OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 267
STORY NUMBER: 053
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 04 April 1970
WRITER: David Whitaker (and Malcolm Hulke - Uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Michael Ferguson
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who-Ambassadors of Death
EPISODE FORMAT: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using 525 off air video & chroma dot recovery
"You saw three spacesuits. I don't know what came down in Recovery 7, but it certainly wasn't human!"
Recovery 7 is opened up but is empty, the voices supplied by a tape recorder. A high amount of radiation is detected within. The Astronauts were seized during a fake security check. Sir James Quinlan, Minister for Technology, introduces the Doctor & the Brigadier to General Carrington. He tells them the Astronauts have been infected with a highly contagious form of radiation and isolated. The Doctor demands to see them, but when he arrives at the site where they were being kept he find them gone. They have been abducted by Reegan and two other men. Reegan drives the van used in the kidnap away with his two heavies riding in the back with astronauts, but he pauses at a quarry and, while wearing a radiation suit, dumps their bodies. The Doctor determines the astronauts could not have stood the amount of radiation they're now emitting so concludes that the astronauts are still in space and what returned to Earth is not the astronauts and isn't human. Reegan is being aided in caring for the astronauts by disgraced scientist Lennox. They are feeding them more radiation to keep them alive. Reegan receives orders to deal with the Doctor & Liz. Liz is summoned to where UNIT has found the bodies but is pursued in a car. She flees on foot onto a weir where she slips over the side.....
A seven part Doctor Who story is inevitably going to have a little padding and there's some evidence of it here as the Astronauts are kidnapped twice in the episode, first by General Carrington's group and then by Reegan & his unseen masters. Reegan evidentially knows what he's doing using the astronauts to kill off his accomplices in the heist. The first kidnap serves to introduce General Carrington, ok we've seen him already but it introduces him to the Doctor & the Brigadier. Why not have the General, who we know is a Mars Probe veteran, at the Space Centre anyway, cut out the two expensive set pieces and then have Reegan heist the astronauts from the Space centre? But where the Silurians was slow and stretched Ambassadors is at least moving on at a fair click and if you have to pad a bit of action to take the viewers mind off things isn't the worst thing to do. We'll come back to padding a story out in Inferno where the trick used there to extend the story works superbly.
The quality of this episode isn't the best: very grey in places. I seem to recall there wasn't a lot of colour in it from when I watched the VHS version.
This serial is credited to the series' original script editor David Whitaker, but evidence points to the final version being written by other people. The serial was apparently commissioned as early as 1968 by Derrick Sherwin originally as a six parter, possibly making it clear why there's so much obvious padding in the final version: it's been stretched by one episode. Sherwin, unhappy with what Whitaker turned in, had Assistant Script Editor Trevor Ray revise episode one but the final scripts for the remaining episodes were written by Malcolm Hulke, neither of whom receive any on-screen credit. There is some confusion as to exactly what David Whitaker did write for this serial but consensus is that he wrote nothing in script form beyond episode 3.
He's been in both previous episodes, we saw him at the warehouse in episode 1 and leading the raid in episode 2, but General Carrington is finally named in this episode. He's played by John Abineri who had previously been Dutch government advisor Van Lutyens in Fury from the Deep and would be back in Death to the Daleks as Captain Railton and The Power of Kroll as Ranquin. He's probably most famous for appearing as Herne the Hunter in Robin of Sherwood but he's been seen by most people as the butler at the ambassador's reception in the long running Ferrero Rocher adverts. Science fiction fans may recognise him as Rimmer's Dad in Red Dwarf or as Hubert Goss in Survivors or even Col. Chalmers in Thirteen to Centaurus, one of the surviving first season episodes of Out of the Unknown which you can see on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set but go have a look at his IMDB entry for his roles in numerous other TV productions!
In fact many of the new cast members in this episode have prior Doctor Who form: William Dysart, playing Reegan, appeared briefly as Alexander McLaren in The Highlanders. Both Liz and I were struck quite how much he looks like John Cleese! He too was in Survivors playing Alec Campbell in Sparks, The Enemy, Long Live the King & Power, all four of which Abineri also appears in.
