor Who wisdom’ are either arrives on the island, are very good. made or reinforced. There are les- Raymond Cusick also uses the sons to be learned from the story same method to create perspective too - the most obvious one to my on the island as he did in ‘The Da- mind being ‘don’t make a six part leks’ - namely photographic blow- story for which you do not have the ups rolling into the distance. In the time or resources’. That lesson had days of 405 line television (as op- apparently been forgotten by the posed to 1080i HD) the effect would time The Web Planet came along. have been quite convincing. The If you bear in mind that in the scene of the voord falling through a 1960s Doctor Who was largely rec- secret door into an acid pool was orded ‘like a play’ - that is in story also expanded upon when Cusick order one episode at a time, you persuaded the director that, other- can see why The Keys of Marinus wise, the use of the hidden door in was such a burden on the available the set would look like the guy fall- production facilities. The lead de- ing into a cupboard. Simple tricks to signer was the ever-reliable Ray- make the production look more ef- mond Cusick, who in later years fective. remarked to DWAS that he was completely exasperated when he saw the script - a new set to be de- signed and built every week! It must have been very hard work. Some of those sets were later re- used by ‘Out of the Unknown’ in the 1965 episode ‘No Place Like Earth’, (If you have the DVD, see if you cant spot them) The drama depart- ment clearly got the best value out of its investment.

When making a story like this, in There are some nice explanations the studio at a facility like Lime about how the sea of acid has cre- Grove (though some filming was ated an island of glass and the done at Ealing), trying to present script also does well in the scenes something on the scale required by when the Doctor and friends specu- the script must have been very late about the glass mini- tricky. Everyone remembers the submarines they have found, one of amusing scene where one of the which is cracked. It is also quite

20 amusing to think the monsters that look like men in rubber suits are genuinely supposed to be men in rubber suits!

The consciousness machine is also an interesting idea although the explanation of how it worked and the resistance that some people built up are a bit strained at times. The missing operating keys of the story title are of course the method used to drive the treasure hunt the control of brains in glass jars. along, and this is what enable us to visit the different cities on Marinus. The script was written in a hurry And very different they are too. when Malcolm Hulke’s story ‘Beyond the Sun’ was abandoned. The screaming jungle and the ice- and David Whittaker bound scenes are a bit run of the decided upon the treasure hunt mill (and a bit adult in places, again theme as it would allow a short distancing the show from the sug- number of ‘mini-adventures’ to be gestion that it is just for children), written relatively quickly. This did of but the city of Morpheus is a lot course add pressure to the design more fun. The sequences where department and by the latter part of the place is seen through the eyes the adventure, the scripts are start- of Barbara and then the rest of the ing to show it too. By the time the cast almost at the same time must travellers arrive in the city of Millen- have been difficult to achieve and nius and Ian is accused of murder I the result is very effective. By this get the impression that Nation just point, any suggestion that Doctor wanted just to get the scripts writ- Who is going to respect Sidney ten and submitted regardless, be- Newman’s ‘no bug eyed monsters’ cause the whole concept of the dictat is completely gone with the investigation and trial, under the revelation of Morpheus being under somewhat bizarre ‘guilty until prov- en innocent’ rule is all pretty ‘pulp sc-ifi’ stuff. This continues into the final episode where the hinges in part on Sabetha not real- ising that the man pretending to be her father Arbitan, is in fact another man in a rubber suit hiding under a cloak and putting on a funny voice.

All in the all the basis of the story is pretty sound, as with all of Terry Nation’s writing, but it is an early

21 example of Doctor Who’s habit of producing scripts that cannot be effectively realised on the resourc- ing and schedule available.

Talking of Terry Nation, The Key of Marinus presents us with a number of Nation trademarks in what is only his second script for Doctor Who. The quest the travellers embark on is a concept he uses many times in the future, most notably in the jour- ney across southern England in the not difficult to understand why. Dalek Invasion of Earth and then more explicitly in The Chase. We We can only guess what an AARU have the travellers split up in order big screen version of the story to drive the narrative on (and on would have been like, which was this occasion to allow William Hart- something seriously considered by nell to go on holiday) and of course, Gordon Fleming and Milton Su- access to the Tardis is denied until botsky until it was realised that it the end of the serial. was the daleks that the cinema au- diences wanted to see, but it surely Ray Cusick was not a fan of ‘The would have been better than this! Keys of Marinus’ for the reasons outlined, and he was not particularly In summary, this is a story that was enthusiastic about it in the DVD probably better in development than documentary he took part in either. realisation, and may be best en- Looking at the achieved production joyed in book form. values and the demands made it is

22 Six stories into the broadcast of the first season of Doctor Who on Sat- urday the 23rd May 1964, we arrive at the temple of Yetaxa during the time of the Aztec civilisation in Mex- ico. Our time travelling friends have found themselves transported back into the past once again. Barbara’s thorough knowledge of Earth’s an- change the course of established cient history places her at an ad- history and in one scene unleashes vantage to the rest of her group his thunderous anger at her. when she is immediately mistaken for the reincarnation of the Aztec This is very much Jacqueline Hill’s god Yetaxa. This occurs when she story and she gives a great perfor- is found wearing a bracelet from the mance over the course of the entire burial chamber when the Tardis ar- adventure with some of her best rived by Autloc the high priest of Doctor Who scenes. William Rus- knowledge, played by Keith Pyott. sell is given some great material too with plenty of good action and fight Right from the start, the Doctor, Su- scenes throughout by having his san, Ian and Barbara are trapped character become and isolated from the ship as the an Aztec warrior who has to fight a sacred tomb door has barred their local soldier named Ixta, played by way back to safety of the Tardis, Ian Cullen. The victor of the fight and we follow them throughout the contest will lead the Aztec army of entire four episodes in their quest soldiers into battle. Meanwhile, Su- and desperation to obtain access to san is now Barbara’s handmaiden the time vessel and escape. The and is sent to learn cus- acting from beginning to end not toms and traditions. In the peaceful just by the four regulars but also the gardens at the base of Yetaxa’s guest cast is played to the audience temple, the Doctor has befriended truthfully; helped along by the beau- an elderly lady called Cameca tiful costumes and detailed sets. whom he learns may be able to put Appalled by the Aztec rituals of bar- him touch with the descendant of baric sacrifices, Barbara attempts to the man who had built the temple bring an end to all the killings in her which now houses his precious Tar- new commanding position and by dis. While meeting with Ixta, the doing so alerts the suspicion of the Doctor attempts to assist him in his Tlotoxl the high priest of sacrifice battle with his opponent in ex- played with fine relish by John change for a viewing of the temple Ringham. The Doctor is of course construction plans; unknown to him appalled that Barbara is trying to that Ixta’s opposing warrior in bat-

23 tle, will be Ian. When the Doctor stone, Ian finds in horror that the later learns of this news from Bar- water level is beginning to quickly bara he is arrested before he can rise in the darkness. Ian eventually warn Ian of the danger and so the makes his lucky escape from a wa- fight to the death commences. Ian tery grave and ascends to the top is scratched by a poised thorn given of the temple and emerges in the to Ixta by the Doctor. Tlotoxl the tomb chamber where he tries to high priest of sacrifice continues to prop open the door of the tomb for be suspicious of Barbara, who he is his friends to make their escape now calling her ‘the false goddess’, through. This is carried out towards with her new rules and planned the end with much better success changes to their society and way of with the inventive help from the life. With the help of others he Doctor and his newly designed and plans to destroy her. constructed wheel and pulley sys- tem. After being set up and ac- The fight contest has ended with cused by Tlotoxl of attacking Aut- Ixta not having won in his battle loc the high priest of knowledge with Ian who has luckily survived. with his own hand weapon, Ian Later, after an attempted poisoning once again has to fight Ixta on the on Barbara by Tlotoxl, the history top of the temple; whom he even- teacher from Coal Hill School tually defeats. Our heroes finally bravely reveals to him that she is make a tense escape back through not a god. Having shared cocoa the tomb as another sacrifice is with Cameca in the temple garden, made during an eclipse outside. the Doctor plans to access the tomb via the water course which comes With the original Doctor Who se- from the lake in the hills. William ries outline by Hartnell shares some touching and realised under the watchful scenes with the Aztec lady Cameca guidance of , it is played by Margot van der Burgh evident here that they are present- and it is interesting to see here how ing a historical history lesson and a these scenes are handled in the glimpse into the fantastic future of early days of the programme com- the nineteen sixties from the pared to the occasional romantic cramped but creative confined story telling of later years. During space of a small recording studio. her punishment for speaking out On first viewing the Hartnell era, I against the Aztecs teachings, Su- loved the unfolding and thrilling san rejects her intended husband adventure stories that the Doctor ‘the perfect victim’ who is to be sac- and his companions got up to in rificed during the next solar eclipse. each instalment and I have to say With the Doctor’s help, Ian manag- that I enjoyed them all and contin- es to enter the tunnel to the pyra- ue to do so to this day. When mid temple via the gardens below asked back in 2013 what would be that they have both discovered. a perfect surviving story to repre- Having had his return path blocked sent William Hartnell's period in the after Ixta has replaced the entrance programme I immediately picked

24 “The Aztecs” in my fantasy version ularly good. The early historicals of a imaginary BBC4 retrospective are in my opinion just as gripping season of Doctor Who that would as the adventures set in the distant have showcased fifty years of the future and it was a pity that they long running programme. were phased out not long after Wil- liam Hartnell's departure. What comes across throughout “The Aztecs” is another well re- Perhaps when the definitive ac- searched piece by John Lucarotti count of Doctor Who’s entire history with terrific dialogue and imagina- has been finally written, the William tive direction by John Crockett. All Hartnell years will be documented four episodes stand up very well as being a prime example of one of today as a perfect example of the the most consistent and well pro- William Hartnell era with superb duced eras of the programme re- performances by all. We are lucky gardless of budget. we can still enjoy this story given how many of the sixties episodes Any true devotee of the show can- have been lost since their original not fail to enjoy “The Aztecs” or this transmission. period of the programme and in particular the performance of it’s It is worth noting how important the lead actor. We should never forget weekly end of episode cliff hangers or disrespect Doctor Who’s early were in those early episodes and years. Not one line. the ones in “The Aztecs” are partic-

25 phen Dartnell (John) has by far the best material to work with. The stumbling, zombie-like John, who (very slowly) stalks Barbara and Some stories are loved whilst oth- Susan through the corridors creates ers are loathed. And then you have a decent moment of tension – , which seems to be which is then nicely dissipated largely ignored. I can rarely recall it when we realise that he's a victim ever stirring any particular emotions not an aggressor. from the majority of fandom (other than a faint sense of boredom) It's just a shame that both Barbara which is a shame as there's plenty and Susan are shown to be a cou- of interest to be found across its six ple of limp lettuces during this sce- episodes. ne (for example, attempting but fail- ing to move a filing cabinet in order Yes, the plotting and characterisa- to block the door). The message tions are somewhat simplistic, but initially seems to be that they're lit- then it was still very early days for tle more than a couple of damsels the series. Exactly how early is in distress who need the brawny Ian demonstrated by the way that the (stuck on the other side of a locked Doctor is remarkably keen to nip door and shaking an impotent fist at back to the Tardis at the earliest Maitland) to rescue them. possible opportunity. He expresses mild sympathy at the fact that Carol But they do form a connection with and Maitland have been kept un- John, something which it's harder to conscious prisoners in their own imagine Ian or the Doctor doing ship by the Sensorites, but he'd (especially Ian, who early in the sto- clearly sooner be just about any- ry appears to be suffering from an where else. overdose of testosterone).

Even allowing for the cavalier atti- Jacqueline Hill’s holiday leave dur- tude of the season one Doctor this ing the middle episodes is one rea- seems a little harsh, but no matter – son why has a ra- once a sneaky Sensorite steals the re crack of the character whip. Su- Tardis lock this forces the Doctor san’s conflict with the Doctor and and the others to stick around. I've her telepathic connection to the never quite understood where this Sensorites offers Ford a more inter- Sensorite was hiding (or why he esting role than Susan’s normal never pops up again). That seems hysterical fare. Indeed, in this story to be a little plot loophole which Da- it fell to Carol to be cast in the role vid Whitaker forgot to tidy up. of kidnapped damsel in distress ra- ther than Ms Foreman. The spaceship bound episodes are a little stilted, which is mainly down Doctor Who has no shortage of to Lorne Cossette (Maitland). Ilona lightly sketched civilisations of Rogers (Carol) is better whilst Ste- which the Sense Sphere is one of

26 the earliest. It's a fairly unreal caste of the water earmarked for the society where the three classes all rank and file Sensorites and keels apparently live together in perfect over in a dramatic fashion, things harmony. “The Elders think and start to become clearer. Mmm, rule, the Warriors fight, the Senso- since the Elders have their own rites work and play. And all are hap- extra special crystal spring water py”. (another little touch which empha- sises their elitism) do you think the If this sounds a little too perfect, water might possibly be the prob- then Ian is on hand with a well- lem? aimed Orwell misquote (“but some are happier than others, eh?”) I’m inclined to be generous with which floats the suggestion that this and float the conjecture that things may not be quite as idyllic as the poison affects the Sensorites the two senior Elders suggest. at a much slower rate. If a Senso- Since the Elders are shown to be rite started showing symptoms fluent politicians it wouldn’t be sur- several hours after drinking this prising if they were being a little water then the connection would economical with the truth when de- be far less obvious. scribing life on the Sense Sphere. The other story beat which seems Indeed, if conflict is unknown, why to offend many is the notion that do they have a warrior class and a the Sensorites have difficulty tell- powerful weapon like the disintegra- ing each other apart (the City Ad- tor? And although it’s possible to ministrator is able to masquerade argue that the City Administrator as the Second Elder simply by only became a scheming murderer stealing his sash). But I don’t real- due to the arrival of the humans ly think this is too much of a prob- (the event which triggered his ex- lem as the script has already paint- treme xenophobia) it’s just as likely ed Sensorite society as a remarka- he was always an unstable loose bly rigid and isolated one. The El- cannon. Peter Glaze is good value ders – with their fancy spring water as the evil Administrator, a part and all their other little perks – are that’s a world away from his lovea- no doubt very rarefied figures, so ble Crackerjack persona (although it’s likely that the lower orders had he not been wearing a mask it would run into them very infre- might have been harder to take the quently. After all, nobody bats an character seriously). eyelid when imperson- ates a high level Naval officer in Several sections of the plot have The Sea Devils (the principle is long been derided. If the job of the exactly the same – it’s the clothes Elders is to think, then they haven’t rather than the face which is im- done a very good job over the last portant). few years as they’ve been power- less to prevent a steady stream of William Hartnell’s gifted some love- deaths. But once Ian takes a slurp ly lines during the story such as

27 “now, now, now, don't be absurd. pity that we’re denied a final con- There's not an ounce of curiosity in frontation scene with him, instead me”. Possibly my favourite is his we have to be content with the First response to Maitland’s shocked Elder’s comment that he’ll be ban- comment that John’s hair had ished to the outer wastes. But it's turned almost white. “There's noth- some compensation that we have ing wrong with that!” the appearance of the beardy hu- mans who’ve been hiding in the He might be slow to get involved in aqueduct for the last few years and the story, but once the Doctor does slowly poisoning the Sensorites commit then he throws himself into with a supply of deadly nightshade. events with gusto. Whether it’s pi- Given the quality of John Bailey’s loting the spaceship, tinkering with other Who turns, it’s no surprise test tubes in order to find a cure for that he brings a tattered nobility to Ian or venturing down into the aq- the role of the Commander – it’s a ueduct to investigate the poisoned brief but very nicely judged perfor- water, he’s in great form. And even mance. when Hartnell doesn’t have any lines he still catches the eye – the I’ve always had a substantial soft cliff-hanger of episode four (the spot for The Sensorites since first Doctor hears the roar of a decided- acquiring a wobbly pirate video of it ly unfriendly monster) is chiefly no- back in the late eighties. If you’ve table for the range of emotions not seen for a while, then you could which silently play across the Doc- do a lot worse than plucking it down tor’s face. from the shelf for another watch, as it’s a key story in the development Story-wise, things do fizzle out a of the series. Basic it might be, but little in the final episode as the City it's also possessed of a great deal Administrator just fades away. It’s a of charm and conviction.

28 ergerie. What elevates this poten- tially repetitive story is its historical backdrop. The travellers’ move- ments are frequently mirrored in those of the French resistance. The Doctor’s masquerade as a Development is a frequent sticking southern governor directly match- point in Doctor Who. Personal es insurgent Englishman James growth tends to coincide with a Stirling’s turn as Citizen Lamaitre. change to the regular cast; either a Ian finishes the mission of dying reaction to the change, or a notable fellow prisoner, Webster. The Tar- development in a character’s final dis’ location near a counter- story leading directly to their own revolutionary safe house gives the departure. Rarely does a single travellers the same path to free- group undergo grand, steady devel- dom as any other fugitive. Rather opment. One notable exception to than being outside observers, or this is the original group, introduced wary guests of the period, the in An Unearthly Child. Unfettered by characters truly integrate with the decades of history, Ian, Barbara, French Revolution. Susan, and the First Doctor are all treated as any other ensemble in With this integration in place, any any other series. Their travels affect examination of the travellers’ de- them naturally; their shared hard- velopment reflects onto the French ships pull them together. The Reign Revolution itself. Friendship is of Terror pushes this bond to the treated as a hollow commodity by forefront. The genuine friendship of the revolutionaries. The Conci- the travellers blares out against the ergerie jailer pulls Barbara aside, twisted camaraderie of the French offering her better treatment “if we Revolution. This season finale is a were to be friends.” Robespierre capstone, examining the bonds himself holds no stock in the term, grown since first leaving that Lon- believing his allies to be plotting don junkyard, ultimately speculating against him at every moment. on how far this newfound family France is a world of platitudes. shall continue to travel. Terms such as ‘citizen’ are a fa- çade of equality and community. Falling foul of a revolutionary militia, the travellers are incarcerated in In contrast, the travellers display Paris. The Doctor, evading capture, constant, honest warmth for each assumes the position of a provincial other, without the need for words. deputy in order to free his friends, Susan bemoans how much better and return to the Tardis. The others she would feel about her incarcer- join forces with the local resistance ation, should the Doctor and Ian through necessity. The story is, on still be with them. The Doctor’s the surface, a simple six-part game own reaction to finding Barbara, of musical jail cells. From Episode days after she was scheduled for Two to the final moments, at least execution, is an impeccable mo- one regular is a prisoner at Conci-

29 and taken to a place of safety. In contrast, the overseer’s impulsive capture of the Doctor leads directly to his downfall.

Personal humanism besting an overbearing regime is nothing new in science fiction, but rarely is that regime built on such a similar plat- form. Supporters of the Revolution do, at times, attempt small mo- ments of trust, only to break that ment of relief. That the emotion is trust for their own ends. The tailor felt through audio alone is a testa- who gives the Doctor his deputy ment to Hartnell’s performance. outfit does so at the cost of the Through natural growth, the travel- Doctor’s own clothes and signet lers have what the Revolution tried ring. Initially a moment of trust in a and failed to achieve: brotherhood. fellow citizen, he reveals the ruse to This discrepancy between the Rev- the Conciergerie jailor by the end of olution and the travellers permeates the day. Historical accuracy lends a the entire story. Early on, the Doc- unique strength to the serial. With- tor meets a group of workers lorded out real events informing the world over by an idle overseer. Though of the characters, the story would these workers are labelled as tax collapse. Robespierre’s discussion evaders, their only real crime is be- with the Doctor hinges on the for- ing poor. The overseer, meanwhile, mer’s position as an aged revolu- is obsessed with gold. He constant- tionary, unable to realise he’s no ly counts his wealth, and is eventu- longer the underdog. Should he be ally defeated by his desperation for altered, turned into a raving, hateful more. The very tyranny that the cartoon villain for the travellers to Revolution sought to erase contin- defeat, every other element would ues to thrive, enabled through a be knocked out of joint. The Terror twisted version of the movement’s would be a generic, oppressive fan- beliefs. A similar event occurs with tasy, rather than the soured force Barbara and Susan. Trapped in for good it truly was. The serial real- Conciergerie, the two quickly find a ly would become the basic runa- weak point in the cell wall. Susan, round suggested by the plot. already frazzled due to the Doctor and Ian’s separation, can’t work for However, at the centre of the story long after Barbara finishes her and all its discussions, rests the share. Instead of insisting on the Doctor. Though the travellers have importance of their escape, Barbara all grown together, none of them allows the girl to rest. This act of have seen such a profound change immediate kindness is repaid on as he has. The serial presents the their way to the guillotine. With Doctor with numerous mirrors of his them both together, they are res- own past. The aforementioned cued by counter-revolutionaries, overseer echoes the Doctor’s un- 30 willingness to help throughout the ters, the Doctor acts as a shining first few stories. Robespierre him- example of the power of common self carries the same withdrawn goodness. He defies the environ- paranoia that lead to the Doctor’s ment of fear and self-interest. Hav- kidnap of his granddaughter’s ing learned the importance of kind- teachers. To each of these, the ness, the only enemies he makes in Doctor succeeds through the les- France are those already given sons of his friends. Most obvious is over to the terror. his disguise, which carries a similar air to Barbara’s turn as Yetaxa. Ra- In its closing moments, The Reign ther than seek to change history in of Terror brings the crew together in any way, he instead uses his the console room. As the final story knowledge of the period to freely of the recording block, Doctor move within it. All willing uses of his Who’s future was uncertain. With newfound power are in service of William Russell’s agent already freeing his friends. Robespierre’s seeking new jobs, and Carole Ann paranoia is met with a calm trust Ford set to leave regardless this and understanding. His fondness could have been the final scene of for Ian and Barbara is even shown the entire series. Together, they through his more irritable side. His muse on the nature of their travels. churlish “Still here?” when Ian and Ian and Barbara react with amaze- Barbara take more than a few sec- ment, remarking on their unique onds to leave demonstrates just position in history. Susan cheekily how highly he holds them. After so disputes the suggestion that they much time together, he feels their could change events. The Doctor decision to leave is more a rejection warmly brushes aside their con- than a friendly parting. In a serial cerns. Stars fade over them all, and focused on the growth of its charac- they continue their travels together.

