Saturday 31 December 2016

143 The Highlanders: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Highlanders: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 143
STORY NUMBER: 031
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 31 December 1966
WRITER: Elwyn Jones & Gerry Davis (uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Hugh David
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.4 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Highlanders: Episode Three

"Plantation workers are required to work in his Majesty's colonies in the West Indies. I have here seven year contracts. Sign your name to these and you will receive free transportation to your new homes. Well? Which of you lucky lads will be the first to sign?"

Ben, Jamie & the Laird are put in the Annabelle's hold where they find Mackay, the ship's true captain known to the McClaren's who was betrayed by Trask. Polly & Kirsty disguise themselves as orange sellers. Ffinch arrives at the Sea Eagle in where the Doctor is still disguised as an old woman. Polly & Kirsty finds Ffinch who tells them to talk to Grey about their friends. Perkins, Grey's clerk arrives and they talk to him. Grey is on the Annabelle compelling the prisoners to turn King's evidence or be deported to the West Indies on a seven year contract. MacKay warns against signing but all the other Scotsmen bar Jamie, the Laird and Ben do. Ben tears the contracts up. The disguised Doctor contacts the girls in the tavern and they make plans to buy weapons which the Doctor then acquires. They're going to row them out to the Annabelle. The Doctor discovers Kirsty's ring and reveals it to be Prince Charlie's. Ben is bound and thrown overboard for his disobedience.

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This episode was almost as boring as the last one but towards the end Troughton starts being the Doctor rather than mucking about disguised as a woman and it picks up rapidly then.

This story was written by Elwyn Jones, with some assistance from script editor Gerry Davis. Jones has a formidable track record: he co-created Z-Cars in 1962 and went on to create it's sequels Softly, Softly, Softly, Softly: Taskforce and Barlow at Large. At the point this story was written he'd just left the post of Head of Drama at the BBC! Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson seems to play a part in inspiring this story especially he being forcibly shipped off to the West Indies element. This is his only Doctor Who story.

The first time Doctor Who director is former actor Hugh David, who apparently had been offered the role of The Doctor by Rex Tucker. David was originally down to direct The Underwater Menace, but pronounced the script for that impossible top produce. He would return to direct Fury from the Deep and as such is the only Doctor Who director who worked on multiple stories to have no episode of their work existing in the archives. He directed Survival Code, the last episode of the first series of Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis Doomwatch, which famously kills off lead character Toby Wren. He was married to Wendy Williams who played Vira in The Ark in Space

Appearing this episode is Andrew Downie as Willie Mackay. I can see he appeared in the final episode of The Sweeney: Jack or Knave where he plays Bishop and also The Professionals: Everest Was Also Conquered where he is McKay.

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Playing the Laird Colin McLaren is Donald Bisset. In amongst a long career I can see another Professionals episode where he plays a Judge in Not a Very Civil Civil Servant. Acting wasn't his only career: he was also a successful children's author.

Saturday 24 December 2016

142 The Highlanders: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Highlanders: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 142
STORY NUMBER: 031
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 24 December 1966
WRITER: Elwyn Jones & Gerry Davis (uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Hugh David
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 6.8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Highlanders: Episode Two

"Once aboard the Annabelle, that's the only way you'll get off her. Straight downwards!"

Polly's visitor turns out to be Kirsty who tries to rescue her, but falls in too. Ffinch finds them but he too falls in and they take him prisoner. At Inverness The Doctor, Ben, Jamie and the Laird have been thrown in a dank cell. The Doctor discovers Bonnie Prince Charles' standard on the Laird's person and calls for the guards to take it to Grey. Polly & Kirsty blackmail Ffinch and steel his identity documents. Grey orders Captain Trask to load the prisoners onto his ship for deportation. Gaining access to Grey the Doctor overpowers him, hides him then tricks Perkins into believing he is ill. Ffinch is found by his Sergeant who turns the situation to his monetary gain. Trask releases Grey but misses the Doctor now disguised as a scullery maid. Jamie Ben & the Laird are taken to Trask's ship, the Annabelle, where Trask punishes a fellow prisoner by throwing him bound overboard to drown.

Sorry it bored me to tears this one. You're meant to laugh at Troughton's German accent and dressing up. I didn't. Oh look it's a historical story and we're back on boats AGAIN.

Onto the cast: David Garth plays Solicitor Grey: he'll be back in Terror of the Autons Episode One as the Time Lord who warns the Doctor of the Master's arrival on Earth.

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Grey's assistant Perkins is played by Sydney Arnold who you can see as a Prisoner in the Out of the Unknown episode The Midas Plague which is an existing episode of that series on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set.

Michael Elwyn plays Lt. Algernon Ffinch. He has a recurring role in Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis Doomwatch as Ministry Official Richard Duncan and can be seen in the episodes The Red Sky, Invasion, Flight Into Yesterday, The Web of Fear, Public Enemy, Fire and Brimstone & Deadly Dangerous Tomorrow, several of which survive and can be seen on The Doomwatch DVD

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Peter Welch plays the Redcoat Sergeant: He returns to Doctor Who as Morgan, the landlord of the Fleur-de-Lys pub in Devesham, in The Android Invasion. He too is in Out of the Unknown appearing as Sam in the Douglas Camfield directed The Last Lonely Man, the only completely surviving episode from the third season of the show. He also appears in Doomwatch as Tom Hedley in Invasion, which one of the episode Michael Elwyn appears in.

