Saturday 27 May 2017

164 The Evil of the Daleks: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Evil of the Daleks: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 164
STORY NUMBER: 036
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 27 May 1967
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Derek Martinus
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Lost In Time
TELESNAPS: The Evil of the Daleks: Episode Two

"Negative and positive electricity had failed, so we tried static. If only we could have known the powers we were going to unleash!"

We have an episode to watch! On with the DVD!

The Dalek exterminates Kennedy. Waterfield enters and is horrified at what happens but is told to obey. The Dalek disappears, leaving Waterfield behind. He tears a photo of the Doctor placing half in Kennedy's hand and half in the edge of a box. The Doctor & Jamie enter the shop and examine the oddly new Victorian antiques. Jamie thinks Waterfield's invented a time machine but the Doctor says that's unlikely. They're met by Perry who has also returned to the shop. Entering the back room they find Kennedy's body. The telephone isn't working due to interference so Perry leaves to phone the police. The Doctor and Jamie find the hidden chamber but as Waterfield watches Jamie opens the box gassing him and the Doctor into unconsciousness. Waterfield activates the futuristic machinery in the room which vanishes taking Waterfield, the Doctor and Jamie with it.

The Doctor wakes in a Victorian sitting room. Molly Dawson, a servant, serves him a revitalising tonic and tells him that he arrived late last night from abroad with Mr Waterfield. The year is 1866. The house belongs to Theodore Maxtible, yet a picture of Waterfield's wife hangs over the fireplace. Waterfield's daughter, Victoria, is being held prisoner by the Daleks elsewhere in the house but refuses to eat feeding the birds her food. The Doctor is taken to Maxtible's lab where he & Waterfield explain their experiments with a cabinet lined with mirrors and subjected different charges of electricity. When they mention static electricity the Doctor is alarmed and a Dalek burst from the cabinet. The Doctor is needed to perform an experiment on Jamie. The Dalek enters the mirrored cabinet and vanishes. Jamie awakes and is served cordial by Molly. She goes to fetch him tea but a man, Toby, enters and knocks him out. When Molly returns she too is rendered unconscious and left on the sofa under a blanket. The Doctor & Waterfield return to find Jamie gone.

Awwwww, what a good episode. Somewhere along the line the Doctor Jamie relationship has clicked. This is one of the first occasions they get extended screen time together by themselves and they're on cracking form here as they enter the antiques shop.

JAMIE: I don't know what you're being so cautious about.
DOCTOR: Shh!
JAMIE: They left the door open for us, didn't they?
JAMIE: Hey, it's half-past the nine o'clock.
DOCTOR: Yes, I know.
JAMIE: But they made the appointment for ten. Why have we come early?
DOCTOR: The early bird catches the worm, Jamie. Now do be quiet, there's a good chap. And for heaven's sake, don't knock into anything.
DOCTOR: Shh!
JAMIE: Any good, this?
DOCTOR: It's interesting. In fact, Jamie, it's quite remarkable.
JAMIE: Hey, Doctor, you know you told me outside it said Genuine Victorian Antiques? Well, all the stuff in here's brand new.
DOCTOR: Hmm, you've noticed that.
JAMIE: Of course I did. The man's a rogue.
DOCTOR: Yes, so it seems. Except
JAMIE: Except what?
DOCTOR: Except that all these things are not reproductions. They're all genuine.
JAMIE: Now, that's ridiculous.
DOCTOR: Here, look at this. To one deed box, four guineas. This is a bill from William Dearing and Son, 1866.
JAMIE: Then it's a forgery.
DOCTOR: Yes. If you were going to make a forgery, wouldn't you try to dirty it up a bit? Yellow the edges, crinkle it up? This is brand new.
JAMIE: I've got an idea.
DOCTOR: What?
JAMIE: All the stuff in here is genuine.
DOCTOR: Yes.
JAMIE: But brand new.
DOCTOR: Well done.
JAMIE: Well, that is impossible, unless Waterfield could have invented a time machine like the Tardis, Doctor, and he's bringing all this stuff back from Victorian times.
DOCTOR: But it's not very likely, is it? The only way to find out is to ask Waterfield.

