OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 259
STORY NUMBER: 052
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 07 February 1970
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Timothy Combe
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface (The Silurians/The Sea Devils /Warriors of the Deep)
EPISODE FORMAT: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using 525 off air video
"One of us was wounded. He was forced onto the surface. We will give you a summoning device. He will hear it and come to you!"
The Dinosaur attacking the Doctor is called off by a strange noise. Returning to the research centre The Doctor finds the Brigadier preparing to mount a search of the caves. During the search Security Chief Major Baker shoots at a figure he believes is a saboteur but is injured by another assailant. Taking a sample of the blood spilt in the caves, The Doctor finds it resembles reptile blood. The figure Baker shot has reached the surface and hides in a farm barn. Quinn goes into the caves and confers with his hidden allies. They give him a signalling device to summon the wounded & missing creature. The farmer & his wife discover the creature in their barn, and it kills the farmer. The police summon UNIT who investigate. The Doctor & Brigadier talk to the distraught wife at the local hospital and realise the creature is still in the barn ..... with the investigating Liz Shaw!
I'm afraid I'm still not being grabbed by this. It's proceeding quite slowly and, despite the tease of an arm, a back and a silhouette against the sky, we've not seen the main monster clearly yet! The effect used for their tripartite view of the world is rather nice though!
The Wounded Silurian's Voice 2 is provided by Paul Barton who plays a UNIT Soldier in episode 3 of this story and 'll we see as a Silurian in later episodes. He returns as a Roundhead in The Time Monster, a Courtier in The Masque of Mandragora, a guard in Face of Evil, Marn�s Attendant in The Sunmakers a Skonnos Guard in The Horns of Nimon, a Rebel in State of Decay, a Citizen/Unbeliever in Planet of Fire and a Walk on in Remembrance of the Daleks. He was in Doomwatch as a Man in Hear No Evil, Invasion and No Room for Error and appears in Moonbase 3 as a Technician in View of a Dead Planet.
Quinn's role in events is revealed a little more to the viewer, if not the Doctor and company:
LAWRENCE: Simply to disappear at a time like this!However it's not his cottage he's gone to, but that line has set that Quinn, it's down into the caves where he meets with an unseen ally:
DAWSON: Doctor Quinn has been working very long hours under a considerable strain.
LAWRENCE: So have we all.
DOCTOR: Oh, I'm so sorry. I was looking for Doctor Quinn.
LAWRENCE: You're not the only one.
DAWSON: He completed as many of the tests as he could, and then he simply had to go and rest.
DOCTOR: Is he in his quarters?
DAWSON: Well, no.
LAWRENCE: Gone off to that cottage of his, has he? If he spent more time doing his job and less writing that book of his. When he gets back, tell him I'd like to see him, would you? If he can spare a moment.
DOCTOR: Don't worry, my dear. We're all under a bit of a strain at the moment.
DAWSON: Doctor Quinn works harder than anyone at this centre.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, yes. Yes, I'm sure he does. It's just that I'd rather like another word with him myself. It's about those power losses.
VOICE: Why have you come?
QUINN: I have come to warn you. There are men searching the caves. Soldiers with weapons.
VOICE: Your warning is too late. They have already attacked us.
QUINN: What happened?
VOICE: One of us was wounded. He was forced onto the surface.
QUINN: Were any humans hurt?
VOICE: That does not concern us.
QUINN: You must stop taking power from the cyclotron.
VOICE: We still need the power. We are not yet ready to make our own.
QUINN: It's causing endless trouble. That's what brought the soldiers here.
VOICE: One us of was wounded. We need your help to recover him.
QUINN: How do you expect me to do that? The soldiers will be hunting for him. They will see me. I tell you it's impossible. I won't do it.
VOICE: You refuse to help us, yet you expect our scientists to give you their secrets?
QUINN: All you've given me so far are scraps of knowledge, hints. I must know.
VOICE: You will be given the information when the wounded one is returned to us.
QUINN: Very well. What shall I do? How can I find him?
VOICE: We will give you a summoning device. He will hear it and come to you.
We spend a lot of time in th caves this episode, first with the Doctor, then UNIT and finally Quinn and none of them quite look OK on screen. They're quite dark and don't seem to have colour recovered as well as some of the more brightly lit scenes.
We get out and about a bit more this episode with more action in the caves and some nice outdoors shots of the creature approaching the farm.
The moorland scenes are filmed at Hankley Common, not far from the locations used in episode one, while the nearby Sheephatch Farm is the location for the farm the creature shelters in
Nancie Jackson, who plays farmer's wife Doris Squire was in the missing third season Out of the Unknown episode Immortality Inc and featured in An Age of Kings as Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester in Henry VI Part 2: The Fall of a Protector.
Gordon Richardson plays Mr Squire: he was in He was in Paul of Tarsus, alongside Patrick Troughton's Paul, as First man in Diana of the Ephesians,
There's a fair number of UNIT soldiers in this episode:
In the Caves we have the following all bar two of which are stuck there for episodes 2 & 4-6:
Bernard Barnsley had been a Monoid in the Ark, and returns as a Laboratory Technician in Claws of Axos and a UNIT Trooper in The Time Monster. He'd been in The Andromeda Breakthrough as an Intel Thug in Cold Front. He's in Doomwatch he was a Man in Flight Into Yesterday & Public Enemy and in Monty Python's Flying Circus he was a Gasman in Dinsdale!
John Doyle had been a Cowboy in The Gunfighters and returns as a Greek Philosopher in Four to Doomsday.