Dallas Cavell, playing Sir James Quinlan, was the Road Works Overseer who Hartnell tricks in The Reign of Terror, Bors, one of the convicts on Desperus, in The Daleks' Master Plan, was another member of the cast to appear in The Highlanders as Trask and finally is the the Head of Security Castrovalva.
We saw one of the astronauts, Recovery Seven pilot Charles Van Lydon played by Ric Felgate, in episode one. He returns here as Van Lydon's alien counterpart and is joined by the doubles for the Mars Probe Seven Astronauts.
Steve Peters, Astronaut Joe Lefee & his alien counterpart, was a male slave at banquet in The Romans, an Ice Warrior in The Seeds of Death, directed by Michael Ferguson, alongside Felgate. Peters also played a Pirate Guard in The Space Pirates as well and was the leader Roboman in Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.. He was in two now missing third season Out of the Unknown episodes appearing as a man in 1+1=1.5 and a Plain-clothes Man in The Yellow Pill, both of which are also directed by Michael Fergusson! He can be found in the Doomwatch episodes You Killed Toby Wren as a Man in Laboratory and The Inquest as a Man and appears as a Technician in the Moonbase 3 episodes Departure and Arrival & Behemoth.
Neville Simons, Astronaut Michaels and his double, was in The Space Pirates as a Space Corps Technician & Space Corps Guard and The War Games: Episode Four as German/Roman Soldiers/Alien Student! in Monty Python's Flying Circus he was one of the many Gasmen in Dinsdale!
Cyril Shaps, as Doctor Lennox Lennox, was the nervous Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen and will return as Professor Herbert Clegg Planet of the Spiders and as the Archimandrite in The Androids of Tara. He has an Out of the Unknown to his name appearing as Dr. Duval in the missing second season episode Too Many Cooks. He plays the convict Jackdaw in the Porridge episode The Harder They Fall and Turner in The Sweeney episode May. He's briefly on-screen in the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me as Dr. Bechmann, one of the two scientists killed in the helicopter explosion near the start. He was in the fondly remembered children's series Into the Labyrinth as Kadru in Cave of Diamonds and famed early 80s comedy The Young Ones as the Old Man Next Door in Demolition. I saw him in the cinema in Erik the Viking as Gisli the Chiseller. One of his later roles is in Dark Season, the future Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies Children's series, as Mr. Polzinski in the first three episodes.
Gordon Sterne briefly appears this episode as Heldorf. He was in Out of This World, the predecessor to Out of the Unknown, as a Journalist in Pictures Don't Lie. He can also be seen in the Sean Connery James Bond film From Russia with Love as a SPECTRE Helicopter Pilot, The Prisoner as a Bystander in Living in Harmony, UFO as Helmsman Ellis in Reflections in the Water & the German Delegate in Confetti Check A-O.K., An American Werewolf in London as Mr. Kessler and Jeeves and Wooster as a Diner in Safety in New York (or, Bertie Sets Sail).
There's a couple of soldiers listed for this episode, one of whom is Les Conrad was a Tavern Customer in The Massacre, a Unit Soldier in The Invasion, a Pirate in The Space Pirates, a 1862 Union Soldier and an Alien Guard in The War Games and a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians. He also plays a Control Room Assistant in episode 6 & a Policeman in episode 7 of this story. He returns as a RSF soldier in Inferno, a UNIT soldier again in Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner & Military Policeman in The Mind of Evil, a Colonist in The Colony in Space, a UNIT Soldier in Time Monster, a Technician/Guard/Citizen in Pirate Planet, a Policeman in Timeflight, a 1983 Schoolmaster in Mawdryn Undead, a Gunrunner in Caves of Androzani, a Jacondan Guard in The Twin Dilemma, which also features his twin sons as the Sylvest twins, and a guard in Vengeance on Varos. He'd been a British Soldier in The Andromeda Breakthrough: Gale Warning, a man in Doomwatch: Burial at Sea, appears in the Blake's 7 episode Gold as a Space Princess Guard/Passenger, is a soldier in The Day of the Triffids and is a Legionnaire in the Douglas Camfield helmed classic serial of Beau Geste.