Playing Captain Trask is Dallas Cavell. H'e already been in The Reign of Terror 2: Guests of Madame Guillotine as the Road Works Overseer who captures and then is decieved by the Doctor and as the prisoner Bors in The Dalek Masterplan 3: Devil's Planet. He later reappears as Quinlan in The Ambassadors of Death and appears in the first episode of Castrovalva as the Head of Security.

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Playing Kirsty is Hannah Gordon, in an early television role. She'll go on to make a name for herself in Upstairs, Downstairs, playing Virginia Bellamy, alongside Jean Marsh, of the Crusade and Dalek Masterplan. One of Hannah Gordon's earliest jobs in television was appearing as Zaylo in No Place Like Home, the first broadcast episode of Out of the Unknown.

The only other female actor in this cast is Barbara Bruce as Mollie: she was previously a Woman Tourist in The Chase 3: Flight Through Eternity. Sadly this is the only episodes she appears in and the only telesnaps she's in is a little blurred!

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Similarly hard to see clearly is Tom Bowman, who plays the Sentry who argues with the prisoners. He's also in the Out of the Unknown episode Immortality Inc as Sammy.

I'm completely unable to spot him in a telesnap but credited as a Sailor is legendary stuntman Peter Diamond. He as serves as fight arranger for Dalek Invasion of Earth 5: The Waking Ally, The Romans 2-4: All Roads Lead to Rome, Conspiracy & Inferno, The Space Museum 3 & 4: The Search & The Final Phase, The Chase 5: The Death of Doctor Who and will fill the same role for The Evil of the Daleks episode 5, The War Games episode ten and The Dæmons episode four. In front of the camera he was an uncredited stunt double in The Daleks 7: The Rescue and will be again for The Dæmons episode three but also acted appearing as Delos in All Roads Lead to Rome, Conspiracy & Inferno, episodes 2-4 of The Romans, a Morok Technician in The Dimensions of Time and a Morok Guard in The Search & The Final Phase, the second, third and fourth episodes of The Space Museum. His next appearance is a short one as the ill fated Davis in The Ice Warriors episode 1, and he's then an Extra in The Enemy of the World episode 1, the Doctor / Salamander in The Enemy of the World episode 6, a Confederate Horseman in The War Games episode three and an Alien Guard in The War Games episode nine. Diamond has either been in or do9ne stunts for just about every show on TV and many, many films: check out his IMDB entry for a full list!

Saturday 17 December 2016

141 The Highlanders: Episode One

EPISODE: The Highlanders: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 141
STORY NUMBER: 031
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 17 December 1966
WRITER: Elwyn Jones & Gerry Davis (uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Hugh David
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 6.7 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Highlanders: Episode One

"The clans are broken, shot to pieces by the English guns!"

Culloden, 16 April 1746. The injured Colin MacLaren, Laird of the clean MacLaren flees the lost battle with his son Alexander, daughter Kirsty and their piper Jamie McCrimmon. The newly arrived time travellers stumble upon them hiding in a cottage. While Kirsty & Polly seek water for Colin's wounds,Ben accidentally discharges a musket alerting the attention of nearby English redcoats under the command of Lieutenant Algernon ffinch. Alexander is killed defending the cottage and the others are captured despite the Doctor posing as the German Doctor von Wer. The Redcoat sergeant is ready to hang them, but they are approached by Solicitor Grey, Royal Commissioner of Prisons, and his clerk Perkins who bride the soldiers into releasing them to him. He sends the prisoners off to Inverness, where they will be put on a slave ship to the West Indies. Grey takes the Doctor with him, after the Doctor quotes a point of law to save him from the gallows. Kirsty & Polly hide in a cave and consider what to do. Polly wants to sell Kirsty's ring for money but Kirsty won't let her: her father entrusted it to her. Polly, frustrated, goes off by herself and falls into an animal trap which is then approached by someone holding a dagger.

This is my fourth encounter with the Highlanders: The last three times it's failed to grip me but this time, with the aid of the telesnaps, has worked a bit better. However based on past experience I don't hold out much hope for the next three weeks!

The main historical event in this episode is over and done with before we even arrive: The Battle of Culloden effectively marking the end of the Jacobite uprising. Credited writer Elwyn Jones & Script Editor Gerry Davis, who did a lot of work on this script, use the battle as the starting point for the story rather than the culmination.

This episode marks the second appearance of the "I would like a hat like that!" gag as the Doctor finds a Tam O Shanter by the abandoned cannon.

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A HUGE cheer please for Frazer Hines, making his debut here as Jamie McCrimmon. An actor since childhood he was initially contracted for four weeks work on this serial. However the powers that be liked what they saw and asked him to join the show as a companion, necessitating, as we'll see later, some adaptations to scripts already in progress. Jamie appears in ALL the remaining Troughton stories. That's 110 episodes between his first and last appearances making him by some distance the companion to have been in the most episodes of Doctor Who. He then reprises the role many years later in the Five Doctors and Two Doctors! The runners up are Ian & Barbara and Jo Grant were in 77 while Sarah Jane Smith was in 76 (who's also in the Five Doctors).

