129 The Smugglers: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Smugglers: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 129
STORY NUMBER: 028
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 24 September 1966
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Julia Smith
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 4.2 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Smugglers: Episode Three

"You'll talk, Doctor, or these young sprigs will die for it!"

Blake is released and takes Ben & Polly into custody, only to release them after the Squire & Pike depart. Blake suspects the Squire in the smuggling ring and trusts Ben & Polly over him. The Doctor pretends to tell Kewper's fortune with playing cards and when their guard Jamaica wants his fortune likewise told, Kewper knocks him out and escapes with the Doctor. The returning Pike is outraged at Jamaica and kills him. Pike has decided to steal the village smugglers' stash as well as finding Avery's gold. The Doctor meets Blake, Ben & Polly and tells Blake what Pike is planning. Blake leaves to fetch men to confront The Squire & The Pirates. The Doctor, Ben & Polly return to the church to hunt for Avery's gold, Polly providing a vital clue from the tombstones outside which lead them to the crypt where they find where Ringwood, Smallbeer and Gurney, the names from Longfoot's riddle, are laid to rest. The Doctor thinks there should be a fourth name, but further investigation is halted by the arrival of The Squire and Kewper, the latter of which is murdered by Cherub who has been following them. A shot rings out....

Another decent episode here which turns the cogs of the plot and moves it towards a confrontation in the final episode.

I feel somewhat sorry for Jamaica: he becomes the second person in this story to succumb to being deceived by occult superstition, following Tom's tricking at the hands of Ben & Polly last episode:

DOCTOR: Yes, yes, yes, that's very strange. And very disturbing.
KEWPER: What do these cards mean?
DOCTOR: Well, I'm afraid they're rather unpleasant. Yes, the first one represents yourself, innkeeper.
KEWPER: I am no knave, sir!
DOCTOR: Well, the cards have it so, sir.
DOCTOR: And the second is master Cherub.
JAMAICA: See a dagger? That's Cherub right enough.
DOCTOR: The third is the king. The blackest villain of them all.
KEWPER: Next, the ace?
DOCTOR: Yes, and that is death itself.
JAMAICA: The Captain.
KEWPER: What, Pike? And this one, the Jack of Diamonds, what is he?
DOCTOR: Well, I'm afraid I have no idea about that, sir, but I can assure you he will triumph in the end.
KEWPER: Ah, 'tis all madness.
DOCTOR: Well, you may call it what you wish. I know it's only cards, but sometimes they tell the truth.
JAMAICA: About any man, like me?
DOCTOR: Oh, yes indeed. Yes, yes. Aren't you afraid?
JAMAICA: Me? Jamaica ain't afraid.
DOCTOR: Very well then, my friend, shuffle for yourself and let's see them reveal your own fate.

At which point Kewper knocks him out allowing The Doctor to escape. Unfortunately this then earns him Pike's wrath leading to his death:

JAMAICA: Captain, they tricked me into it. I swear it was no fault of mine.
PIKE: Aargh, ye black-souled scum! Escaped!
JAMAICA: But, Captain.
PIKE: I'll tear your liver out and feed it to the sharks, ye sea slime.
JAMAICA: It was the old man, Captain. He cast a spell on me, I swear it.
PIKE: I'll cast a spell on ye, me pretty death's-head. A spell that'll run from ear to ear. Escaped!
JAMAICA: 'Twas the black arts, Captain.
PIKE: Aagh.
JAMAICA: Spare me, Captain. Spare me.
PIKE: I'll keelhaul ye from here to Port Royal. Where did they make for?
JAMAICA: I know, Captain. I know.
PIKE: Then speak, boy, while ye still have breath.
JAMAICA: I heard them speak, Captain. They said about going to see the Squire.
PIKE: Ah, that buffoon, what good'll he be to them?
JAMAICA: They said that he was the law.
PIKE: Aye, had he a will he'd call the militia, but I doubt he'll do that.
JAMAICA: Captain, do you think he would lay a trap?
PIKE: It follows, Jamaica.
JAMAICA: So we have to surprise them, Captain.
PIKE: Ye speak straight, Jamaica. They expect us tomorrow night at two of the clock.
JAMAICA: Then, we must go tonight at one.
PIKE: Jamaica, ye'd have made a fine skipper but you're short on guile. Any dark of the night they'll expect us. We'll spike 'em. We'll land by day. Some will go direct to the church and loot the smuggler's horde. Me and Cherub will seek Avery's gold.
JAMAICA: Aye, Captain, plunder the inn, the village, and the Squire's fine hall.
PIKE: Aye, it will be a merry night, but not for ye.
JAMAICA: Captain. Captain. I beg thee. No! No! No! Ahh!
(Pike's hook flashes down.)
PIKE: Fare ye well, Jamaica.

