265 The Ambassadors of Death: Episode One

EPISODE: The Ambassadors of Death: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 265
STORY NUMBER: 053
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 21 March 1970
WRITER: David Whitaker (and Trevor Ray - Uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Michael Ferguson
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who-Ambassadors of Death
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"In a few minutes we shall know the answer to the question that has been occupying the minds of everyone here at Space Control since Mars Probe 7 took off on its return journey from the red planet nearly eight months ago. What has happened to astronauts Frank Michaels and Joe Lefee? Communications remained perfect on the long outward journey to the red planet and throughout the difficult landing. For a full twelve hours they sent back pictures and reports from the surface of Mars. Both then seemed in perfect health, then silence!"

After months of no communication Mars Probe 7 is returning to Earth. Recovery 7 has launched to meet it carrying astronaut Charles Van Lyden. The docking is being broadcast live on television but as Van Lyden opens the hatch an eerie noise is heard and communications are cut off. The Doctor races to the space centre and with the help of the already present Brigadier convinces flight controller Professor Ralph Cornish to allow him to help. The Doctor believes the noise is a message. A second transmission is heard, which is replied to. The Doctor & Brigadier set up monitoring and triangulate the repeated reply to a warehouse in London which is stormed by UNIT troops, who meet stiff opposition, allowing the besuited man communicating with the capsule to escape. They find some radio equipment which is destroyed by a self destruct device. The Doctor is given computer time to decode the messages but when he & Liz enter the computer room they are held at gunpoint by Doctor Taltalian.

Ambassadors of Death 1 is very much a time machine back to the seventies. On the one hand you've got a live space broadcast, very popular still at the time, with the Doctor watching at home and on the other hand you've got the UNIT troops enacting an episode of The Sweeney. Fresh from seven episodes of Silurian boredom, who get name checked at the top of the episode with the Doctor referring to the Brigadier's blowing them up, it makes a nice change. Once again my wife Liz is with me and despite having been warned "What do I want to pay attention to the titles for?" she wet herself laughing when they returned after the opening moments of the show presenting us with the word "The Ambassadors" and then the word "OF DEATH" flies onto the screen with a comedy sound effect. They don't try that one again after this story!

As the spacecraft docks she was entertained by Dudley Simpson's impersonation of Procul Harem's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" which then transforms into a Hamlet Cigar advert. Add it all together with the spaceships docking and you get something resembling a seventies film where, as the hero & heroine share their passion for each other we instead get to see alternate suggestive imagery replacing what's actually going on!

There's a rather nice sequence in the opening moments where we get to see the Doctor playing with the Tardis console, it's first appearance in the Third Doctor's era and thus it's first appearance in colour, where he projects first Liz then himself several seconds into the future. It's a nice touch heralding what will come in the next story.

We've seen several of the actors in this episode before: Professor Ralph Cornish is played by Ronald Allen who was Rago in The Dominators. Liz recognised him from Crossroads where he played David Hunter.

Robert Cawdron plays Scientist Bruno Taltalian and you know he's a proper scientist because he's wearing a white coat! He's previously worked for director Michael Ferguson before in the series Triton and it's sequel Pegasus, dramatic accounts of the life of Robert Fulton: Cawdron played Fulton in both series. He also appeared in the second season Doomwatch episode The Inquest as John McAlister.

Cheryl Molineaux plays Cornish's assistant Miss Rutherford: director Michael Fergusson has worked with her on The Newcomers, a BBC 1960s Soap Opera. Of it's 430 episodes only 5 complete editions exist!

Astronaut Charles Van Lyden is played by Ric Felgate who appears in two of director Michael Ferguson's previous serials as American Journalist Roy Stone in The War Machines and Brent in The Seeds of Death. The Internet claims Ric Felgate helped create Play School but I can't find any evidence to substantiate this. Meanwhile a book I have, which isn't known for being 100% reliable, claims he's Michael Ferguson's Brother in Law. Doubting the validity of this information I put it to m'learned friends on the Internet. Toby Hadoke (Moths Ate My Scarf, Running Through Corridors, DVD Commentaries and Who's Round) replied thus:

He was married to Cynthia Felgate who produced Play School, and he was Michael Ferguson's brother in law, but I think it may have been more complicated than Cynthia simply being Michael's sister (did maybe Michael's sister marry his brother or something?). I can't remember exactly, but it's on the Ambassadors commentary.

