268 The Ambassadors of Death: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Ambassadors of Death: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 268
STORY NUMBER: 053
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 11 April 1970
WRITER: David Whitaker (and Malcolm Hulke - Uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Michael Ferguson
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.3 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

"General, how many times must I tell you, your astronauts are still in orbit. My objective is to find out what these aliens are trying to say to us!"

Liz is saved by those chasing her and brought to where Reegan is keeping the aliens where she's forced to help Lennox. Doctor Taltalian returns to the space centre revealing he was acting under General Carrington's orders. The Doctor, working to decode the alien transmissions, receives a phone call threatening Liz's life. Liz, with help from Lennox, escapes from where the aliens are being kept but is immediately recaptured by Doctor Taltalian who has come too see Reegan. Taltalian gives Reegan a device to allow him to communicate with the aliens, and in return is given a time bomb to kill the Doctor. When he returns to the space centre, the bomb goes off when set, killing Taltalian. The Doctor determines this wasn't a fault and finds the device for deciphering the alien communication. One of the aliens is brought to the Space Centre where it kills Sir James Quinlan. Finding the body the Doctor does not see the alien, which was hiding in the room, now leaning over him.

Not bad this episode!

The Doctor really has no time for General Carrington. Having been deceived in the first three episodes by the General, he's seems very reluctant to trust him now!

BRIGADIER: I've issued Miss Shaw's description to every police force in the country.
CARRINGTON: Why? Do you expect her to be wandering the streets?
BRIGADIER: No, sir, just a formality.
CARRINGTON: I took the liberty of examining the things found on the bodies of those two men.
BRIGADIER: They should have gone to Forensics, sir, untouched.
CARRINGTON: No need for that. Forensics can't tell us anything we can't see for ourselves. Look. Newspaper cutting in a foreign language.
DOCTOR: Anyone can buy a foreign newspaper, General.
CARRINGTON: What about this comb then, with the makers imprint on it in the same language?
DOCTOR: Let me look.

DOCTOR: Very remiss of them, keeping this.
BRIGADIER: They could have been planted, sir.
CARRINGTON: No. The only people who could set up an organisation of this size would be foreign agents with enormous resources behind them.
DOCTOR: And hair combs.
CARRINGTON: They want to use the radiated astronauts as a weapon.
DOCTOR: I've told you where your astronauts are, General. They're still in orbit.
CARRINGTON: That's ridiculous.
DOCTOR: Is it? When your Professor Heldorf had the aliens in his care, he started to record some sort of radio communication impulses.
CARRINGTON: Astronauts do have walkie-talkies in their helmets, you know.
DOCTOR: Then why didn't Heldorf talk to them?
CARRINGTON: Yes, well, perhaps he was recording the level of radioactivity in their bodies.
DOCTOR: Yes, well, I don't think so. Well, I'm going down to the Space Centre, use the computer. I trust your man Taltalian won't hold a gun on me this time?
CARRINGTON: Doctor, nothing is to be gained by deciphering these impulses. Our objective should be to find the missing astronauts.
DOCTOR: General, how many times must I tell you, your astronauts are still in orbit. My objective is to find out what these aliens are trying to say to us.

Taltalian's loss of accent in his one location scene is obvious: at the time it was filmed they hadn't decided to give the character an accent!

When you see this episode there's enough information there for you to join the dots and work out who's behind the alien's second kidnapping... if you hadn't guessed already! The why is perhaps a little less obvious. Liz escaping and being recaptured filled five minutes giving us some shots of her running across a field but it's an obvious time waster especially when she's recaptured so quickly.

On the VHS version there was no colour at all in this episode but by comparison the DVD version is the best looking of the recoloured episodes so far!

John Lord, Masters, was previously a Yeti in The Web of Fear and one of the Warehouseman in The Invasion alongside Gordon Stothard, who was in episode 2 as a Heavy. He appears as a man in the Doomwatch episode The Battery People.