31

Louis Marks' Planet of the Giants remains one of the most atypical stories in Doctor Who's 55 year tel- evisual history. For the first four or so years of its run, the programme alternated between historical tales and those featuring science-fiction that travelling in it brings its own elements. But things could have dangers. Then, the console room been very different. At the very start scanner shatters, adding to the ten- of Doctor Who’s history, CE 'Bunny' sion - as the Doctor points out, now Webber had proposed a story they cannot see what lies behind called The Giants which was very the Tardis doors. The seriousness similar in concept to the later Planet of the situation causes the Doctor to of the Giants and could have taken be bad tempered and there's a the series in a very different direc- lovely moment when he apologises tion. Perhaps, instead of the alter- to Barbara for his tetchiness. As nating past/present format we ulti- this story shows, the First Doctor mately got, we could have seen the was capable of sensitivity towards Doctor and his companions visit his female companions and was not other dimensions and have all sorts the sexist, out of touch dinosaur he of bizarre, off-the-wall adventures. has sometimes been portrayed as - As it was, the production team take note, Steven Moffat. chose to play it safe and Doctor Who was to remain firmly a time Arriving in strange surroundings, travel show. For that reason, Planet the Tardis crew employ their usual of Giants remains a real oddity and technique and split up into two as such is a highly unusual and groups of two. I'm not sure if this is very different Doctor Who tale. always the wisest strategy but it certainly adds to the drama! After As if to emphasise just how differ- encountering various clues such as ent this story is, the Tardis material- a giant worm and a giant , the ises silently in the opening episode time travellers finally realise what - the usual 'wheezing and groaning' has happened to them. “The space is absent. And there's a problem - pressure forced us to reduce!” con- the doors have opened before ‘the cludes Susan, a lovely bit of techno ship’ has properly materialised. I -babble that renders any further ex- love stories where the Doctor's planation unnecessary. The time problems have begun before he travelling quartet are no more than has even left the Tardis and this an inch high! adventure is a great example. It re- minds us that the time machine is The Tardis team's plight leads to a not an impenetrable fortress and highly unusual situation in Doctor

32 There are no aliens or monsters in this story (unless you count the cat as a monster, but it's far too cute to be considered as such). And there are no intergalactic plots here - un- scrupulous business ethics are the motivation of the story's villain, in- dustrialist Forrester (Alan Tilvern). The McGuffin of the plot is DN6 - an insecticide which is highly effective but indiscriminate in the insects that it kills, destroying bees and worms. Here is a Doctor Who adventure Who - the regulars do not directly with a strong environmental mes- interact with the guest cast at all. sage several years before Barry And strangely, the two sets of char- Letts and explored acters do seem to act in a very dif- similar themes during the Jon ferent way. The guest cast, whilst Pertwee era of the programme. good, seem to be acting in the style of a 1950s Sunday afternoon dra- The small size of the Tardis crew ma. The regulars’ style of acting means that they need a little help in seems much fresher and more con- solving the problem in this story. temporary. Their performances are Hilda (Rosemary Johnson) and Bert still compelling and interesting to (Fred Ferris) may initially seem like watch over 50 years on. One flaw is subsidiary characters but they play that Barbara does seem to be a bit a key role by recognising that For- weaker here than in other stories. rester is disguising his voice and She suffers the customary twisted pretending to be Farrow, prompting ankle and her reluctance to tell the Bert to visit the house. A happy co- others she has touched the insecti- incidence that Rosemary just hap- cide seems somewhat pointless. pens to be married to a policeman! Overall, though, the team are on good form and demonstrate just how good they are at problem- solving when they work together. That’s one of the advantages of having four regulars – the writers could set them challenges that only four people could overcome. In The Daleks, it was trying to escape from their prison cell in the Dalek city. Here, the foursome have to work out how to use an ordinary tele- phone which from their perspective now has giant proportions!

33 modern standards, more like a Visually, it's a strong story. The set stage play, but that gives the char- designer and prop makers have acters room to develop. Perhaps, clearly relished the opportunities though, it’s as well that it was cut presented by the script. The insects from four episodes to three. As and giant objects are all very well- mentioned above, it's a very atypi- made and the giant fly in particular cal story for Doctor Who, more like is genuinely creepy, putting me in an episode of The Avengers in mind of the classic many ways, with strange things film, The Fly (1958). Both directors, happening within an Earthly-setting. Mervyn Pinfield and Douglas Cam- It's not one of true classics of the field, make some intelligent deci- Hartnell years, more of an over- sions such as placing the camera looked gem, but if you're looking to high up, looking down at the actors spend an enjoyable 75 minutes, during the scenes in the sink. Some you could do worse than check this of the shots where the actors are out. If I was looking to introduce a superimposed against still photos newcomer to the Hartnell era, I such as that of the deceased Far- would be more than happy to show row are not quite as successful. them this. It has an appealing con- Overall, though, it’s a slick, good- cept which shows off many of the looking story. programme strengths and is a good, solid piece of science fiction On the whole, Planet of Giants is a as well as a strong character piece successful story. Its pace is slow by for the programme’s regulars.

34 “extras” disc for the 2003 DVD re- lease of the story), the iconic scene of the Daleks lined up in Leicester Square came about because the operators needed to – shall we say – relieve themselves and Nick found a handy grate that the Da- This was the story that really ce- leks’ could be parked over while mented the Daleks, and Doctor their human occupants dealt with a Who, into my life. I’d seen the Da- call of nature. leks’ first appearance a year earlier and sure they were scary, but the ’s ridiculous balaclava came sight of them trundling around iconic about because actress Ann Davies landmarks such as Trafalgar was dark haired and the producers Square, the Houses of Parliament decided that they didn’t want anoth- and the Albert Memorial somehow er strong female character with made it all that more real and trig- dark hair (Barbara and Susan were gered nightmares about them hiding brunets) and that Jenny should be in the toilets at the bottom of my blond. However Ann was appearing school’s playground. in another show while they were filming the outdoor scenes and The now famous photograph of couldn’t change her hair until that them crossing Westminster Bridge show had finished. Hence her head was and has remained one of my was encased in a woollen creation favourite images – even with the that even my mum would have shadow of the photographer in clear thought twice about knitting. view taking away a little of the men- . In fact I have an original BBC One lunchtime Carole Ann Ford Press Office print hanging in my and Jacqueline Hill were standing Whoseum. in the back lot by a couple of Dalek props having quite a “personal” Some of the back stage stories that conversation about their boyfriends, have come from this tale are some as they finished their lunch the two of my favourites as well: Daleks they had thought were emp- ty trundled away for filming. Filming of the opening scenes took place at Hammersmith Bridge so Anyway to the story. Despite my that the actors that played the sui- personal love of this tale it is fair to cidal Roboman and operated the say that The Dalek Invasion of Dalek that emerged from the waters Earth is way up there among the could be rushed to nearby Hammer- most influential stories in Doctor smith Hospital and be stomach Who history. pumped because the River Thames was so polluted at this time It was commissioned almost imme- diately after the surprise smash hit According to Dalek operator Nick of the Daleks’ debut the year before Evans (when interviewed on the

35 and put Doctor Who in the top 10 splits the Tardis crew up and sends ratings for the first time and helped them on three separate quests to stoke the fires of 1960s Dalekmania get to Bedfordshire, the central into a full-fledged craze (not as big point of the villains’ master plan. as Beatlemania, but a genuine pop- culture phenomenon). Despite this is has a superb open- ing. That meandering shot of an It’s also hugely important to the Orwellian sign reading “It Is Forbid- show’s ongoing narrative - in their den To Dump Bodies In The River.” first story, the Daleks were su- Shuffling zombie-like past the sign premely evil but still a bit small- is a distraught man in a bulky hel- time, let’s face it they couldn’t even met - one of the Daleks’ enslaved travel outside their own city. Dalek and mind-controlled humans, a Ro- Invasion repositioned them as Doc- boman, who walks into the river to tor Who’s first and greatest interga- commit suicide (can you imagine lactic threat this as an opening scene in today's post With a bigger budget than ever be- Whooniverse?). Then the Tardis fore, bigger studios (this story saw lands on the same spot without the recording move from Lime even knowing he was there. Grove to Riverside Studios) Dalek Invasion and the series’ first exten- Even though it’s set 200 years in sive use of location filming which the future, Dalek Invasion doesn’t allowed real London landmarks to really try to show a futuristic society give the Daleks’ takeover an uncan- - the humans drive ordinary vehi- ny realism and an epic feel. The cles, wear 20th-century clothing, story also has another milestone. and fight the Daleks with guns in- The departure of a companion. The stead of laser pistols. original companion, the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, which set a What Terry Nation was it’s really precedent for how the series would trying to evoke here is not the fu- work cast changes into the story- ture but the past, or at least a pos- line. sible past, of what it might have been like if England had lost World Having watched the series again War Two with the Daleks playing recently it does drag a little at times. the role of the Nazi occupiers (take Terry Nation’s script is frequently a loom at the scene of them cross- slow-paced and suffers from his ing in front of the Albert Memorial, penchant for deliberately running plunger arms held aloft in a Na- out the clock by throwing in long, ziesque salute. meandering subplots. What happens to the humans is not In The Daleks, he padded out the a pretty. They either become collab- story by sending the characters on orators (the Robomen), outmatched a long quest to get resistance fighters, or opportunistic city by surprise. In this one, he survivalists ready to sell anyone out

36 for a bag of sugar. What the Daleks ment it was designed for – in fiction don’t destroy, they corrupt their home city on the planet Skaro, in reality the TV studio where it was In a similar way that the opening built. Putting them on location in the episode of The Daleks took its time London streets made their limita- setting the scene with the first ap- tions hard to ignore. pearance of the title monsters at the cliff-hanger, the first episode of These days, with better special ef- Dalek Invasion is mostly atmos- fects, the Daleks easily levitate or phere and set-staging, as the Doc- fly. But that wasn’t an option in tor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan ex- 1964 so this script simply asserts plore the London of the 2160s, forcefully that, despite the evidence meet the human resistance fight- of your eyes, the Daleks are formi- ers, and see the effects of the inva- dably mobile. After all, if the Daleks sion before they know who’s re- can move around under water, who sponsible for it. knows what else they can do? And it works well enough that you do The main difference here was that believe it - well I did. everybody watching knew what they were going to see - the Da- Looking at the story now, 50 odd leks! In this episode the cliff-hanger years on, is seem though, that Na- is about anticipation, not surprise. tion wasn’t really all that interested You know a Dalek is going to show in the Daleks as characters, mostly up, and the curveball Nation throws using them as little more than thugs is how it shows up - rising from the and oppressors. They don’t even murky waters of the River Thames, say “Exterminate!” until the fifth epi- like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse sode! And in six episodes there Now. Whatever my six-year-old self aren’t any new insights into how might have expected, it wasn’t that. Daleks think or what motivates. Yes Dalek Invasion was part of a larger there is the addition of a leader Da- strategy on the part of the BBC to lek with a black shell - but a paint beef up the Daleks’ threat level and job is not the same as a characteri- give them an on-screen gravity that sation. We do get the delightfully matched their presence in wider crazy ultimate motivation of hollow- pop culture. If you want to give ing out the Earth so they can drive their return a real sense of shock it around the universe, but why, is and menace then make them the left unanswered. new masters of Earth. The Robomen are also more inter- Conceptually it worked, but practi- esting conceptually than in execu- cally not so well. Earth has too tion. Lobotomized, mind-controlled, many stairs for a conquering race and robotically enhanced, they’re with no legs. The Daleks’ tank like almost like an early prototype of the shape is iconic and evocative of Cybermen. But the Robomen’s po- their brutal nature, but it only really tential to be frightening characters works in the flat-surfaced environ- is diminished by the way they’re

37 portrayed. If the Daleks are imprac- old man, two schoolteachers and a tically designed, at least they’ve got young girl that have turned up? visual flair. With their ill-fitting, dorky helmets you feel embarrassed for And you wouldn't get Eleven an- them. guishing about all the friends he’s screwed up without the first Doctor Anyway, let’s go back to the Dalek slamming the door on Susan. The who rises out of the River Thames, real reason Susan left is that Carole because The Doctor’s confrontation Ann Ford had grown tired of the with it is a pretty big moment for role, feeling that Susan’s potential him, and for the show. wasn’t being developed.

During Doctor Who’s first season, This is probably true. The character he was more focused on basic sur- of Susan never really lived up to the vival and escape - faced with cave- promise she showed in An Unearth- men or Aztecs, he was more con- ly Child with her combination of cerned with getting back to the Tar- youthful naivete and uncanny dis and leaving than sticking around knowledge. Susan was awkward, to solve problems. In Dalek Inva- odd and emotional and didn’t seem sion, faced with the return of his to fit in anywhere. It could have arch-nemeses, he stands against been a really interesting character them, declaring that he’s going to arc to show her growing out of that defeat them. This is the first time and discovering herself. Instead, The Doctor draws a line in the sand though, she was usually overshad- like this. He’s no longer a character owed by her co-stars and came that comes to town and defeats evil across as mostly passive and because if he doesn’t he can’t bland. leave. Now he comes to town and defeats evil because it needs de- So Dalek Invasion sets the stage feating, and only then does he for Susan’s departure by giving her leave. This is the birth of the Doctor a dilemma. Firstly she has a reason who declares decades later “This to leave. Handsome rebel David planet is protected!”. You wouldn’t Campbell, who she falls in love with get future Doctors scaring away over the course of the story. The a battle fleets with a long grandstand- reason to stay. Her grandfather, ing speeches if it wasn’t for the who she worries can’t take care of Hartnell’s acidic retort when the Da- himself without her. lek brags about being the master of Earth, “Not for long.”. The idea is that she’s growing up, and will never have a real life of her All in all it is a pretty ballsy state- own until she gets out from under ment to make. The First Doctor has her grandfather’s shadow. But the no reputation to fall back on, these dramatic impact of her decision is Daleks don’t even know who he is, wasted, because she doesn’t get to why should they be worried by an decide. Instead, The Doctor, who’s seen her dilemma developing, locks

38 her out of the Tardis and forces her he talks about the home he and to stay with David. What should Susan ran away from, and vows have been Susan’s first grown-up that “one day, we shall get back”. decision ends up her grandfather It’s a line that feels like a white lie, making decisions for her yet again. something he promises but knows And doesn’t it seem odd to leave may never happen. And so does her on a ruined and devastated his promise to Susan here. He nev- planet with a boy she just met? Es- er does come back for her. Susan pecially as this is long before we becomes the first of a long string of knew of Time Lords and regenera- abandoned friends and compan- tion so to us viewers she’s still a ions. The Doctor’s good with jour- school girl! neys, but he’s terrible at endings.

The Doctor’s final speech to Susan, Although it may not have aged well promising that “one day, I shall I love this story, I love the imagina- come back” is one of this era’s most tion it stirred in me, the birth of my famous scenes. It was used in the love of all things Who and Dalek. opening of the 20th anniversary sto- Them memories I have of that era, ry and I challenge my grandparents buying me a Marx anyone to watch the closing scenes Bump n Go Dalek which I still have, of the dramatised documentary An my envy or friends in there Berwick Adventure in Space and Time and playsuits. And (and I know it’s con- still have dry eyes. tentious) I loved it when, two years later, the story exploded across cin- It also echoes The Doctors first big ema screens in all its tacky, glori- speech in An Unearthly Child when ous, Carnaby Street, technicolour.

39 vourite Hartnell, but my favourite Doctor Who story of all.

Everything about ‘’ For a television programme only should be inconsequential. It is just eleven stories in to have two major a filler story to introduce Vicki as rewrites to the format seems sur- the new companion and nothing prising and yet this was the case more. But it isn’t. It’s much more with Doctor Who. After the initial than it should be and greater than introduction of the Doctor in ‘An Un- the sum of its parts. It heralds a earthly Child’ the series clearly completely new direction for the couldn’t continue that way. The show in a mere fifty minutes of tele- Doctor in both this and ‘The Daleks’ vision. was almost the anti-hero with Ian taking the mantle of the protagonist. For such a transformation to take Something had to be done. place and yet be subtle and earth- shattering at the same time, it has It is in ‘’ to be expertly done – and it is. Da- that there is a huge shift in tone be- vid Whitaker shows his adept hand tween the Doctor and his compan- and proves why he is probably the ions. The story itself is just a char- greatest writer in the history of the acter piece, allowing the Doctor to show. be redefined and showing the strength and determination in Bar- Up until this point Ian was the hero. bara who had been somewhat mar- He was the brave character who ginalised thus far. would fight and get the others out of trouble, while Barbara gave the em- For the rest of the first season this pathy for the audience to relate to. continues; Ian still plays the hero, The Doctor himself, may have mel- Barbara remains the voice of rea- lowed somewhat, but it didn’t son, the Doctor is less sharp- change the focus of the show or the tempered displaying a sense of hu- purpose of the companions. ‘The mour and the writers still haven’t a Rescue’ doesn’t just change these, clue as to what to do with Susan. it subverts them in a very clever way. In fact, this doesn’t just permeate the first year, it continues until the Ian’s role at the end of episode one departure of Susan at the end of is typically Ian. The spikes, which ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’. appear to be only there for cliff- hanger value, have another pur- With viewing figures in the tens of pose. By the Doctor Who book millions, this seems an unlikely thus far, Ian would have managed point for the format to be tweaked to escape all by himself – yet this again, but for me this is the first real doesn’t happen. Instead, the two Doctor Who story. Not just my fa- travellers work together to get past the extending sharp spikes and es-

40 cape the cave trap. This isn’t the tern is continued in (some) of the first time that Doctor has worked to subsequent stories with the Doctor save Ian; but it is the most signifi- taking on his doppelganger in cant. The mantle of the hero is be- ‘The Chase’ (and win) and also best ing passed on to that of the Doctor. only a few stories later. It It’s a slow process, naturally, but is true that the Doctor did take on the beginnings of it are here. the roadside digger in ‘The Reign of Terror’ but that was a mere comic Many argue that it is ‘The Dalek interlude and not essential for the Invasion of Earth’ where Doctor plot. Who changes and the Doctor ac- tively sets out to defeat the Daleks. There cannot be a good story with- This argument has flaws. It is true out a good bad guy and Bennett/ that the Doctor makes clear his in- Koquillian is casual with his villainy. tent, but it is Ian who does all the In fact, he is probably one of the leg work in that story and ultimately most irredeemable humans in the diverts the bomb into the magnetic history of the series. He killed the field. crew of a spacecraft and then near wiped out the population of the Meanwhile, Barbara up to this point planet with barely a by-your-leave. has provided the spiritual heart of It’s played so straight and matter-of- the show. She was the one who factly that it is only in the final con- would act with heart and emotion, frontation it begins to sink in exactly however it is that Doctor who un- what he has done to save his neck. characteristically takes this role in Like I said, I love ‘The Rescue’. this story. After Barbara kills Something that should be trite and Sandy, it is down to the Doctor to inconsequential rises above its patch up the relationship (a role basic two part structure and story- which had previously been Bar- line to become a sparkling jewel of bara’s). ‘Doctor Who’.

With Susan as a companion, it was down to her to be a sort of referee in the wars between her grandfa- ther and Ian and Barbara, but with Vicki a different dynamic is in play. Instead of the confrontation, the Doctor gangs up with Vicki against the others in a much more jokey way – instead of to scold the others, to tease them.

Similarly, the Doctor is the one that takes on Koquillian in here and not Ian who had engaged in all the physical stuff before. This pat-

41 through a major transformation as the ‘wind of change’ drive towards the independence of African Na- tions continued. The British Empire The so-called pure historicals were was coming to an end, even if on a never meant to be accurate and political level it was a movement straightforward re-enactments to driven as much by economics than teach children about the past. Their ethics. Britain itself was dealing educational merits were far more with increased overcrowding in its wide-reaching than a how we used cities, particularly London where to live documentary. They offered plans to build overspill towns variety to the Doctor’s adventures, (including Milton Keynes) were tak- promoted a spirit of inclusivity by ing shape. On a cultural level, a welcoming strangers from other cul- generation on from the first tures, and provided an opportunity Windrush immigrants, parts of Brit- for writers to show the extent of hu- ain were becoming increasingly di- man evil. With monsters such as verse. 1964 saw the inaugural Not- Nero, who needs Daleks? ting Hill Carnival. A new spirit of liberalism was only just beginning History of course is never a com- to emerge, reflected culturally in the pletely objective enterprise. Even a rise of British pop (Top of the Pops computer would not be able to first aired in 1964). Politically the avoid an element of subjectivity in ground was slowly being prepared that it must draw conclusions from for significant reforms later in the the unreliable accounts of eye- decade, including the abolition the witnesses and secondary sources. death penalty, the reform of divorce It is an interpretation, a narrative, laws and the decriminalisation of for ‘we are all stories in the end.’ homosexuality. The new labour Perhaps in this regards, history as government under Harold Wilson performance, as entertainment, is wanted to see Britain at the heart of arguably its most honest form. the technological revolution, but whilst over 80% of households The responsibility of a family drama owned a television set, one in four such as Doctor Who is not to pre- still had no fixed hot water supply sent a series of hard facts that and one in five no inside toilet. leave interpretation entirely down to the viewers. The writer’s task is to tell a story based on the past that sheds light on the present and helps to shape the future. It’s those links between The Romans and the experiences of its core viewers in 1965 that lift it above the status of being an entertaining curio.

In the mid-sixties Britain’s identity on the world stage was going 42 the perspective of the elite and the victorious, is regarded as question- able from the outset. Nero had his fans, everyday folk passionate enough to form cults in his name and a popular belief that he would come back from the dead. But the official line was that he was entirely unsuited to a political career, and that the great fire of Rome, if not started by him, was due to his lead- ership failings. Others had religious A story that parodies the Roman motivations for discrediting him. In Empire, and highlights the gap be- some Christian circles he became a tween the rich and the poor was cipher for the devil, the anti-Christ one that would in theory have all and the beast. Some believed him kinds of resonance and it’s no sur- be behind the deaths of Peter and prise that at the same time The Ro- Paul, and thousands of other follow- mans was being made, Carry on ers of ‘the way’. And two years after Cleo was in production. The social the great fire of Rome, in Jerusalem commentary in The Romans is far the temple was destroyed under his from explicit, with the Doctor and watch, causing the Jewish historian his companions seemingly quite Josephus to warn his readers that content to live in luxury, but as the he could hardly be objective about story develops, and particularly with the emperor. the characterisation of Nero, it be- comes clear that the evil on display The Romans isn’t about correcting is related to social inequalities and history. It unashamedly mines those the treatment of slaves. biased sources because they all help to create a figure who can be The Romans does of course con- ridiculed and because their stories tain a few elements that could have are thoroughly entertaining. A fire been lifted straight out of a school caused by accident in an oil store text book. Barbara, ever the teach- doesn’t quite have the same dra- er, tells Vicki that London in the first matic potential. Often cited as a ra- century was known as Londinium, re comedic adventure, in reality, and introduces herself as a Briton despite Lambert’s intentions, the from Britannia, lines clearly written tone is all over the place. The farci- with the younger viewers in mind. cal and slapstick moments are in- But there is no effort to re-educate, tercut with some truly realistic or challenge accepted legends scenes to highlight the plight of about Nero’s reign or what life was slaves. Barbara and Ian experience like in ancient Rome. the full horrors of Nero’s Rome, but they both begin and end the story in These days we are far less accept- comfort, unlike Barbara’s cell-mate ing of histories already told. In par- or Ian’s friend and fellow collabora- ticular those told from above, from tor. 43 The humour is at its most effective almost certainly about to kill him. in Spooner’s fondness for wordplay. Using flattery the Doctor makes Ne- The Doctor takes great delight in ro think that it is in his interest not to irony. “She keeps an eye out on all use his sword. A few scenes later the lyres,” is a particular delight as and Nero cruelly poisons Tigilinus. is the Doctor’s lengthy pun-filled The contrast between the Doctor conversation with Nero, when he and Nero’s actions is undermined makes the emperor realise that he because that moment is played for knows exactly why he’s been asked laughs. to perform at the colosseum. The slapstick scenes are more problem- The Doctor is revelling in the ad- atic, especially those that involve venture, carried on a wave of in- the mute hired assassin, the serv- trigue he is happy to play along with ant of the court, or Nero’s attempt the mistaken identity much to to sleep with Barbara. Vicki’s admiration. Far from being concerned that he had acted reck- More innocuous, and there simply lessly and placed his and Vicky’s to tease the reader, is the albeit lives in danger, when he learns that overused trope of our heroes al- Maximus Pettulian was meant to be most seeing each other. It sets up a assassinating Nero he is even more lovely scene towards the end in excited. He clearly loves the idea which the Doctor and Vicki, who that he accidentally had a hand in came out it all very lightly thanks to the fire. The episode may well hold the Doctor’s ingenuity, assume that the record for the most times the Barbara and Ian have been living Doctor has laughed in a story. It is the life of riley the whole time. It’s frequently contrasted with the psy- lovely, and yet it also highlights the chotic laughter of Nero. In the new biggest problem with the story. Bar- series, particularly during Steven bara whines to Ian that it’s not fair Moffat’s tenure, this would have their stories haven’t been heard, been a point about the Doctor’s whilst hundreds of people are losing questionable morality (what’s the their lives or being made homeless betting Moffat loves the ‘looking af- in the raging inferno back in Rome. ter lyres’ line?). Even with the talents of comedian Catherine Tate on board, there was Nero’s contemporary and near con- no such dismissing of the tragedy temporary critics dismissed him as taking place around the Doctor and a populist, as an entertainer and Donna in The Fires of Pompeii. showman instead of an accom- plished statesman. In reality, wheth- Every time the script has an oppor- er or not his incompetence caused tunity to make a hard hitting point, the fire, he was quick to go and the nature of the comedy complete- help with the relief efforts. Spooner ly undermines it. This is most ap- instead reduces Nero to the level of parent in the fate of Nero’s scribe a buffoon – someone who even in Tigilinus. Earlier, the Doctor’s inter- matters of music was nowhere near vention saves a servant’s life in the as good as he imagined himself to caldarium when an enraged Nero is be.

