Friday 25 May 2018

208 The Wheel in Space: Episode Five

EPISODE: The Wheel in Space: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 208
STORY NUMBER: 043
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 25 May 1968
WRITER: David Whitaker from a story by Kit Pedler
DIRECTOR: Tristan de Vere Cole
SCRIPT EDITOR: Derrick Sherwin
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
RATINGS: 6.8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Volume 5 (1967-1969)
TELESNAPS: The Wheel in Space: Episode Five

"So you see this isn't just an attack by an alien race on a space station. The Cybermen have another purpose. They have an over-riding ambition to invade the Earth, plunder its mineral wealth, and somehow they see a way of doing it through this Wheel!"

Hearing movement, the Doctor & Jamie hide witnessing the Cyberman removing the Bernalium rods. The Doctor wonders as to their motive: they don't seem to want to destroy the station. He works out they intend to deprive the crew of air and orders the airlocks sealed. He and Jamie are stalked by a Cybermat which he defeats by having a variable audio signal transmitted. The Cyberman inform the Planner of the Cybermats destruction. The station is attacked by more meteorites which they deflect using the laser. The Doctor suggests that the Cybermen caused the recent nova and thus the meteorites to prompt the use of the laser. The search for the necessary Bernalium would have caused a visit to the Silver Carrier and thus allowed the Cybermen to board the station and gain a foothold to invade Earth. The Doctor realises the Time Vector Generator is missing and send Jamie & Zoe to retrieve it. Jamie, Zoe & Gemma leave the control room when the field barrier surrounding it is temporarily deactivated. After Jamie & Zoe leave the wheel Gemma overhears The Cybermen deciding to poison the Oxygen supply. She informs the Doctor using the videolink but is spotted by the Cybermen and killed. As Jamie & Zoe spacewalk to the Silver Carrier they're caught in the meteorite storm.....

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A bit of a mess really, and not helped but a barking mad plan by the Cybermen: We'll cause a sun to go Nova just to infiltrate a space station.

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Still we see a bit more of the Cybermen and from what we can see that Oxygen supply room set doesn't look too bad.

The Doctor and Jamie's confrontation with the Cybermats looks nice but the set up of people surrounded by Cybermats has been done before and much better with Kemel's death in the previous episode!

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The science involved in this episode, and indeed the whole story, is rather dodgy: a recent supernova, even one observed recently, wouldn't be having a physical effect on the space station yet. I find it hard to believe Kit Pedler, a noted scientist, let this go out with his name on it. David Whitaker, who fleshed the story out, does have some form in the dodgy science department, but his story telling is usually miles better than this. I can't believe the same man was responsible for Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks. Whitaker passed up the chance to write the next Cyberman story, the Invasion, and his final Doctor Who serial, The Ambassadors of Death passed through the hands of several other writers before reaching the screen. He has very few television credits to his name after this point so I've frequently wondered if something was happening to him in the real world that was having an effect on his writing, but I've not found anyone passing comment on problems with the writer on this story. The only difficulties I know about were between director and producer: Peter Bryant, Producer, who felt that the director Tristan de Vere Cole broke the chain of command by regularly talking directly to writer Kit Pedler and Script Editor Derrick Sherwin instead of going through him, and was unhappy with some of de Vere Cole's modifications to the script so some of these complaints could perhaps be better directed at him instead of those credited with writing the story.

FLANNIGAN: You need a few lessons in the noble and manly arts, me bucko! All right, come on!
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For the final time The Australian censor provides us with some brief clips of this episode from Flannigan's fight with Laleham and Vallance. At one point Flannigan is hitting one of their heads against a door so I can see why the scissors came out on this occasion!

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This episode, and the next, were recorded on 35mm film instead of the standard 625 line videotape. Most of the other 35mm episodes survived in the BBC's film library but this one didn't.

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Friday 18 May 2018

207 The Wheel in Space: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Wheel in Space: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 207
STORY NUMBER: 043
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 18 May 1968
WRITER: David Whitaker from a story by Kit Pedler
DIRECTOR: Tristan de Vere Cole
SCRIPT EDITOR: Derrick Sherwin
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
RATINGS: 8.6 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Volume 5 (1967-1969)
TELESNAPS: The Wheel in Space: Episode Four

"Now, now listen, listen everyone. The Cybermen are here, in this Wheel!"

