Aside from the Daleks (who appeared over 15 times on TV against the Doctor from 1963-1989), there are very few returning monsters from the classic Doctor Who series. Among those hallowed ranks are the Cybermen (featured in 10 classic stories- including The Five Doctors), the Sontarans (in 4 classic adventures) and the Ice Warriors (who faced the Doctor in four classic adventures). Of these examples, all but the Ice Warriors have seen a triumphant return to the TV screens, but next year all of that is about to change when a new version of the green-armored Martians challenge the Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith and their very first outing sees a DVD release, with added animated material.
The Ice Warriors are almost forgotten these days, but there was a time when these hulking behemoths were beloved monsters among viewers. Horrifying lumbering creatures, the Ice Warriors hailed from Mars. The Doctor’s first recorded encounter with them was set around Brittanicus Base of the distant future when humanity battled against the inevitability of a second ice age. As the ice caps melted and migrated, a Martian landing craft was unearthed, along with its crew of cybernetically enhanced warriors. Written by Brian Hayles (who had also written The Celestial Toymaker), the Ice Warriors was screened in six parts from November to December, 1967.
The Ice Warriors was part of Doctor Who’s fifth season, one that had more monsters (Cybermen, Yeti, and a seaweed creature) on screen than had been witnessed in a long time. It is still recognized as one of the stand out years of the program’s history. So popular were the Ice Warriors that they came back two years later in the Seeds of Death. Later still the Ice Warriors were seen again in 1972′s Curse of Peladon and also in 1974′s Monster of Peladon.
To date, two episodes of the Ice Warriors remain missing, but thanks to a team of skilled animators, they live again!
Via Doctor Who TV:
“We’ve been discussing the various ways Qurios could reconstruct these episodes for over three years” said Dan Hall, Managing Director of Pup Ltd Media Consultancy, producer of the DVD. “So it’s really, really satisfying to finally see them animated. Qurios have a great track record in excellent and innovative animations”.
Currently, there are 106 missing episodes from 1963-69, mainly impacting the run of Patrick Troughton who played the Doctor from 1966-69.
The following stories from the First Doctor era starring William Hartnell are still incomplete: Marco Polo, The Reign of Terror, The Crusade, Galaxy 4, “Mission to the Unknown”, The Myth Makers, The Daleks’ Master Plan, The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve, The Celestial Toymaker, The Savages, and The Smugglers
From the Second Doctor era starring Patrick Troughton, these gems are lacking material: The Power of the Daleks, The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase, The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones, The Evil of the Daleks, The Abominable Snowmen, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep, The Wheel in Space, Invasion and The Space Pirates.
As the Ice Warriors are set for a major come back in 2013, this DVD release should receive special attention.
Story 030
Written by David Whitaker (with additions from Dennis Spooner)
Directed by Christopher Barry
Transmitted 5 November – 10 December 1966 “Why do human beings kill human beings?”
On the distant planet Vulcan, civil unrest threatens the peace of the Earth colony. While the Governor struggles to maintain control amidst rumors of rebel factions , Professor Lesterson has made an amazing discovery. After cheating death through a kind of renewal, the Doctor encounters his deadliest of enemies, but he is as unsure of his capabilities as his companions are. Can he realize his personality in time to put a stop to the Daleks setting a foothold on Vulcan in their quest to universal conquest?
After three successful years as the leading actor in Doctor Who, William Hartnell was ushered from his post and replaced. There were many sore feelings from Hartnell who had grown proud of his part in developing the program, but we can take some solace in the fact that he cited Patrick Troughton as the only person capable of taking over from him. Sydney Wilson took some convincing, however, and even Troughton was unsure of taking on such a high profile role.
After several talks with Innes Lloyd, Troughton had many outlandish ideas on how he should play the Doctor. Being a character actor, he approached the challenge by offering up one weird concept after another (a wind jammer or an Arab… if his later statement was not in jest which I suspect it was). Being the first major change in the character that we now take for granted, it was a decision rapidly becoming muddled by committee-style discussions. In the end, Lloyd and Troughton crafted the identity between the two of them as a Charlie Chaplin-like cosmic hobo.
Much to Troughton’s reluctance, large parts of his characterization came from his own personality (something that became more common in later actors who were cast as The Doctor). A deeply private man, he preferred to keep his professional and home life separate, but in this case they become closely related as his acting as the Doctor was less of a performance and his cast members became like a second family.
The pain and confusion of the Doctor's first 'regeneration'
The first regeneration was traumatic for the viewers as well as the characters of the Doctor and his companions. Ben and Polly had seen their friend deteriorate before their eyes, even admitting to them that ‘this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin.’ In his place was a stranger, experiencing intense pain and confusion as thoughts flooded through his newly made brain.
The concept of regeneration was more fully explained as we understand it now much much later in the program’s history. In this instance, the Doctor implies that it is a renewal and that it was accomplished with the help of the TARDIS. The Doctor’s personality is not the only that had changed. His body had changed and his abilities had grown, including a kind of telepathy. This is where many of the Doctor’s later abilities were born and his alien physicality developed.
Previously, the Doctor was more or less a human-like being with alien origins. He required food, rest and even had one heart (as established in the Sensorites). The second Doctor is a whole new kettle of fish and a more fantastical character than his predecessor, adding the ‘pixie’ qualities of a children’s literature hero to the Doctor as he had been known.
While Ben and Polly look on, the Doctor consults his 500 year diary
The Doctor doesn’t even seem to have retained the knowledge of his previous self, referring to himself in the third person, often needing to reference his diary to check his memory. This was a very clever way of mirroring the audience’s reluctance to accept Troughton by making him off-center and apparently deranged. The refined dress of the First Doctor was replaced with a battered parody two sizes too big. The Doctor’s signet ring fell from his fingers and the new Doctor took up a recorder, much to the chagrin of his companions.
Who was this Doctor? Even he didn’t know.
Donning the infamous 'stovepipe hat,' the Doctor takes a walk through the mercury swamp of Vulcan
Traipsing along the planet surface, the Doctor attempts a few hops and jumps and soon meets another person who seems overjoyed to see a friendly face, then he is shot in the back and promptly dies. Looking for clues, the Doctor finds a forgotten button torn from someone’s clothing and a badge declaring the victim as ‘Chief Examiner’ affording him ‘every access.’ Thus does the Doctor becomes involved in the conspiracy for control in the colony. Taking on the identity of Chief Examiner, someone no one was expecting and someone no one can identify, the Doctor is allowed the run of the place and treated with near immunity and respect.
Soon, the Doctor meets Lesterson who is greedily examining a strange capsule found embedded in the planet’s crust. Aided by the beautiful but cunning Janley, Lesterson has tunnel vision regarding his discovery of the Dalek capsule. He cannot accept the warnings of the Doctor or the manipulations of Janley and her rebel faction friends.
Lesterson and Janley conduct experiments with a Dalek
The script for Power of the Daleks was written by David Whitaker without any understanding of who the new Doctor was going to be and what he would act like. Terry Nation was busy with other projects including the beginnings of ‘The Destroyers,’ a spin-off using the Daleks outside of Doctor Who. As the production proceeded, it became clear that much revision was needed, but script editor Gerry Davis was unable to take on the work on Whitaker’s scripts. Dennis Spooner (who had worked on many previous stories including parts of The Daleks’ Master Plan) was called in to polish it up, fleshing out the Doctor, supporting characters and adding lots of humor.
It’s difficult to tell what parts of the produced story are from Whitaker’s pen and what is from Spooner’s, but it’s a marvelous tale. Because of the importance of Power of the Daleks as the ‘first regeneration story,’ it is often over-looked for any other qualities. The fact that almost all material remains lost of this six parter (only short sequences are viewable at this time) only makes the story more obscure. John Peel novelized the story but that book has gone out of print. An audio CD with linking narration by Aneke Wills is also hard to find at a reasonable price. All that said, there is an incredibly small group of fans who have had a chance to experience this story in any way.
The Doctor is recognized by a Dalek, Ben (and the audience?) is finally convinced that the 'impostor' is the genuine article
When it becomes clear that the capsule is a Dalek escape craft, the Doctor starts to worry, but is not sure how to proceed. He is reluctant to act directly, but knows that he must stop anyone from attempting to harness their power and that is surely just what Lesterson plans to do.
The Doctor witnesses the revival of the Daleks
There are several angles to this story that strike me as interesting, including the anarchist forces of the rebel faction and the threat that even a peaceful Dalek poses to the laborers. I’m not sure how much was included on purpose and how much seeped its way into the script, but it strikes me as one of the only poignant Dalek stories with something to say in addition to entertain and scare the pants off of the viewers at home.
The Doctor leads Ben and Polly into the Dalek capsule
Security chief Bragen is making a bid for power and with Janley’s help, hopes to use Lesterson to mobilize and arm the Daleks as weapons in their acts of violence. Overworked and paranoid, Lesterson is easily manipulated, but the Daleks are shown at their most manipulative and devious. Playing the role of eager servant, they wait for the key moment to act. There is a wonderful moment as a Dalek watches the rebels firing on the other colonists as they move against the Governor’s forces and asks why humans would kill other humans.
The Daleks were chosen to accompany the arrival of a new Doctor to reassure the audience that while Hartnell had left, the program was still the same. There are several iconic moments in this story, starting with the Dalek identifying the Doctor as he screams to warn the colonists. Troughton’s horrified expression in the Dalek’s tunnel point of view was frozen in the viewers’ minds for quite some time, as was another scene in which the Daleks are seen working an assembly line, dropping weird alien beings into the Dalek casings.