44 If this story had been written today it our hands of it afterwards; Christian- would have felt like a parody of ity is presented as libertarian and Game of Thrones. The morally am- righteous; the transference of struc- biguous, scheming Tavius is remi- tural, social evil onto an individual. niscent of the Kings Landing courti- Parts of its humour are at best dis- er and master of whisperers Lord tracting and at worst offensive. But Varys both in appearance and char- The Romans is a tour de force when acter. History is completely thrown it comes to the characterisation of to the lions when Tavius reveals he the Doctor and his companions. The wears a cross. Christianity was not interplay between Barbara and Ian by then a recognised religion. Prior is superb, even hinting at a romance to the fall of Jerusalem it was still a between them. Maureen O’Brien is predominantly Jewish sect, known still new to the role, and her charac- as ‘the Way’ and the practice of car- ter Vicky is less well-defined, but rying a cross came much later, with perhaps because she isn’t quite so the early adherents using other quirky or alien as Carole Ann-Ford’s symbols instead. In this script the Susan, she brings out one of the cross functions as a blatant mark of most natural performances from Wil- Tavius being on the side of good. A liam Hartnell as the Doctor. History reminder that despite all the cultural remembers his take of the character changes, Britain in the sixties was as that of an irascible, old-fashioned still perceived as a Christian coun- grandfather figure, but that side is try. firmly restricted to humorous asides in this one. The first Doctor is loving There are then some quite dubious every second of this adventure, en- messages behind The Romans - we joying the adrenaline rush of not can engage with history as enter- quite knowing how the story will un- tainment, as long as we can wash fold.

45 view of Eastern Europeans, Chi- nese, Cubans, and other members of Communist states), and second- ly, the Menoptra don’t really give The Web Planet is a story which, on any sign of being particular support- the surface, has a lot going for it. ers of free enterprise; indeed, by Made during the period of the se- the end of the adventure, we have ries’ initial development, a time no real idea of what, if any, sort of known for its liberal innovation and politico-economic system they clever use of subtext, it garnered would favour, beyond the fact that very high ratings on its first broad- they have a concept of military or- cast (although the audience appre- ganisation (which is hardly unique ciation index gradually fell from to democratic, free-market states). 56% for episode one to 42% for epi- sode six). The fact that it has come It is tempting, reading the initial set- in for subsequent criticism should up, to develop some kind of ants = not necessarily make a difference; workers, butterflies = artists, mag- many adventures which were once gots (i.e. Optra) = criminal lowlife poorly regarded are currently un- equation, but this isn’t carried out in dergoing reassessment. Unfortu- the serial, as the Zarbi aren’t partic- nately, while The Web Planet is not ularly industrious, the Menoptra the worst serial to come out of aren’t particularly artistic, and the 1960s Doctor Who, it is far from the Optra (who aren't technically mag- best, due largely to inconsistencies gots anyway, but trogloditic Menop- of writing and production. tra) don’t really seem to do very much at all. To start with, it has to be said that the periodically-mooted suggestion that The Web Planet contains some kind of deep subtext obscured by the confused circumstances of its production, does not read. While tried, in an inter- view quoted in Doctor Who: The Sixties, to claim that the serial was actually a metaphor for Com- munism (the “ants”) versus Free Enterprise (the “butterflies”), this doesn’t actually work in narrative terms — leaving aside the problem- atic equation of Free Enterprise with pretty, frivolous-looking insects that waft about sipping nectar — first of all, the Zarbi are stated ex- plicitly to be brainless, cattle-like animals (suggesting a rather racist

46 It is true that the Animus, as a Further complications arose when “spider”, does weave webs and en- (according to the abovementioned gage in social control, but at that it Spooner interview) all the different isn’t particularly clever or secretive. production departments started try- The resemblance to different in- ing to outdo each other rather than sects (and/or arthropods) seems to work together, with the result that, be more for ease of classification while there has clearly been a lot of and development of choreography, work put into the sets, costumes, but, since no particular narrative makeup, effects and so forth, they use is made of their appearance, all never quite seem to gel together we really get in story terms is the into a seamless whole. The out- tale of a group of aliens, whose come is that some of the scenes home planet is taken over by are quite brilliant taken on their own another alien, and who then take it as set pieces — the part where the back with a bit of help from the Tar- Doctor and Ian look up at the huge dis crew. pyramid-shaped monument and speculate on its purpose, for in- Some explanation for the relative stance, or the first appearance of a simplicity of the narrative and com- Menoptra — but at the end of the plicatedness of the production can day, there isn’t much of a sense of be gleaned from what we know of connection between these mo- its development. According to ments. Shannon P. Sullivan's Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) Consequently, what we have in The website, producer Verity Lambert Web Planet is a serial which man- and outgoing story editor David ages to get away with it for about Whitaker commissioned The Web two episodes on sheer strangeness Planet from Bill Strutton without alone. There is something eerily seeing a storyline first; had they compelling about the images of the done so, they might have vetoed it, lunar landscape populated with gi- or at the very least worked with ant insects, Barbara seemingly be- Strutton to develop it into something coming possessed, the Tardis los- more interesting. ing power, and Ian and the Doctor encountering strange monuments. Nevertheless, once the narrative actually has to settle down and de- liver a story, what we get is really rather simple and not too imagina- tive. It also suffers from some prob- lematic direction, for instance, the number of scenes which begin with an empty set, followed by a brief moment of some Zarbi, larvae guns etc. running through it, followed by a further stretch of nothing happen- ing, apparently intended to indicate “action”.

47 The overambitious nature of the scape as the ship is picked up and production of The Web Planet, and carried off by insects, which is par- consequent need to cut corners and alleled by a near-identical scene in desperately avoid overtime, leads The Web Planet involving Vicki and to some inadvertent visual hilarity, the Tardis scanner. The somewhat such as the Zarbi who runs full-tilt inexplicable episode five cliffhang- into the camera (every bit as good er, in which the Doctor and Vicki as the Voord tripping over its flip- are covered by webs (that appear pers in The Keys of Marinus) and to paralyse them only briefly, and the larvae gun apparently running which are never used at any other along on wheels. Although the point in the story, even when they viewer may start out by admiring might have been reasonably use- the production, by the third episode ful), is also foreshadowed in a sce- the problems become obviously ne during the film in which we see apparent. aliens covered by cocoonlike webs. While some Doctor Who adven- Furthermore, whatever Bill Strutton tures have borrowed heavily from may or may not have said about the well-known films or film genres of serial’s inspiration coming from his the time, this serial never really being struck by the resemblance does anything new or original with between two bull ants fighting and the concept. his stepsons brawling, the adven- ture evidences a clear debt to the The general sense that The Web 1964 film version of H.G. Wells’ The Planet consists mainly of ideas First Men in the Moon, which fea- which are good, but disconnected, tures a Victorian scientist and his can also be seen in the costumes companions exploring a desert Lu- and characterisation. Viewed from nar landscape inhabited by insect- the shoulders up, the Menoptra are like creatures, the intelligent ones quite striking, with beautiful makeup being dwarfish and antlike, and and headpieces. Regrettably, the their “cattle” resembling caterpillars. decision to give them portly bodies There is even a sequence in the with furry horizontal stripes, causes film in which the female lead looks them to resemble that Mexican out of the spaceship at the land- wrestler who dresses up as a bee on The Simpsons. In fact, the pro- duction team in general seem vague on what sort of insects they are meant to resemble: the similari- ty between their name and the word “Lepidoptera” could indicate that the original idea was to have them as butterflies, but the costumes tend to suggest bees instead, and at one point we have a Menoptra attracted to the light of the Animus like a moth.

48 Similarly, the idea of giving them Finally, the atrophied wings and insectlike, alien body language is a hypertrophied eyes on the Optra good one in principle, and the ac- are a nice touch, following the idea tors get quite into it (dying with their that they are Menoptra who have limbs folded, breaking off in the become adapted to an underground middle of a sentence to continue life, but they don’t really contribute the thought with gestures, etc.), but much to the story beyond some al- in practice, the stilted speech and ienesque dialogue via impenetrable exaggerated movements periodical- accents, and guiding Ian and ly remind one of children’s present- Vrestin through the tunnels (which ers, dressed up as bees and mag- isn’t really essential in plot terms). gots in a bid to educate young view- There is a partial implication that, ers about the diversity of the insect under the predatory influence of the world. The larvae guns (which, it Animus, the remaining Menoptra turns out, are only called “venom became stunted, grublike and stu- grubs” in the novelisation, in anoth- pid, but the idea is not well- er instance of apocrypha becoming developed, or even brought out in included in the canon through popu- the narrative. lar usage), look cool, sort of like a cross between a woodlouse and a The science in The Web Planet is weevil, and the idea that the Zarbi also problematic. In general, we are quite different in larval form to maintain the view that lack of scien- their adult abilities and appearance tific accuracy in Doctor Who is not is in keeping with the general na- usually a problem, so long as the ture of the insect world. All the principles, flawed or otherwise, re- same, they look more like adult in- main consistent throughout the ad- sects than grubs, where the sup- venture. In this case the science is posedly-adult Optra are rather more not consistent one minute gold is grublike. something physically attracted to the Animus, the next it is something the Animus uses to control the minds of its victims, with no mention of the earlier physical-attraction tendencies (and, to be honest, the idea that gold is a magnetic metal is pushing the limits of tolerance for scientific inaccuracies). The Doc- tor’s signet ring also keeps cropping up throughout the story as a magi- cal plot-device object, and, while this is not necessarily a problem in Doctor Who terms (q.v. the sonic screwdriver later in the series), it would be nice to have had some kind of pseudo-scientific explana- tion for how it is that the ring has

49 suddenly developed all these pow- Doctor Who, in that elements lifted ers. from it have been put to more inter- esting use in later adventures. The scene where Barbara and Vicki From the classic era, The Abomi- talk about the practice of education nable Snowman and The Web of in Vicki’s home time is also less Fear both feature dumb creatures, than brilliant: the idea that Vicki or, in this case, , controlled studied medicine at the age of ten by a static alien Intelligence with a is an amusing extrapolation from great voice and a fondness for spi- the way in which, as science ad- der-webs. Beyond this, the twenty- vances, things once considered cut- first century series mentions ting-edge are demoted to more “venom grubs” in the episode basic levels (aspects of present-day Boom Town and we are told, dur- secondary-school calculus were ing the episode , that the university-level many years ago), Face of Boe is the oldest inhabitant but the idea that future children of the Isop Galaxy (where Vortis is would learn for an hour a day located). through a computer was already a cliché by 1965, and it’s a little sur- Otherwise, The Web Planet is only prising that, if Vicki is so well- really worth a second look as an educated, she wouldn’t know that object lesson of how not to do Doc- aspirin is a basic painkiller. tor Who in the 1960s.

No doubt, The Web Planet has This article first appeared in Celes- made one major contribution to tial Toyroom 329, September 2005

50 The historical stores are, for me, the most memorable part of the Hartnell era. I do not need an overburdening of aliens to enjoy a story. After all, throughout history there have been plenty of human monsters to be afraid of. Back in the days when Doctor Who was meant to be semi- educational, the historicals were the most diverting stories of William Hartnell’s amazing three years in the role of the Doctor. is rife with shades of grey. People is a case in point. Da- can both be right and wrong and vid Whitaker was gifted with a gold- the skilled writer gives significant en pen when wrote this. At school I characters layers of personality and was not interested in History, but motivation. viewing the two surviving instal- ments of The Crusade on the BBC’S The chemistry between William Lost in Time DVD and listening to Hartnell and Maureen O’Brien also the complete audio soundtrack, I contributes to my love for this story. came to the conclusion that it can The bond between the Doctor and be a very diverting subject. Vicki may even be stronger than that between the Doctor and Susan. Perhaps The Crusade should own The smiles and looks on both their the crown of the finest William Hart- faces say that they are really enjoy- nell historical adventure. Why? Well, ing the story they are acting out. first there is the cast. Jean Marsh has long been a favourite actress of In both Saladin’s and Richard’s mine, and seeing her here in her Courts there is dissent and mistrust. first Doctor Who role is a joy to be- This adds layers to an already char- hold. Princess Joanna comes over acterful and colourful script. The as a strong character, and her head-butting match between the chemistry with both William Hartnell Doctor and The Earl of Leicester and the superb Julian Glover as her still holds one of my all-time favour- sibling King Richard is one of the ite on-screen insults from the Doc- finest aspects of the adventure. tor: “I admire loyalty and bravery Both Jean and Julian left me with no Sir, and you have both of these. But doubt that yes, these two were unfortunately, you haven’t any brother and sister. Bernard Kay also brains at all! I hate fools!” deserves a mention for his re- strained but believable Saladin. Walter Randall plays El Akir, the These characters are not cardboard real villain of the piece. His nu- cut-out villains and heroes. History anced performance makes him, at 51 least to me, a singularly vulgar and , one of Doctor easy to detest snake. The way he Who’s finest directors, really does whispers his intents to Barbara at get the strawberries and cream the cliff-hanger to part three show- from everyone on screen. In this cases all the hallmarks of the best story there is not one faceless enti- sort of Doctor Who villain. His vi- ty. Every character is rounded and cious streak is delicious and appal- beefy. The writing and direction ling, and stands well against later meld together well, and for all the performances from the likes of budgetary restrictions, the BBC Roger Delgado and Kevin Stoney team make this look as easy as pi. Even the background scenery looks Jacqueline Hill gets to shine as highly authentic. The richness of Barbara. She has forever been one the period costume is impressive. of my favourite companions along with fellow school teacher and re- I am greatly saddened that the six- luctant traveller Ian. I adore her ties are so under-represented in the compassionate streak. She gets to archives. Some of Doctor Who’s display this endearing attribute finest stories are either half lost or when trying to conceal Maimuna completely lost, and it’s a crying from El Akir and his lackies. Her shame that a story of the quality of grounding in historical know-how The Crusade is affected. I cling to means she can play against both the hope that this story may one kings and peasants. day be found complete again.

52 events, and a tale of rebellion against authority.

The setting would be easy enough to incorporate, and, to some extent, Frequently disparaged, the Glyn has already happened. Using Si- Jones story is lence in the Library / Forest of the tucked between The Crusade and Dead as an example, we have a The Chase providing a quirky story building dedicated to knowledge between the historical and the and the possibility of the Doctor and (rare) comic Dalek adventure. It’s Donna reading about their own summed up in The Discontinuity lives. It wasn’t exploited in the story, Guide as: but could easily have happened. It would only be natural for anyone A silly 'fascists-and-rebels' run- finding themselves travelling in time around following a very weird first to read about their own futures. A episode. museum with the Tardis and frozen crew is more dramatic, but could be All very unprepossessing, yet more in a number of places, such than fifty years after transmission, as a temple dedicated to figures and over twenty since Messrs Cor- from history. nell, Day and Topping produced their guide, does The Space Muse- The idea of slippage in time is the um bear re-examining? What might strongest aspect of the first epi- it look like if it were made now? sode, and the one most identified Yes, it would be better acted, and as the core of the adventure. The slips of dialogue reshot, but this is a nature of time / pre-destiny / choice focus on the elements of the story, comes up in the show many times. not its production. Modern examples (and bootstrap paradoxes) are plenty; the oft cited Let’s begin by deconstructing the is the most timey-wimey story. Part one (the eponymous though other examples exist. In Space Museum) sets up a mystery some ways this is at the heart of the and a location, whereas parts two – fixed points in time used as a com- four (the wonderfully named The promise when the plot doesn’t want Dimensions of Time, The Search to take an easy route, or just for and The Final Phase) play out the discussion of the ideas of time trav- fascists and rebels run-around be- el. Where The Space Museum fore wrapping up the explanation of works is the use of the time slip- the mystery. page as a means of generating mystery and suspense, almost like To summarise: we have the Space a horror film. It’s not just seeing Museum itself as a location, a curi- their future selves on show (and not ous slippage of time allowing the a substantial part of the museum Tardis team to see a future, then either) but sudden changes of cos- slip back into the normal flow of tume, the absence of footprints in

53 tably 1988 gave us the anti- Thatcherite tale The Happiness Pa- trol. The show has never been afraid to pass comment.

Coming to today’s Britain, and some would argue society is more divided than it has been for a long time. While TV (and Doctor Who in particular) is addressing the lack of diversity on screen, if not as fast as some would wish, and in the past has commented on the class sys- tem and Britain’s colonial history, dust and the overall eerie feel to the the biggest single issue facing the first part of the episode. It’s really UK is Brexit. Whatever your views rather well done then abandoned to (and this is not the place to debate allow a story to unfold. the issue), it is an issue on which a story could easily be written by Now to the bulk of the story in terms analogy. The BBC might well not of screen time, the silly ‘fascist and wish to come down on one side or rebels’ run-around. One of the more the other, but is well placed to ex- striking things about it is the op- plore the imbalance between the pressed natives, the Xerons are all older generation who tend to have young, whereas the occupying the wealth and experience, and the force of Moroks are all much older. younger generation who live longer Remembering this story was broad- deals with the consequences of cast back in 1965, and the benefit everything that happens today. of history allows us to place it alongside the waves of student pro- Doctor Who has not been afraid to tests that swept across the world, comment in the past; it was already with major protests in Scotland in looking at environmental concerns 1965, formation of the Radical Stu- many decades ago (some exam- dent Alliance in 1966 and the first ples include The Green Death and sit-in in 1967. Protest by the young- Planet of Evil), arguably ahead of er generation was rife and The its time. Why not comment on Space Museum fits, if accidentally, some aspect of Brexit? And com- the zeitgeist. ment means going further than hoping into the future and finding Rolling forward, and the show has Brexit was or wasn’t a disaster and had several politically aware sto- discussing it as something in the ries, including The Sunmakers past. It means exploring the deeper (1977), markedly anti-capitalism inter-generational imbalance Brexit story, diluting the analogy by calling seems to pivot on (according to out to the alien Usurians. More no- commentators).

54 A Space Museum like world could it will have changed by the time the be found, some of the Tardis crew series has fully aired) resents Gra- end up on each side of the argu- ham as an intruder, so his relation- ment. Both sides could be right and ship with the older generation is wrong (unlike the 1960s where the complex. Moroks are clearly villains). Within the thirteenth Doctor’s current set of friends we have the younger gener- ation (Ryan and Yaz) and the older in the form of Graham. Where does the Doctor fit? She is many centu- ries old, yet looks to be in her mid- 30s, and age nearer the 20- something group than the 50- something, yet still placed to look at both sides.

There’s a splendid story to be told about the tensions and anger in so- It takes little work to imagine a ciety. Yaz (on the evidence of The modern Doctor Who story reflecting Woman Who Fell to Earth) is keen themes from The Space Museum, to move on in her career and feels and it could be argued it’s more impatient. Ryan clearly had a strong than overdue. Until it happens, I’ll bond with his grandmother, Grace be looking out for it in me Space and respected her, yet (so far, and Time Visualiser!

55 sodes of The Saint for New World/ ITC, these changes were largely undertaken by story editor Dennis Spooner, with input from producer Perception is Everything Verity Lambert.

“To my amazement all he wanted to Nation’s draft for episode one (The do was talk about the universe and Executioners) begins with the Doc- what part we played in the cosmic tor building himself a "Time curve scheme of things. I had always visi-scope", or "T.C.V.S." (later been interested in science fiction, changed by Spooner to a “Time and but Tony’s thinking was far more Space Visualiser”— an exhibit gifted involved, far more philosophical.” to the Doctor at the close of his pre- Terry Nation on Tony Hancock vious adventure The Space Muse- um). He informs his companions “A writer of your calibre, writing for that it’s “just a toy…. In my time, flippin’ kids!” children made these things as a Tony Hancock on Terry Nation hobby. Much in the way children in your day made crystal sets", and Terry Nation’s original draft scripts quotes “Venderman’s Law” when for the six part Doctor Who serial asked what it does: “Mass is ab- The Chase (or, as it was then titled, sorbed by light; therefore light has Dalek Three), differs from the mass and energy.” Vicki finishes the broadcast version in specific ways. equation by stating, “The energy As Nation was busy writing epi- radiated by a light neutron is equal to the energy of the mass it ab- sorbed. You know, it is quite simple really. It just means that anything that ever happens anywhere in the universe, is recorded in light neu- trons.” She also adds that if some- one could “invent a machine that would be able to convert the energy from light neutrons into electrical impulses... we’d be able to tune in, and see any event in history”, and this is exactly what the T.C.V.S. does. As Barbara Wright puts it, the Doctor has created “a sort of time television.”

