089 The Myth Makers Episode 3: Death of a Spy

EPISODE: The Myth Makers Episode 3: Death of a Spy
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 089
STORY NUMBER: 020
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 30 October 1965
WRITER: Donald Cotton
DIRECTOR: Michael Leeston
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 8.7 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2 - 1965-1966

"Woe to the House of Priam! Woe to the Trojans!" "I'm afraid you're a bit late to say 'whoa' to the horse. I've just given instructions to have it brought into the city!"

Paris saves Steven & Vicki and sends them to the cells with an ultimatum that Vicki produce a prophecy to end the war. Cyclops visits them and they use him to send a message to the Doctor, but he's slain by the guards at the city gate. Paris' younger brother Troilus visits them and is attracted to Vicki. The Doctor proposes a variety of madcap schemes to the Greeks to get into Troy before in desperation suggesting the Wooden Horse, which he believes is an invention of Homer. The Greeks love the idea. A 40ft Horse, the image of the Horse of Asia, will be treasured by the equine loving Trojans. Inside will be Odysseus, his warriors and the unwilling Doctor. Achilles will hide with the majority of the Greek forces while a small number will create a feint by sailing the Greeks ships away to return after Troy is taken. The next morning the Trojans are delighted at the Greek's disappearance and drag the horse into the city. Cassandra is not impressed believing the horse to be the doom of Troy she saw in a dream:

PRIAM:Oh, Paris! Have the Greeks really gone?
PARIS: Every last one of them, or so it seems.
PRIAM: There you are, Cassandra. I told you so. Oh, do for goodness sake, smile.
PARIS: But, more important, I think I've just found the Great Horse of Asia.
PRIAM: You've done what?
PARIS: Something uncommonly like it, anyway.
PRIAM: What on earth are you talking about?
PARIS: The Great Horse of Asia. Standing all by itself in the middle of the plain, about forty foot high and made of wood.
PRIAM: Whereabouts in the middle of the plain?
PARIS: Near the Grecian line. Look. You can just see it from here.
PRIAM: Great heavens, I do believe you're right. It is the Great Horse of Asia.
CASSANDRA: It's an omen. An omen of disaster.
VICKI: It is the Trojan Horse. But I thought you
TROILUS: What was that?
CASSANDRA: Yes, ask her! Go on, ask her! She knows what it is. It's our doom! It's the death of Troy, brought upon us by that cursed witch!
PARIS: Now understand me, Cassandra. I will not have one word said against that horse.
TROILUS: And neither will I against Cressida.
CASSANDRA: Will you not? Then woe to the House of Priam! Woe to the Trojans!
PARIS: I'm afraid you're a bit late to say 'whoa' to the horse. I've just given instructions to have it brought into the city.

A little light humour in the episode with the budding romance and the Doctor's scheme the only real plot movements. I wonder if any thought was given to hiding the Greeks in the Tardis and it being dragged into the city (as per the start of episode 2) with Homer inventing the horse story to cover up the truth that nobody could believe?

The Cyclops, the spy whose death in the episode title, is a third and final Doctor Who role for Tutte Lemkow who was Kuiji in the episodes 5 to 7 of Marco Polo: Rider from Shang-Tu, Mighty Kublai Khan & Assassin at Peking as well as Ibrahim in The Crusade Episode 4: The Warlords. He would later go on to play the Fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof

This episode introduces us to Troilus, played by James Lynn. His budding romance with "Cressida"/Vicky is one of the major plots in the latter half of the story so you wonder if it might have been an idea to introduce him sooner! Troilus and Cressida's mythical romance has been turned into a book and features competition for Cressida's affections in the form of Diomedes, the alias adopted by Steven!