I was moderating as it happens A long, but very rewarding day.

Actually, I don't know if I talked to Michael about it off mic or on. If I'm not 100% sure of a fact I'll try to address it between eps so I'm clear and on the right track when we start recording again. I hope I remembered to bring it up after getting it clarified - it was a while ago now.

Michael Fergusson had also used him on Triton, see Robert Cawdron above, where he appeared as Lt. Singleton in two episodes and uses him again in The Passenger as Det. Con. Bellinger. The only thing I've seen him in that wasn't directed by Fergusson is The Sweeneyepisode Visiting Fireman where he plays McFarland.

Ray Armstrong plays the radio operator Grey, not named in this episode. He appears in UFO as a rescuer in Survival and in Doomwatch as Donovan in The Human Time Bomb.

Robert Robertson plays Collinson, the leader of the group of thugs in the warehouse. He has a long running role in Taggart playing Dr. Stephen Andrews in 52 of it's 110 episodes.

On his Doctor Who on-screen debut here is one of the true greats of Doctor Who: Michael Wisher, playing bearded TV reported John Wakefield. He's famed for bringing Davros, the creator of the Daleks, to life in Genesis of the Daleks but you can also see/hear him in Terror of the Autons as Rex Farrel, Carnival of Monsters as Kalik, Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks, Death to the Daleks & Genesis of the Daleks as Dalek voices, a role he also reprised for Blue Peter & Jim'll Fix It, Revenge of the Cybermen as Magrik)and Planet of Evil as Morelli and voice of Ranjit. I've read one website the says he did uncredited voice work on Michael Fergusson's previous story, The Seeds of Death, but since it's just one site and doesn't say what he voiced I'm reluctant to include it. Either way this is his first on screen appearance. Producer Barry Letts had previously used him on his Z-Cars story The Saint of Concrete Canyon and he later appears in Moonbase 3 as Harry Sanders in Departure and Arrival.

This is the first episode of Doctor Who to feature an "ACTION BY HAVOK" credit on the end titles (My friend Matthew will be cheering - it's his favourite Doctor Who credit). HAVOK were a stunt agency formed by regular Doctor Who stuntman Derek Ware and are used for many of the early Earth bound Pertwee serials. Derek Ware had worked on the program since the very beginning serving as the stunt double for Kal and the fight arranger on the very first story An Unearthly Child, which Douglas Camfield worked on as a Production Assistant. He returned as the Sword Fight arranger on Marco Polo, then the Fight Arranger for The Aztecs and The Crusade, which is Camfield's full directorial debut, in which Ware also played a Saracen, and then a cameos as a Bus Driver in The Chase 6: Planet of Decision in a sequence directed by Camfield. He then serves as a Solider/Stuntman & Fight Arranger for the Myth Makers before being reunited with Camfield during the Daleks Masterplan where he plays Tuthos and Fight Arranges. He serves as the Spaniard & Fight Arranger on the Smugglers, which is also Terry Walsh's Who debut as a Militiaman, before Fight Arranging the Underwater Menace and then The Web of Fear, in which he appears as a solider in the battle in episode 4 with Walsh and their fellow stuntman Derek Martin who'll show up later in this story. He's a UNIT Sergeant & a Stuntman/Soldier in this story but probably your clearest view of him is in the first three episodes of his next appearance, Inferno, where he's Private Wyatt. He's then Pigbin Josh & the Stunt Double for Filer in Claws of Axos and the Stunt Double for The Master & a Stuntman/Sailor in The Sea Devils, for which he also arranges the Sword Fight. "ACTION by HAVOC" is credited on Ambassadors of Death, Inferno, Terror of the Autons, Mind of Evil, where they also arranged the fights, Claws of Axos and The Sea Devils. Ware can also be seen in various roles in An Age of Kings, the BBC series of William Shakespeare's history plays, in the Adam Adamant Lives! as the 3rd. Samurai in More Deadly Than the Sword, the Security Man in Car in A Slight Case of Reincarnation, a Servant in The Basardi Affair, Wein in Face in a Mirror and the 3rd Judo Man in A Sinister Sort of Service. In Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em he's the Window Cleaner in The Labour Exchange. His most famous role was as Rozzer in The Italian Job, for which he was also the stunt coordinator. Look at his IMDB entry, there's so much more on there and watch the Hadoke versus HAVOC documentary on the Inferno Special Edition DVD