William Dysart, who briefly appears as Alexander in this episode, returns in the early Pertwee story Ambassadors of Death. He can been seen in a clip from this episode, which was excised by the Australian censor and recovered by Australian fan Damian Shanahan in October 1996.

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Also recovered at the same time is a few shots from the hanging scene.

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There's also an off cut of film showing production assistant and future director Fiona Cumming calling action before the travellers emerge from the Tardis.

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As you can see from those pictures this episode marks the first trip on location Patrick Troughton's Doctor. So did the Doctor Who team get a nice trip to Scotland to authentically location film this story? No. They went to Frensham Ponds, in Surrey for three days on the 14th, 15th & 21st November 1966. As far as I can recall Doctor Who has never been to Scotland to film despite three of it's leading men and one companion having hailed from that part of the United Kingdom. For why they returned to the location a week later, come back for episode 4!

Amongst the uncredited cast is Reg Dent as an English Horseman. Dent's IMDB entry shows him someone who specialised in this sort of role, indeed his only Doctor Who reappearance is as a Confederate Horseman in The War Games: Episode Three. I can see at least one horse on location in the telesnaps, but I think Ffinch is riding it!.

Other extras in this episode, presumably Redcoat soldiers include actor Anthony Lang, a very recognisable face in later Doctor Who stories. He'd already been an Egyptian Slave in Golden Death and Escape Switch, the ninth and tenth episodes of the Dalek Masterplan. He'd return as Airport Personnel on Plane in The Faceless Ones episode 1: that exists so I'll try to screencap him there. He's then a Time Lord in The Three Doctors and a Kaled Councillor in Genesis of the Daleks: look out for the tall thin gentleman with the prominent nose! He played Imperial Dignatory Sim Aloo in Return of the Jedi, so has an action figure made of him, but IMDB's credit for him as Bo Shek in Star Wars is in error. Peter Roy had already been a Greek Soldier in Temple of Secrets and Death of a Spy, first and third episode of the Myth Makers. Likewise he returns in The Faceless Ones episode 1 as an Airport Police Sergeant. He's then a UNIT / Bunker Man in The Invasion episode 1, a Guard in The Seeds of Death episode one, a Space Guard in The Space Pirates episode 1, an uncredited extra in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 6, Technic Obarl in The Hand of Fear part one, a Guard in The Face of Evil part one, an Extra in The Sun Makers part one, a Gallifreyan Guard in The Invasion of Time part one, a Gracht Guard in The Androids of Tara part one, a Guard in The Armageddon Factor part one, a Policeman in Logopolis part one, an Ambulance Man in Castrovalva part one, a Man in Market in Snakedance part one and a Walk on in Resurrection of the Daleks part one, He's got two Doomwatch to his name as a man in Project Sahara and Flood, and a number of Blake's 7 as a Citizen / Prisoner in The Way Back, a Prisoner in Space Fall, an Alta Guard in Redemption, an Albian Rebel in Countdown and a Federation Trooper / Rebel in Rumours of Death plus an appearance as the Limousine Chauffeur in the second TV episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Like Anthony Lang, he too is in Return of the Jedi playing Major Olander Brit.

Saturday 10 December 2016

140 The Power of the Daleks: Episode Six

EPISODE: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 140
STORY NUMBER: 030
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 10 December 1966
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD Doctor Who - The Power Of The Daleks
TELESNAPS: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Six

"Obey or you shall be exterminated!"

The guards taking the Doctor, Quinn and Polly to the prison are stopped by Daleks allowing the escape of their prisoners. Janley is pleased the rebels appear to have won but Bragen wants to wipe them out too. Valmar overhears this conversation, and releases Ben reuniting him with the others in the guest quarters. Bragen announces he has taken over. The Doctor slips away as the Daleks give the order to exterminate. He is nearly captured by Kebble and two guards, but the guards are exterminated and the Doctor saves Kebble's life as they escape together. However Kebble is gunned down as they reach the visitors quarters and the Doctor & his party are forced to flee through the window. The Doctor and his friends find their way to the lab where the now deranged Lesterson is hiding. Janley is killed by a Dalek but Valmar is saved by Quinn. Lesterson tells the Doctor about the Daleks second power supply and the Doctor finds Valmar to get him to reveal the location of the cable. Quinn finds his way to the governor's office where Bragen is desperately trying to summon guards to divert the attentions of the Daleks. Lesterson sacrifices himself to allow the Doctor to sabotage the Dalek's power supply which he overloads destroying the Daleks throughout the colony and their ship. Bragen is killed by Valmar who joins with Quinn to rebuild the colony and it's wrecked power supply. The Doctor and his friends slip away, passing a wrecked Dalek beside the Tardis which moves it's eye stalk as the ship dematerialises.

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A little bit of a hint there at the end that just maybe the Daleks might return to menace the colonists again perhaps?