Making his credited Doctor Who debut here is Max Faulkner as a UNIT Soldier. He'll be back as a UNIT Soldier in episode 6, a Stuntman/Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Miner & Stuntman/Miner in Monster of Peladon, the Guard Captain in Planet of Spiders, a Thal Guard & Stuntman/Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Stuntman/Astronaut in Planet of Evil, Corporal Adams in The Android Invasion, the Stunt Double for Dr Carter and Fight Arranger on Hand of Fear, a Horda Pit Guard on Face of Evil, a Stuntmen/Coolie, the Double for Weng-Chiang and a Policeman in Talons of Weng-Chiang, a Stuntman/Other in The Sunmakers, Nesbin in Invasion of Time, and a Stuntman/Guard in Creature from the Pit. You can also see him in two episodes of The Prisoner as the First Horseman in Living in Harmony and the Scots Napoleon in The Girl Who Was Death, Space: 1999 as Ted Clifford in Ring Around the Moon, Survivors as Phil in Mad Dog, Blake's 7 as a Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, The Day of the Triffids as Jo's Attacker in the second episode, the James Bond film GoldenEye as a Guard at Helicopter Show and many, many more.

Also making his Doctor Who debut is Nick Hobbs as one of the Technicians: I'm pretty sure he's the one who the astronaut attacks first and we get a decent look at. He returns as an SF Soldier in Inferno, a Daffodil Man in Terror of the Autons, one of the UNIT Staff & an American Aide in Mind of Evil the Nuton Driver, Stunt Double for Axon Man, a Stuntman/Army Soldier & one of the Doubles for Captain Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton in Claws of Axos, a UNIT Man in Day of the Daleks, Aggedor in Curse of Peladon, a UNIT Troop & Guard in The Time Monster, Aggedor in Monster of Peladon, and a Wirrn Operator in Ark in Space. He appears in Space: 1999 as a Security Guard in Space Warp, Blake's 7 as the Hooded Figure in Cygnus Alpha, the Roger Moore James Bond film Octopussy as a South American Soldier, Inspector Morse as Night Hawk 2 in The Day of the Devil and the modern Doctor Who as Mr Nainby in Amy's Choice as well as performing stunt work on many productions over the years.

According to my copy of the Doctor Who Production Guide the other technician is Max Diamond who is a Military Policeman outside of Space Control in the first and final episodes of the story.

Liz Shaw's escape was filmed on Beacon Hill in Hampshire and her recapture on the nearby Beacon Hill Road with the scenes recorded 2nd Febuary 1970. Both locations are near the locations used in episode 2.

Back to our friends the tape spool computer banks and this episode it all changes again! The same lights/door covered tape spools unit is still behind the door from Out of the Unknown Lambda 1/The Prisoner Arrival.

And the meters/red tape spools with doors is still to the right of that.

But next to that there's a unit with meters in the top half and uncovered white tape spools in the bottom half now. Again charitably this could be the same one on the right in Adam Adamant D for Destruction/The Avengers Mission: Highly Improbable if they've changed the tape spools, but there's definitely two with meters now. Against the far wall we can also see the he analogue digital converter from episode two:

Episode 3 shows several of the doors and panels open after Taltalian's device goes off: Above the far right unit and below the middle unit:

The unit behind the door in episode one is completely missing here, presumably out of shot on the third wall if it was there at all!

So..... where is the Space Centre? The map on the wall of the Brigadier's office might offer a clue:

The river, running from top left towards the centre is obviously the Avon which would make Bristol the rough centre of the map. So you think it's in Bristol. But in episode three Liz was lured away by a message asking her to come to Hertfordshire to look at the bodies and the Brigadier took an hour to get back so that would place it more in London.... in which case why is there a map of Bristol on the wall?

Two day after this episode was broadcast the tenth Doomwatch episode Train and De-Train was shown on BBC1.