Peter Day, one of the extras playing a Trojan Soldier, has appearances in The Massacre, The War Machines and Quatermass and the Pit to his just like several of the extras we saw in the first two episodes. Another Trojan Soldier is Steve Pokol who was a Thal in The Daleks 7: The Rescue and is also in the War Machines as well as the War Games. The War Machines is also on the CV of a third Trojan Soldier, Donald Symons. One new Greek Soldier is Norton Clarke who returns in The Massacre 3: The Priest of Death as a Secretary and Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 1 (1970) as a Technician while the other, also yet again in the War Machines, is Mike Reid making an early television appearance he'll be back for the Massacre, another story that keeps cropping up on the CV of extras in this tale, before becoming famous as a comedian, Runaround presenter and Frank Butcher in EastEnders.

088 The Myth Makers Episode 2: Small Prophet, Quick Return

EPISODE: The Myth Makers Episode 2: Small Prophet, Quick Return
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 088
STORY NUMBER: 020
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 23 October 1965
WRITER: Donald Cotton
DIRECTOR: Michael Leeston-Smith
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 8.1 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2 - 1965-1966

"Use your supernatural knowledge to devise a scheme whereby we capture Troy. I will give you two days. Two days to think of something really ingenious."

Taken to the Tardis landing side the Doctor confesses not to be Zeus but bargains with the Greeks for their lives: The Greeks agree on the condition that the Doctor comes up with a way to attack Troy in two days. Hector's brother Paris takes the Tardis back to Troy where his Father Priam views it and his sister Cassandra, a prophetess, who wishes to burn it as an offering to their gods because she's had a dream of something being brought into the city containing Greeks who will escape and slaughter them all. Vicki emerges and is taken under the protection of Priam who wants her knowledge of the future but is denounced by Cassandra who fears a rival prophet. Steven, posing as the Greek Diomedes, battles with Paris and is taken into Troy where he is reunited with Vicki. Cassandra believes they are both spies and orders soldiers to kill them.

We're getting some more comedy coming out in this episode, especially between the Greeks & the Doctor and amongst the Trojans. The Doctor, given the task of infiltrating Troy, immediately dismisses the obvious answer in the mind of most viewers:

STEVEN: Why not the wooden horse?
DOCTOR: Oh, my dear boy, I couldn't possibly suggest that. The whole story is obviously absurd. Probably invented by Homer as some good dramatic device. No, I think it would be completely impractical.
STEVEN: Yes, well, if you say so, Doctor. But in that case, hurry up and think of something else. The only way we can rescue Vicki is to get into Troy. We've only got two days left.

His suggestions don't go down too well:

DOCTOR: I sincerely hope not. Have you thought of tunnelling?
ODYSSEUS: It's been done. What we want is something revolutionary.
DOCTOR: Ah, yes. Dear me, sear me. Well, tell me, have you thought about flying machines?
ODYSSEUS: No, I can't say I have.

We meet the Trojans in this episode: Paris, Prince of Troy, abducted/eloped with Helen of Sparta who was married to Menelaus brother of Agamemnon who leads an expedition to Troy, which includes a number of Greek heroes and, besieges the city for ten years. Paris' Father is King Priam of Troy. King Priam had many children: we've already seen Hector, Priam's heir apparent, who was slain by Achilles at the start of episode 1. His daughter is Cassandra, Priestess of Apollo, who was given the gift of prophecy, but cursed never to be believed. Another son Troilus appears later in this serial.....

Oddly Helen, the cause of this, is absent from the action in this serial!

The comedy element is emphasised by the actor playing Paris, Barrie Ingham, sounding exactly like John Le Mesurier at times! Ingham had previously appeared in the Dr. Who and the Daleks feature film as Alydon. He's had a long career on both sides of the Atlantic. Things that spring out to me include Det. Chief Supt. Canning in the final episode of The Sweeney, an officer who implicates Jack Regan in a corruption scandal leading to his resignation. He's in my favourite episode of Airwolf, Fallen Angel, as Vladimir Kinskov and he isn't the only actor from Doctor Who to appear in it: John Brandon, The American Sergeant who becomes the Cybermen's first victim in the Tenth Planet, plays Zeus, Archangel's boss, in the same episode. He's been in Randall and Hopkirk %28Deceased%29, Street Hawk, The A-Team, Hill Street Blues and Dynasty %28TV series%29. He's even part of a select group of actors who've been in both Doctor Who and Star Trek courtesy of his Star Trek: The Next Generation in Up the Long Ladder. Toby Hadoke interviewed him for his Who's Round podcast in episode 16 which you can listen to here. He died in early 2015.