Alex Donald was a Guard in The Savages, one of Zaroff�s Guards, an Atlantean Priest & a Full Fish Person in The Underwater Menace, He misses out on episode 4 but he's also a UNIT Soldier in episode 7.
Jim Delaney had previously been a English Soldier in The Highlanders, and a Confederate Soldier & Resistance Man in The War Games He also plays a Plague Victim in episode 6 of this story. He returns as a Passerby in Mind of Evil, a Presidential Guard in Frontier in Space, a Time Lord in Deadly Assassin, a Coven Members in Image of the Fendahl, a Noble in Androids of Tara, a Skonnan Guard in Horns of the Nimon, a Logopolitan in Logopolis, a Time Lord in Trial of Time Lord: Mysterious Planet & Mindwarp and a Crimson Time Lord in Trial of Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe. In Adam Adamant Lives! he's a TA Soldier/RA Major in D for Destruction. In Yes Minister he's the Permanent Secretary in The Compassionate Society and in the 1989 Batman film he's the Election Ceremony Patron.
Antonio de Maggio was a Warrior Monk in Abominable Snowmen, and a UNIT Soldier in Spearhead from Space.
Alan Clements was a Waxworks Visitor in Spearhead from Space and returns as a Technician in Inferno, a UNIT Soldier in Terror of the Zygons, an Android UNIT Soldier in The Android Invasion and a Bi-Al Member in Invisible Enemy,
Will Nash is the other UNIT Soldier and he too is only in episodes 2 & 6.
Down as just UNIT soldiers, so presumably at the Research Centre, are:
Brian Nolan had already been an IE Guard in The Invasion, a Confederate Soldier & Resistance Man in The War Games and a UNIT Soldier in Spearhead from Space He 's in episodes 2,4 & 6 of this story and returns as a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, a Solos Guard in the Mutants, a Prison Guard in Frontier in Space, a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom and the TV Cameraman in The Deadly Assassin. He was also in Doomwatch as a Man in Flood.
In episodes 2,4-5 & 7 is Mark Johnson had been a Gond in The Krotons. IF I've found the right Mark Johnson on IMDB, then he was also in The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a Wedding Guest.
One of these two also plays a medic in Episode 3, in a scene recorded on 22-12-1969
Just one new Technician this week and that's Sheila Knight who was The Receptionist in episode 1 and will be again in episode 7. She's joined by Norton Clark, Keith Goodman, Alex Hood, Barry Kennington, Cara Stevens, Joan Harsant, Ronald Gough and Keith Ashley who were Technicians in episode 1.
Timothy Combe is making his full Doctor Who directing debut with this story He'd previously worked on The Keys of Marinus as assistant floor manager, then The Reign of Terror & The Evil of the Daleks as production assistant, directing film sequences for The Evil of the Daleks: Episode 7. He directs two early Pertwee stories and as we'll see both end up with exactly the same technical problem.
This is Malcolm Hulke's first solo Doctor Who after writing The Faceless Ones with David Ellis and The War Games with Terrance Dicks.
Nowadays when we talk about missing episodes of Doctor Who we automatically think of the Hartnell and Troughton episodes. Once upon a time there were missing Pertwee episodes too. When Ian Levene visited the film and video library in 1978 their Pertwee holdings amounted to:
All, bar Spearhead from Space which was held on 16mm colour film, were held on the original 625 line transmission tapes.
STORY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Spearhead from Space 1 2 3 4 - - - The Ambassadors of Death 1 x x x x x x The Claws of Axos 1 x x 4 - - - The Dæmons x x x 4 x - - Day of the Daleks 1 2 3 4 - - - The Sea Devils x x x 4 5 6 - The Mutants x x 3 4 5 6 - The Three Doctors 1 2 3 4 - - - Carnival of Monsters 1 2 3 4 - - - Frontier in Space x x x 4 5 x - Planet of the Daleks 1 2 x 4 5 6 - The Green Death 1 2 3 4 5 6 - The Time Warrior 1 2 3 4 - - - Death to the Daleks x 2 3 4 - - - The Monster of Peladon 1 2 3 4 5 6 - Planet of the Spiders 1 2 3 4 5 6 -
The Film & Video library held nothing from The Silurians, Inferno, Terror of the Autons, Mind of Evil, Colony in Space, The Curse of Peladon, The Time Monster and Invasion of the Dinosaurs!
When Levene visited BBC Enterprises he found black & white film copies of all of the stories from Jon Pertwee's first four seasons, from Spearhead from Space to the Green Death. This filled in the missing episode for most of the stories the Film & Video Library held and supplied complete versions of The Silurians, Inferno, Terror of the Autons, Mind of Evil, Colony in Space, Curse of Peladon & The Time Monster. This meant that the number of missing Pertwee episodes was reduced to 7, Invasion of the Dinosaurs 1-6 and Death to the Daleks 1. At some point the 625 line transmission tapes for Invasion of the Dinosaurs 2-6 were found leaving just Invasion of the Dinosaurs 1 and Death to the Daleks 1 missing from the archive. Invasion of the Dinosaurs 1 surfaced as a rough black & white film recording while Death to the Daleks was recovered first as a 525 line US video and then as a 625 line recording being used for transmission in Australia.
Two day after this episode was broadcast the first Doomwatch episode The Plastic Eaters was shown on BBC1. Doomwatch was a science fiction series created by former Doctor Who script editor Gerry Davis and his writing partner Kit Pedler, who had previously created the Cybermen. It's producer Terence Dudley would later direct and write for Doctor Who in the 1980s. Several Doomwatch episodes are still missing from the BBC archives but the first one exists and can be seen on The Doomwatch DVD.
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