The other UNIT Soldier is Ron Conrad, a relative perhaps? He'd been an IE Guard & UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, a Technician in Seeds of Death, a Space Corps Technician in The Space Pirates and a German Soldier, Roman Soldier and an Alien Student in The War Games In Star Wars he's Sergeant Major Enfield, one of the Death Star Troopers accompanying Darth Vader in the cell block. The other Death Star Trooper in that scene is our old friend Harry Fielder.
There's also two new technicians: David Joyce is making his Doctor Who debut and returns in Day of the Daleks as an Ogron. In Monty Python's Flying Circus he was one of the many Gasman in Dinsdale! Pat Gorman has numerous past and future credits on the show - see The Silurians episode 4 for a full reading of them! In addition the DWAS production file has Sue Bourne down as an Assistant: given previous episodes that could be "Control Room Assistant/Technician" but on IMDB she's down as Cornish's assistant. This is her only Doctor Who appearance but if IMDB is correct he goes on to have an career behind the scenes.... personally I think that IMDB entry looks like two different people with the same name joined together!
Onto the heavies employed by Reegan.
The taller chap helping to spring the astronauts in Gordon Stothard, previously a Yeti in The Web of Fear, Cyberman in The Wheel in Space and the Warehouseman Carrying Caskets in The Invasion episode three. He returns as a Prison Officer in The Mind of Evil, where he's listed as Gordon Stoppard, and the King's Champion Grun in The Curse of Peladon, by which time he's working under the name Gordon St Clair.
The other heavy in this sequence is stuntman Dinny Powell, the younger brother of the famed Nosher Powell. Dinny returns as the Stunt Double for Captain Mike Yates & Stuntman (UNIT Soldiers/Auton Daffodil Men/Technician) in Terror of the Autons, a Stuntman/Primitive & Stuntmen/IMC Guard in Colony in Space, a Stuntman/Guard in Curse of Peladon and a Stuntman/Thal Guard in Genesis of the Daleks. In Adam Adamant Lives! he's Daniel in The Village of Evil and the 1st Judo Man in A Sinister Sort of Service. The Prisoner he's the 2nd Guardian in The Schizoid Man. In Carry On Up the Khyber Burpa in Crowd. In The Sweeney he's a stuntman in Regan and a Flying Squad Officer in Selected Target. In The Pink Panther Strikes Again he's Marty the Mugger, Revenge of the Pink Panther he's Scallini Henchman and a Stuntman and in Curse of the Pink Panther he performed stunt work. In Blake's 7 he's a Stuntman in Hostage and a Goth Guard & a Stuntman in The Keeper. In Superman II he's Boog and in Krull he's a Slayer in the Swamp & a Stuntman. He appears in both episodes of the Campion story Look to the Lady as Major King and in Red Dwarf he's Famine in Gunmen of the Apocalypse. Dinny worked on many of the James Bond films, frequently alongside his brother or sons. IMDB has him working on Dr. No, From Russia with Love, the original Casino Royale, You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, Never Say Never Again, A View to a Kill, GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, the last of which he plays Carver's Thug in. He also does stunt-work on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Things get somewhat confusing with the heavies at the point as Reegan leaves with the Astronauts. Here's what I'd always assumed had happened: Reegan leaves with Astronauts, Heavies shoot scientists, Heavies ordered into back of the van where they're killed by the Astronauts and Reegan then dumps the bodies. Made sense, all witnesses to what Reegan's done disposed of.
However today this line sprung out at me:
REEGAN: I'll take them out to the others. You two go back by the direct route when you've finished here.And then I paid close attention: Powell & Stothard have their altercation with the scientists, but Reegan padlocks the doors on them as as he leaves. Then we see two heavies being ordered into he back of the van. At first glance, a tall chap and a shorter balding chap with a moustache, they look similar to Powell & Stothard but they aren't! Those ordered into the back of the truck are a pair of actors called Tony Bradburne, the tall chap who confusingly is also a Heavy in episode 7, and Paul Warren , who returns as a Daffodil Man in Terror of the Autons. My Thanks to Movie Dude's Ambassadors of Death page.
REEGAN: You two ride with them. They won't hurt you. You've got guns, haven't you?Now *IF* this was the original pair it would be reasonable to think Reegan's ordering them in there knowing the Astronauts will bump them off thus removing any witnesses to kidnapping who might blab to the authorities later! But it isn't, they're locked up inside the building......