There's some superb business there with the Doctor knocking a statue over an Jamie catching it just as he says "And for heaven's sake, don't knock into anything!"

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Our attention is drawn to the phone interference:

DOCTOR: Yes, well, we'll have to find it before he comes back. Now I wonder what this telephone interference is.
The Doctor blames it on the Time Machine when he finds it:
DOCTOR: Well, look at this. That's where your telephone interference is coming from. Oh, yes, this is interesting.
Just as with Dalek Masterplan 8: Volcano and the cricket match I'm forced to wonder if a young Douglas Adams was watching? A similar idea crops up in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency but I'm struggling to remember if the same idea is in Shada, the cancelled Doctor Who story which "inspired" much of Dirk Gently's.

The Daleks have had time travel before now, using a Tardis like vessel in The Chase and Dalek Masterplan. Here though the technology moves people and objects from site to site, like Star Trek Transporter or Blake's 7's Teleporter. In later stories this, or something similar, is referred to as Time Corridor technology which the Daleks use in Resurrection and Remembrance of the Daleks.

We know there's something odd about Waterfield but it's still a huge shock to suddenly find ourselves in the middle of Victorian England. It's a good episode to survive as we get to see two of the three major locations in the story, most of the major characters and it's the first appearance of Victoria Waterfield, Edward's daughter, who'll be staying with us when the story closes. The painting of her mother that hangs in the hall is somewhat of an oddity though: what's a painting of Waterfield's wife doing hanging in Maxtible's house? Is she some how related to Maxtible, an older daughter perhaps? Has Maxtible bought Waterfield's house and left the picture hanging there? Or had Waterfield relocated to Maxtible's and hung the painting in pride of place?

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There's an oddity in the lab too: Before the Dalek reveals itself to the Doctor it can be clearly seen through the gap in the doors of the cabinet!

The reveal of the Daleks to the Doctor is significantly teased to him beforehand:

MAXTIBLE: Please, please, Doctor. First things first. You asked what date it was and where you were.
DOCTOR: Yes. Well?
MAXTIBLE: You're in my house, some miles from Canterbury. The date is June the 2nd, eighteen hundred and sixty six.
DOCTOR: And just what do you think you're up to? You steal my property, you spirit Jamie and me a hundred years back in time and you murder a man along the way.
MAXTIBLE: We had nothing to do with the death of that man.
DOCTOR: I don't believe you!
MAXTIBLE: You will believe, Doctor. We are all of us the victims of a higher power. A power more evil and more terrible than the human brain can imagine.
DOCTOR: Power? Victims? What do you mean?
The word Power distinctly gets his attention: remember the last Dalek story, Troughton's first as the Doctor, was called The Power of the Daleks and a major plot point is them securing a source of power.
WATERFIELD: They've taken my daughter, Victoria.
DOCTOR: Who are they?
MAXTIBLE: You will not be kept in suspense very much longer, Doctor. Pray, come with us and we will show you how it all began.
WATERFIELD: Doctor, do whatever it is they ask, I beg of you. My daughter's life is in your hands.
DOCTOR: I will listen, I promise.
Learning an innocent girl is in mortal danger does get the Doctor's attention though as he is shown to the lab:
DOCTOR: Oh, yes, yes, very impressive. And now perhaps you'll explain what all this is about?
MAXTIBLE: Patience, my dear sir, a little longer.
DOCTOR: Patience? You don't seem to understand what's happened. A man has been murdered! You behave as though we're going on Sunday school outing.
MAXTIBLE: Neither Whitefield nor I were responsible for his death. A cigar?
DOCTOR: Why have you brought us here? Who are these enemies of yours, these ones you say control you?
MAXTIBLE: Brilliant minds, Doctor.
WATERFIELD: They are monsters.
MAXTIBLE: Oh, I admit, Waterfield, they have behaved callously.
WATERFIELD: Inhuman monsters!
DOCTOR: Inhuman?
WATERFIELD: Creations of the devil!
The Doctor's interest is piqued again.
MAXTIBLE: Let me explain.
DOCTOR: Please do.
MAXTIBLE: I have always been fascinated by the concept of travelling through time. Waterfield here is an expert in certain technical matters and I have the money to indulge my whims. Everything you see about you here was constructed by us two.
DOCTOR: To try to find a way of exploring time?
MAXTIBLE: Yes. Now this is my theory. A mirror reflects an image, does it not?
DOCTOR: Yes.
MAXTIBLE: So, you may be standing there, and yet appear to be standing fifty feet away. Well, following the new investigations twelve years ago by J Clark Maxwell into electromagnetism and the experiments by Faraday into static electricity.
DOCTOR: Static?
The Daleks have been users of Static Electricity since their first appearance and it was referred to again in Power of the Daleks. For my reckoning this is the point where he figures out who he's facing even if he's hoping it's not them!
MAXTIBLE: Correct. Waterfield and I first attempted to refine the image in the mirror, and then to project it. In here, Doctor, are one hundred and forty four separate mirrors.
WATERFIELD: And each is of polished metal. Each is subjected to electric charges, all positive.
MAXTIBLE: Like repels like in electricity, Doctor, and so next, Waterfield and I attempted to repel the image in the mirrors, wherever we directed.
DOCTOR: You mentioned static electricity.
See what I mean? He's worried.
WATERFIELD: That was our last experiment. Negative and positive electricity had failed, so we tried static. If only we could have known the powers we were going to unleash.
DOCTOR: Powers?
WATERFIELD: In the middle of our final test with static, creatures burst out of the cabinet, invaded the house, took away my daughter.
MAXTIBLE: Oh, my dear fellow. My dear, dear fellow. But we shall win through now that the Doctor is here.
DOCTOR: These creatures?
WATERFIELD: We had opened the way for them with our experiments. They forced me into the horror of time travel, Doctor. They ordered me to steal a box belonging to you and thus lure you into a trap and transport you here, together with your colleague Mister McCrimmon.
DOCTOR: They knew about me, these creatures.
MAXTIBLE: They gave us likenesses.
WATERFIELD: What could I do? They said my daughter would die.
DOCTOR: What are they called, these creatures?
DALEK: Doctor! Now do you understand?
DOCTOR: Oh, yes. Perfectly.
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DALEK: Move back! Our plan has worked. We shall triumph! You will obey! You will obey!
DOCTOR: Obey? Obey? What do you want?
DALEK: We have your time ship. We will destroy it unless you help us with an experiment.
DOCTOR: What experiment?
DALEK: You will help the Daleks test another human being.
DOCTOR: What sort of test?
DALEK: Do not question!
DOCTOR: I will not be your slave!
WATERFIELD: Doctor, I beg you.
DALEK: No harm will come to you if you agree. Where is your companion?
DOCTOR: Jamie?
WATERFIELD: He is in the house. I have done everything you asked me to.
DOCTOR: Why do you ask about Jamie?
DALEK: He is the human being who is to be tested.
DOCTOR: What do you mean? Tested how?
DALEK: Silence! You will reveal nothing to your companion. Obey the Daleks! You are in our power!

This episode marks the first appearance of Deborah Watling as Victoria. The daughter of actors Jack Watling, who we'll see in a few months time, and Patricia Hicks she'd started acting as a child first appearing on screen aged 11. The previous year she'd appeared in the now missing second season Out of the Unknown episode The World In Silence as Sarah Richards.

2Victoria a 2Waterfield

Victoria's widowed Father, Edward Waterfield, is played by John Bailey. He'd previously appeared in The Sensorites episode 6: A Desperate Venture as the Commander of the marooned group of Earthmen and would return many years later as Sezom in The Horns of Nimon.

Evil of the Daleks 2 was recovered in May 1987 from the same collector as Faceless Ones 3 - see that episode for details as to how they were returned. Nobody quite knows how this lone episode of Evil of the Daleks made it's way into private hands but there is an incident that's worth noting: While involved in the making the BBC Documentary Whose Doctor Who in 1976, former script editor Terrance Dicks recommended a list of clips to use amongst which was "The Doctor meeting the Daleks in Victorian England". Evil of the Daleks was last sold abroad in 1970 and is records show the film print as having been junked in 1974. So how, two years later, was Terrance Dicks able to recommend using a clip from Evil? Was there a print in existence at this time, possibly this very print of episode 2 that now survives, that he was able to see which then went walkabout? Terrance sadly can't remember what he watched as research so we will probably never know.