If episodes still had titles then this would be "The Dalek Massacre of Vulcan". We've seen two big Dalek massacres before now: The Thals in the Dalek city halfway through the Daleks and the attacking rebels at the Spaceport in Dalek Invasion of Earth, but this takes the biscuit with bodies dropping all over the place. The Time Team used to have a count of On Screen Deaths. With just the telesnaps to go on it's hard to keep an accurate account, but I suspect it may have been difficult even with the full pictures! In many ways this story is a gold standard for Dalek and Base under Siege. Take a few Daleks and within days they've killed nearly everyone!

For me the extent of the massacre was brought home by a couple of the surviving colour photos from this story, which can be seen in an archived section of the BBC site. A couple, wife holding a babe in arms, are menaced by the Daleks. I'd never seen the next photo before which shows smoke coming out of the Daleks which indicates this shot must have occurred at the point where the Daleks start to explode.

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A clip of the destruction of the Daleks and their production line survives courtesy of a program called Tom Tom from 1968 which has always resided in the BBC archives and is included on the Doctor Who - Lost In Time DVD.

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In a way this episode involves many of the characters getting what's coming to them. Bragen, Janley and Kebble are all killed, the last two by the Daleks. The only surviving named rebel is Valmar, and he'd been the sympathetic rebel character in previous episodes.

Lesterson though has already paid the price for his actions before his death. The sight of the Dalek production line in episodes four and five has unhinged him and he's completely lost his grip on his sanity:

LESTERSON: You must be absolutely quiet. They know everything that's going on. Everything! They even know what you're thinking.
BEN: Where do they get their power from, Lesterson?
LESTERSON: Ah, I tried to turn the power off, but they were miles ahead of me. Marvellous creatures. You have to admire them.
BEN: But we've got to stop them!
LESTERSON: Oh, it's too late for that. They're the new species, you see, taking over from homo sapiens. Man's had his day. Finished now.
POLLY: Can't we do anything?! They're murdering everybody, one by one!
BEN: You've done all this. Why'd you give them power in the first place?
LESTERSON: Well, I could control it, you see. And then Janley got one of her men, Valmar, I think it was, yes, and he rigged up a secret cable. It's carrying power directly from the colony's supply.
DOCTOR: Where? Where is it, Lesterson?
LESTERSON: Valmar's the only one who can answer that. Or the Daleks of course. They know everything. Yes, you should ask the Daleks.
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DALEK: Our cables have been moved.
LESTERSON: And I could tell you who did it.
DALEK: What were you doing in there?
LESTERSON: I want to help you.
DALEK: Why?
LESTERSON: I am your servant.
DALEK: We do not need humans now.
LESTERSON: Ah, but you wouldn't kill me. I gave you life.
DALEK: Yes, you gave us life.
His repeat of the oft used Dalek phrase from this story "I am your servant" is chilling, confirming that in his mind he feels man has had his day and the Daleks have taken over and are superior. Yet is this last piece of madness really insanity or a final act of heroism, distracting and occupying the Daleks while providing the Doctor with the opportunity to destroy the Daleks power supply?

So Power of the Daleks: top start for the new Doctor. It's a great story that builds and builds, not like some six parters which are a four parter and two parter stuck together. Five weeks of plotting and manipulating ends in one of the best Dalek action episodes. It's just such a shame that it doesn't exist. If you asked any Doctor Who fan it's probably be in their top 3 of stories they'd like returned. It's the First Second Doctor Story and his first meeting with the Daleks so on that count alone it's historically significant. It's also unique amongst the Troughton stories in that there's something, or rather someone, missing. That'll be fixed in the next story, The Highlanders. If you asked me, it'd be second on my list, behind The Abominable Snowmen.

Power of the Daleks was the penultimate TV story novelised. Written by John Peel, one of the earliest fans to go professional, it appears without the Target logo and with a different cover and spine design to the other Target books and reprints.

The Power of the Daleks soundtrack was one of the first released on tape in 1993, with narration by Tom Baker, alongside Evil of the Daleks. These tapes were a big hit but the range proved rather short lived with just five titles. Power of the Daleks was then released on CD in 2003 as part of the revived missing stories range with narration by Anneke Wills. Initially this was only available in a tinned two pack with Evil of the Daleks, but had a stand along release in 2004.

The Power of the Daleks CD release was used as the basis for an MP3 CD release in 2005, Doctor Who Reconstructed: The Power of the Daleks, which paired the soundtrack on mp3 with the telesnaps in a flash animation to provide a reconstruction of the story. Unfortunately MP3 CDs didn't take off and subsequent releases were shelved. Today the Reconstructed CD fetches a penny or two (£50 on Amazon Marketplace at the time of writing). I bought one off of eBay for £30 at the point I started writing the first edition of this Blog so watching these six episodes then was the first time I've experienced the story paired with the pictures. I'm presuming Power was chosen due to being a story where no episodes exist *and* where a complete set of Telesnaps exist. The other candidates using this criteria are The Savages, The Smugglers, The Highlanders, The Macra Terror and the Fury from the Deep. Given that Power has Daleks and is the first Troughton story it's a bit of a no contest. The only *slightly* annoying thing about them is the episodes being broken in two unequal halves. As they stand the episodes have a natural break in the middle with a fade to black to allow foreign broadcasters to have an ad break - why not break the episodes there?