Troughton is absolutely stunning in this premier story, earning his place as the finest actor to play the role to date. His performance runs the gamut from playful child to courageous hero and brilliant scientist as well as a truly weird and alien being. Confined to a room, the Doctor wonders if he can get Lesterson to listen then gleefully realizes that ‘Lesterson listen’ is a great tongue-twister. To Ben’s anguish, Polly joins in and the pair become giddy. The introduction of the recorder, a musical instrument that the Doctor seems to rely on to focus his thoughts while causing frustration for everyone else, is another nice touch. In a short amount of time, Troughton has the new Doctor’s many facets explored on screen, showing the audience that there is so much more to the Doctor than had previously been thought possible.
The Doctor toots on his recorder (at Ben's annoyance)
Power of the Daleks is a very intelligent and gripping adventure that touches on the deviousness of the human mind and the mistrust in society. By the time the Daleks start firing on the humans, there’s hardly anyone left that could be viewed as acceptably appealing. There are a few things that are confusing continuity-wise, such as how or why the Daleks have become forgotten by humans or what time period this story is meant to be set in. The fact that the Dalek identifies the Doctor on sight without any prior knowledge is also interesting and means that the Daleks are viewing their subjects in more ways than just visually.
There are several missing stories from Doctor Who in the 1960′s and everyone has their own choice for which story they’d like to see in its entirety; the grandeur of Marco Polo? The creepiness of The Web of Fear or the simple massive wealth of the Daleks’ Master Plan? It really doesn’t matter what you choose, but personally I’d love to see this story as it deserves more attention and respect than just being the first story of the second Doctor.
Power of the Daleks is an examination of the human soul and the evil inherent in modern society. For that reason alone it is one of the best Dalek stories ever made and remains lost in so many ways that very few fans can possibly know this.
Fan-made prequel animation using Nicholas Briggs’ The Dalek Conquests
Recommended:
Doctor Who, the Power of the Daleks Audio CD
Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks - download
Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks - John Peel novelization
Doctor Who - the Scripts: "The Power of the Daleks"
Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes DVD
Story 042
By Victor Pemberton
Transmitted from 16 March to 20 April 1968
Landing in the North Sea of England of the near future, the TARDIS crew find themselves witness to a mystery. A massive drilling rig is drawing gas from the sea… and something else as well. From the first moment that the Doctor encounters the pipeline, he realizes that something else is inside it, something living… and deadly.
The Fury From the Deep is one of the many Doctor Who adventures from the 1960′s that is missing in its entirety. In this case, only random clips, still images, behind the scenes footage and the audio track exist. In preparing to review this story, I listened to the ancient audio version with Tom Baker providing much-needed narration where the action was unclear. This provided an unusual opportunity as Baker played the narrator as the Fourth Doctor looking back on his old adventure. Offering up longings for his playful second persona and fondness for his companions long gone, this added an extra dramatic element to the story, even if it often seemed that Baker was attempting to steal the spotlight from his predecessor.
Traveling by inflatable dingy, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive on a beach full of sea foam. They playfully mess about in the foam (due to the nature of Troughton and Hines, I wonder if that was an impromptu event) before finding the pipeline embedded in the sand. Using a device called the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor examines the pipeline and finds something very troubling. There’s something inside the pipes, something with an eerie pulse, something alive.
Throughout The Fury From the Deep, Victoria signposts her eventual departure from the TARDIS, bemoaning their dangerous lifestyle and endless encounters with monsters and madmen. Jamie takes it all in stride, but it is clear that Victoria is shaken and ready to lead a normal life. We may take this for granted as this sort of thing happened all the time in the Classic Doctor Who (Turlough, Tegan and Nyssa all left to explore their own destinies), but given that most of the modern companions view their travels in the TARDIS as a near-addictive experience which normal life cannot compete with, it speaks to the integrity and sophistication of the old scripts.
The plot of The Fury From the Deep is similar to many many other Doctor Who stories such as the Moonbase, Ice Warriors, Inferno, etc. A very important enterprise run by a skeleton crew is facing grave difficulties, yet the management refuse to acknowledge it and almost immediately place the blame at the Doctor’s feet as he had just arrived. In this case, the operation involves deriving gas from the sea floor and the man in charge, Robson, is a maniacal man in a remarkable repeating nervous breakdown state. Robson is challenged by the more down-to-Earth Frank Harris, who has been carefully tracking steady drops in pressure that threaten the entire operation. Unfortunately, he cannot find his research and his chief recommendation is to stop the pipes immediately and investigate what is causing the interference, something that Robson will not entertain.
A pair of strange devilish men dressed all in white, Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill, are hard at work removing anyone who seeks to investigate the blockage in the pipes and attack Harris’ wife Maggie before she can deliver the much-needed research to her husband. Maggie has already been infected by the properties of seaweed strangely left inside the research notes, leaving her especially weak to attack. Maggie survives the assault of Oak and Quill, but is clearly unsettled and altered by the experience.
Oak and Quill are by far two of the creepiest characters to ever appear in Doctor Who. Looking very inhuman, their behavior is that of killer mimes (yikes… hopefully Moffat won’t steal that). The fact that so much of this story is a mystery adds to the horror and tension as the nature of the creature in the pipes and its relation to Oak and Quill is subtly laid out.
Mister Oak and Mister Quill
Investigating a sample of seaweed in the TARDIS, the Doctor surmises that they are dealing with a very old creature, one that has appeared throughout human history, often as a mythological monstrosity. It’s a lovely touch, something that the new series needs to consider more as a way to lend some credence to the ‘monster of the week’ rather than having it be some bloke in a rubber suit.
As the other rigs fall silent, it becomes clear that the creature interfering with the operation is sentient and an assault is underway. The Doctor seizes control as Robson loses his mind and is then infected by seaweed pumped into his room by Oak and Quill. In a dazed state, Maggie Harris wanders into the sea in answer to an alien heartbeat. The rigging crew are being overcome by the seaweed creature, losing their will to its hive mind that wants nothing less than total domination (another story element that comes up again and again in classic Who).
The struggle to retain individuality while maintaining a place in society seems to be an ongoing theme throughout Doctor Who in its early years. Many of the threats that the Doctor and his companions face are driven by a need to control others, making their will a shared one. This goes beyond empire building or conquering lands, it’s a battle for absolute control. This makes many of these stories more meaningful as the Doctor is very much an isolationist in his own way and forever combating homogeny and uniformity.
In their way, the Cybermen are boogiemen who take people away in the middle of the night to alter them into empty robotic zombies. The Macra Terror was a tale entirely built on conformity. The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear both featured attempts to entirely take over the minds of others. Both the Underwater Menace and Enemy of the World dealt with madmen who were so dominated by a need tp control the world that if they could not have it, no one would.
In the case of The Fury From the Deep, the seaweed creature is more terrifying as it is without a voice through much of the adventure… until Robson becomes its monstrous mouth-piece and spouts the usual ‘your people are doomed’ nonsense common in 1950′s pulps. The story loses something when the monster gains a voice and it’s from that point that the Doctor lashes together a solution cleverly using the pipeline itself as a conduit transmitting a soundwave dispersing the creature’s mass.
The fact that the sound itself is Victoria’s amplified scream always struck me as an in-joke as she was quite the screamer, even by classic Doctor Who standards.
The weed monster
Behind the scenes snapshot of the weed monster
I have always adored Patrick Troughton’s Doctor. He has been called the finest actor to play the part by nearly everyone involved in the series past and present and he possesses an unusually wide range for a TV performance. In parts, the Doctor can be childish and playful while other moments he displays a startling intelligence and cunning that reveals his inner nature. I have respect for just about all of the classic Doctors, but I count the second as one of the finest due to his many faceted persona.
In this story, Troughton gets to be comical, clever and brave as well as delicately sincere in his emotional farewell to Victoria.
Jamie bids a sad farewell to Victoria
Fury from the Deep is a gripping suspenseful adventure that is somewhat let down by the six part format that stretches the drama far too thinly. It seems that characters are left with little to do but run about spouting the same lines for ages, seeking answers that they clearly should have gotten long ago. If I heard poor Frank Harris try to explain to Robson that his wife was ill one more time, for instance, I thought I would lose my mind. The character of Frank Harris starts off as a empathetic one but gradually transforms into a one note shell, endlessly saying the same things.
Despite the set backs, the story was a hit with viewers due in part to the tension-filled mood, the psychological horror of characters like Oak and Quill and of course the Weed Monster, the latest in a series of nightmarish threats that the Doctor would subdue with a device lashed together at the last moment. A relic of the 1968 ‘monster series,’ this story has all the hallmarks of what we have seen before, but like the other stories in that series, these elements are all done very well. Troughton’s energy keeps the plot pumping along and the guest cast is unusually strong.
Directed by Hugh David (who had previously worked on The Highlanders, the serial that introduced the character of Jamie McCrimmon), Fury from the Deep is very stylishly attractive and uses several brilliant effects that make even the few surviving clips impressive.
Reconstructed trailer
Fan-created trailer
The departure of Victoria was the latest in a series of farewells, but it is quite poignant as she and Jamie really fancied each other in an awkward way. Jamie, being a young lad from the highlands of Scotland, regularly wound Victoria up, her being a posh lady. But it was clear that he cared deeply for her and sought to protect her out of a not entirely understood affection. Jamie’s boy-like charm and behavior often masked his rather heroic personality, something that Victoria often took for granted but seems to suddenly recognize once they attempt to say goodbye. As the scene exists only in audio with limited visual stills, you may think that I’m reading a lot into this, but it’s definitely there.
Leaving Victoria behind to lead a new life, the Doctor and Jamie enter the TARDIS to embark on a new adventure, but neither of them is entirely in the usual mood of rollicking devil-may-care excitement. Somberly, the TARDIS dematerializes for another time, another place.