The Doctor explains that the Cybermen are threatening the Wheel, but the commander Bennett will not listen to him. The Cybermen hide themselves in a box of the much needed Bernalium fuel rods as Bennett questions how they will enter the station. Laleham and Vallance spacewalk back to the Wheel bringing the fuel rods and Cybermen with them. Bill arrives to help with the repairs to the X-Ray laser. Gemma speaks to the Doctor about her concerns for Bennett's mental health. Chang goes to fetch some fuel rods and is killed by a Cyberman. A Cyberman brings Bill under it's control. The Doctor deduces the Cybermen came aboard with the Bernalium. Tanya checks to see if any of the crew are under control of an outside force: Bill Duggan who has recently entered the room stands revealed. He attacks the communication equipment but is shot by Leo. The Doctor instructs Leo & Tanya in how to build jamming devices for the Cybermen's control. As the Doctor and Jamie investigate the loading bay a Cyberman appears....

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This is a bit more like it, the Cybermen are finally on the station and up to something, even if they don't appear that much and their crucial final shot is missing from the telesnaps - I had to borrow a frame from episode five to represent it above! But I think the damage has already been done by those first few episodes. I'm finding it difficult to care for the majority of the base crew at all. There's a few too many of them for a start.

The exception is, of course, Zoe. This is mainly because I know what's going to happen to her at the end of the story and, like Victoria staying with the Harris family in Fury from the Deep because she's unhappy about the dangers of travelling with the Doctor, Zoe's frustrations with life on The Wheel and a desire to be elsewhere are well stated here:

CORWYN: He's getting worse.
ZOE: Is he ill?
CORWYN: I don't know yet.
ZOE: Well, if he is he's chosen a rather inconvenient time, hasn't he?
CORWYN: Do you ever feel anything emotional, Zoe?
ZOE: Emotional? Do you know, that's the second time I've been asked that in the last few hours. Leo Ryan said that I was all brains and no heart.
CORWYN: Yes, it's your training. I shouldn't worry about it.
ZOE: Oh, but I do. I don't want to be thought of as a freak. Leo said I was like a robot, a machine. I think he's right. My head's been pumped full of facts and figures which I reel out automatically when needed, but, well, I want to feel things as well.
CORWYN: Good. Unfortunately the parapsychology unit at the City tends to ignore this aspect in its pupils. Some of them never fully develop their human emotions.
ZOE: You don't think I'll be like that, do you?
CORWYN: No. No, you seemed to have survived their brain-washing techniques remarkably well.
ZOE: Oh, good.
Once again Zoe's lack of emotions gets a reference and we find out that this is due to her upbringing and schooling.
BENNETT: Well, what are these Cybermen then?
DOCTOR: They were once men, human beings like yourself, from the planet Mondas, but now they're more robot then man.
BENNETT: You mean half and half?
DOCTOR: Oh no, more than that. Their entire bodies are mechanical and their brains have been treated neuro-surgically to remove all human emotions, all sense of pain. They're ruthless, inhuman killers!
BENNETT: You really expect me to believe that rubbish!
DOCTOR: It's not rubbish! They'll kill anyone who stands in their path. You've got to believe me. You've just got to!
The two Cybermen in this story have some Doctor Who connections: Jerry Holmes had an uncredited role as a Parisian man in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve. Gordon Stothard is a regular extra at the time having already played a Robot Yeti in The Web of Fear, he'll be back in The Invasion and Mind of Evil. His Invasion appearance catches the eye of Toby Hadoke in "Running Down Corridors". He appears without disguise there and is seemingly the same actor that played Grun, the King's Champion, in The Curse of Peladon. That role is credited to Gordon St. Clair who has no other credits elsewhere and was never traced. If it's another actor appearing under a different name then that would explain it!

Peter Hawkins and Roy Skelton provide the Cyberman voices. Hawkins fulfilled the same role on all three of the Cybermen's appearances so far. Skelton worked on the first, the Tenth Planet, and we last heard him voicing the computer in the Ice Warriors.