The chances of recovery for this story are very slim as a maximum of two film prints are known to exist. The first was sold to the ABC in Australia, who returned them to the BBC in 1975 where they were presumably destroyed. However almost every missing episode that's been found in private hands in the UK is known to have come from this set of returns so there's a possibility prints of this story may have walked out the door at the time. The second print was sold to the NZBC in New Zealand who passed their prints to RTS in Singapore who confirm that they no longer have them.

When drafting this new blog entry for Power of the Daleks some while ago I said:

Given the lack of eisting Power of the Daleks episodes, plus that the BBC has run out of episodes to release on DVD, and that telesnap recons have made a welcome (to me at least!) comeback recently on The Web of Fear and Underwater Menace DVD I wonder if any thought has been given to using this recon, perhaps paired with an un-narated soundtrack and with existing clips dropped in, as the basis for a Power of the Daleks DVD release? BBC Worldwide, I have money for you!
It seems someone was listening! In 2016 Power of the Daleks was unexpectedly announced as an an animated reconstruction for download and shortly afterwards a DVD release. Since the DVD also contains the existing MP3 CD release plus the existing clips from The Lost in Time DVD, plus I think a few extra which have come to light since, I'm happy with it. Ideally I'd have the clips dropped into the recon and with the option to have the recon with the original un-narrated soundtrack. The addition of a making of documentary & photo galleries are an extra bonus, so effectively these are better releases than Enemy of the World or Web of Fear, both of which were rush released with no special features. The main draw here for most people will be the animation which is on the whole very very good. Yes there's a few errors, notably Ben & Polly's costumes changing in one scene in episode one, and a couple of rather stiff exterminations this episodes but The Daleks look magnificent throughout! A Blu Ray version, containing a colour version of the animation, is due in January 2017.

Saturday 3 December 2016

139 The Power of the Daleks: Episode Five

EPISODE: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 139
STORY NUMBER: 030
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 03 December 1966
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Five

"We are not ready yet to teach these human beings the law of the Daleks!"

Lesterson flees the Dalek capsule deactivating the power supply and telling Janley what he's seen.Trying to talk to the examiner, he discovers the Doctor has been imprisoned. A Dalek comes out of the capsule and announces they can conserve power causing Lesterson to flee. The Dalek instructs it's compatriots that no more than three of them may be seen together. The Daleks continue their cable laying. Valmar & Kebble are assisting them in connecting it to the capsule while guarding Polly. Lesterson tries to speak to the Doctor in prison but is taken to Bragen where Janley declares him to be mad causing Bragen to have him restrained. Polly tries to convince her captors of the Daleks evil. Hensell returns from the perimeter and discovers what Bragen has been doing in his absence. The Doctor & Quinn escape from the prison. Hensell argues with Bragen and then is gunned down by a Dalek on Bragen's orders. The Doctor & Quinn return to the Lab where they free Polly. Going to the Governor's office they find Hensell dead and are apprehended by Bragen again. In the Capsule the Daleks gather preparing to wipe out the colonists.

"Exterminate all humans! Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy! Daleks Conquer And Destroy!"

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Episode 5 of a Dalek story and Hensell is only the second person to be exterminated! What's going wrong? They're going to make up for it in the next episode of course. And we get an explanation for the static electricity stuff that was annoying me last episode! The Daleks are charging themselves up in the ship but the static cables will allow them to travel further without having to return to the ship to recharge. That still doesn't quite fit with their behaviour in The Chase and Dalek Masterplan but it'll do for now.

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For a story for which no complete episode exists, lots of bits of Power of the Daleks exist. This episode contains one of two clips which have been in the BBC archives for years: from a 1968 edition of Whicker's world we have the "Daleks Conquer & Destroy" sequence, included on the Doctor Who - Lost In Time DVD. In it we see our old friend the broken neck ring Dalek, aka Dalek 2!

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There's another clip from episode 5 on the DVD but this is wrongly identified as episode 4! This features Dalek 1, the Dalek with the working lens aperture in it's eyestick, proclaiming that "We are not ready yet to teach these human beings the law of the Daleks!". Unfortunately at the end of this sequence it can be seen hitting the camera! This clip came to light in 1995 when Restoration Team member Steve Roberts investigated rumours some Dalek footage was shown in an Australian program entitled C for Computer. It emerges that that title is the name of an episode of a show called Perspective and that it did indeed contain Dalek footage from episodes 4 and 5 of Power of the Daleks.

Now can we have all 6 episodes found please?

Saturday 26 November 2016

138 The Power of the Daleks: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 138
STORY NUMBER: 030
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 26 November 1966
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Four

"We understand the human mind."

