321 The Mutants Episode Four

EPISODE: The Mutants: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 321
STORY NUMBER: 063
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 29 April 1972
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Mutants
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Yes, of course. The Solonians are meant to mutate. The mutation is part of it. A part of an evolution. They're meant to change as their environment changes every five hundred years. A life cycle unique in the history of the universe. And now, thanks to the Marshal, threatened with extinction!"

The Doctor & his friends are rescued by the figure in a silver protective suit who leads them to an underground shelter where he reveals himself to be the missing scientist Professor Sondergaard. The Marshall tried to kill him when he attempted to inform Earth of the conditions for the natives on Solos. His is concerned by the changes he has observed to Solos' environment which he thinks Jaeger's experiments have accelerated. Sondergaard starts to translates the tablets with the Doctor as Stubbs, Cotton, Jo & Ky leave for the surface. The Doctor deduces that Solos' seasons are 500 years long and that the tablets show the radiation found in the caves. Jo's party is captured by Varan. The Doctor finds a crystal mounted on a statue in the middle of the radiation caves which he removes. While preparing the missiles to shoot into Solos' atmosphere the Marshall gets word that the Earth shuttle Hyperion is en route to the station carrying an Investigator. The Doctor works out that the Solonians are meant to mutate in reaction to the change in the environment and that the mutants are an intermediate form. He & Sondergaard decide to take the crystal to the Skybase lab to analyse it. Varan takes his captives to Skybase where their intrusion is detected. As the missiles are launched the Marshall attacks Varan, blasting a hole in Skybase's hull which Varan is sucked through into space causing an explosive decompression.....

My goodness, surely the Marshall would have known what would happen if he fired one of his weapons on Skybase and yet he does putting them all endanger. You are Horatio Chinn and I claim my five pounds!

But that's almost a late add on, effectively the main thrust of the episode is Professor Sondergaard and the revelations he helps to bring:

SONDERGAARD: Welcome. You must not be alarmed. My name is
DOCTOR: Professor Sondergaard, I presume.

SONDERGAARD: There is radioactivity present throughout the cave system. Oh, it's natural in a thaesium mine, and it's not dangerous, unless you're here for many years, as I am, or unless you find yourself in an unstable zone, as you did, young lady. The entrance you found led you straight to the heart of the most dangerous radioactivity.
JO: So it was you I saw, and you brought me out.
SONDERGAARD: Ha! I didn't know what to do. I couldn't let you die, so I carried you as quickly as I could out of the radioactive zone to where I hoped your friends would find you.
JO: Well, thank you, Professor.
KY: You were given up for dead years ago.
SONDERGAARD: Yes, so were many others in the mines. The mutants, for example.
JO: The mutants? Well, they attacked us and tried to kill us.
SONDERGAARD: Yes, I know. There are more now, many more, and as their numbers increase, so it seems does their aggression.

The reason Sondergaard has been forced into hiding won't be a huge surprise:

SONDERGAARD: Well, he has my sympathies. Do you think I've chosen to live here? To work with this primitive equipment? I was young, ambitious. I hoped to make many great discoveries here. And my first was that Solos had become a slave colony. I was unwise enough to try to inform Earth control. The Marshal intercepted my report. I was lucky to escape with my life. I managed to reach the caves. I've been here ever since.
DOCTOR: But you have continued with your research?
SONDERGAARD: As well as I could. As you see, I lack equipment. If it were not for the mutants, I would not have been able to survive here.
KY: My people help you?
SONDERGAARD: They did. We were all outcasts. We helped one another. Once they stole food for me, and clothing.
DOCTOR: And now?
SONDERGAARD: Now they don't come near me. It is as if I were
KY: Diseased?
SONDERGAARD: Who knows? Perhaps they're right. Strange things are happening on Solos, Doctor. Oh, not just to the people, but to the plants, the soil, the atmosphere, even the weather. The whole flora and fauna of Solos.
DOCTOR: Professor Jaeger's experiments.
SONDERGAARD: Exactly, and my belief is this. At first the changes were natural, but now Professor Jaeger's experiments have accelerated the changes and something is seriously wrong.

So the mutations have been influenced by the Overlords, and in particular Jaeger's experiments on the atmosphere, yet another disastrous effect of the Overlord's occupation of Solos.