There’s a lot to like in this story, but given that one has to brave an all-audio experience or read the author’s novelized version to see it… that’s asking a lot. Of all the classic missing stories, I count Fury From the Deep as among one of the many that I hope turn up some day. And given recent findings… maybe I’ll get my wish.
Recommended (reminder: I do not get referral fees from any purchases made from links on my blog)
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Doctor Who: Fury from the Deep [Audiobook
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Doctor Who: Fury from the Deep [Unabridged
Doctor Who: Fury from the Deep by Victor Pemberton
Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The William Hartnell Years and the Patrick Troughton Years
Doctor Who Second 2nd Doctor & Tomb Cyberman Action Figure
The first Doctor Who regeneration from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton, lost in its entirety, recreated here by clips and stills
Much to the shock of some Doctor Who, currently the darling of the BBC and sci-fi TV realm, lasted for over 30 years before anyone had even said the name David Tennant. However, due to the short-sightedness of the BBC, several episodes from the BBC Archives were destroyed with some narrowly escaping the incinerator including the initial Daleks story!
Of the 253 aired installments in the 1960′s, 106 are still missing. This constitutes a large portion of the first two eras of the program and leaves a massive gap in the reign of the second Doctor Who played by Patrick Troughton. Some of the most important episodes of Doctor Who are still missing, from the first regeneration to two of the reportedly finest Dalek adventures. There have been attempts to fill these gaps with off-air clips and audio recordings, novelizations and even animations, but despite these sterling efforts, it’s not the same as the real thing.
But rejoice, as the number of missing episodes of Doctor Who dropped by two as a pair of orphaned adventures was unearthed!
Every fan has his/her dream episodes that they’d like found, such as the remainder of the epic 12 parter the Dalek Master Plan or the legendary Web of Fear, but in the end we should be happy for anything and in this case it’s part 3 of ‘Galaxy 4′ starring William Hartnell and the second part of ‘The Underwater Menace,’ a somewhat derided Patrick Troughton story.
This marks the first complete episode from the bizarre Hartnell story featuring the unlikely mechanical menaces the Chumblies and the Amazonian Drahvins. Prior to today’s announcement, there was little remaining footage of this story but what I have seen is very strange indeed.
The Drahvins of Galaxy Four
‘The Underwater Menace,’ a weird story set in Atlantis under the control of a mad scientist named Zaroff, is now only missing the first and last parts (based on the novelization, these could be the best bits!). The story is full of the most elaborate padding ever used on Doctor Who as mer-creatures swim past the screen on wires for several minutes. I hope that an additional episode will help boost the reputation of this one.
A rare vintage newspaper clipping from The Underwater Menace
The discovery of any missing episodes is cause for celebration as it serves to renew hope that somewhere out there is a complete film can of ‘Marco Polo,’ but in the meantime we can enjoy an early Christmas gift and look forward to a nice DVD release from the folks at 2 Entertain.
So how did they come to light?
“Through me,” says Ralph Montagu, Radio Times’s head of heritage and a lifelong Doctor Who fan. “I occasionally meet up with a group of film collectors and retired TV engineers at a café in Hampshire.
“A few months ago I spoke to Terry Burnett, who used to be an engineer at TVS [the former ITV franchise based in Southampton]. Somehow Doctor Who was mentioned in passing, and Terry said, ‘Oh, actually I think I’ve got an old episode.’
“I thought it was bound to be something we’ve got already,” says Ralph. “I tried not to get too excited, but he came back the next day and brought this spool with him. It had no label, so I had a look at the film leader and it said ‘Air Lock’. I thought, ‘What’s that?’ I checked online and saw that Air Lock was an episode of Galaxy 4 – a missing Hartnell serial. So then I got very excited.”
Ralph met Terry again a couple of weeks later, “And he said, ‘Guess what I’ve got.’ It was another episode of Doctor Who! Again not labelled on the can, but it turned out to be The Underwater Menace part two.”
The film collector
When I called Terry Burnett last month, he told me: “I’ve been interested in film since about 1947. I’ve built up a modest collection. I buy and sell, and keep the films I like.” So how did he come by these prints? “In the mid-80s, an electrician at TVS was organising a school fête over Marchwood way [near Southampton].
“Everybody down there knew I was a film buff, and he just mentioned to me, ‘I’ve got a box of films if you’re interested.’ So I said, ‘Bring ’em in.’ We did a suitable deal, I took them home and found two Doctor Whos among them. I cleaned them up, showed them in my ‘old Hollywood’ [home cinema] and then they went into my archive. There they stayed until I mentioned them to Ralph.”
It’s likely these prints were returned long ago to the BBC from ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation), were subsequently disposed of, but “pulled out of a skip” by an enthusiast. Thanks to Terry they’re in generally good condition, but they do have several unfortunate glitches.
Restoring the film
I looked over the shoulder of Paul Vanezis, a BBC producer involved in their recovery, who pointed out the problems. “Like any old film, Air Lock has a bit of muck and dirt on it, which we can clean.”
Somewhat trickier is “a ‘tramline’ scratch, a vertical line caused in the past by someone who didn’t maintain their projector. On a big close-up [of villainess Maaga] it can be quite distracting, but we’ll try to get rid of it.”
Even more of a challenge is a film break right at the cliffhanger, where companion Steven (Peter Purves) is suffocating in the eponymous air lock. “We’re missing 27 seconds of action completely, as well as the closing credits,” says Paul. “It’s a few shots and one line of dialogue from Maaga. But luckily we have the soundtrack and by using other visual material within the episode, we can re-create it.”
The TARDIS crew encounter a robot nicknamed 'Chumblie' by Vicki
A clip from the newly rediscovered Galaxy Four part 3
The Underwater Menace suffers from 20 seconds of cuts made by ABC censors – a scene where a surgeon is trying to inject companion Polly with a syringe. Amazingly, those snippets surfaced separately in 1996 and Paul is hoping to reinsert them where they belong. “My job is liaising with the ABC archive in Sydney because their original transfer was a bit lopsided and zoomed in. They’re rescanning the frames at greater-than-HD quality, so we can match the material.”
The film “wobbles up and down all the way through because of worn sprockets”, plus there’s a tear in the spool halfway through a crowded cave scene. It means one line is missing where companion Jamie says, “How about me, sir?”
“It’s only two seconds, but because it’s one shot with no cutaways, it’s awkward to fix. But it’ll look quite presentable when it’s finished,” promises Paul.
A clip from The Underwater Menace part 2
How do the episodes stand up?
Galaxy 4, a four-part season opener from 1965, is fondly remembered by those fans old enough to have watched it. Various factions vie to leave a barren world before it explodes – a race of bad girls called Drahvins, cute domed Chumbley robots and the benign warthog-like Rills.
To me, listening to the surviving soundtrack, it’s always sounded like a leaden plod, but now we can see fledgeling director Derek Martinus utilising the space and camera flexibility at BBC Television Centre. There are high-angle shots of the Doctor (William Hartnell) and companion Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) running through the Rill Centre.
A neat flashback sequence, with a wobble effect, shows Maaga executing one of her warriors. Surprisingly for the time there’s a shot of the Drahvin’s blood-streaked forehead.
It’s a treat to see one of the rarely glimpsed Rills in action (well, it rocks from side to side behind a sheet of polythene). “It looks like a sort of creepy tree you’d see in a pantomime but it’s quite well done,” says Ralph.
One of the dreaded Rills from Galaxy Four
There’s also ample corroboration of Peter Purves’s complaint that space pilot Steven was particularly wet in this story. He spends most of episode three pretending to be asleep or overcome by the women warriors and trapped in their air lock. “I was appalled because that was not the character I’d agreed to play,” moaned Purves.
Actor Peter Purves who played astronaut Steven Taylor
The Underwater Menace part two is arguably the more intriguing find. Not only is it the first Troughton film print since the recovery of The Tomb of the Cybermen 20 years ago, it’s actually now the earliest surviving episode to feature the second Doctor.
His first 11 programmes are still lost (episode three of this four-parter has been around for a long time). It’s also the earliest featuring Frazer Hines as Jamie. He teams up here in a very fit threesome with Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze), while the Doctor takes on a mad professor trying to raise the sunken city of Atlantis.
Patrick Troughton plays the impish Doctor in the Underwater Menace
Recorded in January 1967 at Riverside studios in Hammersmith, The Underwater Menace is a blend of B-movie material and camp nonsense – an early work from Julia Smith, then a rare woman director at the BBC who, two decades later, created EastEnders.
When I interviewed Julia in 1987, she recalled: “There were awful arguments about how Patrick Troughton should play the part; how quixotic the character should be, whether he should play his flute or not.”
This episode contains a now rare example from the 60s of the second Doctor playing the recorder he was so renowned for. Troughton also indulges in some comedic mischief that is a delight to see. If you didn’t get a ticket to the BFI event, the episodes could be on DVD before too long. Paul Vanezis says, “We’ll probably do a second volume of Lost in Time” – a DVD compiling archival odds and ends.
Further finds?
Sadly, Terry Burnett doesn’t have any other spools secreted away, “but I’ll always keep an eagle eye open in case any do turn up, which of course I’ll pass on to Ralph.” He’s only too happy to have returned this pair. “A lot of effort went into making those programmes and it was very short-sighted of the BBC to throw them out. It’s our television heritage.”
“All Doctor Who fans have dreamed of finding a missing episode and you never know how it’s going to happen,” says Ralph. So does he believe any more film prints are out there? “Well, one or two other leads are being pursued at the moment. More than that I’m not saying!”