I've not been able to find a photo of Paris to show here but the rest of his family however:

On our right is King Priam, played by Max Adrian who, despite a long career, is probably best known for playing Senator Ludicrus Sextus in Up Pompeii!

His daughter, the priestess & prophetess Cassandra is played by Frances White. She has a more serious Roman television production on her CV having appeared in I, Claudius as Julia the Elder. The chances are you've heard her on television and not realised it: she's the voice of Peppa Pig's Grandma. Peppa's Grandfather is another Doctor Who actor: regular Dalek voice artist David Graham.

For many years no photo known of Cassandra was thought to exist. Then the above picture came to light. The left hand side had been seen many times, notably in Doctor Who monthly's archive on the series but the right, including Cassandra, was always missing. If you look carefully you can see why: two members of the crew are visible in the background!

There's lots of extras employed for this episode sadly with little indication of what they played on IMDB. I presume most of them are in the crowd scenes as the Tardis is brought into the city. Two of them though later return to the program in credited roles: John Joyce is Garvin, the Verger, in first two episodes of The Dæmons while Michael Osborne portrays Sorak in The Horns of Nimon. He also returns in The Ark playing an uncredited Guardian in episodes 3 & 4 The Return & The Bomb. Oddly several of this episodes extras are in the same tale: Eric Blackburn later becomes a Monoid while David Greneau is the Defendant in the first episode The Steel Sky.

Walter Henry is later in Doctor Who and the Silurians, Inferno and The Masque of Mandragora while Darroll Richards is a Parisian Man in The Massacre 1: War of God (1966) and John Moore, here a Trojan Man, returns in Frontier in Space. Doreen Ubels, a Trojan Woman, had already been in An Unearthly Child episode 2: The Cave of Skulls as a Tribeswoman and returns in The War Machines: Episode 4 as Fleeing Woman while the first episode of the same story features Jack Rowlands as an Interviewer and the next, The Smugglers, has Ricky Lansing, Trojan Guard, as a Villager at Inn & Pirate. Another Trojan Woman, Cara Stevens, is a Technician in the first two episodes of Doctor Who and the Silurians and, like Trojan Guard James Duggan had appeared in episodes of the famed Quatermass and the Pit. She's in the The wild Hunt, he's in The Enchanted and they're both in Hob.

Like episode 1 a certain amount of 8mm footage shot of the episode's Australian broadcast exists:

I couldn't work out who it was in this second shot: again m'learned colleagues at Roobarb's DVD forum came to my aid to point out that it's King Priam, one of the few non series regulars to appear in these off-screen shots.

After seeing Doctor & Steven on the plain we're treated to a shot of Vicki leaving the Tardis.

A tale from when I listened to this story for the first version of the blog:

When we watched/listened to the Crusade, when I watched and listened to all the episodes in the correct order for the first time, I said I had a story relating to the Myth Makers and experiencing things in the right order. Well a few months ago, before I started blogging, I made an effort to listen to all the Doctor Who stories I'd not previously heard. The Myth Makers was the first so one day, when travelling from Swindon to my Mum's in Kingston I decided to listen to it using my new MP3 player. I put it on on Swindon station and struggled to follow the action, which I put down to it being a historical story which I don't particularly enjoy. By Reading, where I changed trains, I was on episode 2. As episode 3 came round I heard something described as having happened. "Hmmm", I thought, "didn't hear that". Then the event described unfolded as I listened. "This is odd I thought". I then realised that my new MP3 player, despite me thinking I'd set it otherwise, was playing the tracks within the episode in a random order!