All through the story Ky has been reminding us that the Overlords have wiped out the Solonian culture, which has resulted in the tablets inside the box not being readable. But now they're in the hands of a man who might be able to help translate them:

SONDERGAARD: Extraordinary. This wonderful, Doctor, marvellous.
DOCTOR: Yes, but what do they mean?
SONDERGAARD: This is the same kind of hieroglyphs I've seen in the old temples.
SONDERGAARD: All over Solos you see the same symbols, you see.
DOCTOR: Yes, I can see that, Professor, but can you read them?
SONDERGAARD: Well, I can try. I have approximate translations for many of the basic symbols. One might call this the Solonian book of Genesis. The lost tablets. This, Doctor, is the story of how Solonian civilisation began.

SONDERGAARD: Now then, Doctor. Now, this particular symbol here, for instance, is the Solonian symbol for life. This pattern repeated is almost the same, and this is the Solonian sun symbol.
DOCTOR: Yes, well, they aren't numbers, so it can't be a code. Let's try something else. Fire, earth, air, water. No, all right, that's no good.
SONDERGAARD: Well, er, a cycle, perhaps, representing some form of chemical process.
DOCTOR: Yes, but the process keeps repeating itself. What process repeats itself?
SONDERGAARD: Well, life.
DOCTOR: Life in some form will always go on.
SONDERGAARD: Let's hope so....

It's The Doctor that makes the crucial leap:

DOCTOR: It must be a code of some kind. It must. Eureka, it's a calendar! Spring, summer, autumn, winter.
SONDERGAARD: But Solos has no seasons. It does not tilt on its axis relative to its sun.
DOCTOR: Well, it may not tilt, Professor, but it could move closer. Look, these ellipses here, they're the orbits.
SONDERGAARD: But Solos takes two thousand years to go round its sun. We know that.
DOCTOR: Then the seasons must be five hundred years long.
SONDERGAARD: Possibly.
DOCTOR: See, these signs here. They only appear in the summer. And these little matchstick men here only appear in the spring.
SONDERGAARD: Yes, but what about these spirals? They're like small sun symbols.
DOCTOR: Yes, like small sun symbols. Well, yes, but that's it! That that's what I said. That's radiation. That's thaesium radiation! So that's why they sent me here. Professor, I want you to take me to that place where you found Jo Grant.
STUBBS: The radiation cave? But I've only one suit. If you spend any time in there without one, Doctor, you will die. Any man would.
DOCTOR: Any man, perhaps.

And within the cave they find a crystal and the Doctor makes another leap in his understanding:

DOCTOR: Yes, of course. The Solonians are meant to mutate. The mutation is part of it. A part of an evolution. They're meant to change as their environment changes every five hundred years. A life cycle unique in the history of the universe. And now, thanks to the Marshal, threatened with extinction.
SONDERGAARD: So it's not a sickness.
DOCTOR: No, it's a metamorphosis, an adaptive change. The mutants, as we know them, are an intermediate form.
SONDERGAARD: And we've yet to see the final metamorphosis?
DOCTOR: Exactly. The radiation cave is the key to that.
SONDERGAARD: The tablets led us to the crystal.
DOCTOR: Yes. It must play a vital part in the process, but what?
SONDERGAARD: Maybe that the cellular change is only affected by the particular radiation in the crystal.
DOCTOR: That's the extraordinary thing about it. It shows absolutely no radioactivity at all. Here, try it for yourself.
SONDERGAARD: That's impossible.
DOCTOR: Apparently not. If only we could analyse it and find out its true function.
SONDERGAARD: The equipment here's too primitive for crystallography. There's only one place.
DOCTOR: Skybase. Jaeger's lab.

This episode introduces us to Professor Sondergaard, previously seen disguised in protective gear. Under the suit he's recognisable bald headed actor John Hollis. A long & extensive career means he's appeared in a great many things: He was Kaufman in A for Andromeda and The Andromeda Breakthrough, Czesni in the now missing Out of the Unknown episode Too Many Cooks, Two Tone in The Tomorrow People story One Law, a Krypton Elder in Superman & Superman II plus a Russian General Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Lom in the Blake's 7 episode Powerplay, one of Klytus' Observers in Flash Gordon, Ernst Stavro Blofeld in For Your Eyes Only and Alf in the fourth episode of The Day of the Triffids Here, in addition to Sondergaard and like Garrick Hagon who plays Ky, he provides additional voices heard over the communications system.

