OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 336
STORY NUMBER: 066 TRANSMITTED: Saturday 10 February 1973
WRITER: Robert Holmes
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who Revisitations 2: Seeds of Death, Carnival of Monsters & Resurrection of the Daleks
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video
"What we all need, is something to unite us. We need a sense of purpose. We need a new leader. We need a war!"
The Drashigs pursue the Doctor & Jo by smell. Vorg tells the officials a tale of the Drashigs eating a crashed spaceship. The Doctor detonates marsh gas with sonic screwdriver to cover their escape back to the cave, aided by Vorg's physical intervention. The Doctor deduces that they are trapped in a Minicscope, a device which he had the High Council of the Time Lords ban. This one was missed from the recall. The Drashigs escape into the scope's workings as the officials try to decide what to do. Kalik admits to Orum that he hoped the Drashigs would escape which was why he suggested Vorg intervene. he hopes they escape from the machine to provoke a rebellion against his brother Zarb. The Doctor & Jo return to the Bernice for rope to escape down the shaft. Daly & Andrews hear the Drashigs and investigate, discovering Jo and capturing her. The Drashigs break through the hull bulkhead into the ship. Kalik sabotages the eradicator, hiding it's power supply in the scope to incriminate Vorg and potentially allow the Drashigs into the city. The ship's crew attack the Drashigs with explosives damaging the scope's workings. The humans resume their preset patterns, annoying Jo, as the Doctor escapes into the scope and into the outside world......
For most viewers this episode is about some rampaging monsters but we continue our little digs at television:
JO: That, that swamp place. It wasn't the real outside, was it?
DOCTOR: No. I thought it was at first, though.
JO: But that hand, that came from the real outside, didn't it? The giants were trying to help us.
DOCTOR: Yes. By jingo, I've got it! I know what this is.
JO: What?
DOCTOR: We're in a miniscope!
JO: Miniscope?
DOCTOR: Yes, you know, Jo, it's like, it's like one of those things, those glass cases that people keep colonies of ants in.
JO: Well, yes, but I don't see. Well, wait a minute. Do you mean that that Major Daly and all those people on the ship are in a sort of a peepshow?
DOCTOR: That's right, Jo, and you and I are inside its works.
JO: And outside there are people and creatures just looking at us for kicks?
DOCTOR: Very probably.
JO: They must be evil and horrible.
DOCTOR: No, not necessarily, Jo. Thoughtless, maybe.
JO: Thoughtless?
DOCTOR: Well, haven't you ever been to the zoo? Have you never kept goldfish in a bowl?
JO: Well, yes, but that's slightly different. We're not animals.
DOCTOR: We are to those creatures up there, Jo. Roll up! Roll up! Roll up! And see these funny little creatures in their native habitat! Watch them go through their funny little tricks! Poke them with a stick and make them jump!
JO: Oh, stop it, Doctor. It's not funny.
DOCTOR: No. Oh no, believe me, I'm just as angry as you are. As a matter of fact, I had a great deal to do with the banning of these miniscopes.
JO: You did?
DOCTOR: Yes, I did. I managed to persuade the High Council of the Time Lords they were an offence against the dignity of sentient lifeforms.
JO: But I thought the Time Lords never interfered?
DOCTOR: Yes, well, they don't as a rule. But, frankly, I made such a nuisance of myself. Well, they banned the things.
JO: But, well, if these Scope things were banned, how come we're inside one?
DOCTOR: I don't know. Officially, they were all called in and destroyed.
JO: And somehow this one was missed.
DOCTOR: It looks like it. The Tardis must have materialised in its compression field.
JO: So, here we are all cosily wrapped up with the other specimens.
DOCTOR: Yeah, but not for long, Jo. We'll soon get out of here.
JO: Will we? Seems to me we have a choice of being shot by those idiots on the ship, or eaten by those horrors out there.
Meanwhile the previous comical officials start to take a more sinister tone as Kalik plots against his brother Zarb.
ORUM: You expected the Drashigs to follow the Tellurians?
KALIK: They follow a scent blindly, so that primitive told us.
ORUM: What's to be gained by that?
KALIK: Possibly the world.
ORUM: What?
KALIK: The Tellurians will try to escape.