Except when UNIT shows up they're not there!
Terrance Dicks appears to have noticed the problem here when he novelised Ambassadors of Death in 1987: He tweaks Reegan's parting line to the heavies guarding Heldorf and his assistant to
I'll see you outside - when you're finished hereThe book then has those thugs get in the van, and continues as I thought the story had played out!
The scenes of the Astronauts getting in the van were filmed at Wycombe Air Park on 29rd January 1970.
So we have two sets of heavies with the first lot disappearing from within a locked building and the second set being bumped off for no discernable reason. They've done nothing during the raid and there's every reason to believe that Reegan knows they're going to die because he drives straight to somewhere to get rid of the bodies! Why kill off two of your witnesses when there's two more left alive?
The two thugs in the back of the van have their dead bodies unloaded at Folley's Gravel Pit, now LaFarge Aggregates Marlow on 23rd January 1970.
There's a nice little sequence here as the signs & number plates on the van change to prevent Reegan being traced:
The signs are an in joke by the crew Hayhoe Launderers refers to assistant floor manager Margaret Hayhoe , who you can hear interviewed in Who's Round 53 while Silcock Bakers refers to director's assistant Pauline Silcock, who was injured in episode three's location filming.
There's more location filming later in the episode as Liz is lured away and chased by more heavies!
The chase sequence starts with car scenes filmed on Gossmore Lane, Marlow on the 29 January 1970.
There's two Crane Drivers listed in the DWAS Production file as appearing on location, neither of whom is on IMDB: A J Benning & A Lovett. I'm guessing these are the actual operators of the cranes at the quarry.
The chase continues across the adjoining Marlow Weir.
Another clue the original pair of heavies have got out of the bolted bunker comes during the weir scene: Dinny Powell is quite clearly visible there, attacking Liz Shaw on the weir!
With him is Derek Martin who had been one of the Rabble in The Romans, a Citizens of Paris (Rue des Fosses St Germain) in The Massacre, an English Sailor & Highlander in The Highlanders, a Stuntmen/Soldier in Covent Garden in The Web of Fear and the Stuntman in Spearhead from Space. He returns as a UNIT soldier, RSF Soldier & Technician in Inferno, a Prisoner in Mind of Evil, a Stuntman/UNIT Soldier, Stuntman/Corporal & Stuntmen/Axon Monster in Claws of Axos and David Mitchell in Image of the Fendahl. He was in Out of the Unknown as a Guard in The Counterfeit Man which you can see in the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. He was in Adam Adamant Lives! three times: firstly as a TA Soldier/TA Driver/RA Technician in in our favourite episode D for Destruction: this episode also features second Doctor Patrick Troughton and a large number of our friends the Power Station Control Panels and Tape Spool Computers, then as a Coach Driver in Death Begins at Seventy and a Villain in The Tunnel of Death. In Survivors he was in The Peacemaker as Cyril. He's also in The Sweeney as Spooner in Messenger of the Gods and The Professionals as Renshaw in Not a Very Civil Civil Servant. Nowadays he's best known for playing Charlie Slater in Eastenders. He pops up on the Who Talk commentary CDs commenting on Web of Fear 4 and features in the Inferno Special Edition DVD Hadoke vs Havoc documentary.
Roy Scammell, seen as a UNIT Motorcyclist in episode 2, is back again in this sequence too as a Liz Shaw Stunt Double for the fall off the weir. Caroline John used to relate a story about how the whole sequence was potentially very dangerous for her as she had just discovered she was pregnant with her first child!. The Doctor Who Production Guide has Roy Scammell down as also playing a character called Peterson in this episode but I haven't been able to figure who or where that is: My best guess is it's Heldorf's assistant! One more appearance for Scammell to come in this story as a Technician in episode 7.
This is the 24th consecutive episode of Doctor Who that we've watched passing the previous longest run of 23 episodes from Reign of Terror 6 to The Crusade 1. Obvious this run continues for a little while yet.... In fact it's only real interruption between now and the end of the series is for six episodes made in 1979 that were never completed.
Two day after this episode was broadcast the ninth Doomwatch episode Spectre at the Feast was shown on BBC1.
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