Garrick Hagon & John Hollis have another connection though: They both appear in the Star Wars films. Yes in this episode we have Biggs Darklighter - Red 5 from Star Wars (Hagon) - sharing a scene with Lando Calrissian's aid Lobot (Hollis)! As a youngster I was a Star Wars fan and knew Garrick Hagon was Biggs so when I got my Doctor Who Programme Guide it's possibly this very story that put me on to the entire business of recognising actors that have appeared in different productions that you've seen which haunts obsesses me to this day! Of course they're not the only Classic Doctor who cast members to have appeared in Star Wars: Indeed most of the Imperial Military hierarchy has put an appearance then at some point. Here then, with only a little help from a now defunct page on the The Tardis Index File, is a by no means complete list of people that have been in classic Doctor Who & Star Wars:

Claire Davenport	Empress (Marco Polo)	Yarna Dal Gargan (Return of the Jedi)
Julian Glover	Richard The Lionheart (The Crusade) Count Scarlioni/Scarroth (City of Death)	General Veers (Empire Strikes Back)
Jeremy Bulloch	Tor (The Space Museum) Hal The Archer (The Time Warrior)	Boba Fett (Empire Strikes Back) Boba Fett Return of the Jedi) Captain Colton (Revenge of the Sith)
Michael Sheard	Rhos (The Ark) Laurence Scarman (Pyramids of Mars) Lowe (The Invisible Enemy) Mergrave (Castrovalva) Headmaster (Remembrance of the Daleks)	Admiral Ozzel (Empire Strikes Back)
Shane Rimmer	Seth Harper (The Gunfighters)	Incom Engineer (Star Wars)
Graham Ashley	Overseer (Underwater Menace)	Gold Five (Star Wars)
Milton John	Bennik (Enemy of the World) Guy Crayford (Android Invasion) Kelner (Invasion of Time)	Imperial Officer (Empire Strikes Back)
Leslie Schofield	Leroy (The War Games) Calib (The Face of Evil)	Chief Bast (Star Wars)
Richard Franklin	Captain Mike Yates (Terror of the Autons onwards)	Technician (Rogue One)
Declan Mulholland	Clark (The Sea Devils) Till (The Androids of Tara)	Jabba the Hut (Star Wars - cut)
John Hollis	Professor Sondegaard (The Mutants)	Lobot (The Empire Strikes Back)
Garrick Hagon	Ky (The Mutants)	Biggs Darklighter (Star Wars)
Dave Prowse	Minotaur (Time Monster)	Darth Vader (Star Wars) Darth Vader (The Empire Strikes Back) Darth Vader (Return of the Jedi)
Deep Roy	Mr Sin (Talons of Weng Chiang)	Droopy McColl (Return of the Jedi)
Ian Liston	Hero (The Armageddon Factor)	Wes Janson (Empire Strikes Back)
Peter Burroughs	Jester (King's Demons)	Ewok (Return of the Jedi)
Don Henderson	Gavrok (Delta & The Bannermen)	General Tagge (Star Wars)
Peter Roy	many & various	Major Olander Brit (Return of the Jedi)
Maurice Bush	Ogrons in Day of the Daleks & Frontier in Space	Dengar (Empire Strike Back & Return of the Jedi)
Katy Jarret (Cathy Munroe)	Anethian Sacrifice in Horns of the Nimon	Zuckuss (Empire Strike Back)
Harry Aitch Fielder	Many & Various	Death Squad Commander (Star Wars)
Peter Cushing	The Doctor (Films)	Grand Moff Tarken (Star Wars)

The speaking warrior amongst Varan's group is David Arlen who'd been in The Prisoner: The Chimes of Big Ben as Karel

In amongst the Warriors we have Derek Chafer who'd bee a Saxon in The Time Meddler, a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, a Guard in The Massacre, a Lynch Mob Member in The Gunfighters, a Cyberman in The Moonbase, a Guard in Fury from the Deep, a Cyberman in The Invasion, a Technician in Seeds of Death, an Issigri HQ Miner in The Space Pirates, a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode, a Military Policeman & UNIT Soldier in Ambassadors of Death, a Prisoner in The Mind of Evil, a Primitive in Colony in Space and a Guard in The Curse of Peladon. He returns as an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, a Soldier/Armourer/Brethren Guest in The Masque of Mandragora, a Leviathan Guard in Ribos Operation, a Gracht Guard in Androids of Tara, a Skonnan Elder in Horns of the Nimon, Doctor Body Parts/Pangol Doctor in The Leisure Hive and a Gundan in Warriors' Gate. And on the way the production paperwork will; spell his names several different ways! He was in Doomwatch as a man in Project Sahara, Re-Entry Forbidden & The Red Sky and played a man in the missing third season Out of the Unknown episode 1+1=1.5.