Accordingly, Ian Chesterton, Barba- ra and Vicki are able to conjure up the Gettysburg Address, a conver- sation between Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare and finally a

56 transmission from the "Tri- as 2013, and not “nineteen ninety dimensional Colour television ser- four” as Vicki states. Ultimately, vice of the BBC" from 1994 featur- though, it doesn’t matter, because ing . They are described light is only a theory and as we as “four very old men with white have no idea, within the fictional Beatle haircuts, guitars and drums. universe of The Chase, or Dalek They mime to the first three bars of Three, who “Venderman” is, or how a well-known Beatles number.” he came by his “Law”, we have no other choice but to consider the Now, before you read on, I’d like to Doctor and Vicki’s statements to be point out the glaringly obvious, that correct: after all, the time television there is no such thing as a “light does work. neutron”. Light, according to Ein- stein, is made up of packets of elec- The consequences of accepting tromagnetic energy called Venderman’s Law as fact are intri- “photons” (a term coined in 1926 by guing, for if everything is being rec- American physical chemist Gilbert orded by light neutrons, then the Newton Lewis), which are always in mass to energy exchange must be motion and travel in a vacuum at a taking place on a huge scale, universally constant speed of one meaning that, as the T.C.V.S. con- hundred and eighty-six thousand, verts the energy from light neutrons two hundred and eighty-two miles into electrical impulses and then per second. A photon is both a parti- back again, the past history being cle and a wave and, in defiance of observed by the Doctor, Ian, Barba- Newtonian physics, has energy and ra and Vicki isn’t simply an image momentum, but no mass. Photons on a screen, but rather an actual are also completely invisible and four dimensional space/time event. what we are actually seeing is the energy transferred when a photon Right away, let’s flick forward to the strikes something. In other words, draft script of episode three (Flight we detect the collision and from that through Eternity), where the Tardis infer the existence of light. Equally, lands first on the Marie Celeste colours and brightness are not the (Nation’s stage note reads, “In actu- properties of light, but visual sensa- al fact, she was the Mary Celeste. tions created by our brains.

Of course, it could be that Nation typed “neutron” by mistake. For ex- ample, he also describes the BBC television announcer as wearing “a suit of 21st century design”, and has the man state that the Beatles first appeared on our screens “over fifty years ago”, which, as the Beat- les first television appearance was in 1962, would possibly fix the date

57 However, I think for our purposes, that Bacon authored “The tragicall we should use the generally more historie of Hamlet, Prince of Den- known name.”) and then within the marke.” This causes her to ob- “great Gothic hallway” of a serve, “After all these years, we “mountain top castle of the horror know the truth.” The Doctor is quick movie type.” It is here that Count to interject, replying this was “a Dracula appears and informs Bar- carefully rehearsed little charade.” bara and Vicki that they are the din- Both Bacon and Shakespeare ner guests of Baron Frankenstein. “made certain they were over- “Don’t be long. I am very hungry”, heard”, and they did it because Dracula tells them. “there’s nothing like a good contro- versy for getting people into the In the following episode (Journey theatre.” into Terror) the Doctor provides Ian with an explanation for these expe- However if, as the time travellers’ riences, telling him they have ar- visits to the Marie Celeste and Bar- rived somewhere that “exists in the on Frankenstein’s castle suggest, dark recesses of the human mind. Earth history is a mental construct, Millions of minds all secretly believ- then it’s perfectly conceivable that ing that this place really exists. The the events witnessed by the Tardis immense power of those minds, crew on the “time television” are combined together, have made this their own preconceived ideas re- place a reality. It's the classic house flected back at them. In other of horrors.” Nevertheless, the Doc- words, Barbara’s belief that Francis tor’s theory that they have “strayed Bacon wrote Hamlet changes time, into some strange netherworld” is causing the millions of minds on directly contradicted by the pursu- Earth, who believe Shakespeare to ing Daleks who register the Tardis have authored his own plays, to as “still in the Earth year one eight adjust time again with a counter seven two”, although it has altered narrative that has Shakespeare “its geographical location. It is now and Bacon colluding in a publicity in the country that Earth people call gimmick. The fact the Doctor claims Transylvania.” This implies that that “Bacon himself told me the Earth history is being constantly reason” must mean that his own rewritten by the collective mass personal timeline has also been mind of the human race to conform impacted by the change of events. to a perceived reality based on pop- Patently, the Doctor’s T.C.V.S. is a ular culture. very powerful and dangerous piece of apparatus. Now let’s return to Nation’s draft script for episode one, to the part Following the Tardis’ landing on where Barbara dials William Shake- Aridius, Ian and Vicki go exploring speare and Francis Bacon up on while the Doctor and Barbara relax the Time curve visi-scope. She wit- in the warmth of the planet’s twin nesses a specific exchange be- suns. “Barbara lies, her eyes tween the two scribes which reveals closed.” “Dr. Who seems quite con-

58 Daleks emerge from out of the sands of Aridius.

The implication is obvious. If the past, when viewed through the Time curve visi-scope, can be changed by human belief, then it stands to reason that, when not programmed to focus on a specific historical event and left to idle, the machine will pick up on, and make manifest, the unconscious thoughts tent allowing the sand to run of the crew. And for them, the idea through his fingers.” They are that the Daleks would one day cre- brought back from their daydream- ate their own space/time ship and ing by the sound of a “high pitched pursue the Tardis “through all eter- electronic whine”, and when Barba- nity”, must have been a constant, if ra investigates, she discovers that hidden, anxiety. Vicki had failed to turn off the T.C.V.S. as instructed. “The screen It’s quite possible that the T.C.V.S. is giving a series of flashes. From is also responsible for the Aridians, the loudspeaker comes a rattle of the planet’s supposedly indigenous static…. Suddenly the static clears. life form. Nation depicts them as We hear very distinctively, a Dalek “tiny men with vast humped backs. voice. Barbara freezes at the well- So high are these distorted shoul- remembered sound…. Barbara ders that their heads appear to be stands staring at the screen, which in the middle of their bodies.” On 25 now clears and we see on it, the February 1965, Verity Lambert sent Dalek control room…. On a dais a note to the director Richard Martin stands the Supreme Dalek. Beside saying, “I think Terry has gone too him is a large screen, which shows far in making the Aridians unpleas- a picture of the exterior of the Tardis ant looking. It does not serve any in this very desert.” The Supreme purpose in the script.” But Lambert Dalek states that “The humans who was mistaken, as Nation was, once control the Tardis have interfered in again, invoking Shakespeare. From our plans too often. They must be Othello, we hear of “men whose destroyed”, and orders an heads do grow beneath their shoul- “assassination group [to] embark at ders”, and in The we have once in our time machine.” The Gonzalo’s statement that, as a script informs us that “Daleks start youth, he believed "there were such to file into the time machine” which men whose heads stood in their then “vanishes in the manner of the breasts." The draft script further Tardis…. Dr. Who moves swiftly states that the Aridians’ “thick black and turns off the T.C.V.S.”, but he is hair hangs lankly, framing their fac- too late. Some time later, both Bar- es”, which, taken together with the bara and the Doctor watch as four “vast humped backs”, may also be

59 referencing Richard III.

An alternative explanation is that the Aridians came, not from the Time curve visi-scope, but directly from Barbara’s mind. In fact, being on an alien planet would allow the time travellers to create as they wished, without the interference of any preconceptions from Earth, alt- hough what’s real and what’s imag- ined in the episode is difficult to de- termine. The Aridian’s city under the Aridius and turn their minds to other sand is evidently part of the mental matters, the city, its people and, construct, with Vicki even remark- indeed, the entire solar system, ing, “Over that next sand dune may well vanish. Only the Daleks there could be a city.” The Mire- would remain, their constant pres- beasts are a different matter. They ence reinforced through the track- seem more instinctive than sentient, ing of their ship by the Tardis’ “time they hunt, eat and breed, but their path indicator”. minds don’t shape the universe, an ability that, within the context of Da- That said, it is only during episode lek Three, humans alone possess. four (Journey into Terror), when By extension, this would mean that Vicki becomes a stowaway aboard all the other beings encountered, the Dalek vessel, that the Daleks who are equally cognizant, are become proactive. Their chattering nothing more than mental projec- and construction of the Doctor’s tions. robot duplicate are reminiscent of the Doctor’s own earlier discus- There is also an odd line given to sions with the Baron as to how they Ian where he tells Vicki, “It’s as the could bring Frankenstein’s monster Doctor said. Because of the speed to life. Equally, the Daleks’ an- those suns are orbiting the planet, nouncement that the Tardis’ is night and day are much faster.” This about to land on “Mechanus!!! The sentence was revised, presumably terror planet”, may well suggest a by the story editor, or the director, to growing fear of automata on Vicki’s remove the apparent error; never- part and, by abstraction, that she is theless, as Hamlet is the topic of authoring events. conversation between Shakespeare and Bacon, the original could well On Mechanus we meet the fun- be referencing Hamlet’s letter to goids, which Nation depicts as “A Ophelia: “Doubt thou the stars are black glistening creature of sponge. fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, It is as tall as a man, shaped like an Doubt truth to be a liar, But never egg, but with irregularities. It has no doubt I love.” And if we accept this, relation at all to human form. The then once the Tardis crew leave texture of its ‘skin’ can only be de-

60 down…. [Instead] when one of them showed signs of mechanical failure, the others would make re- pairs. They were programmed to do that. Anyway, the repair jobs be- came more complicated, they start- ed building other simple robots. If they couldn’t find a part in the spares that they’d brought from Earth, then they made it. The ro- bots they built were even more so- phisticated than themselves. They scribed as ‘like tripe’.” Similar to the built this city. Now they’re making Mire-beasts, the fungoids are of bigger and better robots.” limited intelligence, and so, once more, have the potential to be real. The Mechons themselves are ex- In contrast, “Roger Bruck”, the tremely taciturn, issuing only two Earth astronaut we meet in episode single words of instruction (“follow” six (The Planet of Decision), is and “enter”) throughout the epi- plainly unaware that he has been sode. In fact, when Vicki touches derived from the fictional character one she gets an electric shock “Buck Rogers”. causing the Doctor to remark, “I think he’s trying to discourage any Explaining his five years spent on attempts at communication.” Quite Mechanus, Bruck states: “I was how Bruck obtained such detailed commanding a probe into deep knowledge of the Mechons is, space. I had a flare out in my main therefore, a mystery, unless, that is, boosters. The crew got out in the we accept the idea that he willed main life rocket. I had to use the them into existence. capsule. The gravitational pull was too great for the small rockets. I Acknowledging this would also wandered around for a few days properly answer Barbara’s question trying to avoid the fungoids; then “Why do they keep staring at us like the Mechons captured me.” this? Watching everything we do!!!” Bruck’s explanation that they are Bruck goes on to relate how the being treated “like animals in a “Mechons” came to be there. zoo”, is rather odd as the Mechons “About a thousand years ago Earth are unemotional robots, incapable decided to colonize this planet. It of forming any social connection landed a rocket full of robots that with their human captives. Perhaps were programmed to clear landing then, it’s the other way around, in sites, ready for the first immi- that actually, it is the Mechons who grants.... Earth [then] got involved are showing themselves to Bruck in the interplanetary wars, and this and the Tardis crew, as a way of place was forgotten. Everybody just preventing their own disappear- assumed that the robots would run ance.

61 This is further underlined by Na- tour to have witnessed the appear- tion’s description of the Mechons as ance of the Tardis crew and the Da- “shaped like a large spinning top” leks is the half-witted Alabama hick, and with a voice similar to one that Morton Dill, who mistakes both the appears “in the recording of Sparky crew and the Daleks for “movie and his Magic Piano”; an audio sto- people” engaged on a film shoot. ry released by Capital Records in 1947. As both reference childhood The last point is the most engaging, memories, Ian and Barbara may as when Morton Dill is discovered well be the originators. on all fours, tapping the floor in the hope of finding the trap door The concept of Bruck, as a mental through which he believes the Tar- figment, not only demonstrates the dis and Dalek time machine have different levels of reality at work disappeared, “The guide speaks out here, but, furthermore, strongly im- the corner of his mouth to the man plies that the future, like the past, is next to him” asking that he “keep an also imagined. In which case, one eye on [Morton] till I get a cop. And has to ask where in the narrative make sure he don’t try and jump. the “present” is stationed? And the He looks looney enough to try any- most credible answer to that has to thing.” be the observation level on floor 102 of the Empire State Building During the observation deck sometime in 1966. scenes, Nation is suggesting that, faced with a disputed past and an The reasons for this conclusion are unknown future, people need to find fourfold. The location, together with a still point to anchor themselves. the tour guide and his party of sight- This is the “present” and anything seers, are established prior to the challenging that reality is likely to Tardis materialising and so, conse- face rejection. Just as Morton ra- quently, exist in their own right. tionalises the appearance of the Secondly, the time travellers mov- Tardis and the Daleks within a ing from a desert planet to the fic- framework that he understands, so tionalised 19th century sailing ship, the guide has to categorise Mor- the Marie Celeste (courtesy of Sir ton’s behaviour as “looney” be- Arthur Conan Doyle’s Gothic horror cause it directly challenges his own story J. Habakuk Jephson's State- perception of present day normality. ment) and then onto a Transylvani- an castle owned by Baron Franken- This takes us back to the way in stein, makes a certain thematic which Barbara’s assumption about sense, whereas, a chance landing the authorship of Shakespeare’s on the Empire State Building does plays impacted on the past, present not. Thirdly, a fifty foot gorilla called and future and strongly implies that King Kong does not climbs the Em- our concept of reality is similarly pire State Building to swat biplanes, authored; the present no more real indicating there is no overlap here than the planet Aridus. between fact and fiction. And finally, the only member of the sightseeing 62 Sympathetic story editing would Quite what Nation thought of the have brought out the meaning of serial as broadcast has not been Nation’s scripts whilst introducing recorded. It is evident from a note surrealist elements into Doctor he makes on his draft script for The Who’s TV adventures ten months Nightmare Begins (episode one of ahead of . The Daleks’ Master Plan) that he Verity Lambert did the opposite, was unaware “Roger Bruck”, now a stating in her memo of 25 February, permanent member of the Tardis “I think that, if we go into these crew, had been renamed “Steven realms of fiction, we are opening a Taylor”. This raises the possibility door on the Doctor Who series that he never watched the serial or, which may run us into considerable at the very least, missed the final trouble in the future.” Clearly she episode. believed that Nation, not unlike Morton Dill, was being too fanciful Either way, I suspect Terry Nation, if for his own good. As a result, the discontent with the handling of his fictive Marie Celeste reverted to the story, would not have made his feel- real Mary Celeste, Baron Franken- ings known. As contemporary writer stein was removed entirely from the Chris Boucher once said, “He was a story and Dracula and Franken- pro from way back, and there isn't a stein’s monster were re- lot of point with being hugely pro- characterised as animatronic exhib- tective. I'm sure he bled, I'm sure its from a “House of Horrors” funfair he did because we all do, but Terry attraction; thus effectively killing the bled in private.” meta-narrative stone dead.

63 of the Tardis and its crew, alien and anachronistic elements had ap- peared just once in a historical set- ting, and that had been in the previ- The Time Meddler is the ninth and ous serial, The Chase. Even this final serial of the second season. had been a relatively minor event, Season finales were not the big with the Daleks following the Doctor events in 1965 that they are today, into several points in time for brief but the appearance of another set pieces before a futuristic finale. rogue time traveller—and one who The Time Meddler took this ap- was not only from the Doctor’s own proach and crafted a whole story planet, but a sort of anti-Doctor in around it. For the first time ever, the his own right—must have been a intrusion of the modern and alien huge revelation for viewers back into the past was the very crux of then. The Monk was our first the story. Previous Doctor Who sto- glimpse at someone from the Doc- ries set in the Earth's past had tor’s home. And it’s important to viewed history as sacrosanct and keep in mind that the Monk does unchangeable, if they addressed appear before any of that other bag- the concept at all. Only The Space gage was attached, because he’s Museum, earlier that same year, best understood as a mirror- had proposed that time could be inversion not of the Doctor we know malleable and dynamic. For the first now, but the First Doctor specifical- time, The Time Meddler showed us ly—not a cosmic wizard who can the perils of messing with the natu- feel the pulse of the universe, but a ral course of history, and the dan- sly, troublemaking old man who al- gers inherent in time travel. ways has a few tricks up his sleeve. It has to be said that the serial is, The Time Meddler is a seminal sto- fundamentally, a fairly straight for- ry in the Doctor Who canon. Watch- ward one. This is also the first ex- ing it today, it's hard to appreciate ample of what would become a just how big a departure from the classic subgenre within Doctor norm this serial was upon broadcast Who, the “pseudohistorical”: A story in 1965. Over the years, viewers of set in the past but driven less by the series have become accus- real historical events and people tomed to adventures which see the than science-fiction adventure. In Doctor arrive in a recognisable era this case, we arrive shortly before of history, to be confronted by an the Norman invasion of England in alien or time-travelling element that 1066 by the king with what the throws the natural order of history greatest pre-coronation nickname out of joint. of all time, William the Bastard. That pivotal event isn’t front and It wasn't always this way. Prior to centre, though—instead, it looms The Time Meddler, the series' his- off in the distance. torical and science fiction elements had been kept largely separate. The historical setting is less devel- Apart from the obvious exceptions oped than it might have been, with 64 just a handful of locations populated younger viewers would surely pre- by some characters who feel very sume that she has 'merely' been sketched in. The Vikings are partic- physically assaulted. Nonetheless, ularly one dimensional, although this is a shocking scene for Doctor the native Saxons, on the whole, Who. Wulnoth's grief as he holds are not much better. It is only the his wife makes it one of the most village headman, Wulnoth, and his affecting scenes in the programme. wife Edith, who get any appreciable Worryingly, once the Doctor is screen time and characterisation. back, he seems to not even notice While Michael Miller does his best that the woman waiting on him to make Wulnoth a rounded charac- hand and foot has clearly been very ter, he is given very little material to badly hurt. use. Alethea Charlton, previously seen as cave-woman Hur in Doctor William Hartnell’s Doctor is now the Who's opening serial, is very good only character left from the series‘ as Edith. She has a great rapport debut. That heralds a shift in focus with the Doctor, and acts as our for the show—increasingly, Doctor only real link to the 11th century Who was less about the travels of a world we're visiting. There is a pow- group of people that happened to erful scene in the second episode, include the Doctor, but about the in which Wulnoth returns home to travels of the Doctor with whoever find Edith traumatised following a he happened to be vagabonding Viking attack. It is heavily implied around with at that particular mo- that she has been raped, although ment. Not that the companions nothing is ever said aloud, and any aren’t important, but they come and

65 go; in the long run, it’s his story. is, unlike later characters with simi- Also, the Doctor is no longer com- lar modus operandi, not presented peting with Ian and Barbara for the as evil. He is villainous, and indeed role of leader within the group— dangerous, yet the Doctor treats Steven’s character is in many ways him more like an errant schoolboy intended to replace Ian as the up to mischief than as a foe who young, strong, physically active guy must be stopped at all costs. A who can do things the aged Hartnell meddler he may be, but he takes an can’t, but he’s also clearly intended injured man into his care, and as a supporting character first and seems genuinely concerned for the foremost. He might argue with the welfare of the people whose lives Doctor about whether time travel is he is affecting. It's hard to square real, and he might be flippant with his plan to annihilate the Viking enough to call him ‘Doc’, but before fleet with an atomic cannon - over- the end of his first scene he’s al- kill, surely? - yet he seems to genu- ready acknowledged that the Doc- inely want to help the English peo- tor ultimately calls the shots. In any ple. His plan to alter the outcome of case, it’s always good to have a the Battle of Hastings is certainly character who’s on the Doctor’s ambitious. It's hard to think of a sin- side but still disagrees with him oc- gle defining event in the last thou- casionally—partly because Hart- sand years of history that nell’s rejoinders to Steven’s disbe- would had more far-reaching im- lief are wonderfully grouchy: “What pact. On the other hand, it's incredi- do you mean, maybe? What do you bly Eurocentric, even Anglocentric, think it is, a space helmet for a to ignore the advances and events cow?” in the rest of the world and focus on pushing this one culture forward. Peter Butterworth plays the Med- dling Monk, with great comedic flair I wouldn’t mind seeing the Monk that would soon see him find fame reappear on Doctor Who again in the Carry On... series of comedy sometime, long shot though that films. He waddles around, attending probably is. He’s a kind of recurring to errands, chuckling to himself, character that the show could use— engaging a little slapstick with his the villain who’s not necessarily electric toaster. It's in his interplay powerful or vicious, but a persistent with the Doctor that sees them both annoyance that allows for a certain at their best, as they engage in ban- kind of comic storyline, like Star ter and one-up-manship. The Doc- Trek’s Harcourt Fenton Mudd or tor is morally outraged at the superhero comics’ Mr. Mxyzptlk or Monk's attitude, tweaking history to Bat-Mite. He’d be a good change- suit his whims. "It's more fun my up from the universe-conquering way," he says, and fails to see just types, and I think he’d fit into the why he shouldn't be messing with modern series pretty well. It’s cer- time. Fabulously, he has a flipchart tainly fun to see him arguing with detailing his plan of action, ticked the Doctor about their Tardises like off as he goes along, and ending they’re arguing about cars! with "Meet King Harold." The Monk 66 ing. There was an already surviv- ing clip from it on the Whose Doctor Who documentary that was trans- I am someone who likes a number mitted around the time of The Tal- of science-fiction television pro- ons of Wen Chiang. What was in- grammes – not just Doctor Who. teresting to me was that the person One of the sad things though about who was interviewed and who many of my favourite shows from talked about Galaxy 4 before the the 1960s is that they are not all clip was shown was in fact an old complete in the archives. Whereas university friend of mine! I can watch every episode ever made of Star Trek, , Later on the DWAS was hoping to Land of the Giants, The Time Tun- screen Galaxy 4 at one of its earli- nel, The Invaders, The Outer Limits est conventions and I was delighted and The Twilight Zone– I cannot do to hear that, because it had always the same as regards Ada- been one of my favourite stories. mant Lives! Out of the Unknown Cue my great disappointment when and Counterstrike. However there I learned short afterwards that sadly is always a chance that some of the the serial had been wiped. It made ‘missing episodes’ of these series me wonder at the time about why will turn up one day. the BBC would do that and how many of my favourite Doctor Who Seeing as Galaxy Four had ‘missing serials had shared that fate. Later episodes’ in it I was delighted when on more of Five Hundred Dawns a complete episode from it, Airlock, was made available for fans to view turned up a few years ago. Now and then a full episode was found unlike The Massacre, Galaxy 4 at and returned to the archives. that time was not completely miss-

67 While I would always rather have a does not come from the planet complete serial rather than bits and Earth. pieces, the surviving material from any story does give fans some idea In many science fiction films the of what the serial might have been aliens look monstrous and are ma- like. However we must remember levolent. However Doctor Who had that Enemy of the World was not – before Galaxy 4 – good aliens like thought of all that highly when there the Thals, the Sensorites and the was only one surviving episode to Menoptra. In Galaxy 4 the Rills view – compared to today when we looks fairly unattractive and the can see all of it! So anyone who conclusion would have been that does not rate Galaxy 4 on the they were the baddies of the piece strength of the surviving material and the beautiful Drahvins were the plus the excellent re-creation on goodies. However the main theme The Aztecs Special edition DVD, is of Galaxy 4 was that was not the definitely not getting the full picture. case and it was the Drahvins – who If it is ever completely found then I looked very human although most feel that it will be more positively of them were clones – were in fact thought of. the baddies.