I first saw this episode in 1992 when it was released as part of The Daleks: The Early Years with Dalek Masterplan 5 & 10, Counterplot and Escape Switch, then the only surviving episodes of that tale. All 3 episodes were released on DVD in 2014 as part of Doctor Who - Lost In Time which is how I've watched this episode now.

Sadly Evil of the Daleks 2 remains the only episode of this story in the BBC archives, so for the last 5 episodes of this story we'll be back on CD. Fans are keen to have Tenth Planet 4 back for the obvious reasons: Cybermen, last Hartnell, regeneration, historical significance etc, and Web of Fear 3, for the first appearance of Lethbridge-Stewart, then a Colonel before his promotion to Brigadier. But if you took a straw poll of Doctor Who fans then Evil of the Daleks would probably be the story that they'd most like to see completed.

Saturday 20 May 2017

163 The Evil of the Daleks: Episode One

EPISODE: The Evil of the Daleks: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 163
STORY NUMBER: 036
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 20 May 1967
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Derek Martinus
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 8.1 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Volume Four(1967)
TELESNAPS: The Evil of the Daleks: Episode One

"Who's taken the Tardis?"

The Doctor & Jamie see a lorry carrying the Tardis drive off from a hanger. The man minding the hanger, Hall, knows not where the Lorry has gone but tells them the name of the company that took the Tardis. A man called Kennedy listens to their conversation in a nearby field. The Doctor & Jamie follow Hall in a taxi while Kennedy reports events to his superior, Edward Waterfield, a man dressed in Victorian garb. Waterfield's assistant Perry arrives telling him "the object has arrived" and commenting on how authentic the brand new Victorian clocks Kennedy has look. The delivery is a Police Box - The Tardis. Hall and Kennedy meet at a warehouse and fight: Hall is knocked unconscious. The Doctor finds him and takes from his person a matchbox for the Tricolour coffee bar while Hall mutters the name "Ken". Kennedy reports all that has happened to Waterfield who shows him photos of the Doctor & Jamie: Kennedy confirms it was them. Kennedy spies on Waterhouse as he accesses a secret room from his study. Waterfield sends Perry to the Coffee bar where he meets The Doctor and Jamie, instructing them to meet Waterfield at his shop at 10pm. Perry confirms the arrangements have been made to Waterfield before leaving to go home. Kennedy is ordered to return later in dark warm clothing. Waterfield slips into the secret room and confers with unseen masters. After Waterfield leaves Kennedy breaks into the study and then into the inner chamber, which contains some advanced equipment. As Kennedy looks for something to steal a Dalek appears and advances on the terrified Kennedy demanding to know "WHO ARE YOU?"

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Yup, that's the traditional "Reveal The Dalek" ending we expect but that's a gorgeous effect there for the time, mimicked years later at the end of the opening episode of Remembrance of the Daleks.

We're back in mystery territory again here: who has taken the Tardis and why? The who is obvious: people acting for Waterfield who in turn is obeying the Daleks who seem to have set some trap for the Doctor. The Why will take some while to become clear.

The Beatles' 'Paperback Writer' and The Seekers' 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen' were used in the Café scenes but for rights reasons they've been substituted for the CD release.

Although this episode is long since destroyed, a small section of footage remains from the last few moments, embedded in a different episode on Doctor Who. In 1968 The Evil of the Daleks became the first complete Doctor Who serial to be repeated in the gap between the close of Season 5 and the start of Season 6. It was prefigured at the End of Wheel In Space 6 by The Doctor displaying events on the Tardis scanner: Kennedy's encounter with the Daleks. Episode 1 of Evil, repeated the following week, then had some extra voice over on top of the opening scenes. For some while this footage was thought to be taken from the reprise in episode two (also sourced from this episode) but it's been discovered that what's used in Wheel 6 is fractionally longer than the material found in Evil of the Daleks 2.