Ware's in the fight sequence in this episode as are several other stuntmen. You get a pretty good look at Ware and one of his fellows:

The other face there is Alan Chuntz who was one of the Stuntmen who are part of the other group of Collinson's Men. He was previously a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion and Technician Harvey & a Security Guard in The Seeds of Death. You can see him in episode 5 of this story too as a Stuntman/UNIT Soldier. He then returns as a Technician, UNIT solider and RSF Soldier in Inferno, during which he was injured when Jon Pertwee ran him over in Bessie, an Auton in Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner in Mind of Evil, a Sea Devil & Sailor in The Sea Devils, Omega's Champion in The Three Doctors, a Security Guard in The Green Death, a Guard in Planet of Spiders, a soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen, the Doctor's stunt double in Planet of Evil, the Chauffeur in Seeds of Doom, a Horda Pit Guard in Face of Evil, a Coolie in Talons of Weng-Chiang, a guard in State of Decay and a Masked Villager in The Visitation. He also did stunt work on the Sean Connery James Bond film You Only Live Twice and on The Italian Job.

The other Stuntman in that group is Billy Horrigan, who I can't spot despite knowing what he looks like thanks to a prominent role in his last appearance where he plays the Man on Bike Killed by Auton in Spearhead from Space. Before that he was a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion and then returns as a Technician and UNIT & RSF Soldiers in Inferno, a U.N.I.T. soldier, Auton Policeman & other stunts in Terror of the Autons, UNIT Corporal & Prisoner in The Mind of Evil, a colonist in Colony in Space, a guard in The Curse of Peladon, a Sea Devils & Sailor Stuntman in The Sea Devils, a security guard in The Green Death. a guard in Planet of Spiders, and a soldier/guard in Masque of Mandragora. He was also in Blake's 7 as a Scavenger in Deliverance. In the world of films he acts or does stunt work in Jabberwocky, The Spy Who Loved Me, Superman, Superman II, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi, Superman III, Krull, Never Say Never Again, 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Now I can spot Stuntman Terry Walsh (actor) who is one of the UNIT soldiers. He had been a Stunt Militiaman in The Smugglers, a Stuntman/Soldier at Covent Garden, a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, He returns as a UNIT Soldier, RSF Soldier, Technician and Stunt Double for Doctor Who in Inferno, an Auton Policeman, Stunt Double for Doctor Who and Stuntman (UNIT Soldiers/Auton Daffodil Men/Technician) in Terror of the Autons, a Motor Cyclist/UNIT Soldier in Mind of Evil, a Stuntman/Primitive, Stuntman/IMC Guard Rogers and Stuntman/Colonist in Colony in Space, the Stunt Double for Doctor Who in Day of the Daleks, the Double for Doctor Who in The Curse of Peladon, Castle Guard Barclay, a Sailor, Stunt Double for Doctor Who, Stuntman/Sea Devil & Stunt Double for The Master in The Sea Devils, an Overlord/Solos Guard in The Mutants, the Window Cleaner & Stunt Double for The Minotaur in The Time Monster, the Stunt Double for Doctor Who in The Three Doctors, the Stunt Double for Doctor Who in Carnival of Monsters, the Stunt Double for Doctor Who in Frontier in Space, the Stunt Double for Doctor Who & the Double for Captain Yates in The Green Death, the Double for Doctor Who in Frontier in Space in The Time Warrior, a Warehouse Looter in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Spaceman Jack, the Double for Doctor Who, the Burning Exxilon Stuntman & a Zombie in Death to the Daleks, the Guard Captain, a Guard & Stunt Double for Doctor Who in Monster of Peladon, the Man with Boat, the Stunt Double for Doctor Who & the Stunt Double for Mike Yates in Planet of Spiders, a Bouncer in Robot, Zake, Stunt Double for Harry Sullivan & Stunt Double for Doctor Who in The Sontaran Experiment, a Stuntman/Soldier, Stuntman/Thal Soldier, Stuntman/Muto & Stuntman/Scientist in Genesis of the Daleks, the Vogan Dove Radio Operator, a Stuntmen/Vogan Hawk, a Stuntman/Vogan Dove and the Stunt Double for Doctor Who in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Stuntman/Astronaut, Stunt Double for Doctor Who and Stunt Double for Sorenson on Planet of Evil, the Stunt Double for Doctor Who & Stunt Double for Doctor Who Android in The Android Invasion, the Stunt Double for Doctor Who on The Seeds of Doom, the Stuntman/Executioner in The Masque of Mandragora, the Stunt Double for Doctor Who & the Stunt Double for Chancellor Goth on The Deadly Assassin, a The Deadly Assassin & the Stunt Double for Doctor Who on Face of Evil Stunt Double for Doctor Who & Stunt Double for Count Grendel on Androids of Tara, Mensch & a Stuntman in Power of Kroll, Doran & The Stunt Double for Doctor Who in Creature from The Pit, He was the Fight Arranger on The Curse of Peladon, The Sea Devils, The Mutants, The Green Death, The Time Warrior, Death to the Daleks, Monster of Peladon, Planet of Spiders, The Sontaran Experiment, The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom, The Deadly Assassin, Face of Evil, Androids of Tara, Creature from The Pit. Outside of the main series he was the Double for The Doctor in Dimensions in Time and a Duelling Guard, Mercenary and Fight Stager for the Ultimate Adventure stage-play. The Day the Earth Caught Fire he's a Man, in Adam Adamant Lives! he's in D for Destruction as Watts and The Survivors as Gerry. In Space: 1999 he's a Clan Guard in Journey to Where, a Rescue Eagle Pilot in The Mark of Archanon, a Technician in Space Warp and the Security Guard in The Seance Spectre. He's in Douglas Camfield & Robert Holmes' The Nightmare Man as the Stunt Double for The Killer and An American Werewolf in London as the Taxi Driver Who Crashes His Cab. Plus an awful lot more!