Lesterson cuts the Daleks' power reminding them that they get their power from him and seemingly regaining their obedience before reconnecting it. The Doctor & Ben go to see Bragen with their worries about Polly but he is far from helpful. A Dalek arrives to serve him drinks and they leave. However in the corridor they are passed by three more Daleks which arouses the Doctor's suspicions as there were only four in the capsule. Bragen too is slightly suspicious of the one in his office. The Daleks have requested more materials from Lesterson which worries him. He intends to seek the Examiner's advice but Janley persuades him otherwise by revealing Resno's death to him and using that as a hold over him. Ben & the Doctor arrive at the lab to enquire of Polly and to tell Lesterson about the increase in the number of Daleks, which further disturbs Lesterson and he collapses. Janley throws them out but while Lesterson sleeps she summons Valmar to install another Power Cable for the Daleks. The Doctor cracks the code the rebels have been using to display messages on a public board and he & Ben lie in wait for them in Rocket Room P. The rebels, and their shadowy hidden leader, enter and watch Janley and Valmar demonstrate a fully armed but controlled Dalek to them. Ben knocks the boxes they are hiding behind over and is dragged away. When the rebel leader calls the Doctor out too, he is revealed to be Bragen. Bragen has the Doctor arrested and thrown in a cell next to Deputy Governor Quinn. The Doctor tries to use a dog whistle to trigger the sonic lock but only succeeds in aggravating the colony's dogs. Lesterson ventures into the Daleks capsule and discovers a production line within producing many new Daleks.

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Fabulous stuff. The Daleks in the corridor revealing there are more of them than there should be is great. At the start we've got three disarmed Daleks, and by the end there's an army of fully armed ones. Polly is absent for this episode: kidnapped half way through the last one Anneke Wills gets a week off this week. Since Ben gets hauled off half way through this one you'd be correct in thinking that it's Michael Craze's turn for a turn for a trip to the seaside next week.

The Doctor makes a lot of fuss about how the Daleks need a metal floor to move about, a limitation they had in their first few stories, all script edited by Power's writer David Whitaker. Since the Chase they've had no problem at all, generally attributed to the "power slats" that now adorn the Daleks' waist. Indeed they seem to be moving round the colony OK for the story so far. So why raise it as an issue now? And if it's become an issue how were they moving round OK before?

There's the start of a short lived running joke in this episode: seeing Bragen in his office in a new uniform the Doctor comments "I would like a hat like that". The phrase crops up again in his first few stories.

The Dalek Capsule represents a small mystery. Obviously there's more of it's insides seen than can possibly fit into the space shown sitting in the lab. 2 solutions exist to the problem: the capsule is the tip of the structure and the lab & colony have been built round it OR the capsule, like the Tardis and Dalek time ship, is dimensionally transcendental.

Doctor Who - Lost In Time DVD contains two clips which they attribute to this episode: the first is of a a pair of Daleks and includes the quote "We are not ready yet to teach these human beings the law of the Daleks!" Turns out this is in fact from episode 5! The other clip is from this episode and is a short section of the assembly line footage which was found in 1985 when Restoration Team member Steve Roberts investigated rumours some Dalek footage was shown in an Australian program entitled C for Computer. It emerges that that title is the name of an episode of a show called Perspective and that it did indeed contain Dalek footage from episodes 4 and 5 of Power of the Daleks.

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Steven Scott plays the rebel Kebble in the last 3 episodes of this series. He's got several appearances in The Avengers to his name.

Kebble Guards

Of the guards that appear in this episode Peter Forbes-Robertson will be back as a Time Lord in Colony in Space, and the Chief Sea Devil in The Sea Devils. He's also got an appearance as Schenker in the first episode of the second series of The Tripods to his name.

Robert Russell later plays the Caber in Terror of the Zygons. He'd previously been in Out of the Unknown, appearing in Thirteen to Centaurus as Sgt. Burke. This is the same episode that features Robert James, playing Lesterson here, as Dr. Kersh and can be seen as part of the Out of the Unknown DVD set. Other genre appearance include Space: 1999: Mission of the Darians as Hadin and Blake's 7: Cygnus Alpha as Laran.

A third guard is played by Robert Luckham. His father, Cyril Luckham, appears in Doctor Who some years later as The White Guardian

It's a Dalek story so there's a few familiar names on the credits: Gerald Taylor, Kevin Manser, Robert Jewell and John Scott Martin are all back inside the Dalek shells while Peter Hawkins provides all the Dalek voices solo for the first and only time.

Saturday 19 November 2016

137 The Power of the Daleks: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 137
STORY NUMBER: 030
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 19 November 1966
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.5 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Three

"We will get our power. We will get our power. We will get our power!"