And finally: Small Prophet, Quick Return is the only Doctor Who title, for a story or an episode, with a comma in it!

087 The Myth Makers Episode 1: Temple of Secrets

EPISODE: The Myth Makers Episode 1: Temple of Secrets
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 087
STORY NUMBER: 020
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 16 October 1965
WRITER: Donald Cotton
DIRECTOR: Michael Leeston-Smith
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 8.3 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2 - 1965-1966

"For ten long years now we have laid siege to Troy and still they defy us!"

The Tardis arrives near the city of Troy and witnesses the climax of a battle between Achilles, a Greek, and the Trojan Hector. Leaving the Tardis the Doctor is mistaken for Zeus and taken to the Greek camp by Achilles and Odysseus where he meets Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus, who is the husband of Helen who has been abducted by Paris of Troy, bringing Greece & Troy into an extended conflict which Agamemnon hopes that the Doctor, as Zeus, will help them win. Steven follows the Doctor,leaving the injured Vicki, who sprained her ankle in the previous episode, in the Tardis. Steven is first observed by the Greek spy Cyclops, captured and about to be killed when the Doctor insists that he is taken to "his Temple" in the morning where he will show them a miracle. The mute Cyclops has entered and through sign language tells everyone that "Zeus' Temple" has vanished.

We English love so it was only a matter of time before Doctor Who had a go picking the well known tale of the Trojan Horse. But given that this is sixties television all the Greeks sound like they have upper class English accents with Achilles, Cavan Kendall, being a particularly bad offender sounding exactly like the comedian Kit Hesketh-Harvey who you may know from Just a Minute. Achilles is on the right in the above photo, with Hector, briefly played by Alan Haywood, on the left. As for me the episode is a little pedestrian reminding me very much of the classic serials of my youth, but with a little humour injected into it!

We aught to remind ourselves why the Greeks are here:

Menelaus, played by Jack Melford, was married to Helen of Sparta who was abducted by/eloped with Paris, Prince of Troy. Menelaus is also Agamemnon's brother and he leads an expedition to Troy, which includes a number of Greek heroes and, besieges the city for ten years.

The two main Greek commanders, Agamemnon and Odysseus, both have prior Doctor Who form: Odysseus, in the middle, is played by Ivor Salter who was the Morok Commander in the last two episode of the Space Museum, The Search & The Final Phase and later returns as Sergeant Markham in Black Orchid: Part Two.

Agamemnon, on the right seated, is played by Francis de Wolff who was Vasor in The Keys of Marinus 3: The Snows of Terror and later appears as The Tomorrow People Villain Jedikiah in all five parts of The Slaves of Jedikiah and also The Revenge of Jedikiah: Farewell Performance

My thanks to m'learned colleagues at Roobarbs DVD forum for identifying who was who in these photo. If you look carefully at the one in the tent above you can see the tent pulled up to Hartnell's left and what is probably the base of a camera visible through it.

Sadly there's no photo of the Cyclops: when I first read the name in The Programme Guide years ago I was expecting a mythical figure with one eye in the centre of it's face: turns out it's just a man, missing one eye!

There's a lot of extras used for this serial, which doesn't really come across in the audio recordings, and many of them have who form. Of the ones used in this episode Pat Gorman, who's been in everything, needs no introduction. Both Derek Chafer and débutante Peter Roy, who also has Blake's 7 episodes to his name have long associations with the show: look at their linked IMDB profiles for exactly what they've been in while John Freeman returns in The Massacre 2 & 4, The Sea Beggar & Bell of Doom as a Guard and Gary Wyler was a Thal in The Dr Who and the Daleks feature film alongside one of the cast that's introduced in the next episode.