Galaxy 4 was the serial that started Galaxy 4 is unusual in that the off the third season of Doctor Who guest artistes in it are predominate- after its summer break. The Tardis ly female with the only male guest team of the first Doctor, Vicki and actors being the ones inside the Steven had already had an adven- Chumblies, the voice of the Rills ture together in the last story of the and Jeff Garvey at the very end. second season – The Time Meddler Also Maaga’s comment on the male – and while I still missed Ian and of their species is somewhat contro- Barbara, I was keen to see where versial to say the least! It was only the Tardis would take us next! with the rediscovery of the ‘missing episode’ that I realised what a pow- I remember greatly enjoying this erful performance Stephanie Bid- serial on its original transmission. It was a story with a message to it – and I tended to enjoy dramas which actually meant something and were not just disposable pieces of enter- tainment. Right from the beginning Doctor Who as a programme has stressed the fact that things are not always what they appear to be. The Tardis looks like a police tele- phone box – but in fact it is an ad- vanced space ship. The Doctor looks like a helpless old man. He is not he is supremely intelligent and

68 mead put in as Maaga and her One thing that was particular unu- monologue was one of the high- sual about the production of this lights of this episode. serial was use of a flashback sce- ne to show what had really hap- has long commented pened—a device seldom used on on the fact that this serial was writ- the programme. The ending to the ten for Ian and Barbara rather than last episode was also unusual as it for Steven and that he was basical- led into the only one episode ad- ly playing the part originally written venture during the Hartnell era, for Barbara. However to be honest which did not feature the Doctor I never thought that when I was and his companions at all of course. watching it at the time. To me the action folded realistically enough. All in all Galaxy 4 is an enjoyable adventure which with four episodes I did think that the planet set was is just the right length to tell the sto- rather good but the set representing ry. The music really adds some- the Rill ship was not so good. How- thing to the strangeness of the alien ever I really liked the Chumblies. planet and it has excellent perfor- People have said that they seem to mances from the cast. It has a be too similar to the Daleks but I great plot twist, some very alien never thought of them like that. looking beings in the Rills and has They were simply robots rather than some cute robots in the Chumblies. the Daleks who were mutant beings The conclusion towards the end is a housed in these casings. The dramatic one, with Maaga and her Chumblies were likeable robots and clones meeting an unfortunate end. at the time I hoped that the Doctor If the Drahvins had been prepared would take the one escorting him to work with the Rills then both of into the Tardis on his travels, alt- them would have survived. hough now I could see that a Chumblie would not have working I would be delighted if at some time as a travelling companion! in the future the missing episodes of Galaxy 4 could be found.

69 absence of the principal character. In those previous examples, other individuals must carry the episode, easily achievable with an ensemble cast. But how could you possibly deliver that in Doctor Who? Easy. In 2006 short prequels for upcom- Summon the Daleks. ing episodes could be downloaded to your primitive mobile phone. Reducing ‘Planet of Giants’ down ‘Mission to the Unknown’ had a to three episodes left a gap to fill. similar objective but was far longer Additionally, the cast, specifically in duration. The story behind the William Hartnell, needed a break. episode’s creation is enthralling. ‘Mission to the Unknown’ reflects The moving pictures recorded onto the murderous schedule that Doc- videotape in 1965, under the auspi- tor Who was running during the ces of a Doctor Who episode, were 1960’s. Season 1 saw 42 episodes, something truly unique in a history Season 2 saw 39 episodes and as which has since surpassed half a Season 3 continued a total of 45 century. episodes would be recorded. A weekly episodic drama of this na- A mysterious traveller in a Police ture demanded almost constant Box known only as The Doctor. He, production. Ultimately, it would take or now she, is the central personali- a toll on the lead actor whilst com- ty. The television show is named panions came and went. Similarly, after that lead individual. So, imag- ‘Blink’ and ‘Turn Left’, also reflect ine an instalment of that series the impractical filming schedule as where the principal character is lead actor could not completely absent. We are not talk- be in multiple places simultaneous- ing a ‘Doctor-lite’ episode as seen ly. Tacked onto the end of the pro- with ‘Blink’ or ‘Turn Left’. This isn’t duction of ‘Galaxy 4’, ‘Mission’ even a William Hartnell episode stands as Verity Lambert’s final where his appearance in the contin- contribution to Doctor Who as Pro- uing narrative is achieved using a ducer. Perhaps she offered Hartnell double, so the actor could take a an extra week off to make up for week off. The Doctor, the ship and the fact that she was leaving? his companions have no place in this instalment. They are not seen. Sadly, there is no visual record of They aren’t even referred to. the episode. Unlike other lost Hart- nell stories there aren’t even tele- Consider an interpretation of Su- snaps to provide context. Whilst perman or Batman without those some publicity images exist, nota- heroes. Imagine an episode of bly of Verity Lambert and the alien ‘House’ without Hugh Laurie. In the delegates, the visual signature of modern era of social media, would the episode remains open to inter- people would be claiming a viola- pretation. Few people seem to re- tion of the trades description act? call seeing the episode and even They would certainly begrudge an 70 those memories are subject to the those who remember seeing it are decaying recollections of over 50 susceptible to that most character- years past. An absence of the visu- istic dexterity of Doctor Who fans; al stings most in consideration of misremembering. However, the the horrors that ultimately reduced absence of original footage pro- the instalment to an unsaleable vides opportunity. Without the commodity for BBC Enterprises. broadcast material as a reference, our imaginations can run rampant. Long before David Cronenberg The metamorphosis from human took physical, metamorphosing hor- to Varga plant can be as graphic ror to gorier levels in his version of as our mind’s vividness will allow. ‘The Fly’ and other movies, Jeff Most can envisage a grotesque Garvey mutated into a Varga plant. sequence akin to the Wirrn’s The fact that we do not have a visu- transformation of Noah in ‘ al demonstration of this bodily mu- in Space’ or Keeler becoming a tation is a travesty, although a hu- Krynoid in ‘The Seeds of Death’. man being mutating into another The white hairs and thick black creature is not original to Doctor thorns of the Varga plant sprouting Who. ‘The Blob’, notable for being up from beneath the human skin Steve McQueen’s first movie lead, of Garvey a decade earlier would and the original version of ‘The Fly’ probably be thought of as quite can both be sourced to the previ- tame, certainly by modern stand- ous decade. I’m sure we would all ards and expectations. Neverthe- love to see how that metamorpho- less, Doctor Who at its very best sis from Garvey into a Varga plant preys on the fears and terrors elic- was brought to the screen. Even ited on a psychological level. This

71 is a man being turned into a plant league Garvey also suffers the and particularly vicious one at that. same fate, to little effect as it tran- spires. Shortly afterwards Cory Unfortunately, it was this psycho- himself is exterminated by the Da- logical horror component, support- leks. As unexpected occurrences ed by the peculiar cavalcade of al- go, this is a decent offering. Doc- ien delegates undoubtedly, which tor Who viewers had become con- resulted in the episode being reject- ditioned to expect the humanoids ed for broadcast by the Australian to prevail. That sure doesn’t hap- censors. As a result, it seems that pen here. the episode was not broadcast any- where other than on the BBC on This is as close to a Terry Nation that lone October evening in 1965. Dalek spinoff as we would ever If you didn’t see it, you missed it. get. As the Daleks move off from Imagine that. An experience you their kill chanting “Victory”, it is cannot revisit repeatedly at your perhaps their finest hour. They are own leisure. Television in the triumphant. Nation’s desire to 1960’s was akin to a theatre experi- launch the Daleks in their own se- ence in your front room. But unlike ries would have included elements a theatre run there was no repeat introduced in this episode. ‘The performance, no matinee. Just like Destroyers’, as the pilot script was that, ‘Mission to the Unknown’ dissi- called, would include the Space pated into the ether. Security Service battling the Da- leks, and although nothing would This is a great loss. The episode is ultimately come to fruition with that unique in terms of story and unique initial idea, the first pieces of that in terms of broadcast. The only epi- concept were tested out here. sode to rival it is perhaps ‘The Feast of Steven’ which may not Although it is a tragedy that have even been recorded onto a ‘Mission to the Unknown’ gets 16mm film copy for overseas sale. largely overlooked, with few ap- ‘Mission to the Unknown’ was how- preciating its uniqueness, it is un- ever, as The Australian censors questionably a triumph of creativi- had to view it before rejecting it. ty. The episode provided a solu- Perhaps that review copy is still in a tion to several production issues, vault somewhere? Wrapped in tape filling a dropped episode and plastered with ‘Banned. Do not providing respite for the lead ac- screen’ in huge block letters. We tors. It also managed to establish can but hope! a sense of anticipation for an up- coming adventure, an achieve- Reviewing the episode, it is proba- ment not attempted with the same bly no surprise that the ABC reject- vigour since. It is not just a grip- ed it for their early afternoon broad- ping capsule story but boldly cast slot. The fate of Gordon Low- showcases the Daleks at their ery is darkly grim. Gunned down by most malevolent and, for once, Marc Cory not long after his col- victorious.

72 Among the those lost stories of Doctor Who, the merits of some have long been appreciated. Marco Polo and The Daleks’ Master Plan have certainly been in this category. Other stories have remained rela- tively unknown and overlooked by fans. ’s 1965 story was until relative- ly recently, very much in this cate- lowed the story to garner the ac- gory. While it was generally under- claim that it deserves. stood that this was the one with the Wooden Horse, in which Vicki So what is it that makes this story leaves, that was about as far as it so special? Well, as with all great went. Doctor, it is a combination of excel- lent performances from a well- Perhaps this is unsurprising, given directed first-rate cast, a memora- the fact that the reputation of this ble musical score, and first and story has had to contend with not foremost a terrific script. only a of almost any visual refer- ences. Of course, no episodes sur- As so often in 1960s Doctor Who, vive, but there are also no known the guest cast is full of splendid ac- telesnaps of The Myth Makers, tors, many of whom were very fa- merely a handful of publicity photo- miliar TV faces at the time. Max graphs, together with a few sec- Adrian (Priam), Ivor Salter onds’ worth of silent off-air Australi- (Odysseus) and Francis White an home cine clips. (Cassandra) were all well known. White later gave a memorable per- Although Donald Cotton’s Target formance in the BBC’s I, Claudius - novelisation of the story is one of visuals from which, were used to the best regarded in the range, it great effect in the Loose Cannon was not until the discovery in 1996 reconstruction of this story. Barrie of good quality off-air audio record- Ingham (Paris) was familiar to Who ing of The Myth Makers, that fans fans who had seen him earlier the began to have some access to the same year as Alydon, leader of the story at all. The 2001 BBC Radio Thals in the first Da- Collection release of the soundtrack lek film, while Francis de Wolff remastered to crystal clarity by (Agamemnon), playing against vil- Mark Ayres, with linking narration lainous type, had already appeared read by Peter Purves, finally in Doctor Who as the brutish Vasor brought The Myth Makers to a con- in the previous year’s The Keys Of temporary audience, and at last al- Marinus and would go on to cult TV

73 fame as the evil android Jedikiah in soap opera, as they discuss the The Tomorrow People. Tutte Lem- progress of the war. kov (Cyclops) who played a host of dodgy middle-eastern types over a In Episode 2 Small Prophet, Quick long career, was by now almost a Return, we finally get to meet the Who regular, this being his third Trojans. In the Royal Palace we are (and final) role following Kuiju in once again in full soap opera mode, Marco Polo, and Ibrahim in The with a healthy dash of sitcom-style Crusade. From what we can sur- dialogue added to the mix, as we mise from surviving photographs, enter the scenes that have attracted set and artistic design and costume most attention since the too played their parts to the full. It is "rediscovery" of this story. The con- however, Donald Cotton’s witty and stant bickering between King Priam, exciting script, which raises The Paris, and the prophetess Cassan- Myth Makers above the ordinary. dra is played entirely for laughs - and is a delight, the humour coming Episode One, Temple Of Secrets somewhere between Blackadder opens with Hector and Achilles, and Up Pompeii. Priam berates his fighting on a dusty plain, as the Tar- son for his failure to dispatch Achil- dis materialises. Inside, the Doctor les, but a smug Paris proudly pre- Steven and Vicki discuss where sents the trophy that he has won (or they might be. Seeing the two warri- rather found).... the Tardis. "You're ors on the scanner, the Doctor de- not putting that in my temple" de- cides, against all common sense clares Cassandra. that they look like the sort of chaps who might be happy to help him out Cassandra prepares to burn the and point him on his way. So, leav- Tardis and calls upon the gods for a ing Vicki behind with a painful plot sign. At this Vicki emerges, intro- device, and instructing Steven to ducing herself disarmingly "I'm just stay and look after her, the Doctor someone from the future". Cassan- emerges, in so doing distracting dra sees in Vicki a rival and calls for Hector, allowing Achilles to kill him. her death, but King Priam reassures Although he is nonplussed when her in a kindly manner "You shall Achilles acclaims him as the god die when I say so, not a moment Zeus “in the guise of an old beg- before". gar”, the Doctor for some reason, "That's very comforting", Vicki tells does not disabuse the Greek, in- him. In fact, the King has taken a stead playing along and threatening fatherly shine to her, and deciding Achilles with thunderbolts. that "Vicki" is no name for a Trojan, renames her "Cressida", asking her It is in the next scene that the sto- to tell him anything from her ry’s particular contemporary style knowledge of the future that will first comes to the fore. The dialogue help him win the war. Grumpy old of the brothers Agamemnon and Cassandra is convinced however, Menelaus the Greek leaders, could that Vicki will bring the city bad luck. have come from almost any 1960s

74 Back on the plain… the Doctor is racking his brain for a scheme to Episode 3, Death of a Spy is the help the Greeks overthrow the city, proud possessor of the best epi- having dismissed out of hand Ste- sode title that Doctor Who nearly ven's suggestion of inventing the had - Donald Cotton's original title, Wooden Horse: sadly vetoed by producer John "Have you thought of tunnelling?" Wiles, was Is There a Doctor in the "It's been done" Horse?. Although neither Vicki nor "Have you thought about flying ma- Steven do die, Priam sends them chines?" both to the "quite comfortable" dun- geons, and gives "Cressida" one Worried about Vicki, Steven comes day to come up with something to up with a plan to get into the city. defeat the Greeks. He convinces Odysseus to allow him to borrow the armour and the Back with the Greeks, the Doctor, identity of the dead Diomede, and having abandoned his madcap goes out to meet Paris, who is chal- scheme to catapult men in giant lenging Achilles for a fight. After a parchment airplanes over the walls few blows, Steven surrenders and once he is told that he is to fly the is taken by Paris back to the pal- first dart, in desperation turns to the ace, where he and Vicki just cannot idea of the Wooden Horse. Odys- help revealing that they know each seus is delighted and convinces other, thus neatly confirming Cas- Agamemnon of the plan, but again sandra's assertion that they are the Doctor is not happy when he is spies. The priestess calls for both to told that he too must go into it. be killed, as the guards draw in with Meanwhile, Vicki and Prince their swords unsheathed, the epi- are getting on famously, although sode ends - the caption comes up the prince is concerned over her "Next Episode - Death of a Spy" friendship with Steven. "When you

75 come from the future, you make dled well, no histrionics or over- friends with a lot of people" she re- sentimental goodbyes, just a quiet, assures him enigmatically. When dignified slipping away. Katarina Troilus leaves, Vicki inexplicably finds a seriously wounded Steven tells Steven "I think I could get to be and brings him back to the Tardis, quite happy here in time". Odd that, which dematerialises just as Odys- as she is fully aware that the city is seus arrives to claim it as his prize. about to be burned and the inhabit- ants slaughtered. I suspect that sandwiched as it came, between the single episode The next morning, Troilus wakes teaser Mission to the Unknown and Vicki with the news that the Greeks the twelve-part epic The Daleks’ have left, she has been given the Master Plan, even viewers at the credit and the King has called for time may have quickly forgotten the her. Meanwhile the Horse is being quiet little gem that is The Myth dragged into the city. Priam con- Makers. It is nonetheless a remark- gratulates Vicki on the end of the able story, with an extraordinary war and dismisses Cassandra's script that has stood the test of cries of treachery: "Oh, go and feed time, backed up by a first rate cast the sacred serpents, or something." at the top of their game. It rivals "Woe to the Trojans" wails Cassan- The Romans as the funniest Doctor dra, to which Paris puns "I'm afraid Who story of the 1960s and The you're too late to say 'whoa' to the Massacre as the most bleakly trag- horse". As the episode ends, the ic. It is quite simply everything that humour darkens, as the mood be- early Who could and should always comes one of approaching doom. have been.

Episode Four Horse Of Destruction is markedly different from what has come before with the humour of the last three episodes largely gone. As the Greeks swarm over Troy and the Trojans are butchered the epi- sode ends in carnage – with even the Tardis crew unable to escape unscathed.

As the slaughter begins in the Pal- ace, the Doctor has found the Tar- dis, followed by Vicki and hand- maiden Katarina. Vicki sends Ka- tarine to find Steven, taking the Doctor into the Tardis, telling him “I’ve got to talk to you”. Silently, Vic- ki then leaves the Tardis for the last time. This departure scene is han-

76 week Doctor Who kicked off in the legendary past of Earthly Troy, and all that pertains. With the Doctor and his companions included in the story this time, that is true. The I always think ‘Mission to the Un- viewer didn’t return to the location known’ must have been the ultimate of “Mission to the unknown” until surprise to a regular Doctor Who the well-known events (but with a viewer in 1965. In a period of time Doctor Who twist obviously) in the when prequels were rather unheard doomed city of Troy were all of, the viewer must have been ex- wrapped up, while Vicky had de- pecting the Doctor and his compan- parted the Tardis and remained in ions to show up somewhere during that time period. The Doctor and that half hour, but they never did. Steven eventually arrived on Kem- However, William Hartnell was bel, on which the drama of ‘Mission credited at the end so at least one to the Unknown’ had played out, would be certain that it was actually accompanied by the Trojan servant an episode of Doctor Who! Perhaps girl Katarina. some viewers scratched behind their ears when they noticed those Poor Steven was wounded from credits, thinking they might have the happenings in Troy; so on arri- inadvertently missed him. They val the Doctor immediately went hadn’t of course. They had just outside to see if he could get help. seen one of the bleakest Dalek sto- Which makes me reflect a little: ries ever – in fact I’ve never viewed hasn’t our good old First Doctor or listened to a bleaker one, until I heard the First Doctor audio story ‘The Dalek Occupation of Winter’ which can contend with this short ‘cutaway’ on bleakness. It took 53 years to improve on bleakness in Doctor Who! However, this new sto- ry did include the Doctor and his companions, albeit the Doctor mostly being impersonated by Peter Purves. Mission however only con- tained three more or less sympa- thetic people whom we never saw before and who died because of the Daleks. Quite depressing really. Even if the Doctor wasn’t present to at least provide some note of opti- mism.

It got even more surprising to this viewer in 1965 when the following

77 come a long way since he kid- so become rather brave. I would napped a couple of school teachers never have expected the man from because he feared they would 100,000 BC (yes, I call the three speak about him to the Earthly au- episodes after ‘An Unearthly Child’ thorities in the early 60s? Since he by that title) to actually join a meet- rather cowardly banged someone ing full of hostile aliens, just to find on the head from behind? Or since out what is going on, and even tak- he pretended to be out of a fluid ing the risk of missing his ‘ride’. His necessary for the Tardis, so he bravery also is rather laudable in could fulfil his own desire to ex- comparison with the actions of the plore, and consequently bring his major antagonist, Mavic Chen. The companions into danger? The Doc- contrast between the two slaps one tor had started off as a none too in the face at times, but in the be- trustworthy vagrant, but the good- ginning the difference isn’t as obvi- ness and bravery for which he be- ous as all that. comes known during later regener- ations (of which viewers at the time The first time we see Mavic he is obviously knew absolutely nothing) presented as a rather popular lead- definitely is beginning to shine er, a conscientious one at that, a through in this part of his first life. At man who has been in favour of ga- the beginning of the episode, he lactic peace during his term(s) of immediately left the Tardis – without office. Kevin Stoney did a wonderful checking for radiation or job here in showing us in the begin- apparently – to try and find some ning someone who really is not ex- help for one of his companions. If pected to be a villain, let alone a that isn’t character development on megalomaniac who is completely a major scale, I wouldn’t know what obsessed with power. No, I won’t is. Of course, to the viewer in 1965 be making explicit comparisons with this development happened in a certain current Earthly leaders (you rather more gradual way. It started can think of them yourselves), but right after the first ever Dalek story, Kevin made Mavic look like such a and continued at a slightly harder seemingly trustworthy figure at the pace with the introduction of Vicky start. It started to unravel soon to whom this original incarnation of enough, just like it did with some of the Doctor acted far less grumpy these contemporary leaders I am than to his own granddaughter at implicitly referring to. Of course, the beginning of the series. But if right after that the face slapping you compare that first serial to this started, as we continued to see our particular story, the difference in beloved Doctor shining in his moral character traits is quite striking. goodness compared to the – let’s face it – evil of Mavic Chen. Kevin This is not a review, so I won’t go continuously shines as the power- into too much detail of the story it- hungry leader of the solar system, self, except when it might be neces- while the divide between him and sary to illustrate a certain point. At the Doctor just grows and grows. this point in time the Doctor has al- The contrast in character with the

78 Meddling Monk is one of a com- have turned the Doctor into a ‘good pletely different nature. Both Time man’ even if he manages to remain Lords (though not yet known by a child at heart. that name) are incredibly naughty, and full of pranks. Of course, Peter The real baddies in this story were Butterworth as the Monk was never the Daleks, but somehow, they nev- intended to be an evil character, er truly come into their own. Despite just a thoroughly irresponsible one. killing off people for no real reason With a very childish sense of re- as Daleks tend to do, despite burn- venge and redemption or simple ing a forest down which kills their spite, all of which in this story can own genetically modified Vargas in be seen as padding. The happen- the process, or even despite master ings in Ancient Egypt mostly play minding the whole notion of con- out as a kind of farce (though not quering the solar system. The sce- totally, I’ll get back to a real piece of ne with the ‘hostile’ mice is of slapstick later on) in any case, but course a gem among Dalek scenes. seeing William Hartnell here as a There’s nothing really new here in playful, though serious in intent, relation to the Doctor being the Doctor is rather fun. Compared to good guy and the Daleks the bad the Monk, he’s a shining example ones. It’s mostly the combination of of righteousness but one can easily a great human villain, a couple of imagine the two putting frogs in flawed characters and the Daleks someone’s bed when they were a that make this story so memorable. bit younger! Seemingly, ageing, a However, I have always wondered loss of friends as well as death how it is possible the Tardis was