ORUM: And?
KALIK: The Drashigs will follow them.
ORUM: What good will that do any of us?
KALIK: Listen, Orum. For thousands of years, ever since the great space plague, our world has stood alone and been the stronger for it. Now Zarb is trying to change our ways.
ORUM: Because the functionaries are growing restive. They need distractions.
KALIK: What the functionaries need, Orum, what we all need, is something to unite us. We need a sense of purpose. We need a new leader. We need a war!
ORUM: How do you propose to achieve all that, Kalik?
KALIK: By leading the rebellion against my dear brother Zarb.
ORUM: Zarb's position is secure. How can a rebellion succeed?
KALIK: The Drashigs escape from the machine and then into the city. They would cause havoc before finally being destroyed. The Central Bureau would be forced to admit to serious miscalculation. And on whose part, Orum? Who would be blamed?
ORUM: President Zarb.
KALIK: Exactly. The Drashigs are only here because of Zarb's liberal-minded weakness.
ORUM: Popular feeling would be aroused against him, certainly. But you're forgetting one thing.
KALIK: What?
ORUM: The eradicator. Even if the Drashigs do escape, they'll never get into the city.
There's some fab comedy dialogue in this episode with Vorg, talking about the Scope:
SHIRNA: Look at those dials, Vorg.
VORG: What about them?
SHIRNA: They're suddenly dropping back, all of them. All the circuits.
VORG: They can't be.
SHIRNA: Well, look for yourself. It's a general power failure.
VORG: Don't be ridiculous. The power system's fully protected.
SHIRNA: Well?
VORG: Well, it can't be a power failure.
SHIRNA: The generators?
VORG: The generators were built by the old Eternity Perpetual Company. They're designed to last forever. That's why the company went bankrupt!
Onto the Bernice: Major Daly is played by Tenniel Evans who is most famous for his role in the long running radio series Navy Lark with Jon Pertwee. Seeing that Patrick Troughton was leaving Doctor Who he suggested to Pertwee the he should replace him! Later in his career Evans himself replaced Troughton in ITV comedy series The Two Of Us after Troughton's death. He had previously appeared in two Out of the Unknown episodes: season one's Sucker Bait, where he played Rodriguez and which you can see on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set, and season 2's missing The Prophet, featuring the robots from the Mind Robber, where he plays QT-1. He appeared in Yes Minister as Martin, the Foreign Secretary in The Official Visit & The Writing on the Wall
Ian Marter plays Lt John Andrews, having been previously considered for the role of UNIT Captain Mike Yates but couldn't commit to a long term engagement. However Barry Letts, Doctor Who's producer and the director of Mike Yates' introduction in Terror of the Autons, remembered Marter and cast him in this story which he also directs. Marter later goes on to play Doctor Harry Sullivan, the fourth Doctor's companion the last regular role Letts cast as producer. After Doctor he had a recurring role as Quentin Ingram in Crown Court, a series which featured many Doctor Who actors and which you can read about at the Furchester Crown Court Blog.
Likewise Jenny McCracken, who played Claire Daly, had auditioned for Letts as Jo Grant, coincidentally alongside Cheryl Hall, who plays Shirna. Both got into last 6 for role, and Letts remembered them and recalled them for this story. Some years later McCracken's agent went bust owing her a not inconsiderable amount of money. Writing to many casting directors Barry Letts was one of the few people she rang up. He immediately found a role for her in a forthcoming classic serial, which her IMDB entry suggests was Lady Bolgolam in Gulliver in Lilliput, and he continued to cast her in those productions.
The boat's captain, seen only in the location sequences in this episodes, is played by Andrew Staines making the third of his four Doctor Who appearances having been in The Enemy of the World as Benik's Sergeant & Terror of the Autons as Goodge. We'll see him again in Planet of the Spiders as Keaver, one of Lupton's gang. All four are directed by Barry Letts: While listening to the Who Talk commentary for Enemy of the World I was surprised to discover that he is the son of actress Pauline Letts, Barry's sister! (who in turn I'd seen in the BBC version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) Toby Hadoke interviews him for Who's Round 160 where he reveals that his uncle usually used him as a late replacement when someone dropped out!
No comments:
Post a Comment