Bob Hall is played by Alec Ross, the first husband of actress Sheila Hancock who would later appear in The Happiness Patrol as Helen A. Although this is Ross' only Doctor Who appearance it's not the only time he's appeared with the Daleks: he plays a Police sergeant in the missing third season Out of the Unknown episode "Get off of my Cloud"! Hall died of cancer in 1971.

You can probably guess what's about to happen to Griffith Davies, who plays Kennedy!

1 Hall 1 Kennedy

The Dalek voices here are provided, for the first time, by Roy Skelton who has previously voiced the Monoids in The Ark and the Cybermen in Tenth Planet. He will contribute Dalek voices to most of their appearances from here onwards. Inside the shell is Robert Jewell who had been a Dalek operator in all their previous TV appearances as well as the two films and played a Zarbi in the Web Planet and the clown in Dalek Masterplan 7: The Feast of Steven. Jewell will return once more to Doctor Who as The Dalek in The War Games but he also plays a Dalek in the Out of the Unknown episode mentioned above, Get Off Of My Cloud, which you can find out more about and see some pictures of at Dalek 6388's Five Years in the Cold page.

There's some nice location work in this episode with Kendall Avenue, the then home of the BBC's Outside Broadcast department, substituting for Gatwick Airport while the brief shots of Kennedy observing the Doctor & Jamie were shot at Grim's Dyke Hotel in Harrow Weald whose interiors we'll see later in the story. Then Warehouse Lane, by the Hammersmith & City line in Shepherd's Bush supplies the location of Hall's Warehouse.

1 Location 1Location2

I commented on the début of the new titles during Macra Terror: this story seems to be the first time we see the full length of them with story title, episode number and writer superimposed over the top. In fact this may be the first time this has happened: generally they've been displayed over the opening action or, like The War Machines and Tenth Planet, over specially designed captions.

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Saturday 13 May 2017

162 The Faceless Ones: Episode Six

EPISODE: The Faceless Ones: Episode Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 162
STORY NUMBER: 035
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 13 May 1967
WRITER: David Ellis & Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Gerry Mill
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Volume Four(1967)
TELESNAPS: The Faceless Ones: Episode Six

"We've found all of the originals. The Commandant at the Airport is going to deprocess them one by one, starting with you, unless I stop him!"

"Meadows" tells the Commandant that he doesn't know where the originals of the airport staff are kept. The Commandant shuts the airport to outbound flights and instigates a massive search. The Director dismisses the Doctor's request for the humans he holds. The Doctor is dismissive of the Jamie replica which has lost his accent. "Meadows" escapes his guard. The Doctor tells the aliens, now dubbed Chameleons, that he knows that the airport staff originals are on earth and when they're found the Commandant will remove the devices stabilising the copies, killing the Chameleons based on the airport staff one by one. The Chameleons contact air traffic control who bluff but the Chameleons see through it. Samantha and Jean find the bodies hidden in the car park and Jenkins is awakened killing the Chameleon "Jenkins" on the space station. Blade, whose original is on Earth, and the Director, whose original is safe on the space station, argue leading to the Director and "Jamie" being killed. Jamie & Crossland are freed and the process of returning the captured humans begins. The Doctor gives the Chameleon scientists a few hints to the solution to their problems. Returning to Gatwick, Jamie bids farewell to Samantha. Ben & Polly realise that this is the very day they left Earth so decide to stay behind. The Doctor & Jamie discover the Tardis has been stolen .....

4 episodes of mystery, one of urgency and now an episode of bluff/brinkmanship as the Doctor tries to regain the lost humans while the Commandant bluffs, and then actually does holds a gun to the Chameleon's head.

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Somehow this story is lacking something: there's no urgency to the first few episodes even when the Doctor's companions start disappearing and indeed Ben & Polly hardly get a mention after that. Then at the start of episode five everything gets a bit manic, the deadline of the last flight of the season emerges which is rather odd as we now know this story is set in July and most Englishmen go on holiday in August! A little restructuring with more urgency earlier on would help. I suspect my opinion may be changed if we could see more of it: the Chameleons are supposed to be an impressive visual sight but very little of them is visible in the surviving episodes. It's only in this episode that they identify themselves as Chameleons, and even then it's only in terms of "This is Chameleon Headquarters" so they may well still be referring to their front company name and the actual name of their race has gone unmentioned.