Ian Elliot was previously a UNIT Soldier in Inferno, a Daffodil Man in Terror of the Autons, a UNIT Soldier in The Mind of Evil, a Colonist in Colony in Space and a Villager in The Dæmons He's back as a UNIT Soldier in The Time Monster, a Regular Army Soldier / UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Villager in Planet of the Spiders, an Android Villager in The Android Invasion, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom and a Haemovore in The Curse of Fenric. In Doomwatch he is an Ambulance Driver in Tomorrow, the Rat, a Man in You Killed Toby Wren, a Man in No Room for Error, a Man in Flight Into Yesterday, a Manservant in High Mountain and a Man in Flood.

Alex Hood had been a Gond in The Krotons, a Firing Squad Member & British Soldier in The War Games, a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians. He returns as an SRS Member in Robot. He was in Doomwatch as a Man in The Islanders.

Terry Sartain was an Alien Technician / Union Recruit in The War Games. He later plays a UNIT Soldier in The Three Doctors, an Earth Prison Guard / Draconian Guard at Embassy in Frontier in Space, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, the SRS Bouncer in Robot, a UNIT Soldier Android in Android Invasion, a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Time Lord in Deadly Assassin, a Customer at Art Gallery in City of Death, a Gundan in Warriors' Gate ad a Cave Crowd Member in Snakedance. In Blake's 7 he was a Crewman in Space Fall and a Hooded Figure in Cygnus Alpha. In Doomwatch he is the Minister's P.P.S. / Man in Club / Man at Palazzo in The Killer Dolphins.

320 The Mutants Episode Three

EPISODE: The Mutants: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 320
STORY NUMBER: 063
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 22 April 1972
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Mutants
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Go, Varan. Go to the place of sleeping. The place of darkness and light. Go, Varan, go!"

The Doctor & Varan struggle but resolve their differences as a firestorm starts. Ky blames the fire-storms on the Marshall's atmospheric experiments. He & Jo encounter Mutants in the caves. The Marshall insists Jaeger continues with his rocket preparation then gives Stubbs & Cotton a dressing down sending them to Solos to hunt for Varan & the Doctor. Varan & the Doctor rescue Ky but Jo has become separated from them wandering into a cave glowing with energy where she collapses and is found by a silver space-suited figure. The Doctor gives Ky the container which opens for him revealing some ancient tablets with drawings on them. Ky recognises the symbols but cannot read it. Varan leaves to raise his people to fight the Overlords. Ky tells the Doctor that the scientist Sondergaard could read the language but he "disappeared" on the Marshall's orders. Jaeger observes temperature increases and an increase in the mutation rate on Solos as the planet moves into it's summer. The Marshall sends Stubbs & Cotton into the tunnels to search the caves. Varan finds his village empty apart from one mutating old man who he has summon his warriors. The Doctor finds Jo lying in a tunnel, and they bare in turn found by Stubbs & Cotton. The Marshall has the gas grenades fired and the explosives detonated sealing everyone within. Varan starts to show signs of mutation, and hears voices telling him to go to the caves but resists wanting to fight. Jo tells the Doctor what she has seen, recalling the figure that rescued her. Gas starts to reach the Doctor and his party who realise they are trapped!

Having briefly passed by each other in episode one, The Doctor finally finds Ky, who his box from the Time Lords is intended for:

DOCTOR: So, you must be Ky. How do you do? I'm the Doctor. That's the idea. Now then, where's Miss Grant?
KY: Why are you here, Varan? Did your Overlord masters send you to hunt me?
DOCTOR: Steady, old chap. He did help to save your life, you know.
VARAN: The Marshal has betrayed me. The Overlords are my enemies too now, Ky.
KY: At last, Varan, you see the truth. Now we can work together.
VARAN: I need no help from you, Ky. Now I shall return to my people, and lead them in battle against the Overlords.
KY: So, you are the Doctor, the friend of Miss Grant?
DOCTOR: That's right. Now, where is she?
KY: I took her to a place of safety when we were attacked.
DOCTOR: Good.
KY: Why did you come here?
DOCTOR: To find her. And to give you this.