Making up the rest of the UNIT Soldiers are a number of actors:

Crawford Lyle had been the Airport Police at the Immigration Desk in The Faceless Ones, a Warrior Monk in The Abominable Snowmen, a UNIT Soldier and a Bunker Man in The Invasion and a Technician in Seeds of Death. He returns as a UNIT Soldier in Ambassadors of Death,

Doug Roe was a Guard & security Guard in Seeds of Death, a Military Policeman and Prisoner in The War Games, a UNIT soldier in The Ambassadors of Death, a globby Axon & Unit Soldier in Claws of Axos, a Technician/Guard/Citizen in Pirate Planet, a Pangol Body Part and one of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive, a Foster in Keeper of Traken and one of Striker's crew in Enlightenment. In Blake's 7 he was a Federation Trooper in Seek-Locate-Destroy, Project Avalon and Blake.

Eric Kent was a Technician in Seeds of Death and returns as a Roundhead in The Time Monster. In Doomwatch he's a Man in The Islanders, a Passer-by in The Human Time Bomb and a Detective Constable in Fire and Brimstone. In Monty Python's Flying Circus he's one of the many Gasman in Dinsdale! and a Props Shifter in Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular. In Porridge he's almost a regular playing a Prison Inmate in The Hustler & A Night In and a Prisoner in Ways and Means, Heartbreak Hotel, Disturbing the Peace, The Harder They Fall and No Way Out. He's a Prisoner again in Blake's 7: Space Fall. In The Sweeney he's a Man Playing Slot Machine in Jigsaw, Haskins' Driver in In from the Cold and a Flying Squad Officer in Victims while in Sweeney 2 he's Eric. More big screen roles comes in Quadrophenia where he plays George, Octopussy in which he's a Soviet Board Member and Morons from Outer Space where's he plays an Angry Protester. He's also in The Comic Strip Presents... South Atlantic Raiders: Part 1 as the Sergeant.

Tom Laird was a Double for Dr Who in Seeds of Death and a Roman Soldier in The War Games.

Clive Rogers was a Space Corps Guard in The Space Pirates, and a Sniper & Resistance Man in The War Games. He plays a UNIT soldier in episodes 1, 5 & 7 of this story too and returns as an Axon Glob & UNIT Soldier in Claws of Axos, a Brethren Member in Masque of Mandragora and a Mentiad in Pirate Planet. In Doomwatch he's a Visitor in The Iron Doctor and in Monty Python's Flying Circus he's a Pantomime Animal in Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror.