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The first death in this episode is that of Chang, played by Peter Laird, who went onto play Greville in Sapphire & Steel Adventure Five: Doctor McDee Must Die

The second death, a typically Doctor Who negative effect over the demise of Australian Bill Duggan's, survives courtesy of the Australian Censor and can be seen on the Doctor Who - Lost In Time DVD.

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Friday 11 May 2018

206 The Wheel in Space: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Wheel in Space: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 206
STORY NUMBER: 043
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 11 May 1968
WRITER: David Whitaker from a story by Kit Pedler
DIRECTOR: Tristan de Vere Cole
SCRIPT EDITOR: Derrick Sherwin
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
RATINGS: 7.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Lost In Time
TELESNAPS: The Wheel in Space: Episode Three

"Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority"

At last, after 8 missing episodes, an episode that exists!

The white spheres each contain a Cyberman. Jamie is caught spraying quick setting plastic into the X-Ray laser. He says the Doctor told him to protect the ship. An alert is declared and side-arms issued. The Cybermen report to their Planner that phase one, the launching of the Cybermats, is complete. Phase two, their undetected infiltration of the rocket, is also complete. It is now time to institute phase three. Zoe is concerned about the Hercules 208 star in the Messier 13 cluster. Bill assesses the damage to the laser and finds a small silver creature, which is found to have eaten the bernallium stocks that power the X-ray laser. The Cybermen are informed that a star has been ionised and meteorites will strike the Wheel. Seeking replacement bernallium in the stores Kemel is cornered by several of the creatures. He sprays plastic on one but the others kill him. Zoe examines it, and the Doctor suggests X-raying it revealing a Cybermat. Bill is put on report for failing to reveal the creature's existence. Two crewmen board the silver carrier and are brought under the Cybermen's hypnotic control and instructed to take them to the wheel where they will help the Cybermen.

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I was hoping for an improvement now the Cybermen are awake but they spend almost the entire episode sitting down talking to the Planner! Fortunately the Doctor's awake again and Troughton's back on form especially during his bedside exchange with Zoe:

DOCTOR: So what's your theory?
ZOE: Well, there's a record of the last contract with the Silver Carrier rocket. It had seven million miles to touchdown and enough fuel for twenty million. Well, it couldn't have drifted here off course in the time involved. It must have been driven and piloted.
JAMIE: Oh, a right wee space detective.
ZOE: There's only one solution. That rocket was re-fuelled in space. Provided with at least with another twelve fuel rods.
DOCTOR: Well, it's an interesting theory.
ZOE: Oh, it isn't a theory. You can't disprove the facts. It's pure logic.
DOCTOR: Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority!
Unfortunately he doesn't get very much further than his hospital bed all episode!

An odd exchange earlier in the episode hints at something slightly odd about the Doctor's new friend:

LERNOV: Leo, what we going to do if Bill can't repair the laser in time?
RYAN: Well, we've got the convolute force field.
ZOE: The neutron barriers won't help us. A star of this magnitude when it goes nova, deflects meteorites with a mass of two hundred tons each.
LERNOV: Two hundred
ZOE: At least.
RYAN: Aren't you ever wrong?
ZOE: Rarely.
RYAN: No, it's all a problem in solid geometry to you, isn't it. Don't you care what happens here?
ZOE: Well, of course. I'm only telling you what's going to happen.
RYAN: Just like a robot. Fact, calculations.
LERNOV: Leo!
RYAN: Proper little brainchild. All brain and no heart!
However the main news this episode is that the Cybermen are back and once again look a little different. It's not as major as their redesign between Tenth Planet and The Moonbase, which was essentially reused in Tomb of the Cybermen but nevertheless it's noticeable:

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They now have their chest units on the other way up which means the round panel, a feature derived from the gun in Tenth Planet, is now at the top of the chest. You can tell this is the previous chest unit mounted a different way: you can see the holes for the gun at the top now, but come back in episode 6 where someone doesn't quite get the message about hoe the chest units should be worn! The bodies have lost the practice golf balls and vacuum cleaner tubes from their limbs which are now replaced by stiff rods. Their fingers, previously pointed, now have flat stumpy ends. Their heads have been altered too: the eyes gain the now familiar tear drop with a similar design being added bellow the mouth.

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Most of these changes will carry over into the next couple of designs and eventually influence the 1980s redesign. They also gain a new electronic voice which, if anything, is harder to hear than the previous one. I still prefer the Tenth Planet sing song voices!