VARAN: Tablets! Sketchings! These are not weapons.
KY: Varan is right. How can these help us in our struggle? Weapons are what we need.
DOCTOR: Perhaps these tablets are worth more to you than any weapons.
KY: I have seen such signs.
DOCTOR: Well, read it, man. Well, what does it say? Read it!
KY: Why, I cannot. It is the language of the old ones. No one remembers. All our culture has been destroyed by the Overlords.
DOCTOR: But you've seen this kind of writing before?
KY: Signs like these are carved in rocks all over Solos. But no one knows, no one remembers. As far as we are concerned, Doctor, they are meaningless squiggles.
DOCTOR: Yes, but they must mean something, otherwise why would I have been sent here?

Fortunately however....

DOCTOR: There must be somebody on Solos who understands the old language.
KY: There was a man called, er, Sondergaard. A man of learning from Earth. He came to study our culture.
DOCTOR: And?
KY: After a while he disappeared. Oh, it was all arranged by the Overlords.
DOCTOR: Our friend the Marshal, again?

So having successfully given the box to Ky the next major goal is to try to find Sondergaard to have the tablets translated. But before they do that they need to find the missing Jo:

KY: No?
DOCTOR: No.
KY: But she must be here!
DOCTOR: Well, we'll just have to search them all over again, won't we?
KY: If the torches last, and they don't attack.
DOCTOR: What, you heard them?
KY: They're watching us all the time.
DOCTOR: Yes. They don't attack us in the tunnels. Only in here. This chamber must be important to them.
KY: I feel it myself.
DOCTOR: Feel what?
KY: A sensation. An awareness of being drawn here. This is a warm, safe place. A centre. A sort of instinct.
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, it's strange. Let's keep searching. Come on.

Varan feels himself being drawn to the caves as his mutation begins:

VARAN: Why does no one come? Where are my warriors?
OLD MAN: Your warriors have fled, Varan.
VARAN: Am I left with nothing but mutants?
OLD MAN: They too. It is the way with us all, old and young, those who can walk have gone to the mines, Varan, to the mines.
VARAN: Why? Why has this curse come upon us? Urgh! No! No, no, no, no!

VOICE IN VARAN'S MIND: Go, Varan. Go to the place of sleeping. The place of darkness and light. Go, Varan, go. Go. Go. Go.
VARAN: No. No, I was born to fight. Varan will not die sleeping!

And when they find Jo, she's seen something most unusual:

JO: A passageway, full of light. Even the rocks were glowing. I remember walking towards the light.
DOCTOR: Yes?
JO: And then there was this noise in my head. I couldn't hear, I couldn't see properly. It was then I started to get dizzy.
DOCTOR: Mmm hmm.

JO: There was a figure, a silvery figure.
DOCTOR: A mutant?
JO: I don't know.
DOCTOR: Well, and then what?
JO: I'm sorry, Doctor. I fainted.

Compared to the previous episode this one rolled along at a cracking rate with. It's helped by some decent location work in Chislehurst Caves.

Indeed the marks the production team drew on the walls of Chislehurst caves can still be seen to this day.

Other locations used include Stone House Farm, which provides the cave mouth.

Other surface location work was filmed at Western Quarry in Northfleet Kent which is now under the Bluewater shopping centre!

Some of the location shots of the Overlord guards pursuing their quarry make them look a lot like the Federation Guards from Blake's 7, only that the Federation Guards have much better head gear!

Some of the acting in this episode does leave a little to be desired though: Paul Whitsun-Jones' bluster throughout and hiding the explosives behind his back while talking to Stubbs & Cotton are straight out of a seventies sitcom handbook and it's no surprise to find several comedies on his CV.

Garrick Hagon's accent can, at best, be described as "variable" and he keeps lapsing into something closer to his native Canadian tone which he'll later employ as the voice of Star Fleet's Captain Carter.

Much comment has been made about Rick James' performance over the years: I find he comes over rather monotone and emotionless.

We get another old mutating Solonian in this episode, played by Sidney Johnson looking so much like out It's Man from episode 1 that the last time I saw this I was tempted to say it was the same actor wearing the same costume, especially as nobody is credited for the role for the first episode! It's not: David J. Grahame was the Old Man there.