So why did we not see Ben & Polly between episode 2 and their brief appearance here?

POLLY: Doctor.
BEN: What are you doing?
DOCTOR: Doing? I'm looking for the Tardis, of course.
POLLY: Oh, no. Can't we stay in London a bit?
BEN: Yeah, it's good to feel normal again.
DOCTOR: Normal? What do you mean, Ben?
BEN: Well, no monsters, or Cybermen. All this, it's normal. I understand it.
DOCTOR: Do you? What about Chameleon Tours?
BEN: Oh yeah, that was different.
JAMIE: Oh, I'll be glad to get away from here. Can you not land us in a nice civilised place like 1750?
POLLY: What's so uncivilised about 1966?
JAMIE: Oh, you can keep it!
BEN: Did you say 1966?
POLLY: Yes.
BEN: What month is it?
DOCTOR: It's July. July the 20th, to be precise.
POLLY: What are you getting at?
BEN: Don't you see, Duchess? July the 20th, 1966 is when it all began! We're back to when it all started. Well, I think.
POLLY: That means it's as if, it's as if we've never been away.
DOCTOR: You really want to go, don't you?
BEN: Well, we won't leave, Doctor, if you really need us.
POLLY: The thing is, it is our world.
DOCTOR: Yes, I know. You're lucky, I never got back to mine. All right, then. Off you go. Now go on, Ben can catch his ship and become an Admiral, and you Polly, you can look after Ben.
POLLY: I will. You will be safe, won't you?
JAMIE: I'll look after him.
BEN: I'm sure you will, mate. Goodbye, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Ben.
BEN: We might see you sometime. Take care.
DOCTOR: Well you'd better hurry. The Commandant's car waiting.
JAMIE: I'm sad to see them go.
DOCTOR: Yes, Jamie. So am I.
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What happened is that Anneke Wills and Michael Craze left the series following episode 2: their appearance here is courtesy of the location filming recorded before the studio sessions. Anneke Wills led an interesting life both before and after Doctor Who and has been producing a series of autobiographies.

Michael Craze married Edwina Verner, a production assistant on the program who he met on the set of Tenth Planet, but later left the acting profession and ran first a pub, then a hotel. He died in 1998.

DOCTOR: Well, we've got things to do.
JAMIE: What things?
DOCTOR: Well, I didn't tell the others, but we've lost the Tardis.
JAMIE: We can't have done.
DOCTOR: It was outside. It's not there now.
JAMIE: You mean somebody's stolen it?
DOCTOR: I don't know, but that's what we're going to find out. Come on!
This episode leads directly into the first episode of the next story with the Tardis being stolen, not an uncommon device in the sixties. But this episode is also established as taking place on the same day Ben & Polly left Earth. So on the space day at least THREE forces are in operation in the London area: WOTAN & The War Machines, the Chameleons, and the protagonists of the next story: The Daleks. So the Doctor's premonition in The War Machines, similar to what he feels when the Daleks are nearby, may be due to there *actually* being Daleks nearby! It's also possible that there might possibly be an escaped Yeti hiding in the Underground ahead of the Web of Fear as well as an advance guard of Cybermen in the sewers!

Saturday 6 May 2017

161 The Faceless Ones: Episode Five

EPISODE: The Faceless Ones: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 161
STORY NUMBER: 035
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 06 May 1967
WRITER: David Ellis & Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Gerry Mill
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.1 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Volume Four(1967)
TELESNAPS: The Faceless Ones: Episode Five

"We could eliminate a whole squadron of their toy planes and they'd never get on to us. Their minds can't cope with an operation like this. Remember the teaching of our Director. The intelligence of Earth people is comparable only to that of animals on our planet."