The Cyber Controller seen in the previous story is gone replaced by The Planner a collection of rods and tubes that uses the previous Cyberman voice.

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What does return from Tomb of the Cybermen are the essentially unchanged Cybermats. The scene where they en masse attack and kill Kemel is really quite disturbing and not for the first time I'm wondering if this section of an existing episode ended up on the cutting room floor of the Australian or New Zealand censors!

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The Tenth Planet spacesuits are also back for another appearance this episode. They're almost certainly in the previous episode too, but I can't be 100% certain as the telesnaps aren't clear.

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The suits are modelled on the Windak High Altitude Pressure Suit and first appear onscreen in the 1964 version of The First Men in the Moon, which Kenneth Watson, playing Bill Duggan, appears in as a journalist!

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They're used throughout this story and then are put into storage until being used for the filming of the Star Wars cantina sequence during 1976. They're probably the things that have been in Doctor Who that have been seen by the most people because they pop up in all three original Star Wars films as BoShek and Bossk's costumes!

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Back to the cast, as we get a much clearer look at several of them this episode!

Michael Turner, Wheel commander Jarvis Bennett, seems to have avoided science fiction series. I have seen him in Cry Freedom as Judge Boshoff.

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Kevork Malikyan plays Kemel Rudkin, the victim of the Cybermats. I can see two episodes of The Professionals on his CV where he plays Hanish, Mr. X in Blind Run and a Sniper in Backtrack. He also appears as Fahid in Day Dreams, an episode of Press Gang, a series written by Future Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat.

James Mellor appears as Sean Flannigan. He later returns as Varan in the first four episodes of The Mutants and appears in the film version of Doomwatch as 1st Man

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Derrick Gilbert plays Armand Vallance. He'd been Z-Cars Should Auld Acquaintance Part 1 and Part 2, playing Len Wandle, which were both directed by Tristan de Vere Cole, here helming his first and as it turned out only Doctor Who story.

Amongst the uncredited crew members we have a final Doctor Who appearance for Chris Konyils who was previously a Saracen Warrior in The Crusade 2 & 3, The Knight of Jaffa & The Wheel of Fortune plus the African ISC Officer in The Tenth Planet.

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And to the left of the picture, restraining Jamie, is our old mate Harry Fielder who we last saw in Enemy of the World 2 & 3 as Central European Zone guard and is next back for Revenge of the Cybermen as a Vogan. It's a first appearance for Gordon Pitt who returns in The Time Warrior Part One as Eric. Somewhere in the crew members is Ken Sedd who returns in The Invisible Enemy as a Bi-Al Member and The Leisure Hive as a Argolin Guide / Attendant. He spends a large part of his career working with and stunt doubling for Benny Hill but he also appears in Doomwatch as as an uncredited man in You Killed Toby Wren, Flight Into Yesterday, The Inquest, The Logicians and The Killer Dolphins plus credited as the Barman in High Mountain. Some of these episodes survive and can be found on The Doomwatch DVD.

In April 1984 an anonymous letter was printed in Doctor Who magazine saying there was a missing Troughton episode, featuring the Cybermen & Cybermats, in the Portsmouth area. It had become known in fan circles that David Stead had acquired a copy of Wheel in Space 3 from a dealer. He'd been trying to return it to the BBC and had indeed already spoken with them but illness and other real life events had prevented him handing it over. Stead had already been persuaded to make a video copy of the film and that had then been copied and passed round fans. One person who had seen a copy was Gary Russell, then a write for Doctor Who magazine and now script editor on Doctor Who, who wrote the "anonymous" letter to spur Stead into returning it little knowing that he already was in the process of doing so.

Wheel in Space episodes 3 & 6 appeared on video as part of Doctor Who: Cybermen the Early Years with The Moonbase 2 & 4 along with some extra material including an interview with Roy Skelton. The same episodes later all appear in Doctor Who - Lost In Time.

Friday 4 May 2018

205 The Wheel in Space: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Wheel in Space: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 205
STORY NUMBER: 043
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 04 May 1968
WRITER: David Whitaker from a story by Kit Pedler
DIRECTOR: Tristan de Vere Cole
SCRIPT EDITOR: Derrick Sherwin
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
RATINGS: 6.9 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Volume 5 (1967-1969)
TELESNAPS: The Wheel in Space: Episode Two

"Eighty million miles off course. If they're alive on board that craft, they must be in a pretty bad way!"