We get our first proper sight of the Mutant costumes here, with the chief Mutant played by John Scott Martin, long time Dalek operator. The Mutant costumes are superb work, essentially a humanoid insect and not dissimilar to the aliens in Star Fleet. One of the Mutants costumes will later be recycled in the opening episode of Brain of Morbius.

In amongst the Mutants is a future Dalek Operator: Mike Mungarvan is making his Doctor Who debut here. He returns as a Guard in The Face of Evil, an Outcast Time Lord in The Invasion of Time, a Druid in The Stones of Blood,a Gracht Guard in The Androids of Tara, a Dalek Operator in Destiny of the Daleks, a Plain Clothes Detective/Tourist in Louvre in City of Death, a Pangol Image in The Leisure Hive, a Citizen in Full Circle, Kilroy in Warriors' Gate, a Kinda Hostage in Kinda, one of Ranulf's Knights in The King's Demons, a Soldier in Resurrection of the Daleks, a Jacondan Guard in The Twin Dilemma, a Resistance Fighter in The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp, the Duty Officer in The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids, a Lakertyan in Time and the Rani, and a comet site PC in Silver Nemesis. He was in Blake's 7 as a Prisoner in The Way Back & Space Fall, an Alta Guard in Redemption, a Customer / Gambler in Gambit, a Helot in Traitor, and a Rebel Technician / Federation Trooper in Blake. In Fawlty Towers he was a Hospital Orderly in The Germans, a constable in The Sweeney: Victims and Will in The Professionals: Black Out.

Also on debut as a mutant is Laurie Goode who returns as a Guard in the Time Monster, a Time Lord in The Invasion of Time, a Bandit in The Creature from the Pit, a Tigellan in Meglos, a Peasant in State of Decay, a Tharil in Warriors' Gate, a Sailor on the Shadow in Enlightenment, a Colonist in Frontios, a worker in Trial of a Timelord: Mysterious Planet and a British Unit Trooper in Battlefield. He's in Blake's 7 as a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay, Survivors as a Looter in The Chosen and Star Cops as a Dealer in Little Green Men and Other Martians. He was also the Jogger in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a Pirate Rat in the The Box of Delights episode In Darkest Cellars Underneath and appears twice in The Sweeney as Laurie in Queen's Pawn and the Supermarket Manager in Trojan Bus.

A fourth mutant Eddie Sommer will be back twice as a servant at the ball in Masque of Mandragora and one of Lexa’s Deons in Meglos. He was in Blake's 7 as a Helot in Traitor and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a Magrathean.

There's plenty more guards on Solos and Skybase: Roy Pearce is one of them and, assuming Pierce and Pearce are interchangeable in the DWAS production file which IMDB thinks so, he was a Guard in The Massacre, a Soldier in Snow Camouflage / Engineer in The Tenth Planet episode, a Chameleon & Airport Policeman in The Faceless Ones, a Technician/Guard in Fury from the Deep, a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, the Cyberman in The War Games episode ten, a Passenger/Plague Victims/Passersby/Ambulance Men/Policemen in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Villager in The Dæmons, and a Submarine Rating/Naval Base sailor in The Sea Devils. He returns as an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Guard in Planet of Spiders, an Android in The Android Invasion, a Pikeman/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora and a Security Guard in Image of the Fendahl. In Blake's 7 he was an Armed Crewman in Space Fall, a Federation Trooper in Time Squad and a Scientist in Project Avalon while in Doomwatch he was a man in Invasion & Flood.

Ronald Gough was an Atlantean Guard in Underwater Menace, a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Technician in Inferno, a Spiridon in Planet of the Daleks, an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Zygon in Terror of the Zygons and a Marine & The Krynoid in Seeds of Doom.

Geoff Witherick was a Cricketer / Reveller in Dalek Masterplan 8: Volcano, a Guard in Bell of Doom, a Worker in The War Machines, a Villager & Coven Member in The Dæmons and a Sea Devil in the Sea Devils. He's back as a Guard in Frontier in Space, a Spiridon in Planet of the Daleks, a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of th Dinosaurs, a Guard in Planet of the spiders, a SRS member in Robot, a Time Lord in Deadly Assassin and a Security guard in Image of the Fendahl. He's also in Doomwatch as a Man in the missing Burial at Sea.