This episode, and indeed no episode from this story don't reside in the BBC archives. There aren't any telesnaps either so all we have are the soundtrack, some publicity photos and some brief 8mm film recorded of the serial's Australian broadcast.

Like most of the 8mm footage it's pretty pedestrian showing just the Tardis crew, in this case Vicki & Steven as they watch the Doctor on the scanner and the same pair again as Steven, having changed clothes, prepares to leave the Tardis to follow the Doctor.

There are a number of new names of the credits this week: Producer John Wiles had been involved for a while now and had fallen out with the cast during the production of Galaxy Four. His tenure would be quite short involving clashes with the stars and his management at the BBC. This is Michael Leeston-Smith only Doctor Who story and so, because of the Myth Makers is missing from the archives, becomes the first director we've encountered to have no representation today. This is also writer Donald Cotton's first story and he'll be back for more later in the season.

086 Mission to the Unknown

EPISODE: Mission to the Unknown Episode 1: Mission to the Unknown
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 086
STORY NUMBER: 019
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 09 October 1965
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: Derek Martinus
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
RATINGS: 8.3 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection No2 - 1965-1966

"The Daleks are planning the complete destruction of our galaxy!"

In a jungle a man lies on a jungle floor and wakes remembering that he must kill! Nearby Marc Cory and Gordon Lowery are attempting to repair their damaged rocket ship. They wonder where Jeff Garvey, the third member of their party is. Garvey arrives and threatens them but Cory shoots him and pulls a thorn from his body: He has been infected by a Vaaga plant. They enter the spaceship, not seeing Garvey's body begin to twitch, grow hair and Vaaga thorn spines. Cory is a member of the Space Security Services who is on Kemble because the Daleks are believed to have established a base here - the Vaaga plants are proof as they grow on Skaro, the Dalek's home planet. In the city on Kemble the Dalek Supreme waits for representatives of the seven planets. He instructs the Daleks to exterminate the humans. Lowery is constructing a rescue beacon, but Vaaga plants are moving towards the ship. Noticing a disturbance they hide as the Daleks arrive and destroy the ship, but in the process Lowery pricks himself on a Vaaga thorn. The Dalek Supreme meets with his allies, who fear the humans and announce that they have agreed to invade Earth. Cory overhears this but is forced to kill Lowery who is transforming into a Vaaga plant. He records a message but is found and exterminated by the Daleks. His message survives on the jungle floor however.... The Dalek's allies pledge allegiance to the Dalek cause and chant Victory.

As Frankie Howard's Lurcio would say: The Prologue. Essentially a trailer for the forthcoming epic the Dalek Masterplan. One episode, without Doctor or Companions which instead showcases the Daleks. Made to fill the gap left by the merging of episodes 3 & 4 of Planet of Giants the usual cast are absent as a measure to save the cost of paying them for an extra week's work. But does Mission to the Unknown work as an episode? Well ..... hmmmm. I suspect with the visuals of the city, jungle and alien delegates it would work better.

Virtually the only visual record we do have is a number of publicity photos of the delegates. Some new ones came to light recently on the Mirrorpix website: 1 2 3 4 5 6

The production team for Galaxy 4, including director Derek Martinus, mind this episode by regular Dalek scribe Terry Nation and reuse one of the cast from that story Robert Cartland, who voiced the Rills and here plays Malpha, the one alien delegate with a speaking part here.

Barry Jackson, Jeff Garvey, had previously appeared as the mute Ascarius in the first two episodes of the Romans. For years Jackson was a jobbing actor and occasional stuntman whose CV included another Doctor Who role as the Doctor's classmate Drax in the Armageddon Factor. He found a measure of fame late in life as Pathologist Doctor George Bullard in Midsomer Murders.

Jeremy Young, who plays Gordon Lowery, was in the very first Doctor Who story An Unearthly Child as the caveman Kal while Edward de Souza, Marc Cory, would have been familiar to audiences for his role in the sitcom The Marriage Lines. You can hear Toby Hadoke interview him in Who's Round 88.