79 not immediately recognised as their Steven’. It’s great that the novelisa- mortal enemy’s craft. But that’s a tion brings forward that the Doctor, whole other story. Steven and Sara spend quite some time together, making their com- It’s such a pity the episode ‘The radeship easier to follow. I don’t Feast of Steven’ no longer exists, particularly mind at that point that nor that there is even a distinct pos- they don’t dwell too much on the sibility that it will ever be found. I issue of siblings killing each other always find the notion of the first as that would have been – I think – Doctor breaking the fourth wall an too much to ask of an audience enjoyable one. The whole episode who were mostly into the series for is slightly ridiculous, what with stu- a sense of adventure. Certainly, pid policemen, the silliness of Holly- one can’t point the finger at Hartnell wood, and the celebrating of Christ- for leaving this emotional touch- mas in the Tardis, but it’s also ra- stone out of the picture. ther fun. What it had to do with the Daleks’ Master Plan will forever re- This lack of emotional involvement main a mystery, but it sure shows does lead me to a point of criticism, the first Doctor in a good light. Not because it’s not all flowers and ros- only does he resolve the entire co- es with Hartnell in this story. Deaths nundrum, but he also manages to are handled rather callously, partic- involve the viewer in a very person- ularly by the Doctor. I suspect the al way. That’s the reason why I feel actor can hardly help it in this case, it is a shame the episode no longer as he had to follow the script. Still, exists. Not so much the screaming it’s a rather painful contrast (that actress or Sarah Kingdom trying to word again) between Steven and fix the light on top of the Tardis, as the Doctor in the way they react to William Hartnell wishing me a good the deaths of their comrades. Ste- Christmas and raising a toast. I sus- ven is seriously emotionally in- pect I would watch the episode volved throughout, while the Doctor again and again (it can easily be seems to take the deaths as given. seen as a totally stand-alone story), Regrettable yes, but not something but at least once a year, because it to dwell upon too long, as if he is would be lovely to receive a person- already jaded by all the deaths he al Christmas wish from the first ever has encountered in his life. Doctor. I do happen to listen to the wish quite often (thankfully there In fact, the story plays out in such a does exist a recording on audio), way a viewer even might feel more but it would have been lovely to ac- sympathy for the relatively unknown tually see it within the context of the characters in Mission to the Un- episode. known than the Doctor himself shows for Katarina, Brett Vyon or I also like the relationship the Doc- in the Dalek Master tor (and Steven for that matter does Plan proper. All three have a com- too) builds up with Sara Kingdom panion role, if briefly, and in that during the course of ‘The Feast of sense are worthy to be grieved

80 over. This lack of feeling is a real as the Doctor in this series. He’s at shame as the character develop- the top of the acting bill (forgive me ment of the Doctor had been such the pun) in this one. He’s a true that it would be perfectly fitting if he leading man (even if he’s missing in had been shown to be genuinely action at one point), showing us all touched by these devastating loss- how one should immerse oneself in es. Steven grieved and it was he the role of an alien do-gooder. In who had to remind the Doctor of saying this I mean that it is not so these losses at the very end when easy to play an alien developed nothing was left but an eye stalk from a grumpy, slightly cowardly and some skeletons. It was obvious and not so law-abiding citizen into a that the Doctor had grown and de- genuinely loved and respected per- veloped a lot in the humanistic son who we (the viewers) would sense, and therefore this lack of follow to the end of the galaxy and feeling is particularly jarring. Pre- beyond. Still somewhat flawed, but sumably the development in char- an authentically loveable one all the acter went only so far in the 60s, same. William Hartnell stood up to because I can think of no other rea- the challenge and managed to be- son than ‘zeitgeist’ in making a come the Doctor we all wish to fol- leading character fall short on such low. I like to think his role in the Da- a crucial part of what we wish for in leks Master Plan played an im- a hero. portant part in creating that image. It made the necessity of the Doctor This lack of empathy does not take clearer than ever. away my admiration for Bill Hartnell

81 for subsequently trundling back to- wards familiar territory after doing so. How surprising, then, to experi- ence a serial like 'The Massacre of “I’m afraid you’ve arrived in Paris at St. Bartholomew's Eve'; a follow up a rather unfortunate time.” that further ruminates on these ex- (Nicholas Muss, 'War of God') act concepts and places them in a hauntingly-tangible geography. Moral ambiguity is a discordant con- cept in 'Doctor Who'. In some sto- We cannot see 'The Massacre'. An- ries, threat and resolution are yone with access to a Wikipedia, fuelled within the simple boundaries the Tardis Wiki or a dog-eared copy of good and evil. In others, the lines of Doctor Who Monthly's 1981 Win- are a little more blurred. After the ter Special will know this unfortu- ending of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, nate truth. Few stories have suf- viewers found themselves steered fered so dearly, with it being one of towards grave visions of loss, inimi- three serials ('Marco Polo', 'Mission table sacrifices by our heroes that to the Unknown') to which no foot- were made to ensure a less than age survives. Thankfully, with an harmonious conclusion. Rarely be- insurmountable debt to figures like fore had the show provoked tanta- the late Graham Strong, who mount feelings of mortality in such a braved the frivolity of electrocution vivid, lateral universe, and the pro- to record audio from his television gramme could have been forgiven set, the audio for this serial, and

82 every other lost story, remains safe- does it mean for him to have his ly stored and distributed for genera- hands tied as others suffer? tions to come. We may never fully experience what viewers like Strong Our cypher into this concept is our were offered in February 1966, but I companion, Steven Taylor. Though think that our fragmented consump- the journey for Peter Purves' char- tion has formed part of a new, retro- acter can be considered a little tur- spective narrative. More than any bulent (seriously, try comparing this other lost story, there is something to 'The Chase'!), 'The Massacre’ mystical about 'The Massacre’ - an provides a wonderful framework for alluring line of ambiguity that is only the companion to finally come into accentuated by its missing status. It his own. It's a Doctor-lite story runs through the veins of the serial; (years before we'd really consider our companion, Steven, spends the concept) that manages to be all most of the story lost in the heart of about what it means to travel with Paris, and he is frequently de- the titular character, and the discus- ceived, as we are, in his search for sion has rarely been as cutting. To- the Doctor. It is from this perspec- nally, it's an apt follow-up to 'The tive that my reading of the story has Daleks' Master Plan', an audacious bloomed, and is why it attracts me serial that ended with Steven la- more than almost any other piece in menting the wide-scale loss of life the programme's 55-year canon. around him. When we pick up in Paris, 1572, our memories are fresh I strongly believe that John Lucarot- with a companion traumatised and ti's serial (authorship could be ac- set in his own perspective. It's a re- credited to equally on action that clashes with the Doctor's the basis of his extensive rewrites, own standpoint and, by accident or though he only receives an on- design, reflects the fever-pitch ten- screen credit for 'Bell of Doom') sion between the two religious marks a turning point as significant groups in the city. Steven has an as any other when addressing Doc- unprejudiced drive to help those in tor Who's history. Whilst 'The Az- need; not least in his paternal tecs' emphasised the Doctor's strin- search for the Doctor, but in his gent relationship to the past, and care for the young Huguenot, Anne 'The Romans' dared induce some Chaplet. The Doctor is removed playful comedy to the 'pure- from the story; until the beautiful historicals', it is 'The Massacre' that speech at the end of the last epi- really dares to push the show's pa- sode, we are generally denied his rameters. We are aware of the phi- perspective. Our gaze is in line with losophy that our main character Steven, in the streets filled with de- shoulders - history cannot, and ception and fear, underscored by should not, be altered. But the Doc- the character's shock and his fury at tor is also a mystical man with a what is about the transpire. It's a magic box, a figure gifted with a glo- painfully human standpoint that rious otherworldly knowledge - what brings us in opposition to the view held by our titular character. The

83 Doctor has a cyclical cosmos swirl- tioned mysticism comes into play; ing around him; he is detached from an ethereal weirdness sprinkled the events, in resolve and in the into the script that only grows from story itself, that Steven’s perspec- the mystery that the incomplete sto- tive offers us with clarity. 'The Mas- ry holds. It all sets up Lucarotti's sacre' tackles the plight of time trav- story as a gateway into a larger, el head-on with a very thoughtful fascinating and seldom-considered dichotomy. Steven is filled with a discussion - is there magic in the drive to help but lacks the agency to Doctor Who universe? do so, whilst the Doctor holds knowledge and power to make a In all of the darkness that the story difference that gets barred by his presents, it is easy to forget that code of interference. When we con- Doctor Who is, always has been sider this against the narrative that and always will be, a family pro- Lucarotti's story provides, is it really gram. 'The Massacre' does have a a coincidence that the Doctor is happy ending, and there's some- barely around? thing at work in the journey towards it that feels totally unique and uplift- It is from this grim contrast that 'The ing. It became apparent to me, Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve' when first watching this story, that draws its power. The ideas that the the Hartnell era is defined by its story plays with, amidst an event so ambitious scope, fervently bouncing tragic and hopeless, are loaded and between the fantastical and the cynical - until they aren't. As I said, (pseudo) historical with each new there's something else buried deep serial. It's the beauty of a program within the story that makes it rather that can one week take us to the special. It's where that aforemen- psychedelic planet Vortis, and the

84 next to 12th-century Palestine dur- is that Doctor Who's depiction of ing the Third Crusade. As viewers, time and space are virtually omnip- we have never really had to wonder otent in nature. At the core of this where these styles, in the space of sombre story lies a mystical ele- a single story, might cross over. ment that calls out to viewers, per- Initially, it's clear that 'The Massa- haps more so today when con- cre' falls into the latter category, sumed in its partial form. The Doc- suitably grim in conveying the event tor is right; history cannot be al- as harsh, inescapable reality in an tered. But, in a narrative like 'The honest (and, allegedly, very con- Massacre, we learn that it can vincing) way. The Doctor and com- reach its hand out to you, and find panion, though philosophically op- the light in the dark even when our posed, both fall short of changing main character won’t. He’s a figure history. We've seen this before mul- still deciding on his identity and he tiple times, but Lucarotti (and/or needs people like Steven to show Tosh) laces the narrative with ele- him other ways of thinking. At the ments of the fantastical, and I think end of the story, we realise that the that this hints at something rather universe is doing this too, influenc- unprecedented in motion. Consider ing the journey to show the good in the Abbot of Amboise (also played the connections, sacrifices and by William Hartnell) who appears to compromises that permeate life. If be the spitting image of the Doctor, that isn’t a charming symbol for or the connection that Dodo has to Doctor Who, then I’m not sure Anne - a person who meant so what is. much to Steven. These supreme coincidences are married into what is, otherwise, the unalterable grim- ness of history. Furthermore, they come into play at the serial's most optimistic moments; the Abbot's appearance resolves the cliff- hanger that the Doctor may have died in the riots, and Dodo's intro- duction leads to a surprisingly cheerful ending in an otherwise downbeat tale. It makes for a play- ful presentation that's as ambitious as any previous serial – and one that is explicitly aware of the war between the light and dark in the wide, endless ether of Doctor Who. Our conclusion, should you choose to consider this reading (and feel free not to, because I'm likely being foolish, pretentious and, worst of all, nowhere near as funny I should be),

85 fined, uncouth and uneducated. In reality, discrimination based on ac- cent is still a thing, and in the un- Imagine the furore if the thirteenth written league table of dialects Doctor spoke in Received Pronunci- some are more open to being ation and was constantly berating mocked than others. Even on a mi- her Sheffield based companions for cro-level, prejudices arise over the their ‘poor’ English? It was never go- slightest shift in pronunciation – a ing to happen of course, and the fact I noticed when moving from Doctor doesn’t bat an eyelid when, Wigan to neighbouring Leigh. It can for instance, Ryan says ‘defo’. Not all become so very tribal. But the only would it be rightly considered unique problem with Received Pro- offensive, it also goes against the nunciation is its built-in insistence show’s inclusive premise and the that it should be the norm for public current producer’s efforts to bring discourse, even though it has more that ethos back to the fore. than one version, is spoken by less than 2% of the population, and like The implication that one dialect is any dialect, changes over time. better than another is more than a question of taste and comprehen- Consider the mixed reactions to- sion, it demeans the vast majority of wards the thirteenth Doctor pro- Brits by judging them to be unre- nouncing ‘would’ve’ as ‘would of’.

86 When the grammar police start to a veiled criticism of the powers that censor regional patterns of speech, be and the decision to change they are effectively questioning the Lane’s accent. In the exchange worth of an entire culture. There’s over Dodo’s attire the Doctor asks if far more at stake here than there is she has been raiding his wardrobe in proof-reading a document. which not only conjures up some amusing images, but makes a Doctor Who in the 21st century is at mockery of the Doctor’s argument. least on this front, a world apart from The Ark. Not only does poor The Doctor’s relationship with Dodo Dodo have to suffer the Doctor’s also needs to be set in the wider Mr Higgins act, with ‘OK’ and ‘fab’ context of him still missing Susan. particularly getting on his goat, but As with Vicki, though arguably even behind the scenes a late decision more so, he sees Dodo as a substi- was taken to ditch the character’s tute Granddaughter, even noting regional accent in favour of Re- the fact that their appearances are ceived Pronunciation. As a result, similar. As a parental figure, he re- in this story ’s accent is lates to her as if she was still a all over the place. For the most young child. part it’s the Julie Andrews English that wins out, making the Doctor The Ark is very much a product of sound incredibly pernickety. It’s its age, a window into both the con- not just Dodo’s speech that the flicting attitudes of the 1960s and Doctor dismisses, her dress sense the changing approaches towards also provokes a disapproving reac- televisual drama at the time. It’s still tion, with his observation that she essentially , albeit is wearing inappropriate fancy interspersed with some filmic cam- dress. era angles, such as viewpoint from the top of the Monoid statue. And It is details such as these that led yet The Ark is also thoroughly mod- to the deconstructed version of the ern in its sensibilities. The story, first Doctor we see in Twice Upon structured in effect as two two- a Time. David Bradley’s first Doctor parters joined together by a surpris- is of course a caricature of the ing twist in the tale, would have Hartnell original, but even so it is been quite at home in Steven as much a critique of 1960s BBC Moffat’s experimental series 9, sensibilities than it is the Doctor which showcased a number of dif- himself. There is no reason to sug- ferent ways of using the two-part gest that in The Ark the Doctor is format. Steven’s impassioned always being presented as the en- speech about the human race still lightened one, and many younger being driven by a fear of the un- viewers in 1966 would have known is a great example of the laughed at his old fashioned at- character’s uncompromising stance tempts to educate Dodo. Indeed, it and derring-do, and is a reminder might even be an example of the that the early companions were far series offering a counter message, from the shrinking violets that popu-

87 lar lore has it. But it also demon- of nuance in their characterisation, strates that he is so much more with just enough clues dropped in than the Doctor’s younger, fitter the first half of the story as to the henchman. Neither Dodo (had the dramatic change to come. Giving character’s accent not been cen- them the ability to understand and sored), nor Steven would have felt use sign language is a particular out of place as 21st century com- masterstroke, which if more fully de- panions. veloped could have added a far greater depth to this alien culture. There are plenty of themes in The Ark that have been revisited since The human Guardians, whilst using the series returned in 2005. The the Monoids for menial tasks, are End of the World similarly takes us deluded into thinking they are treat- to the moments before the Earth is ing their servants with kindness and destroyed. Whilst we do witness the decency. The Commander calls planet’s destruction through a moni- them ‘our friends’ early in the first tor screen in The Ark, it is surpris- episode, and the humans show re- ingly passed over without gravitas spect to the species. They are al- or even a pause for a moment of lowed to grieve and are even given reflection, a rare misstep in the sto- the right to punish the assumed per- ry. ’ 2005 episode, petuators of the ‘crime’. Slavery is by contrast, makes the significance thus legitimised and sanitised (the and spectacle of that event the fo- latter as part of a general sensibility cus. The other key difference is that that even extends to tiny details whereas Russell T Davies imagines such as the replacement of needles a scenario in which the human race with discs for administering inocula- is already all but extinct, in The Ark tions), and the humans can imagine humanity has evacuated Earth in themselves as anything other than search of a new promised land. savage. Indeed, the script seems to be leading the audience into seeing The Monoids, as an enslaved race the Monoids as savages and a po- who turn the tables on their mas- tential threat. When the Doctor and ters, find their contemporary equiv- Dodo hear the Monoid funeral pro- alent in the . In both The Ark cession, Dodo says “it sounds like and Planet of the Ood the revolu- savages.” tion takes place without the Doc- tor’s active intervention. Whilst very We later find out that the humans different in appearance, the two allowed the Monoids to develop the species share that disturbing mix of technology that would enable them the monstrous and the uncanny. to talk. Having given their slaves The bizarre and not entirely suc- permission to work on the voice box- cessful design of the Monoids es, we can surmise that the humans should not fool us into thinking they thought they could be more useful to are a bog standard bug-eyed mon- them with the gift of speech. No ster. Whilst the shift from slaves to doubt some on board would have masters is meant to hit the viewer seen the endeavour as of benefit to like a tonne of bricks, there is plenty the Monoids too. Nonetheless, trust 88 is by no means absolute. The com- having the Doctor and his compan- mander’s immediate thoughts when ions executed. seeing the Tardis is that it might have something to do with the Mo- The Tardis returns to the ship 700 noids. It suggests a fear that these years later, leading to the incredible creatures might have more intelli- reveal that the human statue has gence and agency than is as- been remodelled as a Monoid. Ste- sumed. ven puts it down to the agency of the Tardis, but there are some love- The Doctor clearly sees that there ly hints that despite not admitting to is far more to the Monoids than it, the Doctor is responsible. Watch meets the eyes, and so when he closely Hartnell’s reactions to the gets to use one as his ‘slave’ he suggestion that he cannot control treats him as a colleague and cred- his ship, there’s a knowing look if its him with independent thought. ever there was one. Was he return- An unfortunate implication of the ing to double check that the cold first half of the story is that simply epidemic had been successfully because the humans come across stopped, or was he curious to see if for the most part as kindly slave the Monoids would eventually re- owners, the practice is tacitly sup- bel? The Doctor has already cured ported by the Doctor. The humans the cold virus, but he has taken no are worryingly absolved of all guilt. action or even a stance against the They are even forgiven for nearly inequality at the heart of this transi-

89 ent society. In the final episode, he in advance. They end up fighting claims that the Monoid rebellion amongst themselves, violently disa- should have been of no surprise, greeing about whether Refusis II acknowledging for the first time that should be their new home. In all the humans were treating them as these ways they are being charac- slaves. It is as if the Doctor has pre- terised as a more extreme version dicted in advance how the story of the Guardians. The only real indi- would play out and programmed the cation that they will be able to find Tardis to see for himself. redemption and end this madness comes in one particularly poignant In all the debate over the cold epi- scene. After killing one of his own demic, the Doctor and his compan- kind, a Monoid appears to be ions never identify the Monoids as stunned by the full horror of his ac- slaves. The onus is entirely on the tions. viewer to make that connection, and regardless of whether or not The invisible Refusians offer the they do, they become an essential words of wisdom that will hopefully part of this morality tale. When the lead to the humans and the Mo- tables have been turned and Dodo noids sharing their newfound world sees the humans working for the as equals. They function as a ci- Monoids in the kitchens, her imme- pher for the invisible narrator with diate conclusion is “they are sort of their godlike pronouncements about slaves, aren’t they?” The point of the moral heart of the story. the episode is that we learn to see slavery for what it is, even if the en- Drawing from a range of sources, slaved are not our own. It would be from biblical myths such as Noah’s a push to interpret this as a state- ark, the journey to the promised ment about racism, but it is certainly land, and the Tower of Babel, to HG one appropriate application of the Wells’ The Time Machine and Jo- message. seph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, for all its quirks and faults The Ark The Monoid overlords show no is an effective retelling of a mes- compassion with the humans, use sage that the human race will al- weapons to command obedience, ways need to hear. It might be a and openly mock their slaves as ‘dead weird’ example of a Hartnell ‘simple’. Their scheme is not to rule story, but it is also an ‘excellent over the humans, but to commit one’. It’s fab, defo! genocide, showing that the abused have turned into even more violent offenders. Furthermore, they have numbers instead of names, high- lighting the hierarchical and imper- sonal nature of their new rule. Some of the Monoids are terrified of the unknown, sending the Doctor and Dodo to investigate Refusis II

90 There can’t be very many things as disquieting as the concept of a liv- ing, breathing creature being re- duced to an artefact, particularly an artefact intended solely for enter- tainment. This is the discomforting notion at the core of one of the se- ries’ more unusual outings, the here is key, too. It shows the series 1966 four-parter The Celestial shifting gears after nearly three Toymaker. years of historical dramas, inter- spaced with science-fiction outings Before gazing too keenly on this and the occasional time-travel co- dark notion, let’s get our context in nundrum. The value of this gear order. As a story, The Celestial change shouldn’t be overlooked. Toymaker has some nice touches. Despite the original series tending The first out-and-out fantasy ad- to stay clear of the fantasy genre, venture for Doctor Who, Brian barring the odd exception (e.g. The Hayles’ script drums out some de- Mind Robber, 1968) and occasional cently paced story beats as the interlude via the ’s mind- Doctor and his two companions scape (, 1976; become ensured by a near omnipo- The Trial of a Part Thir- tent immortal, the enigmatic Celes- teen and Part Fourteen, 1986), it’s tial Toymaker. To survive, the trio a vehicle for storytelling which has must battle a sequence of fiendish- since been emphasised to great ly deceptive games. Should they effect in the works of Steven lose they face a fate worse than Moffat. The fairy-tale quality of Amy death: imprisonment as Pond’s first encounter with the Doc- playthings in the eponymous vil- tor (The Eleventh Hour, 2010), for lain’s dolls house. instance, and her childhood con- ceptualising of that event as the The struggle to overcome the “Raggedy Doctor” and his magic Toymaker, however, channels the box gives us the backdrop for trial-by-ordeal concept in a way that Moffat’s interpretation of the series avoids being simply derivative. for the best part of eight years. There is a genuinely sinister feel to Blurring the line between science the whole setup, hinting at the pos- fiction and science fantasy is his sibility that, for the first time, the modus operandi; a child’s eye view Doctor is genuinely out of his depth of the Doctor and his travels be- in matching up to this particular an- comes the default narrative setting. tagonist. The fantasy backdrop The Doctor’s exchanges with the

91 young Reinette Poisson in Moffat’s a small town, transforms a man The Girl in the Fireplace (2006) of- who tries to resist him into a jack-in fer us a prelude to this approach, -the-box. This murderous toy- whilst the happy-ever-after line making may be extended to include “everybody lives” (The Doctor the cadavres-turned-waxwork dum- Dances, 2005) in Moffat’s opening mies in the Vincent Price horror film contribution is perhaps the true be- House of Wax (1953), and the em- ginning of his fantasy factory. It is a balmed victims of Roald Dahl’s titu- factory whose genesis is found in lar murderer in the Tales of the Un- The Celestial Toymaker. expected episode, The Landlady (1979). A not dissimilar spate of It’s also a story under Moffat’s murders is depicted in the 2011 watch as showrunner which most Italian horror comic Dylan Dog sto- reminds me of the disturbing toy- ry L’Imbalsamatore (‘The Embalm- making premise at the heart of er’). From adult horror to child fan- Hayles’ adventure. Mark Gatiss’ tasy, the Rupert Bear adventure 2011 script Night Terrors tells of an Rupert and the Magic Toy Man, alien child, raised by human par- which appears as the first book in ents, who inadvertently traps his the Rupert Little Bear Library, tells human neighbours – and later even of a villainous toy-making wizard, his adopted father and the Doctor – who has rendered a king, queen, in a bleak, shadowy dolls house in and their subjects, into wooden cut- his bedroom wardrobe. Worse still, out figures. This vile comes in this dreadful place lurk the night- to an appropriate end, however, marish peg dolls, wooden automata and his victims restored to normal, who hunt down those poor souls when he himself is reduced to a who have become trapped, trans- simple jack-in-the-box toy, the box forming them into yet more wooden becoming his prison. toys – peg dolls, no less. It is this type of horror which brings us full When Hayles drew upon this con- circle with Hayles’ mysterious an- cept as the defining power of his tagonist. The Toymaker builds fan- immortal Toymaker, he was invert- tasy worlds and populates them ing the legends and stories of toys with toys, some – if not all – of – or statues, automata, etc. – be- which derive from those living be- coming living beings. Ovid’s tale of ings who have become ensnared in Pygmalion, a sculptor who is hope- this immortal’s surreal reality. lessly enamoured of the statue he has created, is one of the oldest Refashioning the living as play- recorded examples. Carlo Collodi’s things is perhaps nearly as well- 1883 classic Pinocchio is perhaps used a plot device as the trial-by- the best known. Towards the end ordeal concept which structures the of the last century, the very same narrative. In the 1961 The Twilight fired the hit comedy film Zone episode It’s a Good Life An- Mannequin (1987). Indeed, it’s a thony Fremont, a child with god-like well used and popular idea: clay powers who terrorises the people of becoming flesh and blood, as in the