Story 039
By Brian Hayles
Transmission dates 11th November to 16 December 16, 1967
Earth is facing a second ice age and losing a tense battle with the unrelenting forces of nature. In a final desperate attempt to halt the ever-spreading ice floes, an international project is launched using a system of ionizers. But even that is failing. When a strange ancient warrior is unearthed from the ice, the staff of Brittanicus Base assume that it is a preserved Viking, but the stranger called the Doctor knows that it is something else altogether. As Earth struggles to defeat one threat another arrives in the form of a long forgotten platoon of Ice Warriors from the planet Mars.
The Ice Warriors is part of series 5, also called ‘the monster series’ as it featured several monstrous threats from Cybermen, Yeti, and even a seaweed creature. It fits the model all too familiar with this era of an alien invasion paired with a base under siege. This model was first seen in The Tenth Planet which ended Hartnell’s era and signposted the shape of things to come. It also formed the basis of how Doctor Who is viewed then and today (make of that what you will). A limiting style of adventure, this model demands a stellar script, a strong cast and a memorable monster to make it work. Luckily, this story has a great cast, superb monsters and a script with lots of brilliant concepts (although, like many series 5 stories it does get spread far too thin). One of the few Troughton stories missing only a portion of its episodes, it can still be enjoyed with just a slight interruption where parts 2 and 3 belong.
Another fine mess, the TARDIS landing is a bit off (again)
The TARDIS crew for this adventure consists of Jamie (from the battle of Culloden in 1746) and Victoria (an orphan from 1866). They make quite a pair as Jamie is allowed to be the courageous hero to the screaming lady in distress, Victoria. With only one complete adventure featuring Victoria (Tomb of the Cybermen), Victoria has gotten plenty of stick for being a screamer but after delving into the telesnaps and audio recordings I find her to be an excellent companion who brings out strong qualities in both the Doctor and Jamie.
Jamie and Victoria discuss skirts as a monster waits…
The TARDIS lands outside of a plastic-domed structure during a wicked snowstorm. The landing is an awkward one which leads to several comedy bits as the crew attempt to crawl up the floor of the console room to the find that the craft has landed on its side and is slowly slipping. After venturing into the dome, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria find a completely different setting than they had expected. Rather than an ultra-modern facility, the inside of the dome is a Georgian mansion, preserved with impressive care. If not for the klaxons and flashing alarms, there would be no sign that it was anything but the familiar time period of Victoria’s home.
Inside Brittanicus Base, a perfectly preserved Georgian house
Huddled for warmth outside the dome are a pair of scavengers; Storr and Penley. The pair are very entertaining if a bit catty. I had to stifle a giggle when the Welsh Storr chided Penley for mentioning anything related to his previous life as a technician, stating ‘I thought you’d given all that up!’ It struck me as something more fitting a closer relationship than just a pair of struggling scavengers, but maybe I’m just being juvenile. Storr is another in a long line of questionable broad Welsh stereotypes that litter Doctor Who all the way through the 1970′s (and maybe even 1987′s Delta in the Bannermen depending on your opinion). Nevertheless, he’s a hilarious character who brings some levity to the doomsday scenario that the story is set in. His incessant complaints make him a never-ending source of friction and obstruction for the story, but Penley cares for the garrulous loon anyway.
Penley had been the expert in ionization, has quit the modern world in a statement of revolt, leaving his superior Leader Clent completely clueless as to what to do next. There’s a strong message of social rebellion in many stories throughout the Troughton and Pertwee era that reflects the times but I find it to be more subtle here. In The Ice Warriors, the society of the future is betting its future on the hopes of a computerized system that, at best, holds the impending glaciers at bay. This has forced human society into a state of hierarchical rigidness that few speak out against. This is exhibited in the relationship between Clent who is so dependent on computers that he runs every single task through its databanks and Penley who quits the modern world and madly attempts to live in the tundrous wild where only death awaits.
Storr and Penley living it rough
A non-conformist like the Doctor is a square peg in a round hole for sure. Finding himself in the base and its hectic mad state of panic, he at once offers up suggestions and help, but all of this is of course run by the computer by Leader Clent. The Doctor is sure that he can help Clent in his attempts to stop the glaciers, but must undergo a test of sorts. It’s an interesting bit of exposition that also features some startling dialog. Clent explains that the situation with an unemotional that wavers when he states, ‘then one year… there was no spring.’ It’s a haunting moment that is supported by the Doctor’s fallen face of empathy. Humanity is facing its last days.
The Doctor and Leader Clent discuss the future of the planet
The introduction of the Ice Warriors is actually one of the less important parts of this story in my opinion. Visually impressive, they are nevertheless inferior to the main plot of the glaciers and the anachronistic Georgian headquarters of the high tech base. Strange alien cyborgs, the Ice Warrior recovered from the arctic soon defrosts thanks to a current of electricity jump starting its internal systems. Taking Victoria hostage, the Ice Warrior is soon off to uncover the rest of his crew still frozen inside of their craft.
Played by a trio of massive and gifted actors, the Ice Warriors are a real success because of their presence and body language; lurching about, hissing in hushed tones and strangely tucking their heads into their hair-ringed necks like some kind of gigantic turtle. The costumes were obviously very uncomfortable and hardly fit for the human body. The diminutive main cast only makes the Ice Warriors more threatening on screen. Their deafening sonic blaster is also memorable, and its visual distortion effect an iconic hallmark of Doctor Who in the 1960′s.
The main threat that the Ice Warriors pose is in their craft itself and its atomic engines. Sitting directly in the path of the ionizer, it halts the entire project for the risk it presents. The Ice Warriors themselves don’t get to do all that much until the final part when they attempt a raid on the base.
Victoria meets a deadly Ice Warrior
As a ‘monster story,’ The Ice Warriors ticks all the right boxes. It helps immensely that Hayles’ script had a compelling vision of the future that was far ahead of its time. The plot tends to stagger about from parts three-five but one must remember that at the time Doctor Who was a weekly serial-style program and had to invent reasons to not just resolve the problem in two parts. As such, Victoria gets abducted, Jamie gets wounded, the Doctor gets abducted, etc, etc. It’s a run around and the bleak white landscape, shouting dialog over the howl of the wind and bizarre operatic incidental music can easily put a viewer off. But if you look past all that, you may see an intelligent story with an impressive cast and a classic monster.
A colourised image of Patrick Troughton and two Ice Warriors
One of the more popular monsters of Classic Doctor Who, the Ice Warriors would return three more times to combat the Second and Third Doctor. The Ice Warriors also appeared in the ‘Destiny of the Doctors,’ a kind of trivia/Doom port involving the player piloting a character against Daleks, Cybermen, Mummies and more. It also featured the final appearance from Anthony Ainley as the Master in what can only be called an ‘inspired’ performance. Seriously, the guy goes over the moon several times over.
While they were intended to star in the Sixth (Mission to Magnus) and Seventh (Thin Ice) Doctor’s era, unfortunately neither adventure materialized on screen, though both have been adapted by Big Finish. Of course the Ice Warriors have appeared in novel form and audio adventures such as Red Dawn, so they are still very much a part of the legacy of Doctor Who. They have yet to resurface in the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who, but given their track record I count that as a blessing (look at the mess they made of the Sontarans just for example).
Still missing in its entirety in the BBC archives, The Ice Warriors was released by the BBC in a remarkable VHS set with telesnap reconstructions and a bonus Audio CD of the two missing episodes. Along with The Tenth Planet, this was one of the VHS releases that really got me back into Who. I quite like the new bridging sequences to introduce the telesnaps; starting with a view of the tundra, the POV centers on a fallen wrist communicator displaying a message that the signal has become lost. Very clever.
Clip
In addition to the VHS copy, there is of course the novelization by Terrance Dicks and the BBC Audio CD. After Doctor Who went off the air, a new fanbase arose, giving birth to several wonderful hardbacks such as The Monsters which also covers the Ice Warriors.
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Doctor Who - The Ice Warriors [VHS
Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors - Target Book
Doctor Who Monster Book: No. 2
Monsters (Doctor Who)
Doctor Who and The Ice Warriors: A Classic Doctor Who Novel [Audiobook, CD
Story 048
By Brian Hayles
Transmission dates 25 January – 1 March 1969
In the far future, the revolutionary T-Mat system has taken precedence as the only form of travel, allowing people to transport themselves or goods to key metropolitan centers all over the planet. The entire affair is overseen by a hub on Earth and a remote moonbase staffed by a skeleton crew. When the moonbase drops out of communication, T-Mat falls into chaos and the planet struggles to maintain control. A stranger named the Doctor and his friends hold the only hope of uncovering the mystery of what happened on the moon, but is even the Doctor prepared to face an old enemy from Mars, the planet of war?
The Troughton era is famous for the over-use of core ideas such as the ‘base under siege’ seen in both The Web of Fear, The Invasion and of course The Seeds of Death. What is sometimes forgotten is how well these core concepts were used and how it allowed the production team to create bizarre imagery as seen in the Tomb of the Cybermen, the Dominators and Web of Fear. In addition, Troughton was an accomplished character actor and excelled at depicting great intelligence or buffoonery on the head of a dime. These rather straight forward adventures may seem repetitive (because they are) but they are also some of the best Classic Doctor Who adventures.
The Doctor sheepishly confronts the Ice Warriors
Writer Brian Hayles had already delivered the stunning epic introducing the Ice Warriors the previous year. Rumor has it that a sequel was put into place to justify the extravagant cost of the Ice Warrior costumes and capitalize on their popularity. The Troughton years are often referred to as ‘monster era’ and for good reason; two Daleks adventures, two Yeti stories, four Cybermen battles, the Quarks, Krotons, Seaweed creatures and two confrontations with the Ice Warriors make it perhaps the most monster-centric period of the program. Hayle’s first story and this one are very similar in that each depicts a future society held together by technology and easily drawn into confusion by an outside threat. Whereas the Ice Warriors in their first adventure were introduced by accident, this second encounter is one of invasion.