It's a Dalek story so you effectively get some performers automatically: David Graham & Peter Hawkins as the Dalek voices and Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Gerald Taylor and John Scott Martin as the Dalek operators

That's the end of the credited cast but the IMDB Cast List reveals more. There's three Varga plants listed: Roy Reeves as Varga Plant and Leslie Weekes, both of whom are making their sole listed appearances, and Tony Starn who'll return in The Mind of Evil: Episode Three as a UNIT Soldier, Revenge of the Cybermen: Part One as Vogan, The Masque of Mandragora: Part One as a Peasant villager and Part Three as a Brother. All his Doctor Who appearances are uncredited.

It's then time to enter the murky world of the Delegates.

The problem is for the most part we have no idea who played which delegate on screen and which delegate on screen has which name. Malpha, played by Robert Cartland is credited above and multiple sources at the time confirm him as the heavily veined Michelin man. I can remember owning an old Starlord annual as a child with a large picture of him in. We know that Trantis is played by Ronald Rich who was Gunnar the Giant in The Time Meddler part 2: The Meddling Monk - he's the Viking with the eye patch if you want to look and quite a big chap. He's almost certainly the tall alien with the white padded hood. This will cause problems when you see the recovered Day of Armageddon because Trantis there looks more like the humanoid alien with spikes out of his chin!

Pat Gorman, Doctor Who extra extraordinary, is the Planetarian. Most Who fans can pick Gorman out of a crowd scene by sight, so we can be sure he's either made up or covered completely up. Of those credited as Alien Delegates Johnnie Clayton isn't in any other Doctor Who and Len Russell's only other Who appearance is as a Parisian Man in The Massacre Episode 3: Priest of Death. Sam Mansary returns as a Journalist in The War Machines: Episode 1 and an African Diplomat Day of the Daleks: Episode Four. Mansray is the only one of these extras who is black and photos show the alien with the silver space helmet as being black so we know which alien he is while the spikey faced alien looks a lot like Johnny Clayton. So Gorman & Russell are the big black thing and the egg headed alien.

Apparently, according to those who remember, Mission to the Unknown has little name plates for each alien round a table identifying which is which. No photo of this has ever emerged so we'll never know for sure which is which!

For more educated guesswork on this matter have a look at Delegate Detective which attempts to match names to faces to actors for all the delegates in both stories. Things get a little confusing!

The chances of a recovery of Mission to the Unknown are very slim: although it was telerecorded no sale of this episode or of the 12 that make up the Dalek Masterplan were ever made abroad. The UK remains the only country to show it and then but once.

Here we officially bid farewell top Verity Lambert who has been withdrawing from operational command of Doctor Who for a while now. She goes on to a long and glorious career in television including heading Euston films and being responsible for Jonathan Creek (surely the longest ever audition for the role of Doctor Who). Verity Lambert died on the 22nd November 2007, a day before Doctor Who's 44th anniversary.

Novelised by John Peel as part of the first of two Dalek Masterplan novels, Mission to the Unknown was released on CD on 22nd October 2001 as part of Doctor Who - The Daleks' Master Plan. These CD were re-released as part of Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2 (1965-1966) on 3rd February 2011.

085 Galaxy 4 Episode 4: The Exploding Planet

EPISODE: Galaxy 4 Episode 4: The Exploding Planet
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 085
STORY NUMBER: 018
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 02 October 1965
WRITER: William Emms
DIRECTOR: Derek Martinus
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
RATINGS: 9.9 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: "Doctor Who": The Lost TV Episodes Collection No. 1 - 1964-1965

"Soon it will be night. The last night this planet will ever know."