Keith Simon was an Auton/Display Mannequin in Spearhead from Space and returns as an IMC Guard in Colony in Space.

Roger Minnis was an Auton/Display Mannequin in Spearhead from Space and a UNIT Soldier in the Caves in The Silurians. He also plays a Control Room Assistant/Technician in episode 2 and returns as an Axon Man in Claws of Axos.

Stuart Myers made his debut in the Silurians where he was a Plague Victim, UNIT Soldier & Technician. He then played a Unit Soldier in Ambassadors of Death, an Axon in Claws of Axos, a Draconian in Frontier in Space, the Photographer in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Titan Base Crewman in Invisible Enemy, one of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive, a Foster in Keeper of Traken, a Cricketer in Black Orchid, a Buccaneer Officer in Enlightenment, a Citizen/Unbeliever in Planet of Fire, a Resistance Fighter/Alphan in Trial of a Timelord 5-8 Mindwarp and a Customer/Mercenary in Dragonfire. In Blake's 7 he was a Crewman in Space Fall and in Moonbase 3 a Technician in Outsiders and Castor and Pollux. In Monty Python's Flying Circus he's a Water Rat in Spam and a Tour de France Man in Bed/Man in Computer Hamlet. He plays a briefly seen human Mos Eisley denizen in Star Wars: there's a picture on his Aveleyman entry which also lists an unnamed role in The Sweeney episode Payoff.

Steve Smart returns as a Regular Army Soldier & Axon Monster in Claws of Axos

According to the DWAS Production File Geoff Brighty is the actor should have been in Spearhead from Space as the car park attendant but was fired and replaced by producer Derrick Sherwin! So his Doctor Who debut occurs here and he returns as a Roundhead in The Time Monster as , an Operation Golden Age Man in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Audience Member/Meditator in Planet of the Spiders, an SRS audience member in Robot and a body in pallet in Ark in Space. He was in Moonbase 3 as a Technician in Outsiders.

Rod Peers is also a Control Room Assistant in this episode but doesn't seem to appear again in Doctor Who.

The DWAS Production File tells me that Roger Houghton, a Roman Soldier in The War Games & an Auton/Display Mannequin in Spearhead from Space, and Tom Segal, a Space Corps Technician in The Space Pirates & an Auton/Display Mannequin in Spearhead from Space, were booked as UNIT Soldiers for The Ambassadors of Death but didn't turn up!

Supplementing the Stutmen in Collinson's Men we have the following:

Les Shannon had been a Citizen of Millenius in The Keys of Marinus, a Council Member in The Massacre, a Settler in The Gunfighters and a Passenger/Plague Victim/Passersby/Ambulance Man/Policeman in The Silurians. He also plays a Cameraman in episode 7 of this story. He would have returned as a Space Monster in Shada but for that story's cancellation mid production. Elsewhere he's in The Andromeda Breakthrough as a Crowd Extra in Gale Warning, Out of the Unknown as the Coroner in The Sons and Daughters of Tomorrow, Moonbase 3 as a Technician in View of a Dead Planet and Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in The Way Back & a Kairos Guard in The Harvest of Kairos

Garth Watkins returns as a Time Lord in Deadly Assassin. In Monty Python's Flying Circus he's one of the many Gasman in Dinsdale! and in Fawlty Towers he's a Hotel Guest in The Kipper and the Corpse.

Ray Emmins and Vernon Preston are making their only Doctor Who appearances.

Max Diamond is one of the Military Policeman outside Space Control in this and the final episode, and technician in the fourth episode too - not this episode as IMDB thinks! He returns as a Driver/Double for Policeman in Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner in Mind of Evil and a Stuntman/Colonist in Colony in Space.

The Production Guide also thinks there's a second Military Policeman, Les Clark who was Pirate Daniel in The Smugglers, and returns as an Auton Daffodil Man in Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner & Prison Officer in Mind of Evil, a Primitive in Colony in Space, IMC Guard, Stuntman/IMC Guard and a Stuntman/Colonist in Colony in Space and a Castle Guard in the Sea Devils. In Adam Adamant Lives! he's a S.S. Man / S.S. Guard in A Sinister Sort of Service and in Blake's 7 he's a Pirate in Assassin and a Mecronian in Games. On the big screen he plays a Thug in The Italian Job.