The image of the cards, which have been used to fool Jamaica, being scattered round his body is rather striking!

Jamaica's death, fortunately for us, is one of two scenes from this episode preserved by the Australian censor, the other being the close of the episode which I used screenshots from above.

Reunited with his friend, who in turn have been freed by Blake, the Doctor partially cracks the riddle set for him in episode one by Churchwarden Joseph Longfoot.

This is the Deadman's secret key: Smallbeer, Ringwood, Gurney.

It would seem that actor Terence De Marney stumbled over Longfoot's lines in episode 1 as when the Doctor retells the riddle here it's slightly different:

DOCTOR: What did you say, dear?
POLLY: Lucinda Maltree.
DOCTOR: No, no, before. These names. Yes, yes, that's it!
POLLY: What is?
DOCTOR: Yes, of course. Dead man's secret.
BEN: What?
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, of course. That's the answer to the puzzle. Yes. All these dead people.
BEN: What, here in the graveyard?
DOCTOR: No. No, not here.
POLLY: Hey, in the crypt!
DOCTOR: Yes, my dear. Exactly! Good heavens, well, you are inspired. Come on, quickly.
POLLY: What was the secret the Churchwarden told you, Doctor?
DOCTOR: It was some kind of rhyme. Now, let me see. Dead man's secret key. Ringwood, Smallbeer and Gurney.
BEN: Dead man's secret. Well, that means names on tombstones. But how does that help?
DOCTOR: Well, we must find these names, mustn't we. Yes, that'll be the first step.

Unfortunately Longfoot omitted a vital piece of information from what he told the Doctor:

DOCTOR: Well now, we've found our three names.
BEN: Well I'm blowed If I can see how it helps.
POLLY: Nor me.
DOCTOR: Yes, of course, yes. It would help if we found four names.
BEN: What, another dead man's name?
DOCTOR: Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly.
POLLY: What are you talking about, Doctor? Tell us.

.... at which point they are interrupted by Pike and the Squire.

The Australian censor isn't the only preserver of this episode though. In the middle of the colour 16mm film shot at the farm location there's a shot of Cherub hiding behind some bushes which nearly exactly matches a telesnap from the episode!

There's also a nice shot of Cherub talking to one of the other pirates off camera, who we also see being made up .....

.... which reveals said Pirate to be a familiar face: It's Doctor who's regular stunt co-ordinator Derek Ware as The Spaniard! Ware had been involved with Doctor Who since the very beginning fight arranging An Unearthly Child and turning up as a fight arranger/stuntman in episodes since. He's in charge for the big battle in the next episode.

The Smugglers is the first Doctor Who directing job for Julia Smith. An extensive career in television led to her directing many shows, including several soap operas, and being one of the creative forces behind the development of EastEnders & Eldorado. Her co-creator on those shows was Tony Holland who we saw as the Third Assistant in The Savages part 2. Smith will be back later this season in charge of The Underwater Menace.

Unfortunately, for the second time this series, this episode marks a low point for Doctor Who's viewing figures seen by just 4.2 million people. Here's how the record for lowest viewing figures moves throughout the show's run:

23/11/1963	An Unearthly Child Episode 1: An Unearthly Child	4.4
10/09/1966	The Smugglers: Episode One	4.3
24/09/1966	The Smugglers: Episode Three	4.2
07/06/1969	The War Games: Episode Eight	3.5
06/09/1989	Battlefield: Part One	3.1

There's two big factors that come into play here: what the weather is like outside and what's on the other side! In the shows last years it was scheduled opposite Coronation Street, in a move designed to kill it, but I can't say what was going on in 1966 although contemporary reports suggest it was quite sunny, and possibly warm, for the time of year. The next time a lower viewing figure was achieved was in the middle of summer in the midst of a rather long story!