The Doctor and his crew arrive in a dilapidated space museum maintained by the eccentric rocket scientist Professor Eldred. When communication with the T-Mat moonbase is lost, Commander Radnor thinks of his old friend Eldred and jumps at the opportunity to utilize his knowledge and skill in order to launch a rescue mission. Somehow the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe quickly earn the trust of Eldred and Radnor and end up on the only attempt that Earth has at success aboard a rocket aimed at the moon… somehow put into action in just a few hours. The rocket scenes are incredibly silly but the cast are very aware of this, Frazer Hines goofs about as the simpleton Jamie (and even makes a pass at Zoe- Wendy Padbury) and the Troughton’s Doctor larks about with wires, blustering at random fires from the control board. When the rocket loses contact with the homing beacon needed to land, a new character emerges named Phipps who has luckily found a cabinet of resourceful devices and helps the Doctor get back on track.
It still strikes me as odd that Christopher Coll (Phipps) was being considered as a replacement for Jamie. Frazer Hines’ agent was anxious for the actor to move on, so it is understandable that the BBC would want a fall back plan, but… seriously?
Once on the moon, the story changes and becomes an adventure of survival. The moonbase is over-ridden by deadly Ice Warriors and the Doctor and Phipps are unable to contend with them. What follows is some very silly padding as Troughton runs up and down corridors, coattails flapping. Doctor Who was clearly a family program in 1969, so it should come as no surprise that there would be some silliness at the expense of the monsters. Troughton trips past them, turns the awkward creatures about by their arms and narrowly escapes death several times over. I’m sure this was an attempt to lighten the mood somewhat so that the kiddies could sleep at night without worrying about the Doctor getting murdered by these things.
Alan Bennion as Ice Lord Slaar
The Doctor quickly explains that Mars is a dying world and that the Ice Warriors are in search of a new home, but that hardly earns them any sympathy. At this stage, not much is known about the Ice Warriors. They appear to be like massive reptilian creatures with similarities to turtles with their shell-like armor. Later stories would flesh out a culture based on honor and a warrior’s code, but here they are no different to any number of cold war pulp monsters from space. That’s not really a problem, as they excel at being one of the most memorable monsters from the 1960′s. In this story, Ice Lord Slaar is introduced and is simply terrifying. Sleeker and more nimble than his lumbering counterparts, Slaar hisses through jagged sharp teeth and proves to be a devastatingly menacing villain.
The Ice Warriors returned twice in the 1970′s (in The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon) and were just as successful then as in the previous decade. I recall hearing that there were several plans to bring the Ice Warriors back in the 1980′s that all fell through and even though Waters of Mars hinted at them, we have to date not seen a modernized take on these classic baddies (though they are surely next in the list after the Yeti).
The Ice Warriors are armed with a sonic gun that produces an outstanding visual effect, tearing the victim apart with a horrifying sound. This is of course accomplished with the miracle of camera trickery and mirrors… but I still quite like it. Along with the Dalek deathray, it’s one of the most iconic effects of the program.
The direction by Michael Ferguson is outstanding. Doctor Who is often given some stick for looking cheap, but this story is very stylish. For a mainly studio-bound adventure, it is very innovative. He had previously directed one of my favorite Hartnell stories the War Machines and would later direct both The Ambassadors of Death in 1970 and The Claws of Axos in 1971. His gift for pacing and camera angles is evident in this story. The take off sequence remains eye-catching as do the scenes showing the Ice Warriors lurching about on location.
Ms. Kelly and Zoe craft up a trap
Later programs would attempt to directly approach women’s lib, but there’s a definite move in that direction here with Miss Kelly, the shapely genius that the future cannot do without. Terse and to the point, Kelly is a cold and unsympathetic character, yet she is also the cleverest person this side of the Doctor. Introducing her to the mix not only gives more attention to the world of the future, it also gives Zoe someone to bond with and act off of. The scenes where the two of them are working in the solar power room are kind of mystifying simply because they are both so emotionless and socially removed from the situation.
The Earth of the future is a rather odd place in that all technology not associated with T-Mat is disregarded, as seen in the space museum where the TARDIS initially lands. The culture is shown to be rather sedate as people lazily go about their business living in a paradise where everything is instantly provided for them. In the face of a crisis, Commander Radnor responds quite well, but is driven to panic at losing Miss Kelly since she’s ‘the only person who understands T-Mat.’ That’s job security for you. Maybe this is why the cast are dressed in less than complimentary hip-hugging uniforms looking more like a child’s playsuit than clothing?
The sudden arrival of gun-toting security guards is very out of the blue, as are their contemporary firearms in place of the expected rayguns.
Earth Security forces
... another fine mess
The trio of Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury is one of the finest lineups of Doctor Who. As I had pointed out previously, with a few exceptions (The Mind Robber, The Enemy of the World) many of the Troughton era adventures centered around similar themes of alien invasion. In any other situation this would have made the program boring and predictable but in this case the regular cast was so strong that they carried it off with great success.
I don’t mean to write off Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield as I also enjoy her but the chemistry between Hines and Padbury is infectious. The main cast are simply having the time of their life and it’s great fun to watch.
Zoe- the girl from the future and Jamie -the boy from the past is an ingenious angle that I am surprised has not been used more often. It not only acknowledges that the Doctor travels through all of time but it also gives the viewer differing points of reference to relate to. Ever the pragmatist, Jamie mainly accepts things for what they are while Zoe is determined to understand and decipher them. I wonder if we will see a pairing of companions like this again?
Leading Jamie and Zoe is the Doctor who knows more than he lets on and while he is joyful to live a life of excitement he is also full of anxiety at the dangers they face. He frenetically scampers from scene to scene, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. There have been attempts to replicate or pay homage to his performance (I’m looking at you, McCoy and Smith), but there is no other Doctor more animated than Troughton.
Regarded by many as the best actor to play the role, Patrick Troughton’s depiction of the ‘cosmic hobo’ would be echoed in subsequent actors and become a staple of the character.
There is a strange mixture of comedy, drama, horror and action in the Troughton era and the main cast manage it admirably, never over-selling a joke, over-reacting to a monster or over-playing tension.
Fewsham is brow-beaten by the Ice Lord Slaar
As Fewsham, Terry Scully really steals the show. Throughout Seeds of Death, Fewsham appears to be a cowardly traitor, collaborating with the Ice Warriors in their attack on the Earth. Even Commander Radnor and Miss Kelly write him off as useless when it pointed out that he is their only hope of regaining contact. Throughout a long story such as this (6 parts), several strong supporting characters are called for and Scully does much of that work here – stuttering his way through scenes with Slaar and teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
The Doctor's death ray
In his first incarnation, the Doctor was a canny fellow who operated from a position of dignity and power. His second incarnation is an entirely different affair and puts up the false front of a clown while secretly scheming the downfall of his foes. While other incarnations may be more pacifistic, the Second Doctor has no qualms about dispatching his enemies with extreme prejudice. The creation heat ray may have been a desperate creation by Phipps, but the Doctor creates a lash-up death ray that he uses to make quick work of the deadly Ice Warriors. One can argue that this was an unusual situation in which the human race was facing absolute extinction, but it strikes me as odd that the Doctor’s solution is such a violent one.
Hindered as all Doctor Who monsters are, The Ice Warriors do not plan to simply arrive on Earth and take over, their small squad of roughly four soldiers against the eleven speaking parts and extras on the planet below. Through the use of chemical warfare, they will pave their way to victory. This is so attractive an idea that the modern BBC Wales program still uses it even though its budget is extraordinarily higher than ever. In the case of the Seeds of Death, seed pods are sent to the planet that expand and burst, consuming oxygen and terra-forming the planet to better suit the martians all at once. Neat, huh? To visualize this, a foam machine is inexplicably employed and its silliness all over again as Troughton slips about covered head to toe in suds.
It is a shame that there are not more examples of the Patrick Troughton era as so many of these episodes are still missing from the archives. I remember back in 1983 when my local PBS station showed a few omnibus edition examples of previous Doctor Who stories (they mainly played Tom Baker and Peter Davison episodes) and The Seeds of Death was chosen as the Troughton story (The Daleks and Carnival of Monsters were also shown). It encapsulates so many themes and ideas of the classic Doctor Who that one could point to it as a perfect example of the series. Monsters that can’t move properly or see straight, a world in peril and a strange silly man in a long coat saving the day.
Overwhelmed by a deadly plague or soap suds?
Perfection.
(more colourised images of Doctor Who can be found here) Recommendations:
Doctor Who: The Seeds of Death
Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes
Story 043
By David Whitaker, from a story by Kit Pedler
27 April to 1 June 1968
After seeing Victoria off, Jamie and the Doctor are reluctant to resume their adventures in time and space. When the TARDIS goes haywire, it demands that the craft land inside a mysterious rocket in mid-travel. Headed directly for a satellite (the Wheel), the Doctor and Jamie fail to discover who and what are driving the rocket toward its destination and become prey to the dreaded Cybermen as they launch another attack on the human race.
