213 The Dominators: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Dominators: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 213
STORY NUMBER: 044
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 31 August 1968
WRITER: "Norman Ashby" (aka Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln)
DIRECTOR: Morris Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Derrick Sherwin
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
RATINGS: 7.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Dominators

"Do not defy or question a Dominator!"

Rago is angry with Toba's use of a Quark to destroy the museum due to his careless expenditure of energy and reprimands his subordinate. Cully & Jamie are hiding in the shelter, protected from the blast but trapped by debris. Rago learns of the travel capsule and arranges for it's repair. The Quarks commence drilling. Jamie & Cully escape and decide to attack the Quarks. Jamie distracts a Quark which Cully crushes with a boulder. Toba leaves the ship to investigate while the Doctor examines their ship. The Doctor discovers the Dominator's unit that has sucked up the radiation from the island. Rago travels to the capital and makes demands of the council, who procrastinate and insist he sticks to procedure. Rago kills Tensa and demands slaves from the council. Balan worries about the drilling as the planet's crust is thin on the planet. Balan is killed by a Quark as Toba demands to know where Jamie & Cully are.

So what we got this episode was more Dominator squabbling....

TOBA: Yes, Navigator Rago?
RAGO: I have not yet dismissed you.
TOBA: But the creatures!
RAGO: Quarks, take these specimens back to the drilling site. Await the arrival of Dominator Toba. You two, over there.
DOCTOR: All right, all right.
TOBA: May I ask what you?
RAGO: You may ask nothing. You are here to listen.
TOBA: I am listening.
RAGO: Probationer Toba, I'm far from satisfied with your conduct on this mission.
TOBA: I protest!
RAGO: Be silent! I am beginning to wonder if you have the qualities of intelligence and detachment necessary in a Dominator.
TOBA: Where have I failed?
RAGO: You have repeatedly destroyed the creatures and installations of this planet to no purpose.
TOBA: My purpose was to protect us both.
RAGO: Protect? These creatures are harmless primitives. You acted out of your desire to gratify a need for pointless destruction.
TOBA: Was it by softness that the Dominators became Masters of the Ten Galaxies?
RAGO: It was by ruthlessness, Probationer Toba. That which threatens us we destroy. That which is too weak to harm us we ignore.
TOBA: Are they so harmless, these primitives? They've disobeyed us, they've attacked us, even here on this small island. The rest of the planet may be preparing to attack us even now.
RAGO: I will investigate the more advanced type of alien for myself. You will concern yourself with obeying my orders and nothing more. I will report your conduct to Fleet Leader.
TOBA: And I shall protest at yours.

RAGO: What did you say?
TOBA: You've jeopardised our mission by unnecessary softness. You've humiliated me before members of an inferior race. Perhaps it is you who is not fit to be a Dominator.
RAGO: You have the insolence to threaten me?
TOBA: It is not unknown for a leader who is unfit to be replaced.
RAGO: It is not unknown for a mutinous subordinate to be executed.
TOBA: You would not dare.
RAGO: Quark!
QUARK: Yes, sir.
RAGO: Place Dominator Toba under restraint.
TOBA: Quark, return to the prisoners.
RAGO: Quark! I am the senior Dominator, you will obey me!
RAGO: Well, Toba? Shall I order molecular force, or do you submit?
TOBA: I submit.
RAGO: Quark, return to the prisoners.
ZOE: What was all that about?
DOCTOR: A little internal dispute I fancy. Oh dear.

... and more of the council being absolutely useless!

COUNCILLOR 2: What? Who?
RAGO: You are the Council of this planet?
SENEX: Yes, I am the Director.
RAGO: You control the population?
SENEX: Yes. We presume that
RAGO: I require information.
BOVEM: If you'd care to make an appointment.
COUNCILLOR 2: That is, I'm sure, the correct procedure.
RAGO: Listen and obey me!

TENSA: Such discourtesy to our Director is not to be borne.
RAGO: Silence! You will provide me with certain statistics. Open your files.
TENSA: Really sir, I must protest!
RAGO: Protest? You defy me? You defy a Dominator?
TENSA: Senex is our leader and as such he demands respect.
RAGO: I warn you, a Dominator must be obeyed. Your leader is nothing to me. I respect only one thing. Superior force. You will obey my command.
TENSA: Sir, you would do better to request rather than command.
RAGO: Silence!
COUNCILLOR 1: Yes, perhaps if we were to explain the correct Dulcian procedure to you?
COUNCILLOR 2: After all, your visit
RAGO: I will give you no further warning!
TENSA: I insist that you conduct this meeting in a manner acceptable to the Dulcian
RAGO: Quark, destroy!

The council had it coming, so boring so far that one of them deserved to get it. Unfortunately the one that did, Tensa, played by Brian Cant, was the most dynamic of the lot of them. They really don't have a clue about the trouble they're in here!

RAGO: I have no wish to repeat such action. Let it serve to teach you that a Dominator must be obeyed without question. You, Director. It will be necessary for you to place at my disposal a certain number of the strongest of your species.
SENEX: You wish our assistance?
RAGO: Assistance. You are indeed an ingenuous race. I require slaves. Nothing more, nor less.
SENEX: Slaves? But
RAGO: Do not defy or question a Dominator. Obey, unless you wish to join your fellow countryman.
SENEX: Had you come here in peace we'd have done our utmost to assist you, but
RAGO: Dominators do not seek assistance. What we need we take.
SENEX: Always by force?
RAGO: If necessary. We control an entire galaxy. Our war mission is spreading to colonise others. Our Quarks must be released for this task, therefore we must replace their workforce on our home planets.
SENEX: So you require our people as slaves?
RAGO: Yes.
SENEX: So we shall be transported to your planet?
RAGO: Those who are selected will be fortunate. They will be saved.
SENEX: Saved? From what? What of the rest of our people?
RAGO: Enough questions. You will obey my commands! I shall require only the strongest of your species. You will be informed exactly how many I require. Remember, you can be crushed as simply as that if you do not cooperate!

The Dominators was originally planned as a six parter. As the scripts came in Script Editor Derrick Sherwin wasn't happy with what they were receiving from Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln and, to be honest< I think he's got a point. The story to date has been nowhere near as good as their previous tales The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear. So Sherwin took the decision to recut the scripts for parts 4 to 6 into new episodes 4 & 5. Haisman & Lincoln were very unhappy at this and had their names removed from the episodes, instead using a pseudonym, Norman Ashby, made up of the first names of their Father In Laws.

Relations between them and the production team were patched up to the point that they were at one stage working on a further story line, but then went sour again after the Quarks, which they retained the rights to, were used in a comic strip without their consent or payment. They never wrote for Doctor Who again. Meanwhile Derrick Sherwin had a problem: Doctor Who had a ten week slot to fill at the start of the Sixth season before it went off air for two weeks to accommodate coverage of the 1968 Mexico Olympics. He now had a five part Dominators, a four part Mind Robber and a one week gap. We'll discover his solution when we get to the first episode of the Mind Robber.

As it turns out the production problems on this story are a mere appetiser for the chaos to follow!