Dennis Plenty was a Tavern Customer & Guard in The Massacre, a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines, an English soldier in The Highlanders and a Submarine Rating/Naval Base sailor in The Sea Devils. He returns as a Guard in Frontier in Space, a Guard in The Green Death, a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a guard in Planet of the Spiders and a Soldier/Brethren/Entertainer/Guest in The Masque of Mandragora. He was a man in the Doomwatch episode Flood, a Technician in the Moonbase 3 episodes Achilles Heel, Castor and Pollux & View of a Dead Planet, appeared twice in UFO as Lt. David Worth in Identified & SHADO Mobile 1 Personnel in Computer Affair and was PC in the Fawlty Towers episode A Touch of Class

Brian Nolan had already been an IE Guard in The Invasion, a Resistance Man in The War Games, a UNIT Soldier in Spearhead from Space & the Silurians and a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils. He later plays an Earth 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.

The first 2 episodes of this story are Reverse Standards Conversions from 525 line NTSC Tapes. But from this episode onwards this story survives on it's original 625 line transmission master tapes. Oddly this episode looks rougher on it's video sections - there's lots of location filming here - than the previous two do!

319 The Mutants Episode Two

EPISODE: The Mutants: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 319
STORY NUMBER: 063
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 15 April 1972
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Mutants
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"I can do as I please, Doctor. And since the unfortunate assassination of the Administrator, Solos is under martial law. My law!"

Jo & Ky have teleported down to Solos but she quickly has trouble breathing the atmosphere. The Marshall tells the Doctor that Solos is now under martial law: his law and coerces the Doctor into trying to open the box if he searches for Jo. He is taken to the Skybase lab where Jaeger is carrying out experiments on Solos' atmosphere trying to reverse recent changes. Ky takes Jo to the caves where the atmosphere is clearer and easier for her to breathe. The Marshall kills Varan's son, the administrator's assassin, earning Varan's wrath who flees into Skybase. Ky believes that the Overlord's pollution is causing the mutations. The Doctor joins Stubbs who are hunting for Varan in the belief he is a mutant. Varan tells The Doctor & Stubbs that Varan killed his son, while Cotton is instructed to tell the Doctor that Jo is in hospital on Solos. Jaeger proposes to use rockets to alter Solos' atmosphere but the Doctor is angered at the plan knowing will wipe out the Solonians. Cotton tells the Doctor the truth and together they plan the Doctor's escape to Solos with Varan, but as the Doctor puts his plan into action, deactivating power to all of Skybase bar the transporter. Arriving at the transporter Varan attacks him....

Bit of a bitty killing time episode this, nothing seems to advance terribly much. The Marshal earns the enmity of the one Solonian perceived to be his ally, Varan, by killing his son who he'd used to kill the administrator. Covers the tracks nicely but was it worth it to earn more local hostility?

There's a few titbit in here which hints at why Earth wants to abandon Solos: it's not worth staying any longer!

DOCTOR: You know, I can't think why you people ever came here.
JAEGER: Thaesium, Doctor. This planet is one of the richest fuel sources in the galaxy, or it used to be.
DOCTOR: Are the deposits now exhausted?
JAEGER: More or less.

As we've seen the Marshall isn't keen to let his personal bit of power go so he's got a mad scheme to colonise the planet. Just one problem, the atmosphere isn't suitable for humans:

DOCTOR: Bad news?
MARSHAL: Not for you, Doctor. For your friend. They have escaped on to the surface of Solos.
DOCTOR: Ah.
MARSHAL: Still, without a mask. But never fear, Doctor, we shall find her. Or her body.
DOCTOR: Would you kindly explain that remark, sir?
MARSHAL: During the hours of daylight no human can survive on Solos without an oxymask. The soil contains a nitrogen isotope unknown on Earth. The ultra-violet rays of the sun cause a kind of poisonous mist.
DOCTOR: How poisonous?
MARSHAL: I give your friend an hour, possibly less, depending on how fast they're travelling.

But the Marshall's scientist Jagger plans to fix that by changing the atmosphere:

DOCTOR: So, now you plan to colonise the planet in earnest, if you can change the atmosphere?
JAEGER: That's my problem, not yours.
DOCTOR: Well, there are other people concerned, you know?
JAEGER: Such as?
DOCTOR: Well, the Solonians, for example. After all, it is their planet.
JAEGER: Was, Doctor.