I have mentioned before that I enjoy the chemistry between Frazier Hines and Patrick Troughton in their three year stint. The stories of this period are admittedly limited and rely heavily on monsters (Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti and Ice Warriors are featured several times), but the performance from the main cast contributes to the prolonged success of this much loved era. I also quite enjoy the ‘food acting’ that Hines and Troughton deliver as it makes the characters and situations all that more real. In the opening episode of the Wheel In Space, we see the Doctor produce frozen treats from his capacious pockets and arrange for a ‘square meal’ via a food machine. It’s a little thing, but it adds to the atmosphere and makes the unreal situation easy to relate to.
After consuming a large synthesized meal, Jamie falls asleep and the Doctor attempts to investigate the rest of the rocket only to encounter a very strangely designed service robot and gets knocked unconscious to boot. Rescued from the rocket by the crew of the nearby satellite, Jamie is put in an awkward situation without the Doctor to help him answer the many questions posed to him. The Wheel, as it is known, acts as a stopping off point for interstellar travelers. Jamie is given a full tour of the station and introduced to Zoe Harriot, a child protege with a knack for calculations and a spot of bother in personal relations.
The head of the Wheel, Jarvis Bennett is over-wrought with anxiety and decides that the wayward rocket upon which the Doctor and Jamie were discovered is a nuisance and must be destroyed… but that would also eliminate the TARDIS by Jamie’s reckoning! Knocked unconscious by an unseen foe, the Doctor cannot advise Jamie on how to prevent the destruction of the rocket, leading to Jamie’s unfortunate decision in ruining the satellite’s only defense system, leaving them ripe for attack.
The third outing of the silver giants called Cybermen was hardly their best, but it still had a number of string moments. The ‘invading force’ of Cybermen this time around consists of just three monsters, hardly an impressive assault force. Redesigned slightly since their last appearance, these Cybermen look a bit sturdier and more menacing than before. The special effects are very impressive, with the revival sequence a real stand out moment that remains impressive today. A slight design modification on their already amazing design seen in the Moonbase, these Cybermen are much more intelligent and scheming in their tactics, risking few of their numbers and instead employing the Cybermats to infiltrate the Wheel for them. Nevertheless, they are still in fine form.
Newcomer Wendy Padbury makes an instant impression, being cute as a button if a little hampered by a lack of personality. In the hands of a lesser actress, this combination would have been a disaster, but Padbury pulls it off so well, charming the Doctor and challenging Jamie to the point of annoyance, even though deep down he fancies her. I mean, who wouldn’t? Following in the footsteps of the maiden in distress-type Victoria, Zoe is rather self-reliant and determined in her own way, if a bit over sure of herself. There’s a great moment where she posits a logical argument to the Doctor and he brushes it off, stating that logic only allows you to be wrong with authority. It’s a remarkable statement that in the Doctor’s world, brains don’t account for everything.
When a talking cactus can try to take over the universe, all bets are off.
Part of the problem that the Wheel in Space faces lies in the fact that it is too long. It also barely features the Doctor and instead focuses on the staff of the Wheel to solve their own problems. The staff are an unruly lot, consisting of an overworked manager in the verge of a nervous breakdown, flirty shipmates and an engineer with delusions of space life being cute and cuddly!
When engineer Bill Dugan finds a Cybermat he is hardly surprised at all and least of all horrified (they are very cute to be fair) and instead decides to keep their presence a secret. Why? Who knows but much of the plot relies on this terrible idea that puts the Wheel in jeopardy. While the Doctor spends much of this six parter out of the spotlight, it allows the supporting cast ample opportunity to fill in the allowed time which they do quite well. They are all interesting characters and well performed by the cast, but it all feels suspiciously like a retread of Moonbase with slight alterations.
Fortunately, Moonbase is a spectacular adventure, so there’s not much trouble there.
One can see the influence that Troughton’s portrayal has on Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor in this story as the Doctor sticks to the sidelines throughout much of the adventure, only coming to the rescue in the eleventh hour. By this encounter with the Cybermen, the Doctor had established himself as having special knowledge of the monsters and while this hardly translates into recognizing an Achilles’ heel, it certainly grants him the ability to out-think his enemy. It’s all very clever and satisfying, but all along the way it appears that the Doctor could so easily be murdered by these silver giants.
The vulnerability of the Doctor is a quality that is strangely absent from the modern program that presents him as a magical being capable of destroying whole fleets with nothing short of a pocket torch. The Second Doctor, by comparison was a contradiction as he many times played the fool to put off his enemies but in many instances really was out of his depth. This made the menaces all the more dangerous and the successes of our heroes all the more remarkable. It also allowed for a healthy mixture of drama and comedy as the Doctor could be seen running like a loon down a hallway in one episode only to concoct an electr0magnetic weapon in the next. Thrilling stuff.
A veteran author many fine adventures, David Whitaker had already penned two Dalek stories that still stand out as classics. His collaboration with Cybermen co-creator Kit Pedler is a far cry from Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks, but that doesn’t make it a flop by any stretch of the imagination. Combining the scientific knowledge of Pedler and the superior plotting and characterizations of Whitaker, Wheel in Space may be too long by far, but it keeps the pace going nonetheless with scary moments of Cybernization and violent zombie-like attacks. This may be yet another base under siege story, but it keeps things interesting. In fact it is certainly an influence on 1982′s Earthshock and even the Eight Doctor audio adventure Sword of Orion.
In fact, the Cybermen, along with their faithful Cybermats, are due to return again next series if this image is anything to go by. Hopefully they’ll actually get to do something aside from get blown up this time.
The Wheel in Space is hardly the finest outing for the Cybermen, I’d give that honor to The Invasion or Tomb of the Cybermen, but it still has its charm. The atmosphere is quite chilling with the mind-controlled crew and indestructible monsters threatening the vulnerable space station. Trailer
Like many stories from the 60′s, the Wheel in Space is missing from the archives with only episodes 3 and 6 still available for viewing. Therefore, an out of print novelization, a similarly rare audio CD or fan-reconstructed video are the only real options to experience this classic. With the recent reprint series of Doctor Who novelizations taking flight, perhaps fans can hope to see the book back in print again. After the announcement of the Reign of Terror’s missing episodes receiving the animation treatment, perhaps this story will also get a special release.
Until the reissues or DVD special editions arrive, here are some recommendations:
Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes
Story 31
Written by Elwyn Jones and Gerry Davis
Transmitted December 17, 1966 – January 7, 1967
“Oh dear. You should have spent more time with your history books, Ben.”
Doctor Who had been running for over three very successful years before its star William Hartnell decided that he disliked the direction that the program was headed. He and head of serials Shaun Sutton were like chalk and cheese, it seemed. After a rotating series of assistants, Hartnell was frustrated with the future of the program he had worked so hard to establish. It’s no secret that Bill Hartnell viewed himself as the heart of the program and it is also perfectly understandable as he was the only constant in three years, aside from the TARDIS itself. It became clear that the actor would have to leave the part he had so loved, and not in the best of circumstances. Ill healthy compounded the issue and is often cited as the only reason behind his departure, but in truth there were many factors involved. Even so, on his way out the door he made one proclamation – that if anyone could carry the program it was Patrick Troughton.
Shaun Sutton and series producer Innes Lloyd agreed:
“The producer and I were absolutely determined to have Patrick Troughton, because we knew Patrick Troughton and I had actually been a drama student with Patrick Troughton many years ago, before the war. And even back then, Patrick had those deep lines on his face, he had the look of a thousand-year-old leprechaun, and I remember saying to him once, before the war, ‘Pat, you have the secret of eternal age’, and I thought that was a very good quality for ‘Doctor Who’. (from DrWhoInterviews)
After pitching the quirky character actor to Doctor Who’s creator Sidney Newman, Troughton was confirmed as the new Doctor. His first adventure, Power of the Daleks, saw the ‘renewed’ Doctor convince both the viewers at home
and companions Ben and Polly that he was indeed the same man… just radically different. Appearing to be a buffoon, this new Doctor directed attention away from himself as a serious threat to anyone, least of all the Daleks. Yet he defeated them once again. Pat Troughton had plenty of ideas regarding how to play the part, mostly as a character role, the kind that he was well known for. Much of this approach is not present in Power of the Daleks, but in his second outing, the Highlanders, one can see a few of these comedic notions. Thankfully he wasn’t allowed to pursue them as this story features a very different version of the character that would later develop into the Second Doctor fans know and love.
Ben, the Doctor and Polly try to discern their location in time and space
Throughout The Highlanders, Troughton plays the Doctor mainly as an over the top clown, causing the program to border on the realms of comedy. The supporting cast, however, are in fine form with Michael Craze as Ben proving to be a headstrong hero and Aneke Wills as Polly making the ideal rebellious young Londoner. The pair of companions often get missed by fans as most of their appearances are lost, but after investigating a few of their appearances, they really are quite entertaining and resourceful. Between the two of them they manage to defeat Cybermen, befuddle pirates among other achievements. There is a lot of cockney slang from Ben (I found it fun), but by and large Ben and Polly are in dire need of a reassessment. In fact it is largely Ben and Polly who carry the bulk of the Highlanders as Troughton’s Doctor is busy getting into Marx Brothers-style routines.
The adventure is set during the Battle of Culloden, the conclusion to the bloody Jacobite Rising in 1745. Landing in the Scottish highlands, the Doctor almost immediately wants no part of a war zone and attempts to depart at the first sound of gunfire. It’s a comedic opening obviously done for laughs as the Doctor has almost always welcomed danger and sought to help those in need. Cajoled into investigating their surroundings by his companions Ben and Polly, the Doctor finds a discarded Tam o’ Shanter and prances around in it for a bit. This Doctor apparently had a thing for silly hats, be it his massive stove pipe hat or this one. He soon discovers, however, that it bears the standard of Bonnie Prince Charlie. They are then caught up by a clan of Scots as they retreat to a nearby cottage, their Laird Colin in dire straights.