Hensell is pleased with the potential offered by the Daleks. The Doctor orders the Dalek to shut itself down which it seems to do only to reactivate when he leaves the room claiming that the order would have prevented it serving. The enquiry into Quinn's behaviour continues: he is found guilty and imprisoned, with security chief Bragen being made deputy governor in his place. The Doctor builds a device to interfere with the Dalek and brings it to the laboratory. It works but Lesterson smashes it and sends the doctor away before he can permanently harm the Dalek. Hensell departs for a tour of the perimeter leaving Bragen in charge. Janley meets Bragen: she is leading the rebels and he has been assisting them for his own means. She has obtained the Dalek gun that Lesterson removed and believes it will help them take over the colony. Bragen needs the Examiner restrained so Janley and fellow rebel Valmar kidnap Polly. Ben notices Polly's disappearance and worries. The Dalek pleases Lesterson with it's knowledge and persuades him to order some equipment to build a device to help the colony. When he leaves the room the Dalek activates the power to the capsule and goes inside. The Doctor & Ben discover the power connected and confront the unarmed Dalek. They are forced to leave when the other two armed Daleks appear activated. Bragen confronts the Doctor saying they have found a body in the swamps and suggesting he may not be the Examiner. The Doctor retorts that the only way he could know for sure was if Bragen was the real Examiner's killer. Bragen tells The Doctor to leave Lesterson and the Daleks alone. As he leaves a note about Polly is pushed under their door. Lesterson sees his now trio of Daleks who are pleased that "we will get our power!"

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This episode moves like a piece of well oiled machinery. It does exactly what you guess it might as the Daleks slowly advance their plan, the rebels start to move and the Doctor finds his progress obstructed. Lovely scene between the Doctor & Bragen as they each call the other's bluff, and at the end as the Daleks' guard starts to slip in front of Bragen. I said last episode that you feel this isn't going to end well and you feel it even more in this episode.

The Doctor hits the nail on the head regarding everyone's motivation:

DOCTOR: Greed and ambition, that's all it is. Wait till they find out what their precious production figures have cost them!
Hensell wants the Colony to be a success, and thus for it to reflect well on him. Lesterson uses the usefulness of the Daleks on Hensell to let him continue his work:
HENSELL: So, Lesterson, they're even capable of speech.
LESTERSON: Yes. But then, why not? After all, they have a certain intelligence.
HENSELL: Yes, I know, but
LESTERSON: But it is an intelligence that we can control.
HENSELL: So what you want is permission to continue your experiments?
LESTERSON: Governor, think what it would mean if we were to set it to work in the mines. It could double our production overnight.
BRAGEN: Consider the effects it could have on our whole economy.
HENSELL: Yes, and the effect of that on Earth. Yes, yes, they could be very grateful.
Lesterson in turn pursues the scientific discovery that the Daleks represent, and presumable the fame and renown that will bring him. The Daleks use that as a lure to get the materials and power they want.
DALEK: What is this machine?
LESTERSON: It computes meteorite storms as they approach our weather satellites.
DALEK: How accurate is it?
LESTERSON: About seventy percent. It helps to cut down on our satellite losses.
DALEK: Daleks can build computers with one hundred percent accuracy.
LESTERSON: One hundred percent?
DALEK: If you provide materials and our own power unit, a computer will be built.
LESTERSON: A hundred percent? But that would be an enormous saving for the for the colony.
DALEK: Then you will get the materials?
LESTERSON: I'll go and speak to the Governor at once.
DALEK: I will be ready to dictate the blueprint when you return.
LESTERSON: Oh, that's marvellous.
Bragen, revealed as the power behind the rebels, simply wants control of the colony:
BRAGEN: You were able to get away then?
JANLEY: Yes. Lesterson's with the Examiner. And Hensell?
BRAGEN: At a meeting of production managers. He left me in control.
JANLEY: We could take over the colony now.
BRAGEN: No. No, it has to be absolutely right. I don't want to take over a colony full of rebels do I, Janley?
JANLEY: I don't know. You're making me help them.
BRAGEN: Only to stir them up to create enough trouble to get rid of Hensell, and then, then we crush them. The whole colony will be grateful, and I'll be Governor.
Janley's really the only main character who's motivation isn't clear. She's seemed to be very much part of the rebels but here she's distinctly helping them because Bragen's told her to. Is she involved with him? Is she an agent working for him?

Having dealt with the characters & actors who didn't trouble the scorers much in earlier episodes let's look at the rest of the cast.

I'd previously quite liked Hensell but now I've discovered he's played by Peter Bathurst who goes on to play the civil servant Chinn in the Claws of Axos who is possibly the most annoying character in Doctor Who. He'd previously been in the Out of the Unknown episode Andover and the Android, sadly one of the two missing episodes from the show's first season, as Barnaby and would appear in three Moonbase 3 episodes as the Director General: Departure and Arrival, Achilles Heel and Castor and Pollux.

Hensell Bragen

Bragen is played by Bernard Archard who you'll see again as the possessed cadaver of Marcus Scarman in Pyramids of Mars. He too has been in Out of the Unknown as Dr. Giddy in Frankenstein Mark 2, one of the missing episodes from the second season. I saw him onscreen as a child playing Eirig in the sci fi/fantasy Krull.

Lesterson is played by Robert James who will be back as the High Priest in the Masque of Mandragora. He's also in the very first episode of Blake's 7, The Way Back, playing Blake's friend Ven Glynd. I spot that the same episode also features Robert Beatty, who was General Cutler in the previous Doctor Who story The Tenth Planet. James has two Out of the Unknowns to his name: he was Dr. Kersh in the first series episode Thirteen to Centaurus, and that one does exist and is available on DVD. He return in the missing third season episode Liar! as Kelvin Brooke. He was in two episodes of Doomwatch as Barker in Project Sahara and Halliday in Flood.