Other episodes of Doctor Who have recorded viewing figures lower than An Unearthly Child 1's: The War Games 6 & 9 (4.2m & 4.1m) also feature in the list, again shown in high summer. Meglos 2 (4.2m) and State of Decay 3 (4.4m) are the next to feature chronologically: at this point ITV was running it's smash hit American import Buck Rogers in the 25th Century opposite Doctor Who so the initial half of that season generally achieves very poor figures before being redeemed in the second half of the season post Christmas when, following Buck Rogers conclusion, the series receives much healthier figures reaching a peak with Warriors' Gate 3's 8.4 million viewers. The next really big dip comes, as we've mentioned, in the show's later years, 1987-1989 when it achieves it's lowest viewing figures opposite Coronation Street.

128 The Smugglers: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Smugglers: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 128
STORY NUMBER: 028
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 17 September 1966
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Julia Smith
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 4.9 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Smugglers: Episode Two

"Don't you talk to me like that. Oh, Captain, give me the word. Just give me one minute. I'll have the words spilling out of him like blubber from a whale!"

The Doctor is questioned by Pike. Pike reveals that he and his ship mate Cherub, who kidnapped the Doctor and killed Longfoot, were in a crew with Longfoot serving Captain Avery. Longfoot stole Avery's gold which Pike feels is his. The jailed Ben & Polly play on stable boy Tom's superstitious nature to escape. Innkeeper Kewper rows out to the Black Albatross to discuss business with Pike: He, Longfoot and the Squire are part of the village smuggling ring. Pike & Cherub go ashore to discuss business with the squire, leaving The Doctor & Kewper guarded by the crewman Jamaica. Ben & Polly have sough shelter in the church and are attempting to piece together Longfoot's murder when they catch a figure coming out of a tunnel in the crypt. They capture him and Polly goes to see the Squire to tell him they've caught the murderer. The man tells Ben he's Josiah Blake, a revenue officer, having emerged from a tunnel that leads from the Crypt to the sea shore which Ben then investigates, wanting a way back to the Tardis. Pike & Cherub visit the Squire but while they are there Polly arrives. Polly recognises Cherub as the Doctor's kidnapper and is bound & gagged. The Squire, Pike & Cherub go to the crypt and arrive as Ben returns from the tunnel....

Yup, enjoyed this episode too. Very good. Nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary but it rattles along at a fair pace and does a lot of explanation on the way so you know what's going on. Yet this story gets a bad reputation in comparison to The Massacre, which everyone bar me loves!

Returning in this episode, as Revenue Office Josiah Blake, is John Ringham who we previously saw in the Axtecs as Tlotoxl and will later see in the Third Doctor tale Colony In Space. As his IMDB entry shows he's been a guest star in practically everything ever to be shown on television.

I've not long ago watched The Mutants on it's DVD release so I immediately recognised the voice of Paul Whitsun-Jones, who plays the obese Squire. Whitsun-Jones made a career out of playing fat men, at one stage (according to Katy Manning on the Mutants commentary) refusing Doctor's advice to loose weight because his livelihood depended on it! If you've not guessed yet, he'll be back for The Mutants where he plays The Marshall.

Both George A. Cooper, playing henchman Cherub, and Michael Godfrey, as Captain Pike, have had long careers without playing anything else significant in a cult television production.

Mike Lucas who is Tom, the boy at the inn, seems to have worked regularly into the 70s before disappearing from the small screen.

I can't be 100% sure but I think that Elroy Josephs, playing Jamaica, is the first black actor to have a credited speaking part in Doctor Who! I can recall Sam Mansray as an Alien Delegate in Mission to the Unknown and a Journalist in the preceding story The War Machines but both roles were uncredited. Roles for black actors are rare in 60s Doctor Who but at the end of Hartnell's period as the Doctor several start to turn up. Mansray was in the background of the previous tale as a journalist in a press conference, you can just about spot him if you look! Jamaica here is a more typical henchman, but a larger role, who the censors kindly preserve us some footage of from episode 3. However in the next story there's a much bigger role for a black actor, and one that could easily have been played by a white actor, so it looks as if there's some positive discrimination going on by the production team of the time. Josephs has several credits as a dancer on his CV and also appears in the Hammer films version of Quatermass and the Pit.