On account of their accents alone, the time travelers are thought to be part of the English forces mopping up the last remnants of resistance in the hills. The Doctor soon not only earns their trust but also offers to help heal the Laird. Soon the cottage is beset by English soldiers. Seeking to draw them off, Colin’s brave son Alexander takes a volley of shots standing his ground against insurmountable odds. With only his piper Jamie, Colin is taken captive and almost hung by the red coats if not for the intercession of Solicitor Grey who takes possession of the lot for his own insidious ends.
It turns out that Solicitor Grey has a very profitable scheme selling rebels to the plantations in Jamaica for a hearty amount. Transferred to a nearby sailing vessel run by the odious Captain Trask, the Doctor, Ben, Colin and Jamie are thrown in a dungeon where they await their end. Wrapped up in the unfortunate turn of events, the Doctor uses his wits to outsmart Grey while on the mainland Kirsty and Polly develop a mad scheme to release their friends from harm, gaining an unwilling ally in the form of the Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch.
The Doctor dances a jig 'I should like a hat like that!'
The Highlanders is a grand adventure and well directed (judging by the audio and few remaining bits of film). Equal parts comedy and drama, there’s plenty to keep the viewer’s interest as the story unfolds. The only real weak link is the Doctor himself who seems to be acting almost entirely out of character, smashing people’s heads in, tying them up and hurling them into closets and the like. It’s obviously played for laughs but it is unusual to see a Doctor acting so violent and for comic relief as well. The Doctor puts on a silly German accent, pretending to be a German doctor, and even dresses up in drag at one point to get out of the enemy camp. Meanwhile Ben Jackson thinks up risky ploys to get off of the slave ship to round up help for his friends. It’s part of the old school mentality dating back to the character of Ian Chesteron that the male companion plays the physical heroic part while the Doctor is more of a thinking man’s hero, but in this case the Doctor isn’t exactly heroic as he is a chaotic prankster.
The political angle of the Highlanders is hammered home repeatedly as both Ben and Polly continually mistake the arrival of English troops as a good thing when in fact it is a death sentence. In prison, the Doctor encourages the confined Scots to a rousing rally, prompting Jamie to inquire his support of Prince Charles. But the Doctor admits that he just wanted to make some noise and enjoyed the acoustics.
Of course this adventure is most well regarded for the introduction of Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon who remained a companion of the Doctor’s until Pat Troughton’s final story, the epic War Games. Apparently Hines was so popular in the role that calls came in demanding that he be allowed to stay on as the third companion. While many concepts alien to Jamie fly by his notice (from modern slang to the Doctor’s technical gobbledegook), he seldom lets them get in his way. A real character, Jamie is incredibly entertaining on screen even in the beginning when he has very little to work with. Of course Jamie really only came into his own in the Faceless Ones much later on, after the production team decided to slim down the main cast in order to make it more manageable.
The reality of the situation at the Battle of Culloden is disturbingly moving. It is clear that Solicitor Grey can get away with murder simply because it is a time of war and all is in disarray. Jamie, Colin and Ben make a valiant stand for nobility and bravery by refusing to knuckle under to Trask and Grey’s ploy to sell the prisoners as plantation workers, stating that it is a slow death that they are selling. Yet the Doctor seems glibly unconcerned with the gravity of the situation. Maybe this was an attempt to take the edge off of the violence of war that the story referred to, but it’s odd.
The Doctor is held at knife point by Highlanders (and a young Jamie McCrimmon!)
It has been pointed out that playing the Doctor relies greatly on the eccentricities of the actor rather than playing a part. This was the approach that William Hartnell took when he displayed both his irritability and warmth along with a steadfast defiance in the face of danger. His successors Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker likewise played themselves on screen as the Third and Fourth Doctors but the Second Doctor is another kettle of fish all together.
I recall reading that Troughton saw his Doctor as being a character part covered in fake beards and silly clothes that he could remove after performances and disappear into his own private life. A very private man, he was a magnificent actor but was reluctant to reveal anything of himself on camera. There are wonderful moments when what I imagine is the ‘real face’ of Troughton comes through such as his tenderness toward Victoria in The Tomb of the Cybermen, but most of the time he is clearly playing a part; be it a devious, comedic or dramatic one. In this adventure, he was still finding his footing and the program itself wasn’t sure where it was headed as it entered a new era.
Doctor Who – The Highlanders (reconstruction)
In the years to come, the ‘cosmic hobo’ Second Doctor would transform into a compelling and brilliant tactician and hero to the innocent, even stating that ‘there are evils in the universe that must be fought’ in the Moonbase two stories later. But in the Highlanders, he seemed to be an agent of anarchy merely playing about in time and space, much like the other Time Lord seen previously, the Meddling Monk.
I count the Second Doctor as one of if not the finest incarnation of the Doctor. A cunning strategist and brilliant engineer, he could defeat nearly any menace with a handful of loose odds and ends. A scruffy looking tramp, the Second Doctor stood his ground against horrific monsters and mad scientists, often placing himself in harm’s way. A soulful and whimsical character, Troughton’s Doctor introduced the quirkiness that was later taken up by Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy and currently Matt Smith. The direct successor to Hartnell’s First Doctor, Pat Troughton had a long way to go to remake the character into his own interpretation. The Highlanders is a stumbling block along that path, with the Moonbase acting as a firm foothold on the climb to greatness.
“You’re supposed to be so advanced, yet here you are taking your revenge like children!” Story 033
Written by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler
Transmitted 11 February – 4 March 1967
In the 21st Century, the human race has established a moonbase to control the weather on the Earth. Having forgotten the threat that the Cybermen once posed, they are vulnerable to invasion from the silver giants. When the Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie arrive by accident, they are knee-deep in a systematic attack on the international lunar installation.
The second TV Cybermen story, Moonbase is a cracking great adventure. Unfortunately, episodes 1 and 3 of this four parter are missing, requiring anyone interested in this story to watch a reconstruction from Loose Canons, read the Target novelization or listen to the audio-book. The reunion of Cybermen creators Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler sees the duo has sharpened their writing skills, delivering a more exciting story improving on their already impressive Tenth Planet the year before.
Doctor Who - Moonbase by Daryl Joyce
In their first appearance, the Cybermen were shown as being cold calculating cyborgs. Possessing great strength and armed with a deadly weapon harnessed to their chests, the early Cybermen came from the planet Mondas to drain the life from the planet Earth. While established as cyborgs, the costumes of the first Cybermen appeared hauntingly human-like.
Their cloth-covered faces betrayed a facial structure and their exposed hands established that at least parts of them were still flesh and blood. This human-like quality made them all the more terrifying as monsters as their actions denied their nature. It has often been stated that the Cybermen are devoid of emotion which has never stood up to scrutiny in my opinion. They are certainly unrestrained by compassion and empathy, but this has created a brutally aggressive personality rather than the cold, robotic personality that mythology would have us accept.
In their second appearance, the Cybermen are much less humanoid, their entire forms covered in plastic and metal. A radically different design, this version is far more solid and impressive on screen. However, it is in the Moonbase that we get a glimpse of their cunning. Initially, the base is under siege without knowing it, the commander believing it to be a simply viral outbreak. Nonetheless, the Doctor, Ben and Polly suspect that the Cybermen are behind the virus, using it as a weapon to weaken the base’s crew. The commander scoffs at the notion of Cybermen, stating that they were wiped out ‘long ago’ (presumably in their attack in 1984). Soon the Doctor’s suspicions bear bitter fruit and the Cybermen are revealed as the real enemy. By using mind control as well as viral warfare tactics, their attack on the moonbase is overwhelming. They have almost won without firing a shot.
The TARDIS crew was rather large at this time, including the new character of Jamie McCrimmon (first appearing in the Highlanders). As Jamie was added so late in the game, many of the scripts for the series were not constructed with him in mind. It’s very disappointing to see what would become a beloved companion such as Jamie wasted in scenes which feature him coming in and out of consciousness, glimpsing what he believes to be the specter of death coming for him as a Cybermen breaks into the sick bay. Even when he is given very little to work with, however, Frazier Hines is outstanding. His confusion and fear surrounding their arrival on the moon is a nice touch. Jamie is obviously horrified by their ability to arrive on such an unearthly land, yet he tries to lighten the mood, ‘perhaps we’ll see the man in the moon.’ Classic.
Ben and Polly are hardly recognized by fans, as most of their adventures are lost to the BBC’s junking scandal. It’s unfair as the more I explore the novelizations and audio files of these lost stories, they prove to be an enjoyable pair. Polly’s swinging sixties ‘dutchess’ character is very unique in that the actress Aneke Wills decided early on to make her a screamer rather than a brave and noble hero. Likewise, actor Michael Craze played the part of Ben as a tough cockney who often jarred with Polly but came to respect her spunk. In this particular story, we even see Polly concoct a weapon to defeat the Cybermen… possibly the most sadistic method to date; melting their lungs with acid.
Along with a cracking script by Davis and Pedler, The Moonbase also boasts some outstanding visual design. The visual effects are great and show an inclination to explore the boundaries of the television medium, something that is perhaps most strongly felt in these 60′s adventures. Keeping in mind the budgetary constraints and the limitations of the studio and bulky cameras, the lunar scenes are very impressive and establish the mood immediately. Speaking of mood, the musical score is timeless. This was back in the days when music concrete had a heavy influence on Doctor Who and the series featured some of the spookiest musical scores ever heard. The sounds provided by Brain Hodgson are also top notch, including the newly modulated Cybermen voices.