The Chumblies attack the Drahvin ship and release Steven who returns with the others to the Rill ship. The Doctor works to power up the Rill ship while the Drahvins plan to attack. Steven argues with the Rills: The Rills say that if the ship cannot be charged in time they will not hold the Tardis crew. He warns them that the Drahvins plan to attack. Quakes begin to rock the planet as the Drahvins escape the Chumbley guarding the ship and prepare to attack the Rills. A Drahvin attacks the Rill ship but is soon dealt with. The Chumblies attack the Drahvins holding them off allowing the Rill ship to obtain power. A Chumbley escorts the Tardis crew back to the time machine as the Rill ship leaves. The Tardis dematerialises as the planet destroys itself killing the warlike Drahvins.

Meanwhile on a faraway planet in the middle of a jungle a man lies on a jungle floor and wakes remembering that he must kill!

Cracking story, essentially a reworking of the saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover". The theme is summed up in this exchange between the Doctor and the Rills when they finally stand completely revealed:

CHUMBLEY: Now you know what we look like.
DOCTOR: I do. And I, for one, am glad of it.
CHUMBLEY: We apologise for the glass partition, but you will understand we must keep our atmosphere in here.
DOCTOR: Yes, of course, of course.
CHUMBLEY: Our appearance shocks you?
DOCTOR: Not now. I must admit, it did at first.
STEVEN: Well, I don't see why the Drahvins should hate you.
VICKI: I know. I mean, after all, we must look just as strange to you.
CHUMBLEY: To the Drahvins we are ugly, so they become frightened.
DOCTOR: You are different from us, of course, but at least you are intelligent.
STEVEN: Yes, what difference does it make what your form is?
DOCTOR: Importance lies in the character and to what use you put this intelligence. We respect you as we respect all life.

I'd love them to find the fourth episode so we could see what the completely revealed Rills look like on screen. The Recon has a best guess using an old picture as it's basis:

The recon condenses this episode down to about a third of it's original length at 8 minutes. It's interesting comparing some the the things that there was little photographic reference for when it was made in 2008 to what we now know having seen Airlock. Good examples are the inside of the Rill ship and in particular the door that closes:

Although quite where the reconstruction team got the idea of using upended office chair bases from I don't know....

I am pretty sure I recognise the planet used at the end of the episode: that was the planet the Daleks had their base on at the start of the Chase!

Apparently none of the stars liked the story, perhaps due to it being rewritten from a form meant for the previous cast, causing the root of problems between incoming producer John Wiles, script editor Donald Tosh and Hartnell/Purves/O'Brien. This would lead to Vicki's prompt departure in The Myth Makers and start a process where the production team began to consider how to replace William Hartnell. But I thoroughly enjoyed all four episodes, especially the recently returned Airlock which was far better on-screen than the audio, and I'd liked the audio!

Despite what happened it almost seems a bit heartless abandoning the Drahvins to die on the planet. Does one of them survive though? Is the one shot at by a Chumbley and paralysed in the Rill base taken away with the Rills when they leave? The lack of visuals makes her fate ambiguous....

The director on the story was newcomer Derek Martinus, replacing planned director Mervyn Pinfield who was taken ill who died shortly afterwards during 1966. Martinus directs the next episode The Mission to the Unknown, come back for next week for details of that little oddity - as well as The Tenth Planet, The Evil of the Daleks, The Ice Warriors and Spearhead from Space.

This would be writer William Emms sole contribution to televised Doctor Who but he novelised this story for Target Book in 1985.

Until 2011 no episodes of Galaxy Four existed. The one returned episode, episode 3 Airlock, plus the 6 minute sequence from episode 1 Four Hundred Dawns was released as part of a reconstruction of the whole story as a special feature on The Aztecs Special Edition DVD on Monday 11th March 2013. The footage from episode 1 that survives can also be found in the Missing Years documentary in The Ice Warriors VHS boxset or Doctor Who - Lost In Time DVD. Galaxy Four was released on CD in the Missing Episodes collection in October 1999 and has been re-released as part of Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 1 (1964-1965)