127 The Smugglers: Episode One

EPISODE: The Smugglers: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 127
STORY NUMBER: 028
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 10 September 1966
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Julia Smith
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 4.3 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes volume 3 (1966-1967)
TELESNAPS: The Smugglers: Episode One

"This is the Deadman's secret key: Smallbeer, Ringwood, Gurney."

Welcome to Doctor Who season 4!

When I was growing up The Smugglers had a bad reputation. It was one of the last Hartnells to be novelised and although I bought the CD I never listened to it till my "make sure I've heard/seen every Doctor Who story" session a few years back. So here we go on CD, as we'll be for most of the rest of the next season of the show and a large part of the one after that.

The Tardis dematerialises from Fitzroy Square. The Doctor doesn't realise that Ben and Polly are aboard until it's too late: they've come to return Dodo's key. Ben's keen to get away quick so he can return to barracks and is disbelieving when the Doctor explains that the Tardis travels in time and space not knowing where it will land. They materialise and can see caves on the scanner. Ben is very surprised when the Doctor opens the doors and he finds himself in a cave at the sea shore. Dismissing their move in space he decides to make for the nearest railway station with Polly, despite the Doctor's protests about them moving in time as well. They go to a local church where they meet worried church warden Joseph Longfoot who initially threatens them with a gun. When the Doctor enquires he says he's afraid of the friends of a man called Avery who he had dealings with before he turned to God. The Doctor resets his dislocated finer for him and in thanks Longfoot entrusts him with a riddle

"This is Deadman's secret key, Ringwood, Smallwood, Gurney."

The Doctor and his friends leave for a nearby inn and saying they know Longfoot the suspicious Landlord, Jacob Kewper, admits them and gives them lodgings. He sends his stable boy Tom to the Church Warden with a message that a delivery is coming but Tom finds Longfoot's body, murdered by the pirate Cherub who has visited him demanding the location of Avery's Gold. Tom rushes back to tell Kewper and is then sent to summon the squire. While Tom's away Cherub arrives at the Inn with some help, and having previously observed the Doctor talking with Longfoot he has him Kidnapped. Ben is knocked out in the struggle and on waking he and Polly can't give a satisfactory account of themselves so are arrested by the squire. The Doctor is taken by boat to the ship The Black Albatross where he meets Captain Pike who tries to intimidate the Doctor by plunging the metal spike that he wears, in the place of a missing hand, into the wooden tabletop.

That's great stuff that. I love the opening scene.

BEN: Blimey, where did all this come from? Well, it was a police box, wasn't it?
DOCTOR: What are you both doing in here?
POLLY: You dropped your key.
DOCTOR: How dare you follow me into the Tardis!
BEN: The what?
DOCTOR: The Tardis, sir! This is a vessel for travelling through time and space! Why did you follow me?
POLLY: I'm terribly sorry if we've annoyed you, Doctor. It was my fault, I'm afraid.
BEN: Well, what's all this then.
DOCTOR: And stand back from those controls. Those controls are used for dematerialising.
BEN: Dematerialising? What does that mean?
DOCTOR: You and this young lady are experiencing it. You are now travelling through time and space.
BEN: Yeah, well, make sure that I get back by teatime, Doctor. I've got to get back to my ship by tonight.
DOCTOR: Young man, it's going to be a long time before you see your ship again.
BEN: Hey?
POLLY: Why? When are we going to land?
DOCTOR: I don't know. That's the cause of half my troubles through my journeys. I never know.
POLLY: Why not?
DOCTOR: I have no control over where I land. Neither can I choose the period in which I land in. Oh, now, you see that scanner? That is what I call a scanner up there. We get a very good view of the outside.
DOCTOR: Ah, yes. I think we've landed in some sort of caves.
BEN: Yeah, well, thanks for the home movies, Doctor. Now if you'd just open these doors.
DOCTOR: Wait, wait, wait, young man, we don't know where we are. We don't know if it's safe or what period we're in.
BEN: Well, I'll take a little bet with you, ay? London, 1966, Fitzroy Square.
DOCTOR: Yes, I think it's quite normal. Yes, the temperature's all right. Well, I think you can leave, but watch your step.
POLLY: What a relief. You had me nervous for a minute, Doctor. Come on, Ben.
DOCTOR: Oh dear, all this distraction. And I really thought I was going to be alone again.