Blade and Ann leave the plane taking the items they've collected with them. Jamie emerges from his hiding place and follows them. 2 of the misshapen aliens enter and start offloading the luggage. Jamie sees the objects been deposited in a room: he enters and finds human bodies shrunk in drawers. Ann enters and captures Jamie. The Doctor coerces "Meadows" into revealing himself. Meadows explains they come from a planet that has suffered a disaster which has removed their identity. They are duplicating humans but the originals are safe and those of the airport staff are still on the airport somewhere. With "Meadows" help Sam is freed, but the fake Nurse Pinto is killed and the real one revived. Jamie meets Crossland on the space station, but this isn't the police officer, it's his duplicate, the alien Director. The Doctor & Nurse Pinto board the last Chameleon jet flight of the season with all the airport staff duplicates. Meanwhile the Commandant and his staff search for the originals. The Doctor & Pinto arrive at the space station, where Jamie too has been duplicated but are apprehended by Blade.

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And finally the why and how of what's happening. Unfortunately most of it comes in a huge info dump in the interrogation of the duplicate Meadows:

DOCTOR: There we are. Now then. What happens if I were to turn one of these?
MEADOWS 2: Don't touch it!
DOCTOR: Ah, I see. Right. Now then, you are going to answer all my questions, and in return, I promise no harm will come to you. Do you understand?
MEADOWS 2: All right.
DOCTOR: Where are your planes taking all their passengers?
MEADOWS 2: There's a satellite about a hundred and fifty miles up.
DOCTOR: Why are you abducting all these young people?
MEADOWS 2: We had a catastrophe on our planet. A gigantic explosion. As you've seen, we have lost our identities. My people are dying out.
COMMANDANT: But what use would our people be to you?
MEADOWS 2: Our scientists devised a process so that we could take on the physical characteristics of another being.
DOCTOR: This is part of the process?
MEADOWS 2: Yes, that's why you mustn't touch it.
DOCTOR: How many of these young people do you hope to abduct?
MEADOWS 2: This time, fifty thousand.
COMMANDANT: Fifty thousand!

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DOCTOR: How large is this satellite?
MEADOWS 2: On the journey in our planes, the passengers are miniaturised.
DOCTOR: I see. How many of your people are working here at Gatwick Airport?
MEADOWS 2: I don't know. That's the truth, I tell you. I don't know.
DOCTOR: Very well. What happens to the people whose identity has been taken over, the originals?
MEADOWS 2: They're somewhere in the airport. I don't know exactly where.
COMMANDANT: I'll have the whole place torn to pieces to find them.
MEADOWS 2: No, you mustn't find them.
DOCTOR: Why not?
MEADOWS: You, you mustn't, that's all.
DOCTOR: Because if we do find them, we'll find one of these on their arms, eh? And if we remove it, something terrible will happen to you?
MEADOWS 2: Yes.
DOCTOR: What if you have to change back?
MEADOWS 2: Well, that can be done, but with the machine.
DOCTOR: The machine in the Medical Centre?
MEADOWS 2: Yes. None of us know where our own originals are, except that Nurse.
DOCTOR: Nurse? What about her?
MEADOWS 2: Oh she was cunning. She's got her own original with her.
DOCTOR: Where is it?
MEADOWS 2: I don't know.
DOCTOR: I think you do know. Now, are you going to tell me?
MEADOWS 2: It's in the Medical Centre.
DOCTOR: Right, you're going to show me where it is.
MEADOWS 2: I daren't. She'll have me destroyed.
DOCTOR: Are you going to co-operate or are you not?
MEADOWS 2: All right. It won't make any difference. You'll never see those fifty thousand young people again.

So now the mystery is done we move into a more urgent phase of the story as the Doctor tries to rescue the abducted humans. Once again the telesnaps let us down with no shot of the dying duplicate Pinto. I'm thinking that this story might work a lot better with the actual visuals when we can see everything.

However the confrontation between Jamie and the being he thinks is Crossland is superb, with a hint from Bernard Kay that this isn't the inspector by dropping the accent.