The Moonbase followed a mish-mash of successes and failures for the fourth series. Power of the Daleks re-introduced viewers to the Daleks in one of their most well-written scripts. Highlanders was a traditional historical romp while The Underwater Menace was a pulpy science fiction story more at home in the days of the Columbia Pictures serials of the early days of film. As such, Moonbase viewed from a modern perspective is very traditional Doctor Who. The Doctor and his companions arrive in the middle of danger, are suspected as the cause of trouble, work their way into being trusted and ultimately defeat the monster trying to get at the guest cast. At the time, this approach was fairly new and it informed the formula of the program all the way to the current BBC Wales series.
As monsters, the Cybermen are very impressive this time around. Their silent attacks on the sick bay remains one of my favorite moments of all their TV material. In my mind, I imagined that the Cybermen were taking bodies for raw material as their own organic organs and limbs would need some replacing. One thing is for sure, the abducted humans are put to use by the Cybermen to further their mission. The mind-controlled humans are horrifying on screen and would appear throughout their 60′s appearances. Another iconic moment is when the army of Cybermen conduct their march across the lunar surface, unhindered by the low gravity. The black and white photography greatly helps the presentation, causing the monsters to appear as ghostly soldiers against the black backdrop.
I have noted my love affair with the Cybermen in previous articles and also pointed out that they rarely got a good innings on screen. This is an exception. Deadly and rueful, their vendetta against the human race is in full effect here. They even gloat over the hapless commander’s inability to guess how the moonbase was compromised by chuckling, ‘Clever… clever… clever.’
Patrick Troughton is still in his early days of playing the Doctor, but you’d never guess that by watching him here. His determination to fight ‘the evils of the universe’ is presented in what one would expect to be a common scene in every Doctor Who adventure, yet it is unique here. Troughton even gets to perform a strange scene with himself as he thinks aloud and talks back to his thoughts regarding the weakness of the Cybermen to intense sound and gravity. It’s weird, sure, but it’s also memorable.
One of the classic Doctor Who stories from its era, The Moonbase was a landmark for what was to come. I had pointed out that two of the four episodes are missing, requiring a great deal of patience from fans left to listen to an audio CD or watch grainy stills accompanying the soundtrack. Even so, it is a fantastic story worthy of a look from the devoted fan.
The remaining episodes of the Moonbase are included as part of the Lost in Time box set (available at criminally discounted prices via amazon) which I highly recommend. Also, you may want to seek out the VHS release Cybermen: The Early Years hosted by Colin Baker which analyzes their appearances in the 1960′s complete with interviews from the creators, cast and crew from those early days of the program. If you are like me, the novelization is also a nice way to experience the story. The Target book range was a major part of the fan experience from the 1980′s and I get more than a little nostalgic when I revisit them. Additionally, the BBC audio CD is available and uses a wonderfully touched-up audio track.
Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes
London is under attacked, a thick mist that defies explanation appearing throughout the city that leaves cobwebs around its victims, petrifying them in place. Thirty years after his first meeting with the strange Doctor and his traveling companions in far off Tibet, Professor Travers discovers that his nightmare has started again. The Yeti have returned as the Great Intelligence once more attempts to establish a foothold on our planet.
Series 5 is regarded as ‘the monster series’ of Classic Doctor Who as it consists of more monster-oriented stories than most and had a strong impact on viewers who had started to lose interest. There are plenty of classics during 1968; The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Ice Warriors, Enemy of the World and Fury from the Deep. In fact, only the series finale Wheel in Space is lacking in quality. Of course, only one of these stories is complete so the judgement is one that involves a lot of work in the part of the viewer, but working from the novelizations, still images, surviving episodes or trims and audio adaptations, it seems that series five is worthy of its reputation.
Doctor Who in the mid-1960′s was essentially an adventure series with monsters invading the world with only the pixie-like Doctor defending the innocent from their assault. Patrick Troughton played the lead part of the Doctor in a drastically different manner than his predecessor William Hartnell. Whereas Hartnell served the role of patriarch and magician, the second incarnation was more of a impish wizard, dashing about exasperated as he struggles to uncover mysteries and conquer alien hordes. I adore the fallibility of the Second Doctor, made all the more comical by his ingenious resourcefulness at defeating whole armies of aliens with found materials. Troughton’s incarnation of the Doctor is the source of many key attributes of the Time Lord that later actors picked up, from Tom Baker to David Tennant and certainly Matt Smith who seems to be basing his performance entirely on the second Doctor.
Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Victoria (Deborah Watling) pursued by a Yeti
The success of the second Doctor on screen depended greatly on Troughton’s persona and diminutive appearance along with the support of his co-stars Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon and Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield. Jamie is one of the all time best companions. A time-tossed young man from the 18th Century, Jamie is a practical individual, accepting the world around him at face value, failing to be boggled by the confusion of the modern world and its technological advancements. By contrast, Victoria is a cultured young lady of privilege, terrified by the creatures that she encounters in her travels with the Doctor. Greatly dependent on both the Doctor and Jamie for reassurance, you can’t help as a viewer but to be sympathetic to her plight, wanting nothing more than to protect her just as her companions do week after week. It also helps that her short time on the program features some of the deadliest and most terrifying monsters be they Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Yeti or strange sea creatures.
One of the most beloved of the classic Doctor Who adventures, The Web of Fear not only reunites the TARDIS crew with the Great Intelligence and its monstrous Yeti, but also an aged Professor Travers (played by actress Deborah Watling’s father), last seen in The Abominable Snowmen earlier the same year. Written by the team of Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, the adventure is a gripping drama full of action and intrigue set in the London Underground. It is a brilliant idea to have the Doctor meet up with Travers again so long after they had last fought the Yeti in 1938. Not only does it create a continuation of a story regarding the Yeti but it also brings back a character that has aged while the Doctor and his companions have not aged a day.
Professor Travers (Jack Watling)
Jack Watling is clearly having a ball as the crotchety Travers, desperately attempting to save the world from a threat that his own stubborn curiosity has caused. In his previous encounter with the Doctor, Travers had been involved in an expeditionary mission to uncover the secret of the Abominable Snowman. His expedition tragically overlaps the master plan of the Great Intelligence using the nearby monastery as a beachhead for invasion. Using robotic creations designed to look like the legendary Yeti, the Great Intelligence steered the creatures through silver control spheres.
After losing a fortune in hunting the Yeti in Tibet only to discover a robotic race of look-a-like monsters, Travers turned his hand to electronics, becoming a respected scientist in the field. Determined to unravel the mystery of the Yeti’s control devices, he found that he had once again spent his life and money in a lost cause. To make ends meet, he sold the Yeti shell he had brought back from Tibet to a rich collector of antiquities. However, his long years of hard work eventually bore bitter fruit. Having activated a control sphere, Travers had started the sequence of events that led to the second invasion of the Great Intelligence.
Nicholas Courtney as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart in the Web of Fear
Web of Fear features the first appearance of Colonel Alistaire Lethbridge-Stewart, before he was known simply as ‘the Brigadier.’ While he starts off as appearing to be a suspicious character, it’s wonderful to see Lethbridge-Stewart acting the ‘proper soldier,’ demanding to have everything by the books, assembling everyone for official briefings and the like. Played by the late Nicholas Courtney, Lethbridge-Stewart is immediately a strong addition to the regular supporting cast. Adamant, brave and resourceful, it is easy to understand his later appearance as a regular cast member opposite Jon Pertwee based on this story and the following year’s adventure, the Invasion (one of my all-time favorites).
One of the scarier Doctor Who adventures screened at a time when the program was still considered family entertainment, this story has plenty of gruesome moments involving roaring Yetis attacking with glowing eyes and slashing claws, but the desolate surroundings and carnage present in the wake of their attacks are far more terrifying than any actual on-screen violence. Veteran director Douglas Camfield (Inferno, Terror of the Zygons, Seeds of Doom) had a masterful touch and had been involved in several of the more legendary scary stories. This story, one of hid earlier outings, does not disappoint in that regard.
The production team no doubt could anticipate this as Web of Fear was preceded by a short promotional trailer featuring Patrick Troughton warning viewers that the latest story was perhaps a bit spookier than young viewers would be prepared for.
Lovely stuff, the trailer has been recreated below.
Computer-enhanced trailer
Of course, it is nearly impossible to review this story without giving a large part of imagination over to the existing sound track and clips. Much of the Web of Fear’s success relies on the atmosphere of the London Underground and the sheer fright factor of the Yeti. As so much of that material cannot be viewed, I can only guess at what it must have looked like as the Colonel and Jamie trudged down dark railway tunnels when monsters could leap out at any moment.
Like the Abominable Snowmen before it, Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln’s script is a gripping suspenseful story. The Doctor and his companions arrive in the latter part of the Yeti invasion, after the city had been evacuated and the military have started a systematic destruction of the underground in an attempt to isolate the Yeti. The story involves several key aspects of classic Doctor Who, from the seemingly unbeatable menace of the Yeti to the suspicion of a traitor in the midst and of course creepy alien possession after Travers becomes an extension of the Great Intelligence in a hair-raisingly frightening performance.
One of the classic monsters of vintage Doctor Who along with the Daleks, Cybemen and Ice Warriors, the Yeti are rumored to be in production for release as an action figure possibly even this year! Will this mean another two-pack of the Second Doctor, this time in his furry coat… or perhaps Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart? Only time can tell.
Here’s a picture of the prototype.
Character Options Yeti Prototype
The Web of Fear can be enjoyed on CD, the sound track enhanced by narration provided by actor Frazer Hines. The only surviving episode was also included in the Lost in Time set which I highly recommend. 2entertain also included several clips that had been cut from the episodes by the New Zealand censor bureau.
Story 042
Story 039
Doctor Who and The Wheel in Space
Story 31