92 Jewish story of the golem. In some estimates his opponents and allows respects, it echoes the alchemist’s the Doctor to find a crucial fault in dream of transforming base metal his otherwise immaculate game- into gold, and is just as fanciful. Its playing logic. It’s the trial-by-ordeal opposite, on the other hand, points narrative, too, which helps to keep to an all too possible and terrifying this deeply sinister toy-making de- trajectory: flesh and blood becom- ceit in check. Somehow, even the ing dead matter. The twist here lies bizarre sight of Cyril the schoolboy in the idea of the living and the reduced to a scorched doll does dead coinciding as dual aspects of not weigh too heavily on the tale. the same physical frame. That is, a But gazing too keenly on this bleak living being becoming an animated feature, however central to the object – a living death, as it were. storyline, would have given us a very different sort of adventure, The Celestial Toymaker succeeds closer to the style of Gatiss’ 2011 because it keeps this truly awful script and presaging a more adult idea as just that, an idea. There is style of fiction – which is exactly no sense of dwelling on the horror where Moffat’s fairytale showrun- of it, however much it’s at the heart ning takes us. Instead, Hayles’ ap- of the Toymaker’s purpose. Rather, proach ploughs a well-worn fictive the Doctor, Steven and Dodo furrow, which keeps to the child struggle through a series of chal- fantasy side of things, and leaves lenges and finally outsmart the the night terrors for another time. mysterious conjuror, as he under-

93 Received opinion about the quality of Doctor Who dates back at least as far as December 2nd 1963. On that day, the Guardian published reviewer Mary Crozier's judgment that ‘the space and time serial has fallen off badly soon after getting under way’. Though the phenome- non continues to the present day, it reached its peak - or nadir, depend- ing on your perspective - in the ear- ly 1980s. As the growing number of printed resources about the pro- consolation prize amid the uncer- gramme’s history far outstripped tainty of the program’s lengthy hia- access to the serials which consti- tus in the early-1990s. However, tuted this history, the ability of most even as availability revealed The fans to test the writers’ assumptions Tomb of the Cybermen's reality to for themselves were highly limited. be less magnificent than its legend, the legend nevertheless persisted. These conditions coalesced into a perfect storm of attitude substituting Based on the consistently low rank- for information, especially where ings it receives in Doctor Who Mag- episodes from the program’s earli- azine’s periodic polls, The Gun- est years were concerned. In many fighters seems similarly resistant to cases, the assessments in those widespread reappraisal. What re- initial episode guides took hold as mains ambiguous, though, is to the consensus opinion. These in what extent this reflects the story’s turn ossified to the point that the actual merits as opposed to the episodes themselves were often poor reputation bestowed upon it - insufficient evidence to challenge particularly by former Doctor Who the validity of the assessments one Monthly editor Jeremy Bentham. way or the other. Dismissing the acting as “not even bad vaudeville” and the direction as The stories that best embody the “more West Ham than West two sides of this coin are The Tomb Coast”, Bentham’s assessment in of the Cybermen and The Gunfight- the story guide he wrote for the ers. Of the many Doctor Who ad- 1983 book Doctor Who: A Celebra- ventures missing from the BBC’s tion comes across more like a ven- archives in the 1980s, very few in- detta than a review. spired the level of mystique which surrounded the former story. Its re- From An Unearthly Child to The covery and release on home-video King’s Demons, nothing else dis- proved to be an eagerly embraced cussed in this guide gets such a

94 scathing review from Bentham. humor is an inherently inappropri- Even if one agrees with his overall ate approach for serious subjects. opinion, the idea that inconsistent As anyone who’s watched Dr. acting and direction is unique to - or Strangelove or How I Learned to uniquely poor in - Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is debatable at best. It also ignores can attest, that’s simply not the both the quality performances of case. Such a view is even more William Hartnell and the other questionable when looking at the leads, and director Rex Tucker's bigger picture of Doctor Who. Some sharp visual touches throughout the of the more humorous stories are serial. Likewise any notion that a among those where the danger to western was somehow ill-suited to the Doctor and his friends is most a program that revels in warping direct. This includes their 1881 visit traditional genres into its own im- to Tombstone, Arizona. age seems equally dubious. A more plausible (if not necessarily Very few aspects of a western con- more sensible) rationale for Ben- vey a greater threat than a gunfight. tham’s animus is suggested by his At the same time, the string of cir- comparison of The Gunfighters’ cumstances that leads to the Doc- script to the work of Carry On writer tor, Steven and Dodo getting Talbot Rothwell as well as his com- caught up in the Gunfight at the OK ments about other light-hearted sto- Corral is quite comical. From the ries. Regardless of era, whenever Doctor’s single-minded search for a confronted by a story with humor- dentist to Steven and Dodo’s wide- ous elements, he comes across as eyed enthusiasm for the old West, hard-pressed to say something nice none of the travelers seem quite about it. His issue seems to be less prepared for the reality of their sur- about the quality of Doctor Who as roundings. That tension between a television production than a view expectations and an actual environ- of what the program should or ment that feels as strange as any shouldn’t be. alien planet they’ve encountered gives the serial much of its verve. To be fair, Bentham was far from alone in his view of comedy in Doc- Tensions behind the scenes played tor Who. Nor is it hard to see why their part as well. New producer so many fans shared it. The early- and script editor Gerry 80s was the point where Doctor Davis felt Donald Cotton’s storyline, Who definitively transitioned from a which had been commissioned by popular long-running program to the previous production team, didn’t one with a history. It’s not surprising fit their take on Doctor Who. Ironi- that long-term fans who were aware cally, though Lloyd and Davis want- of Its roots as a show aimed at ed a more serious approach to the younger audiences would want that program in general, they ultimately history to be taken seriously. decided - in concert with director Rex Tucker - that The Gunfighters The flaw here is a presumption that would work better if it emphasized

95 the tongue-in-cheek aspects of their respective allies). For all the Cotton’s scripts. Whatever the rea- humorous scenes Anthony Jacobs soning, the spark it gave Hartnell gets as , there’s no was more than enough to make the way around him finishing the story move worthwhile. The combination as a killer. Anything else would of the star's health issues and his have felt like a cheat. frustration with the program’s de- velopment had contributed to some To its credit the actual gunfight is inconsistent performances, but he quite well directed, but its inevitabil- seems to relish the old West set- ity doesn’t change how incongruous ting (perhaps explaining why he the sequence feels in relation to the later claimed to have suggested it) often playful romp that came be- even if he didn’t particularly get fore. In short, like many stories from along with the director. Doctor Who’s 55 years, it’s some- what undercut by the ending. For The only true flaw of The Gunfight- decades, the legend of The Gun- ers was an unavoidable one. By fighters has rested on the belief that setting the story where and when it was somehow an aberration with- he did, Cotton had to follow in Doctor Who’s history. The truth is through with the shootout between that even its weaknesses are very the Clantons and the Earps (and much in keeping with tradition.

96 life to enhance their own talents, abilities and knowledge. This seems quite fine and dandy until a curious and noisy Dodo stumbles In and around the 1970s, the BBC across how exactly they make that made the decision to destroy much possible. The Doctor’s suspicions of its archive of television pro- about the Elders are confirmed grammes. The age of proper film when he confronts the leader Jano and storing everything in canisters about what they’re truly doing: us- within temperature regulated spac- ing the Savage’s life forces as es- es, it made fiscal sense to them. sentially batteries to recharge them- Any Classic enthusiast will mourn selves. The team then undergoes a this decision; many a person’s pro- series of harrowing events, of es- duction work went up in smoke, re- caping, transference, simple acts of membered only by the fading mem- kindness, and narrowly escaping a ories of those who were fortunate fate worse than death. All is well at enough to watch first hand decades the end, of course, as the Doctor ago and those involved. Doctor leaves with the once hunted and Who suffered what is today a ninety hunting people coming together as -seven episode loss, and while epi- one. Fear and hatred of the past sodes are occasionally found all only dies slowly. over the globe, these discoveries are few and very far between. This story also marks a companion farewell, namely the last appear- Luckily, Loose-Cannon Productions ance of long standing companion managed to stitch together stills/ Steven Taylor played by future Blue photographs and the intact audio Peter presenter Peter Purves. The tracks of missing episodes to try actual goodbye scene, no more and give back what was lost to us. than forty seconds, still exists on This work included . very grainy low quality home cine footage. But there is so much more Written by , the here than just the parting between Savages follows on the heels of The companion and Doctor. Gunfighters. In fact it reads as a very familiar tale: the Doctor wan- The Savages is an ode to Ian Stuart ders off to prove he was right with Black’s scientific creativity. He also his instruments, only for he and his wrote The Macra Terror and The companions, Dodo and Steven, to War Machines, so sci-fi contrap- be accosted by the planets resi- tions do seem to be his wheel dents—the advanced ‘rulers’ known house, specifically on this occasion, only to us as the Elders, and the the transference machine—a way Savages. The Elders show off their to suck the life and vitality from one civilization to the ‘Travellers from person and put it into another. Beyond Time,’ giving them gifts and These fascinating technological ide- imparting their knowledge on how as, while important to the plot, are all they had accomplished was pos- merely tools of the story. The true sible—by using the very essence of core of the plot lies with the under- 97 tones and commentary woven Wylda, whom the Doctor is trying throughout the piece about not only to help, a lazy animal. Remarking racism, but also the idea of racial that they’re “only Savages” and purity. Yes, an episode of Doctor that they “haven’t developed like Who that aired in 1966 tackled the we have”, he wonders why should ideas of racism, racial purity and the the Doctor care about them? It idea that “others” are not like “us,” gets even more explicit in the la- are less than “us” and we should boratory that contains the transfer- treat “them” as less because they’re ence machines that are called the different from “us”. source of the Elder’s supremacy. “They are not our fellows,” the This is still a story being told by guard and antagonist Edal ex- white actors and characters though. claims, “They’re not! All history It was 1966 and the number of peo- proves that they aren’t like us!” ple of colour on British television These statements are eerily similar screens was minimal at best. Even if if not identical to things that white characters of difference races were supremacists spew constantly as if shown they were often white actors it justifies their hateful rhetoric. in make-up. In fact, the characters in The Savages were almost put Even the idea of transference and into black face at one point. Doctor its affects can be connected to Who itself had episodes to go be- these themes. The idea of suffering fore any black actors were given through a forceful oppression and speaking parts ( and being taken away to have your specifically). So strength and talents sucked away while perhaps the episode is hin- to be given to another sounds an dered by the lack of diversity, to awfully like what many people had even have a story like this is an to endure during times of coloniza- achievement often overlooked. tion, slavery and segregation. It’s an astoundingly clear parallel. The The reflections of racial suprema- Savages have their lives and cul- cist’s mindsets, excuses, and ideals ture taken from them. The dark in the Elder’s arguments are blatant. caves hide beautiful paintings and It gets even hard to dismiss these architecture that they no longer re- blatant similarities when the man member how to create. The Savag- who commissioned the stories, for- es warn that when Dodo and Ste- mer Producer , lived in ven see the Doctor again, he won’t apartheid South Africa for its first be as they remember. He will be a horrible year before moving to the shell, like the rest of them. No one UK. This may well have played a is ever the same after something part in the story’s creation, especial- like that. ly in the way the characters talk. Jano happily talks about their meth- There are a lot of beautiful mo- ods of advancement as bringing ments to highlight in this serial. about “the perfections of our race.” There is a scene where as the A guard calls the injured savage Doctor yells at Jano, he counters

98 that it’s most unscientific of the ning, perhaps he simply stumbled Doctor to find what they’re doing to into things that he went on to cor- the Savages as wrong. rect because they affected him. But “They are hardly people,” Jano over time, he became more than says. “They are not like us.” just a grumpy old selfish man. The The Doctor scoffs at that. “I fail to things he faced, the people he met, see the difference!” the companions he loved shaped When Jano tries to make the Doctor and molded him into our beloved see his reason; that all progress is Doctor. based in exploitation, and the sacri- fice of a few Savages is valid for the The Savages brings the Doctor full for the pursuit of achievement. The circle from An Unearthly Child. He Doctor of course disagrees. “The is a changed man, so changed that Sacrifice of one soul is far too his very vitality affects another. He great!” is no longer a man fighting for con- venience sake, but one fighting, as In fact, it is these sentiments and he says, against all menaces to beliefs woven into the Doctor that common humanity. The man who actually cause the Elder’s leader, in the beginning was willing to let an Jano, to finally change his mind. injured caveman die is standing up Not through persuasion, but to a guard for kicking the injured through the transference of the Wylda. He is standing up to the Doctor’s vitality into him. Some- whole ‘great’ civilization of elders times you can’t get people to see for exploiting and hurting another. reason through words, but rather through sharing one’s emotions and The Savages, perhaps, will not be kindness. The transference ma- the most popular episode. It won’t chine brings this out of the meta- be as sought after by Who fans as phorical level and into the reality of the beautiful Marco Polo or the the show. Only when the Doctor’s monumental third episode of The mind and heart is given to Jano, in Web of Fear. Yet there is so much the most literal sense, does he un- within this episode that is not only a derstand. That’s what is so lovely testament to the core of what made about the original Doctor. The fact Doctor Who great, but to how the that he knew that his blustering show itself was radical for 1960s words weren’t going to do any good television (and even for today). so he let his heart, his essence, do the persuading for him.

The First Doctor, unlike his new counterparts, didn’t set the mantel of hero upon his shoulders. He did not strive to right wrongs with a little help from his friends. He was a man running from something on a barely functional time machine that took him into the unknown. In the begin- 99 (The article alluding to the First Doctor as “Jekyll and Hyde” was on the BBC News website, published in 2017 after You are being lied to. I'm sorry to be the announcement of . the one who has to tell you this but it's Even Aunty Beeb transgresses her true. What if the online algorithms are Time Lord from time to time). projecting disinformation across social media platforms? Could the latest iPh- According to Doctor Who: The Sixties one be wielding a mild form of hypno- (published in 1992), William Hartnell sis to manipulate your thoughts? Or once described the Doctor as “a cross perhaps a flurry of fake news is re- between the Wizard of Oz and Father sponsible for distorting facts through- Christmas.” A far cry from Jekyll and out the very foundation of the world- Hyde, don't you think? And unlike wide computer network itself? Whatev- Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, there er the reason, the truth is out there. is no secret potion of good and evil The truth is this: the First Doctor is a with Doctor Number One. Just a curi- hero. But WOTAN doesn't want you to ous case of character development. know that. Apart from a justified stormy attitude towards two human stowaways Since you've been reading through this aboard his ship, and the apparent First Doctor Celestial Toyroom Annual, streak of ruthlessness towards an in- you'll most probably agree with me. jured caveman, William Hartnell fos- William Hartnell's portrayal of the first tered the Doctor to be a gambolling incarnation of the Time Lord we've wanderer of time and space. An old come to know as the Doctor is terribly soul with a twinkle in his eye. A child- misrepresented. How many times have like naivety. A thirst for adventure ac- you noticed it? During a behind-the- companied by companions, assis- scenes documentary, in articles and tants, and friends. Sound familiar? character biographies, in books and That's because it was William Hartnell magazines? Depicted as frail, forgetful who planted the foundations of the and fractious, the First Doctor is often Doctor's character which in turn al- regarded as the antithesis of the same lowed proceeding actors to pick up character we've all come to love and where he left off. And don't even get cherish today. But does this distinctive me started on the unsavoury – and form of the crotchety old Time Lord clearly unfunny - sexist attitudes of really exist? the First Doctor in Twice Upon A Time. They came in 2017. It was a I once read an online article in which different time back then. the author referred to the First Doctor as a “Jekyll and Hyde character”. In recent incarnations, the Doctor has Granted, the Doctor has a dark side, been interpreted as a lonely god-like we all know that. However, it must be figure. Abandoned and isolated from stressed that every incarnation of the the warmth of humanity, his alien in- Doctor has displayed an unpredictable stincts kick in and he reverts into the level of dual nature during moments in Doctor of War deity, destroying a race his or her lives (onscreen, audio, nov- of murderous pepperpots and his own els, comics – canon is relative). But to people simultaneously, or simply try- harken William Hartnell's original as ing to club one of our ancestors over Marmite material? Not on my watch. the head with a pebble. The modern

100 iteration of the show has played the through three seasons of character “This is why you should never travel development - from the unrelenting, alone” card, and you can see why grumpy grandfather we see in the first right from the very beginning in 1963. part of An Unearthly Child and into the The Doctor needs people – kind, for- righter-of-wrongs from - Wil- giving, brave, upstanding people – to liam Hartnell's Doctor exploded into act as his moral compass. That's why the Time Lord we all recognise and I'm pointing out that William Hartnell's trust with our single mortal hearts. It's portrayal of the Doctor as a tiring and this development of the Doctor – our disassociated grandfather figure is Doctor – that is abundantly visible in unfairly received. Even by some of the . Forget the cosmic actors that have embraced the role of hobo, William Hartnell did it first. He the Doctor themselves. was the original, you might say. We begin with a wide establishing Does the notion of shot of contemporary London's being “the Doctor's Doctor” sound fa- emerging skyline. Then, we zoom in miliar? His gleefully impish incarnation on a quiet street below where a rick- is the go-to Doctor for future actors ety old police box groans and wheez- about to take on the role of the fa- es into existence. Out steps the Doc- mous Time Lord. and Pe- tor and Dodo, fresh from their run in ter Davison have both credited with the Elders and the Savages. The Troughton for being the one to make show is back on earth with a bold new the part his own – far removed from direction - the producers reimagining the stern Chesterfields, Chattertons this iteration to be relatable, fashiona- and the jolly-good-smacked-bottoms - ble, and modern. This is Doctor Who and thus ensuring the survival of the in 1966. But the Doctor is far from show for generations to come. But did content. His Time Lord senses are he really, hmm? Maturing his Doctor tingling. He's visited futuristic city-

101 scapes and extra-terrestrial museums From the computer labs of the Post on far-off worlds, yet there is some- Office Tower to the Inferno, has Doc- thing irksome about the recently com- tor Who fallen into a dangerous paral- pleted Post Office Tower. “It's interest- lel world? There are people here that ing,” he says. We take his word for it. are... dancing... to music? Polly as- “There's something alien about that sures Dodo (and us) they are in the tower.” Already his investigative prow- hottest nightclub in town. Whilst the ess and drive for early intervention are Doctor is left to save the world from a burning behind the apathic veil and machine invasion, the ladies are on a William Hartnell depicts his Doctor's mission themselves: to rescue a sailor curiousness to great aplomb. There is from doom and gloom. Cue Ben Jack- also something rather ethereal and son, who doesn't quite fall for Polly's satisfying about the way the Doctor fluttering of the eye lashes. However, meanders through the modern streets somebody else in the club does and of London in his Edwardian garb. His this chump doesn't take no for an an- man-out-of-his-time aesthetic genu- swer. Foretelling the #MeToo move- inely comes across as other-worldly ment fifty years before it became a and enthralling, without ever having to mainstream movement, Polly is in a utter a single line. spot of trouble until Ben plants the sex pest on his backside. Evil doesn't al- “I dabble,” the Doctor chuckles. “Yes, I ways have to be on a global scale, it dabble.” If you read the script prior to can manifest in the most common sit- viewing the story, you could be forgiv- uations. en for assuming The War Machines was written for any of the actors that Through the use of hypnosis, have played the Time Lord. It is at the WOTAN's workforce tirelessly create extra terrestrial-inspired Post Office the War Machines in a Frankensteini- Tower where we see just how much an manner – mad scientist, flashing fun William Hartnell is having with the lights et al. Fresh out of a 1960s ver- material at his disposal. The Doctor is sion of Robot Wars, one of the Sir thoughtfully skittish and intuitively con- Killalots is unleashed onto the streets cerned. We are also first introduced to on London, slaughtering innocent by- sixties girl Polly, assistant to Professor standers and knocking down their Brett and the creator of Will Operating bins. The army retreats, but the Doc- Thought Analogue. WOTAN, for short, tor stands his ground. The camera the cause of the Doctor's troubled pans towards our hero, hands firmly mind. A machine infused with artificial clutching his lapels, chin leaning defi- intelligence linking computers all over antly in the air. It is in that moment our the world in a sort of world wide net- hero is born. The defender of the hu- work. WOTAN calculates mathemati- man race. The unarmed man. The cal sums with simplistic accuracy and Doctor is required. Using his enemies even correctly answers the meaning strength against them, the Doctor re- behind the TARDIS acronym. The programmes the War Machine to turn Time Lord's instinctual trepidation on their master and destroy WOTAN. shrills silently, one piece of WOTAN's And with a job well done, the Doctor printed paper at a time. The script is swans off without saying “goodbye” or bold and innovative, foreshadowing a receiving a “thank you.” Only this time, precursor to the internet in the form of there are two more stowaways on a malevolent machine. The origin of board... Twitter, perhaps?

102 covering the show in the early 1990’s through sparse Sunday re- peats, the video collection was a logical method to follow the series The existential experience of a Doc- and experience that rollercoaster of tor Who fan is one of soaring highs science fiction storytelling. Eventu- and devastating lows. That excite- ally the collection would be com- ment of discovering ‘Genesis of the plete. Yet there remained gaps in Daleks’ for the first time. The tedium the Doctor Who experience. of enduring ‘’ be- cause of an obligation to comple- ‘The Smugglers’ is a story that was tionism. But then comes a horror far never going to be released onto worse than Sutekh the Destroyer or video tape as, after all, there were, the dialogue of ‘Timelash’. Discov- and still remain, no tapes of it what- ering that there are not just epi- soever. So how could a Doctor Who sodes of the show that you cannot fan growing up in the 1990’s experi- watch but entire stories. ence this penultimate story in Wil- liam Hartnell’s tenure as The Doc- Although Doctor Who on television tor? was ending with the 1980’s, the market for stories on home video The first port of call for any Doctor was growing and would continue Who fan in this situation is of into the next decade even though course the Target novelisation. First there were no new episodes broad- published in 1988, the name on the cast on the BBC. As someone dis- cover read Terrance Dicks, so you

103 knew that you were in safe hands documentary on ‘’ with an experienced and skilful au- VHS release of 1998. Excerpts from thor. After visiting several ‘The Smugglers’ were included in bookstores, I eventually managed the feature presented by Deborah to track down a copy. These noveli- Watling and Frazer Hines. These sations had, for the previous few Australian censor clips had been decades, allowed Doctor Who fans unearthed a couple of years before to relive the greatest adventures of and were exorcised from the pro- The Doctor that they remembered gramme which in Australia had an watching on television. For a new early afternoon broadcast slot dur- generation, they had become the ing the Sixties. They give the im- key method for discovering some pression of a particularly violent ad- escapades for the first time. venture.