LaFarge Cement Northfleet provides the location for the entrance to Space Command. Whenever I see this story I'm struck how much it looks like the entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain Command Centre in Stargate SG1!

On their way to the source of the transmission UNIT drive down White Street in Southall: The Doctor drives down same road in Invasion of the Dinosaurs! The peculiar looking tubes over the street are part of Southall Gas Works, seen later in the story, and the houses here were built for workers in the factory.

In this sequence there's three Jeep Drivers, all of whom were in the previous story: Bruce Cox was a UNIT Soldier/Policeman in Doctor Who and the Silurians and returns as a Driver in Inferno and an Army Driver in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Richard Pickford was a UNIT Driver/Ambulance Man & Police/Ambulance Man in The Silurians, and then a Chauffeur in Day of the Daleks and a Lorry Troop Driver in The Time Monster. B G Heath. was a Police/Ambulance Driver in The Silurians and returns as a Driver in Inferno and a Milkman, Black Maria Driver, Rocket Driver & Van Driver Mind of Evil. My natural suspiciousness and the similarity of roles makes me wonder if he's the Ted Heath down as a Driver/Motorcyclist in Day of the Daleks and an Army Driver Invasion of the Dinosaurs?

The Warehouse location for the battle is a third and final use for TCC Condensers previously seen in The Invasion & Spearhead from Space. The outside staircase doesn't appear this time but I'm pretty sure the doors into the building we see are the same ones used by both the Cybermen and the Autons.

This episode has become the first episode of Doctor Who to survive on it's original 625 line video tape and since no 405 line episodes exist on their transmission tapes it's the earliest surviving episode of Doctor Who on video. As we'll see it's a bit of a shame that they didn't hang on to the remaining six episodes of this story.

If you think that the spacecraft set in this story looks rather good then that's due to two separate BBC productions paying for & using it. After it appeared in Doctor Who is was used in Doomwatch, the science fiction series created by former Doctor Who script editor Gerry Davis & writing partner Kit Pedler, who had previously created the Cybermen. The Doomwatch episode it appears in is Re-Entry Forbidden, where it appears as Sunfire One, which aired 16th March 1970, just before Ambassadors Of Death began broadcasting. Re-Entry Forbidden, unlike many Doomwatch episodes, still exists and can be seen on The Doomwatch DVD

The Capsule set isn't the only thing shared between the two stories! There's some control consoles visible in the room controlling the space flight in Doomwatch:

They're also seen in Ambassadors of Death in the background at Space Control:

However Doctor Who can claim to have used these first as they're also in the Cyclotron room in The Silurians!

In the Control Room there are a number of Assistants, fulfilling the same role and seemingly wearing the same uniforms as the technicians in The Silurians. Most of these are only in this episode as an assistant but a few reappear elsewhere:

Roy Brent had been a Man in Firing Squad & Prison Sentry in The War Games and an Auton/Hospital Porter in Spearhead from Space. He's a UNIT soldier in episodes 2 & 4 and returns as a UNIT Soldier in Claws of Axos, a Miner in Monster of Peladon, a Double for Noah/Libri in Pallet in Ark in Space, one of the Collector's Escort in The Sunmakers, a Shrieve in The Ribos Operation a Guard in Creature from The Pit, a Skonnan Elder in Horns of the Nimon and a Resistance Fighter in Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp. In Monty Python's Flying Circus he was an Armoured Knight in Njorl's Saga.

Clive Rogers is also a UNIT Soldier in episodes 1, 5 & 7 of this story. Rod Peers is a UNIT Soldiers in episodes 1 & 7, Caroline Mylon & Wilma Oswald are Control Room assistants in this episode only with Lindsey Scott reprising the role in episodes 4 & 6-7.

Returning to reused props......

The Computer Console behind the door with Taltalian at the end of the episode is reused from The Invasion:

However the set photos for this episode, and because of what comes later we're pretty sure they're for this episode, show that this is one of four and they're all *slightly* different!

Two day after this episode was broadcast the seventh Doomwatch episode The Devil's Sweets was shown on BBC1.