JAMIE: Inspector!
CROSSLAND: Let's see if I can get you out of there. How did you get here?
JAMIE: I came on the plane, stole someone's ticket.
CROSSLAND: You ought to have been miniaturised on the journey.
JAMIE: Miniaturised?
CROSSLAND: Reduced in size, like all the youngsters in these cabinets. Did you not have anything to eat or drink?
JAMIE: No, I felt too ill.
CROSSLAND: That explains it. The food is the first part of the process.
JAMIE: Inspector, what is this place?
CROSSLAND: A satellite, Jamie. A flying ship in space. These people are from another planet. It seems the Doctor was right after all. Does anyone down there believe him yet?
JAMIE: Oh, I'm not sure. I don't think so.
CROSSLAND: I suppose it is too much for them to believe. But surely the Doctor's convinced them that something is going on?
JAMIE: Aye, I think maybe the Commandant.
CROSSLAND: Yes, Jamie.
JAMIE: Inspector, have you escaped or something?
CROSSLAND: No-one escapes from here.
JAMIE: But the plane that comes here, well, it must go back to Earth. We could get on it.
CROSSLAND: The last plane to Earth is leaving now. They've just gone back to pick up their own people.
JAMIE: Surely the Doctor'll think of some way of rescuing us?
CROSSLAND: Not this time, Jamie. This time he's up against a mind superior even to his. The mind of the Director.
JAMIE: You mean someone clever than the Doctor?
CROSSLAND: The man in charge of this whole mission.
JAMIE: You seem to know a lot about it, Inspector.
CROSSLAND: Of course I do, Jamie. I am the Director.
This isn't the first Doctor Who story to deal with duplicates of the main cast: there was a robot Doctor in The Chase and a double of him in The Massacre. Sadly at this point the show isn't up to doing both original and duplicate on-screen at the same time. Duplicates is a theme that will be returned to regularly as early as next year's The Enemy of the World but the best examples are probably the two Auton stories, Spearhead from Space and Terror of the Autons, the Terror of the Zygons and the Android Invasion. We get to see what's happened to the missing humans: they've been miniaturised and stored in a similar way to what we saw in The Ark last year! We've seen a shrunken Tardis crew before in Planet of Giants and shrinking to kill will become a trademark of The Master!

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There's some more familiar faces to be found amongst the actors in this story:

Christopher Tranchell, playing Jenkins and his Chameleon double, has already been in the Massacre and will return for Invasion of Time by which point he'd be doing Play School. He's got an appearance in the missing fourth season episode of Out of the Unknown The Sons and Daughters of Tomorrow as PC Wilkes. He also play Paul Pitman in 8 episodes of Survivors: Spoil of War, Law and Order, The Future Hour, Revenge, Something of Value, A Beginning, Birth of a Hope and Greater Love.

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Colin Gordon appears in this serial as the Airport Commandant. Later on in the year this was broadcast, 1967, he appears in The Prisoner where he's Number Two in A. B. and C. and The General. He also appears in UFO as Albert Thompson in The Cat with Ten Lives. This is one of the episodes that stars Wanda Ventham, here playing Jean Rook, as SHADO second in command Virginia Lake.

Peter Roy appears as the Airport Police Sergeant who I think is one of the policemen restraining Pinto. IMDB credits him as appearing in episode 1, but you can clearly see a sergeant here so ..... He'd had already been a Greek Soldier in Temple of Secrets and Death of a Spy, first and third episode of the Myth Makers and an Extra in The Highlanders episode 1. He returns as 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. He appears in the third Star Wars film Return of the Jedi as Major Olander Brit.

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IMDB credits Anthony Lang as Airport Personnel on Plane for episode 1 but I think his most likely appearance is here amongst the airport personnel duplicates on the plane with the Doctor and Nurse Pinto. He'd previously been an Egyptian Slave in Golden Death and Escape Switch, the ninth and tenth episodes of The Dalek Masterplan and, like Peter Roy, an Extra in The Highlanders Episode 1, He'll return as a Time Lord in The Three Doctors Episode One and a Kaled Councillor in Genesis of the Daleks Parts One & Three. He plays the Emperor's Advisor Slim Aloo in Return of the Jedi but IMDB reports of him playing BoShek, the spacer wearing the black Tenth Planet spacesuit in the cantina in Star Wars, seem to be in error!