Lesterson Valmar

I've seen Richard Kane, who plays Valmar, in the Inspector Morse episode Masonic Mysteries as Chief Inspector Bottomley.

Nicholas Hawtrey plays second in command Quinn. He seems to have spent most of his subsequent career working in France!

Quinn Janley

Finally Janley is played by Australian Pamela Ann Davy. She's got two appearances in The Avengers and a couple of ITC series to her name but doesn't seem to have appeared on television after 1970!

The "Daleks posing as your servants" idea is re-used in the new series story Victory of the Daleks, where it works fabulously well again. It's after the bit where they're busy being servants that Victory of the Daleks falls apart.

Saturday 12 November 2016

136 The Power of the Daleks: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 136
STORY NUMBER: 030
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 12 November 1966
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Power of the Daleks: Episode Two

"I am your servant! I am your servant!"

The time travellers suspect that Lesterson may have removed the third Dalek. Deputy Governor Quinn comes to the Examiner's quarters to speak to him but he's not there and ends up in a confrontation with security chief Bragen. Lesterson finds the Doctor in the lab as Bragen arrives searching for the Doctor. The Doctor wants the Daleks melted down and leaves to get permission from the governor. Lesterson retrieves the missing Dalek from a hidden compartment in the capsule and starts to reactivate it with his assistants Janley and Resno. Bragen tells the Doctor about a rebel movement but is then obstructive when the Doctor tries to see the Governor. The Doctor goes to the communication room to contact Earth but finds it smashed with the operator unconscious and Deputy Governor Quinn present. Bragen arrests him on very circumstantial evidence but it's noted that Quinn has a button missing that would match the one the Doctor has. The experiment with the Dalek succeeds in reactivating it but Resno is killed by it. Janley lies to Lesterson and says he is merely unconscious. The Doctor, as the Examiner, and friends attend the enquiry into Quinn's conduct which is interrupted by and excited Lesterson. He brings the now disarmed Dalek into the room. It seems to recognise the Doctor and surprises the humans when it speaks. The Doctor pleads for it's destruction but the Dalek repeatedly intones that "I am your servant. I am your servant."

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Great episode but you have to hold your head in your hands and despair at the Vulcan colonists. We, like The Doctor, know that the moment the Daleks appear this isn't going to end well for the colonists. Lesterson however hasn't got the experience with the Daleks that we and the Doctor have:

LESTERSON: Yes, yes, but the wonderful thing, Janley, is that we don't know the full scope of this experiment. Who knows where we may go from here. Who know what this Dalek may do?
So they reactivate the Dalek, and the first thing it does is exterminate someone. Like you couldn't have predicted that! Then by the end of the episode a Dalek is telling us "I am your servant" at which point we automatically know it's lying. We and the Doctor know otherwise:
LESTERSON: Stop. You see? Well, just think what this could do for our mining program, our processing, packaging. Dozens of labour jobs, Governor. It may even supply the end to all this Colony's problems.
DOCTOR: Yes, it will end the colony's problems, because it will end the colony.
DALEK: I am your servant.
LESTERSON: It, it spoke! Janley, did you hear it? It can actually talk.
DOCTOR: It can do many things, Lesterson. But the thing it does most efficiently is exterminate human beings. It destroys them, without mercy, without conscience. It destroys them. Utterly. Completely. It destroys them.
So while Lesterson is predicting a glorious future I, and I don't think I'm spoiling the story for anyone here, am predicting a bumper round of exterminations is soon to follow.

So why don't they take the Doctor's word for it? The simple answer is that they don't know what a Dalek is. We know from watching television but for them not to know then this story must take place before Dalek Invasion of Earth which seems to be humans first public contact with the Daleks and is frequently referred to in other stories. So DIOE takes place c2164, the date on the calender that the Doctor and Ian find in the warehouse, which mean Power of the Daleks must predate that. The question then becomes do we think that's a long enough time period from now for man to be colonising other worlds? They certainly thought so in the 1960s where it was expected that moon landings would be the first step of man to the stars, but unfortunately it hasn't quite happened like that. So I dug out my seldom used, but still very good copy of Lance Parkin's History of the Universe (There appears to be an updated edition out). That dates Power of the Daleks to 2020, which was given in press material at the time. Conceivable in the 1960s you have to cast doubt on it now from a point where it looks unlikely we'll have another manned lunar flight before 2020!

Resno, who gets to be the Vulcan Daleks' first victim here, is played by Edward Kelsey who was previously a Slave Buyer in The Romans and will later be Edu in The Creature from the Pit. Christopher Barrydirected all three of his appearances in Doctor Who. He's the voice of Joe Grundy in The Archers, not the last Archers cast member to be involved with Doctor Who and the Daleks either, and voiced Colonel K & Baron Silas Greenback for Dangermouse! He's also got an appearance in Doomwatch to his name as Captain Tommy Gort in The Red Sky.

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Another 50 seconds of 8mm film clips from this episode exists including Resno's extermination and the "I am your servant" climax of the episode.

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