Later in the mid-1990’s a non-BBC Although they equate to less than video release found its way into my two minutes worth of material, they VCR. BBV Productions’ release suddenly became the representa- ‘The Doctors: 30 Years of Time tion for all four episodes. Cherub Travel and Beyond’ featured behind throwing a knife squarely between the scenes location footage from Joe Longfoot’s shoulder blades. several Doctor Who stories. Home The brutal murder of Jamaica by movie footage, filmed whilst watch- Capt. Pike before callously ing the production on location in the blood off the blade. Kewper be- Cornwall, provided a brief glimpse ing stabbed whilst a gunshot rings of ‘The Smugglers’. Although not out, The Doctor looking on and Pol- matching the visuals of the story, ly screaming as Episode 3 con- for a start the film recordings were cludes. Capt. Pike withdrawing his made in colour, they do offer a sword from Cherub before taunting sense of the story. The filming of him. All these suggest a the recording of Cherub peering out tale of graphic violence, but they of a bush for instance provides a are isolated instances within the hint of what it would’ve looked like context of four episodes. Maybe if on screen in 1966. There was also those scenes were more indicative the recording of The Doctor being of the overall tone of the story, then placed into the cart from Episode 1. it may be a more highly regarded To the most observant this se- tale. quence features not Hartnell him- self but his double Gordon Craig. would regu- Perhaps in some way this glimpse larly publish Telesnaps of lost epi- behind the scenes of Doctor Who sodes during the 1990’s and frus- on location in Cornwall would trig- tratingly I missed out on the issue ger a personal desire to experience where ‘The Smugglers’ was fea- television production myself? tured. (Number 217 if anyone wants The first time I encountered actual to look it up). However, as the inter- broadcast footage from the story net began to grow and develop, the was thanks to ‘The Missing Years’ Doctor Who website, itself in it’s

104 infancy, used these telesnaps to BBC to present a purchasable ver- create Photonovels. ‘The Smug- sion of missing stories. In 2002 ‘The glers’ was one such title to be con- Smugglers’ became the twelfth re- verted into a Photonovel allowing lease of the series. visitors to the site to follow the story provided the linking material, paint- through still images of the scenes ing the pictures for your imagination that were broadcast. Additional vis- to fill in the gaps. This process was ual details were therefore added to made a lot easier following the Aus- the puzzle, such as the barbaric tralian censor clips and telesnaps. weapon which replaced Capt. Those visuals allowed the listener Pike’s hand, crucial to the cliff- to picture the original actors in char- hanger for Episode 1. The tele- acter. Now paired with the audio snaps also reveal further shots of soundtrack, the pieces of the puzzle knives imbedded in victims, such as were starting to take shape. at the opening of Episode 4. This violent imagery would surely be un- Amusingly the broadcast audio re- suitable for a family audience these vealed Longfoot misspeaking the days and it is odd to consider a time message that would prove critical when this would be acceptable for later in the story; “Smallwood, Ring- an early evening timeslot. wood and Gurney.” Although Wil- liam Hartnell has often been ma- As the world entered a new Millen- ligned for script deviations and dia- nium the BBC began to release epi- logue slips, he maintains accuracy sode soundtracks. During the origi- with the script on this occasion. nal broadcasts devoted fans like “Ringwood, Smallbeer and Gurney,” Graham Strong recorded the sound was crucial to the discovery of so they could listen to it at their own Avery’s gold. Once again, more ma- convenience. Decades later, these terial uncovered further details of recordings were then used by the this increasingly fascinating story.

105 ventures they’ve unwittingly stum- bled upon. Although a story of pi- rates and treasure hunting, this is not a children’s cartoon. There are unscrupulous individuals, skuldug- gery, treachery and deception aplenty. As the censor clips attest, there is also significant violence but also drunk seafarers and manipula- tion through witchcraft and fortune telling. ‘The Smugglers’ is the pe- nultimate historical tale of Doctor The sound of seagulls and lapping Who in the 1960’s. There are no water on the beach also teased the science fiction elements and it extensive location filming that ‘The doesn’t attempt to educate the au- Smugglers’ benefited from. This dience about a specific historical soundtrack would ultimately prove event. Instead, it is simply an en- to be the most complete telling of gaging, ripping yarn of pirates, the story, just sadly without the vis- smuggling and time travellers. uals. Perhaps one day ‘The Smugglers’ With a new form of home media will receive a DVD release with the cementing a place in Doctor Who soundtrack overlaid upon anima- merchandise, the Lost in Time DVD tion? I for one certainly hope so, box set released in 2004, brought ‘The Smugglers’ deserves it. together all the snippets of visual material that had been seen over the years. These clips, coupled with the remastered soundtrack, form the key method for experiencing ‘The Smugglers’. With the video recorder now non-functional, revisit- ing the story’s visual signature was possible through DVD and in one place instead of across two video tapes. Add in the Target novelisa- tion and audio soundtrack, ‘The Smugglers’ could still be enjoyed in a respectable form.

So, after pursuing a treasure trail over many years, was ‘The Smug- glers’ worth discovering? Unques- tionably. This is William Hartnell’s penultimate story. Ben and Polly learn exactly what dangerous ad-

106 one had ever known had a funny turn, lay on the studio floor, and morphed into some other bloke. This new guy didn't wear a wig. The At the time of writing, the new 13th Doctor has ALWAYS worn a wig! Doctor has yet to be seen in action The new guy didn't have white hair. on TV. Instead she's been in a The Doctor ALWAYS has white teaser trailer, a catwalk fashion hair. He didn't wear the Doctor's show, a further teaser spot, a TV ring. WHAT?! The Doctor ALWAYS series where she plays someone wears a ring. The Doctor without his categorically and critically NOT a ring is like Sherlock Holmes without Doctor, a trailer with one line of dia- his deerstalker. That's it – I'M OUT. logue and an awful lot of gloomy, The new Doctor didn't even have bored looking publicity shots. arteriosclerosis. WHAT?! The Doc- tor ALWAYS had arteriosclerosis! A vocal minority hate her. We're not That's it... I'm burning my Doctor talking 'Not my favourite Doctor' Who annual and Dalek Ray Gun. here, we're talking full-on loathing. They are disgusted by her. Offend- But of course, all this happens in ed that a woman would play the the closing seconds of The Tenth Doctor. It's making them sick with Planet. What precedes it is a fairly rage. They're declaring themselves gripping, futuristic base-under-siege out of fandom for life. They won't story that would form the template even give her a chance. for pretty much every other story in the next three years. Over a decade before I was born, The Tenth Planet Episode 4 was Doctor Who had been struggling to broadcast and the only Doctor any- catch lightning in a bottle since the

107 success of the Daleks, but Mecha- able to reason with it. noids, Chumblies, War Machines and Hi-Fi the Panda just weren't Audiences, just a week ago, had opening the licensing doors. Kit been astonished to see something Pedler's Cybermen were the un- else in Doctor Who they'd not seen likely success story. Held together before. A black actor. This week, with masking tape and looking like there was another! Oh, the series is they'd been made by a Blue Peter just playing the diversity card now. presenter, they staggered into the What next? An Indian?! Good god, base, squawking like a sarcastic Doctor Who. Innes Lloyd and his answerphone and somehow, they racial agenda at work already. Just worked. It wasn't until the redesign casting people because they're on their return that they became black rather than choosing the best properly iconic, but Pedler had man for the job. That's it, I'M OUT. tapped into something that worked. Doctor Who has ALWAYS been Of course, what really made them whiter than white. appeal over the Mechanoids, Chumblies and War Machines was Of course, one could be playful and that just like the Daleks, there was observe that this casting occurs something living inside them. once William Hartnell's been given Something recognisable that the his marching orders. But it's clearly audience could connect with. This just a massive coincidence. same reasoning is what made Stormtroopers cool in Star Wars Season four is a curious beast. The and Battle Droids pointless. It's viewing figures and audience ap- hard to fear a machine, but a per- preciation make for interesting son IN a machine... well there's reading. The Smugglers, a histori- that smallest chance you might be cal story, had opened the season to

108 has a fantastic opening two epi- sodes, but were it not for the re- generation, may not be so fondly remembered as a whole. He's not holding back either, his Doctor is still bold and forthright and showing off a precognitive ability (knowing what will happen with Mondas) not displayed again until his Seventh self. It hints at the First Doctor be- ing much more travelled than he lets on. It does also beg the ques- tion if he knew about Mondas' arri- val, how does he know so little about Cybermen?

The chemistry of the three regulars a staggeringly low 4.3m viewers, is still lacking, despite their relative- but The Tenth Planet, while open- ly long service on the show. While ing with 5.5m viewers, achieves Anneke Wills and 7.5m viewers by the final episode, have a good thing going on, it's almost double The Smugglers. Poor clear that Hartnell by now has tired Hartnell, the viewing figures and of bonding with the new cast. They audience appreciation just continue work against each other, but not in to increase in his absence. One has a productive way as with the Doc- to look at this not as a failure on tor and Ian and Barbara, but more Hartnell's part, but a huge success confrontational. This lack of affec- on Troughton's. He took something tion makes the opening moments that was working and improved on of the next story all the stranger. it. One wonders if William Hartnell But then, Polly loves everyone. ever saw it that way. It must have She's such a hippy. been hard on him. The Tenth Planet is a better story Hit by illness during his final story, to go out on than The Celestial he's absent for the penultimate epi- Toymaker, which John Wiles toyed sode. It's fair to assume that this with in one of his 'Jesus wept, illness was likely emotional as well someone rid me of this menace!' as physical, ironic given the subject moments. It allows Hartnell's Doc- matter of the story. Feelings? Pah! tor a proper, in-vision swansong. It Who needs them. Maybe emotions does something that will become are a weakness after all, Doctor? the backbone of the show's suc- cess for decades to come and in- Unfortunately, Hartnell's absence troduces a new nemesis, also still from Episode 3 contributes to the going strong today. Can't say that slowdown of the whole story which about many stories.

109 know it - The 3 Doctors. (You’ll now have to forgive the use of digits and not written words when I refer to numbers from now on..)

The obvious connection to numbers Numbers have always been ex- begins in the title itself - 3. You are tremely important to Doctor Who promised a sighting of all 3 Doctors and it’s fan base. For some, even working together to stop a deadly the number of episodes is a bone of force and the programme duly deliv- contention, I mean, do we count ers. The production code is made these days or not? For oth- up of 3 Rs, it is the third story for ers - do we place our novels in or- Bob Baker and Dave Martin, the der of transmission or the book third to be recorded that season… number? Could you imagine the excitement This story features a whole set of for the audience at the time? This very interesting numbers and de- concept is landmark television and pending on what mood you are in something really only Doctor Who will depend on which number be- could do - today of course when a comes your favourite. multi-Doctor story happens it gets prime time teaser ads, a full scale We are of course talking about Sto- CGI advert, billboards, countless ry Number 65 or Novel number 64 magazine articles and front covers, the originally titled “Deathworld” action figures, posters.. I think you then “The Black Hole” or as we now get the picture and The Three Doc-

110 tors - well, the honour of the front later) but nevertheless he is still cover of the Radio Times with Jon very much part of the action. Pertwee slap bang in the centre. For one week only of course. Of It’s the 1st time we meet - a note though was the changing face character who was described as a of the Doctor on the inside sleeves stellar engineer played wonderfully so at least that was something. by the very shouty Stephen Thorne. In many respects, Omega is a tragic 10 is another obvious number, it’s character whose accidental aban- the 10th Anniversary and therefore donment is heart-breaking. You 10th season of the show - very few can’t help but feel sorry for this be- shows were celebrating 10 years on ing who was once a highly respect- screen at this point in the his- ed member of Gallifreyan society. tory and Episode 2 got 10.8 million viewers - well there wasn’t a lot of Despite all the shouting, the scene choice and here you get 3 Doctors in which he lifts his helmet to reveal for the price of one. nothing underneath is nothing short of disturbing. I couldn’t help feeling How’s about the number 4? It’s of the 2nd and 3rd Doctor needed to course a 4 part adventure, but it’s exercise a little more compassion also only the fourth occasion in for him, they seemed a little hell which we meet the Time Lords. 2 bent on his destruction from the mo- could be significant - 2 writers, 2nd ment they are captured by the blob- Doctor, 2” Video tape, 2nd appear- by guards. ance in Doctor Who for both our Time Lords - Roy Purcell and Clyde Incidentally, in 2007 when I inter- Pollitt and of course 2 DVD releases viewed Jim Acheson (Costume De- oh and 2 VHS releases too… 6? 6 signer) he discussed how he had versions of the book? 15th Jon one of the Gell guards in the back of Pertwee story? a London taxi and when they both got out the BBC were lumbered with I’m sure if you really started to poke a big bill for the amount of reddish into it then more numbers would glue that had burst all over the cab - raise their heads; a challenge for come to think of it now, it’s the 1st you - how many number can you and only time we meet those blobby associate with this story? I digress - creatures that seem to be able to but I’d like you to consider this num- live in our world as well as the world ber - how’s about the number 1? of anti-matter.

Obviously, this is the 1st time in the It’s also the 1st time we see Roger show’s history we get to see all 3 Liminton’s version of the TARDIS Doctors together - well sort of, our interior which admittedly is better original hero is trapped in Ealing’s than the previous version last seen Film Studios in a time eddy (I won- in The Time Monster. Somehow the der was this the same one the 4th green centre column and the slightly Doctor and got stuck in blueish tinge to the much missed

111 roundels add a higher production familiarity when you see him on that value and really give us the feeling screen - all the mannerisms, unique that we are inside the TARDIS. It’s to his wonderful Doctor, are a cracking good design that hangs glimpsed like a memory echoing on for the next few years. Although, back into the past. What I love is that I always wondered too why there during his tenure the 1st Doctor nev- wasn’t much else in the TARDIS er mentions anything about regener- console room - some chairs, a ation (or obvious behind the scenes clock, a nice painting on the walls reasons) and yet here he chuckles maybe even some books not even that’s he’s turned into a dandy and a some IKEA shelving with some trin- clown - if you think about it, it’s a ro- kets. Oh well. mantic notion that Hartnell and the character have come to terms with This is the 1st time we see both 1st the fact that change in Who just hap- and 2nd Doctor in BBC Colour! pens. Whilst Patrick Troughton is on top form as the Doctor and the relation- Then in Part 3 we are teased - the ship between him and Pertwee’s Time Lords say they are going to version is very amusing and push his Doctor through to the strained all at the same time - both events, I’m sure viewers were left seem to cower before their younger thinking - “great - not on a screen original self. anymore” only to be disappointed the following week. I have to men- I always thought it strange that tion the irritating thing about the Hartnell’s Doctor seemed to know Doctor on a screen is not just the more (or at least appeared ‘wiser’) narrative limitations but also the fact about what was happening than that you can clearly see the edge of either of his two future, older, more the TARDIS set and the camera’s experienced, incarnations. zooming around the studio, slightly kills the effect - but then again that Of course this is the last time we happens even in the new series see William Hartnell in action, we obviously can’t say “The 1st Doctor” here because of the 5 Doctors and Twice Upon A Time not to mention all the other products that fans say is canon.

As an audience, we so wanted to see Hartnell in action and it would be fantastic to have seen this ad- venture with all three Doctor’s “active” but alas we are confined to a simple view screen. Nonetheless, Hartnell gives a strong performance and there’s that lovely feeling of

112 (watch the very last shot in The the Doctor was battling a Hand of Doctor’s Daughter and note the Fear, but I feel assured that the HUGE TV Studio light to the left of near consistent 10million people the TARDIS console - whoops) who tuned in to watch this anniver- sary special were filled full of nos- When I think about this story, I still talgia, laughed a little and by the can’t help reflecting on those final climax to Episode 4, must have words from Hartnell - the very last been expressing mixed feelings original thing he says in Doctor about how the UNIT family they had Who history is … “Although consid- been so accustomed to were about ering the way things have been go- to break apart forever. ing - well I shudder to think what you would do without me” - I can’t Still 1 thing is for sure, on the num- help but feel that - if we apply that ber front, 11.9 million people quote to Doctor Who as it is today - watched the final episode of this it is somehow very poignant. story - the highest rated episode for both and Patrick The final 1st is that it’s the 1st time Troughton proving that Doctor Who the 3rd Doctor is given the freedom will always be number 1. to potter off into time and space. I wasn’t born in 1973, that happy in- cident happened 3 years later when

113 his era; dubious of women and for- eigners, holding proper theatre act- ing in higher regard over television roles. Fantasy or science fiction shows are considered variety acts. “I need more time.” He is grumpy, frustrated with his lack of acting work due to his age, An Adventure in Space and Time and has little time for children, even was released in 2013 as a bio- his own granddaughter. It would be graphical ‘docudrama’ profiling the cliché to say this is a warts-and-all inception and commissioning of portrayal of Hartnell, but it is realis- Doctor Who at the BBC. However, it tic. The man had flaws, everyone also focuses on the equal strength does, and it wouldn’t be right to and frailty of the leading man, Wil- sugar coat his life just because the liam Hartnell, the First Doctor. Da- figure of the Doctor is held in such vid Bradley plays the role to epic high regard. proportions, conveying so much emotion with a simple look, much Sydney Newman, Head of Drama like Hartnell did himself. Mark at the BBC, wanted a show that Gatiss has written a spell-binding, would keep the attention of sports multi-layered script that takes the fans and kids, with the leading man viewers breath away. being an older authority figure. Veri- ty Lambert is tasked with finding the The story begins in 1963. William enigmatic character simply called Hartnell is portrayed as a man of ’the Doctor’. Given his history play-

114 ing crooks and sergeant majors, she chooses William Hartnell and arranges a dinner with him. The man who was to become the Doc- tor initially didn’t go for the pitch Verity placed in front of him. He was hesitant to join a show with long recording hours. His blustering and overbearing ways are readily handled by Verity and the show’s which button on the TARDIS con- director, Warris Hussein, stroking sole was supposed to open the his distressed ego just enough to doors, and to keep using that but- get him interested. They wanted ton. “The children will spot it, you “stern and scary, but with a twinkle.” see.” Even so, he still had doubts, even during production, on whether Hartnell’s domineering presence he was right for the part. He saw and contemptuous attitude towards the flaws in the first draft of the younger generations gave him a Doctor, noting that he was too stern certain reputation on and off set, for the kiddies. Newman said the upsetting both crew and cast. He very same thing after watching the knew acting to be an unstable pro- pilot, so Lambert calls on Hartnell to fession, and he disapproved of warm his role, to add his signature what he saw as the reckless spend- twinkle. ing of the woman who played his on -screen granddaughter Susan, Car- His attitude towards children warms ol Ann Ford. At points, he referred as we enter 1964, when the show to Doctor Who as ’his’ show, swing- begins its rocket-like rise in popular- ing with more weight and influence ity. He is approached by children than he actually had. However, he while out with his wife, and readily did have a hidden affection for joins in games with them, trying to those he worked closest with, dis- find the TARDIS in parks. Letters playing a grandfatherly fondness. sent to him are addressed to “Uncle Verity Lambert was sometimes Who”, asking him for advice. Even called upon to handle him, but Hart- though he was physically exhaust- nell held her in high regard for all ed by the work, he pressed on for that she had accomplished with the the children, who he felt were rely- show. Despite the prejudice of ing on him. He had a purpose, a some, he also had great respect for magnificent purpose that continues the British-Indian Hussein, who to this day with any actor who plays fought on despite all the obstacles the Doctor; to inspire children, to put in front of the show and in front provide a comforting television of himself. presence and to be a light against the darkness in the world. Although he is dismissive of chil- dren, Hartnell knew how they Hartnell shows his vulnerability at thought in regard to television times, voicing his concerns about shows. He insisted on knowing the pressures of the work and the 115 sheer amount of words he is sup- show is going to move on without posed to spout every episode. His him, he displays both distress and self-doubt is palpable, but he strug- graciousness approving of his suc- gles on, even after his diagnosis cessor, Patrick Troughton. Once with arteriosclerosis, a hardening of again, every actor who plays the the arteries, which left him physical- Doctor must feel the same way ly weakened and unable to memo- walking from set for the last time, rise his lines. He hated goodbyes knowing that the show will go on and was frightened of the oncoming without them. possibility of change. He was very frank with his feelings when confid- An Adventure in Space and Time ing in Verity Lambert, drawing com- shows the rise of a television behe- fort from her words. David Brad- moth, but also the decline of a man ley’s portrayal of his frustration and who will forever remain a stalwart terrible realisation at not being able of the universe. William Hartnell, for to remember his lines is incredibly all his flaws, began a timeless jour- moving. ney that has endured throughout the generations, inspiring tv spin- Time is a playground for the Doc- offs, comic books, novels, radio tor, but it is a battlefield for Hartnell. plays and so much more. Thank His diagnosis and the ever- you, Bill, for all that you have done, changing cast trouble him greatly, and all that you gave, to Doctor feeling the unstoppable passage of Who. time that he no longer seems to have. When he realises that the

116 well during the week. Maureen told me that it seemed like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he spoke to Verity Lambert, and William Hartnell appeared in some suggested she looked at my perfor- 70 films, with leading roles on many mance in the producer’s run. The occasions. He will forever be re- rest is history, and three weeks later, membered for his roles in films such I was transformed from Morton Dill as Brighton Rock and This Sporting to Steven Taylor. Life, but his iconic performance as Doctor Who is where his real Bill rather took me under his wing, lies. and we became good friends for the year we worked together. I am forev- The lasting appeal of Doctor Who er grateful for his belief in me and for today is because of what he and his the kindness he showed me working original companions created back in on that wonderful show. 1963. The conventions and world- wide audiences for the show would I know Bill was immensely proud of never have taken place had it not what he had created, but he was been for the originality and quirki- such a perfectionist as an actor, that ness he brought to the original con- he got a reputation for being rather cept. The show the BBC did not re- curmudgeonly and bad-tempered. ally want was a huge success be- Nothing was further from the truth. cause of Bill’s talent. He got angry with himself, because he knew that he was beginning to I was lucky enough to work on 46 lose the ability to remember his episodes of the show with Bill. I only lines. His irritability was caused by learned a few years ago that he was his failure to match his own stand- the reason I got the part of Steven to ards. I must say that with me he was become the Doctor’s third longest- always kind, amusing and pleasant, running companion. I had been en- and I know Maureen felt the same. gaged to play the part of Morton Dill His well-known “fluffs” were quite who gets embroiled in The Chase endearing, and although we may with the Doctor and the Daleks at laugh at his inability to pronounce the top of the Empire State Building. King Agamemnon, for example, it It was a six-minute long, amusing does not detract in any way from the cameo part. consistently good and thoughtful performance he always gave. What I had not realised was that Bill was rather distressed that his origi- nal companions, and true friends, William Russell and Jaqueline Hill had decided to leave the show, and no replacement for them had been found. The lovely Maureen O’Brien, who played Vicki, had said to him during our rehearsals that he should take a look at me as that replace- ment, because we had got on so

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