The space station aims the X-Ray laser at the Silver Carrier. Jamie signals to the space station using the Time Vector Generator alerting them to their presence on the ship. Two crew members travel over to the ship. The station crew are detecting odd magnetic effects and sudden drops in air pressure. Unobserved egg like bubbles are attaching themselves to the hull. Jamie has been checked by the station's Doctor, Gemma Corwin. When asked for the Doctor's name he says John Smith, taking his inspiration from a box he can see. He is unable to explain why they were on the Silver Carrier. He is introduced to Zoe who has been instructed to observe him. Jamie is given a tour of the station and slips away intent on sabotaging the X-Ray laser so they can't destroy the Silver Carrier and the Tardis.

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On the Silver Carrier, two white sphere start to glow, becoming translucent, exposing something moving inside which punctures the skin of the sphere with a 3 fingered silver fist!

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This episode was just as boring as the first one, slow moving and boring. It's not even got Patrick Troughton in it: he's away on holiday again, 12 weeks after his Web of Fear 2 absence, so while he's gone fishing the Doctor lies unconscious on a bed.

But here it almost feels like the slow boring episode has a purpose: it's showing the mundanity of space travel, trying to present a realistic version of the future. At the point this was made in 1968 the race to the moon was very much on so Space Travel was a thin and you could see Doctor Who and Kit Pedler wanting to present a realistic, if future, vision of it. There's several stories over the next year showing versions of Space Travel with it featuring in both Seeds of Death and The Space Pirates as well as forming a central theme of David Whitaker's next, troubled, Doctor Who story The Ambassadors of Death, which he will be attempting to write during this period.

The Time Vector Generator is being used as a bit like the modern Sonic Screwdriver, which is now as a do all device. So far this story it's assisted with immobilising robot and signalling station as well as helping to provide a good reason to get the Doctor out the Tardis.

This episode sees the début of the Doctor's most regular alias, coined by Jamie off a medical instrument's label when he desperately needs a proper name for his friend:

JAMIE: How about the medical? Do I pass?
CORWYN: You'll do. If it's any comfort to you, you are in fine physical shape. Can you give me your full name please?
JAMIE: James Robert McCrimmon. Jamie.
CORWYN: Thank you. And your friend?
JAMIE: Er, the Doctor.
CORWYN: I can't put that down.
JAMIE: Er. John Smith.
CORWYN: Really?
JAMIE: Aye.
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CORWYN: Would you like to see over the Wheel? I could arrange it for you, if you like.
JAMIE: Oh, yes. I mean, there's nothing else to do.
CORWYN: Well, if you go along the corridor you'll see a door marked Parapsychology library.
JAMIE: Para what?
CORWYN: It's on the other side of the Wheel complex, about eight sections on. I'll tell Zoe to show you round.
JAMIE: Zoe?
CORWYN: She's our. Well, the best way to describe her would be to call her our librarian.
JAMIE: Zoe, you say?
CORWYN: That's right.
We do get to meet new companion Zoe for the first time though, played by Wendy Padbury. Her most major TV role up to this point had been playing Stevie Harris in the first 44 episodes of Crossroads.
ZOE: Parapsychology library. What reference do you require, Doctor Corwyn?
CORWYN: No reference, thank you, Zoe. I need your help in another way.
ZOE: Oh?
CORWYN: One of the people retrieved from the rogue spaceship is coming to your section. I'd like you to show him over the Wheel and observe him.
ZOE: Observe him?
CORWYN: Discreetly, of course.
ZOE: Do you want these observations recorded?
CORWYN: Yes, please.
ZOE: Hmm, should be interesting.
ZOE: You must be (laughs)
JAMIE: What are you laughing at?
ZOE: Your clothes. You're wearing female garments.
JAMIE: Female? Look, I'll have you know this is a kilt. Have you not seen it before?
ZOE: Kilt? Kilt. A barbaric form of garment as worn by a kiltie! Are you of Scandinavian origin? Danish?
JAMIE: No, I am not. I am a true bred Scot and I'll just thank you to
ZOE: Oh, a Scot. Scotland, of course. Pre-century history isn't my field, you see.
JAMIE: Aye, maybe not, but just you watch your lip or I'll put you across my knee and larrup you.
ZOE: Oh, this is going to be fun. I shall learn a lot from you. Come on, James Robert McCrimmon. Do you know anything about interstellar flora?
JAMIE: Eh?
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DUGGAN: And this is the capacitator bank for the x-ray lasers.
JAMIE: The what?
DUGGAN: Oh, it controls the laser gun. Without it the gun's useless.
JAMIE: What do you need a gun for up in space anyway?
Jamie! How long have you been travelling with the Doctor for? Given the number of menaces he's faced with the Doctor it's a rather stupid question!