Whether planned by Davis & Lloyd or not the new companions first sight of the inside of the Tardis and the usual questions that that produces fall at the start of a story that itself starts a new season of the show, Doctor Who's fourth. So we start the season by getting an effective introduction and refresher on Doctor Who, the Tardis and why the Doctor knows not where and when he's going.

We also get the Doctor saying he was looking forward to being by himself, a position that so far he's not found himself in, bar for a brief interlude at the end of the Massacre. From this point on he has a constant run of human companions till the end of The War Games in three seasons time. Then when we get to our location the circumstances only serve to reinforce Ben's view point that they can't have travelled in time. Meanwhile Polly's sixties clothing make her appear to the locals as a boy avoiding any awkward questions. Getting down to the business of the story itself we find a lot of stereotypical roles here, but it's all competently enough done leading to an entertaining first episode.

This is Brian Hayles second script for the series. His first, through little fault of his own, had to be rewritten more than once and he gets a second chance here. He obviously did something right because he's invited back again for the next season.

David Blake Kelly plays Jacob Kewper, the Inn Keeper. He previously appear in The Chase episode 3: Flight Through Eternity as the Mary Celeste's Captain Benjamin Briggs His Out of the Unknown episode The Midas Plague is one of the ones that exists and is on the recent Out of the Unknown DVD Set.

Also appearing only in this episode is Terence De Marney as Joseph Longfoot. I can't see anything else in his long career that I recognise him from. He met his death in 1971 by accidentally falling in front of a London Underground train at High Street Kensington!

His on screen death in this episode survives courtesy of the Australian Censor who has preserved a small amount of material from three of the four episodes of this story.

However that isn't the only sight of this missing episode that we have! The Smugglers is a major step forward for the series location work as it's the first time a location outside of the London area is used. From the 19th-23rd of June 1966 cast and crew filmed in Cornwall, involving several nights away from home. During that time some colour 8mm film was shot at the Trethewey Farm location and this can be found, along with some material kindly hacked out by the Australian sensors, on the Doctor Who - Lost In Time DVD.

In the clips of the film, which include both footage being shot and the crew between takes, we see Kewper dispatching Tom to fetch the Squire, Tom riding away, the Doctor being abducted and the Squire arriving at the Inn.

Onto the extras: Les Clark plays Daniel in this episode only. He'll be back in Terror of the Autons: Episode Three as a Daffodil Man and The Mind of Evil: Episode Four as a Prison Officer as well as appearing in Blake's 7 twice: Assassin as a Pirate and Games as Mecronian. Derek Ware recalls him on The Mind of Evil DVD saying that Clark was a Commando in the Second World War after which he worked for 10 years as a policeman and later was a Private Eye as well. There's a Daniel credited for later episode but it's played by a different actor! Ricky Lansing is a Villager at Inn / Pirate who previously appeared in Small Prophet, Quick Return & Death of a Spy, the second and third episodes of the Myth Makers as a Trojan Guard. Also a Villager at Inn / Pirate are Roy Stanton as who was in the final fourth episode of the previous story,The War Machines, as a Soldier while Harry Tierney returns in The War Games: Episodes Four & Seven as an uncredited Resistance Man and Day of the Daleks Episode Four as a Plain Clothes PC and Tony Maddison was an extra in The Savages: Episode 1.

Gordon Craig makes his debut as The Doctor's double in this episode. I presume that's him in the 16mm colour shot above being loaded into the cart. He returns in episode 3 of this story and episodes 1 & 3 of the next, The Tenth Planet.

Sadly this episode of The Smugglers has a somewhat ignoble claim to fame: It's the first episode of Doctor Who to watched by less than the 4.4 million viewers who saw the very first episode, An Unearthly Child. Only 4.3 million tuned in for this episode and an even lower viewing figure is recorded later on in this story.

During Doctor who's summer break 2 events occurred that are worth mentioning: On 6th August it was announced that William Hartnell would be leaving Doctor Who. Then two days before this episode aired, on the 08th September 1966, the first Star Trek episode, The Man Trap, aired in the USA.