You may recognise the X-Ray Laser Capacitor Bank:

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This odd shaped device previously appeared in The Space Museum & The War Machines and will return in The Mind Robber and Spearhead from Space. Apparently it was originally constructed for the film the Curse of the Fly. It's not the only returning Doctor Who prop in this story to have come from a film either.

Wheel in space is somewhat unusual for having three significant roles for female characters in it. In addition to Wendy Padbury's Zoe we have Clare Jenkins, playing Tanya Lernov, who previously appeared as was Nanina in the Savages and will reprise her role as Tanya in the final episode of The War Games.

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The Wheel's medical doctor, Gemma Corwyn is played by Anne Ridler. She'll later feature in Moonbase 3: Achilles Heel as Prof. Kate Weyman and The Tomorrow People: The Revenge of Jedikiah: Curse of the Mummy's Tomb as Professor Johnston but she's probably best known as one of the voice artists on Terrahawks where she provides he voices for Kate Kestrel & Cy-Star as well as the female voice It-Star.

Elton Laleham, the radio operator, is played by Michael Goldie who previously played Craddock in the second and third episodes of The Dalek Invasion of Earth in 1964. He's got two episodes of Inspector Morse to his name appearing in Service of All the Dead as Jimmy (virtually everyone in that story has been in Doctor Who!) and The Settling of the Sun as a Tramp.

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Kenneth Watson, playing Bill Duggan, appears in the 1966 film version of Dalek Invasion of Earth, Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. as the movie version of Craddock, the character Michael Goldie played on the TV! Before that he'd been in Out of This World as Bud in Pictures Don't Lie and First Men in the Moon as the second reporter and we'll be hearing more of First Men in the Moon later in this story. He later appears in Timeslip as Dr. Fordyce in The Wrong End of Time Parts 1 & 2, Out of the Unknown as Hine in the existing fourth season episode The Man in My Head which you can see as part of the Out of the Unknown DVD Set, The Sweeney: Nightmare as Horrocks and two episodes of The Professionals as Det Supt Tilson in The Female Factor and The Boss in Take Away directed by Doctor who alumni Douglas Camfield

Donald Sumpter , appearing as Enrico Casili, would go on to play Commander Ridgeway in the Third Doctor story, The Sea Devils. If you ignore his role in the spin off Sarah Jane Adventures as Erasmus Darkening in The Eternity Trap then his appearance as The President in the Doctor Who episode Hell Bent probably makes the longest period, 42 years, between Doctor Who appearances. He can be also found in Dennis Potter's last television story, Cold Lazarus, as Dr. Rawl.

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Eric Flynn plays Leo Ryan. He was in the missing first season Out of the Unknown episode The Fox and the Forest as Faber.

There are some more identifiable crew members but I can't find them in the telesnaps for this episode: we'll come to them later.

Last time I blogged this episode I said:

And it's the end of a 13 episode run without anything to watch. The last episode that exists was Web of Fear 1. We're missing Web of Fear 2-5, Fury from the Deep 1-6 and Wheel in Space 1 & 2.
Of course since then Web of Fear 2 and 4-6 have been returned taking the gap down to 8 episodes, the second largest now existing after the 12 missing from after Tenth Planet 3 to before Underwater Menace 2. That six episode gap doesn't seem quite so bad thanks to what survives of Fury from the Deep courtesy of the Australian censor.

But Wheel in Space 3 exists! Hurrah! Moving pictures next week. And the silver hand at the end of the episode can mean just one thing....