You'll recall from the Sea Devils that I'm on the look out for computer equipment from UFO. I've found found something in this episode looked both familiar and slightly out of place here and it turned out to be recycled from that show: the computer bank with it's reel to reel tape in the Skybase lab is Ayshea Brough's console from the SHADO headquarters:

We'll see another in the Green Death and one again in Monster of Peladon!

Then there's the orange and blue units on the wall in the guard's office on Solos: they are different spacesuit parts from 2001: A Space Odyssey! The orange ones are the backpacks from the suits Frank and Dave wear on the Discovery while the blue one is a chest unit from the suits worn by Doctor Floyd and company on the moon when they discover the monolith. The Say Hello Spaceman blog has looked extensively at the 2001 spacesuits and tells the story that although all props from the film were ordered destroyed some spacesuit elements survived and have popped up in various BBC productions.

Another out of place prop is the Marshall's communicator which is evidently a bicycle pump!

Paul Whitsun-Jones, The Marshal, we've seen before as The Squire in the Smugglers. Earlier in his career he appeared in all six episodes of The Quatermass Experiment as James Fullalove, of which only the first two survive and they can be seen on The Quatermass Collection DVD.

The Skybase scientist Jaegar, played by George Pravda, was Alexander Denes in The Enemy of the World, and returns as Castelan Spandrell in The Deadly Assassin. He had been in The Prisoner appearing as a Doctor in the episode A Change of Mind. Elsewhere he's Kutze in the James Bond film Thunderball, Prof. Miklos Egri in Doomwatch: Spectre at the Feast, Gen. Alexis Trenkin in Moonbase 3: Castor and Pollux, Gershom in I, Claudius: Some Justice, Hirschfield in The Professionals: First Night, Polyakov in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and General Borov in Firefox.

Only one of the two guards has appeared in Doctor Who before: Christopher Coll, Stubbs, was in The Seeds of Death as Phipps. He can also be seen in The Sweeney episode Supersnout as The Shop Owner.

His companion Cotton, played by Rick James has another genre appearance in the penultimate Blake's 7 episode Warlord as Chalsa.

The Exit Guard is Joe Santo who was a Resistance Man in the War Games and a UNIT Soldier in Ambassadors of Death. He returns as a Skoannan Guard in The Horns of the Nimon, a Tharil in Warriors Gate and an Alphan Servant in Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp. He was in Blake's 7 as a Scavenger in Deliverance, Doomwatch as a man in The Islanders, In the Dark, High Mountain & and Enquiry and Moonbase 3 as José in View of a Dead Planet.

In amongst the Skybase Guards we have Keith Ashley who was a Citizen & Male Elder in The Savages, Atlantean Guard & Miner in The Underwater Menace, Firing Squad Member in The War Games, Auton in Spearhead from Space, Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, Technician in Inferno and a Villager in The Dæmons. He returns as a Villager in Planet of the Spiders, a Dalek Operator in Genesis of the Daleks, a Zygon in Terror of the Zygons, an Android & Man at Defence Station in The Android Invasion, a Krynoid & Sir Colin's Aide in The Seeds of Doom and a Peasant & Brother in The Masque of Mandragora Ron Tingley had been a BBC3 TV Crewmember in The Dæmons and a Naval Base Sailor / Rating in The Sea Devils. He was in Doomwatch as Man in Hear No Evil & Flood. David Waterman was a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines, an English Soldier in The Highlanders and an Atlantean Priest/Medical Orderly/Miner in The Underwater Menace. He'll be back as an Earth Guard on Ogron Planet in Frontier in Space and a Miner in the Green Death. In Doomwatch he plays a Police Constable in Fire and Brimstone and a Man in Flood. He's also a Technician in the Moonbase 3 episodes Departure and Arrival, Behemoth, Achilles Heel, Outsiders & View of a Dead Planet.

318 The Mutants Episode One

EPISODE: The Mutants: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 318
STORY NUMBER: 063
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 08 April 1972
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Mutants
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"The mutants must be rooted out. They are evil and diseased!"

Through the mist an old bearded man runs, pursued by guards. He is showing the first signs of mutation with spines protruding from his back. The Doctor is working in his lab when a container arrives from the Time Lords for him to deliver. The Tardis suddenly becomes active so he and Jo leave with the container materialising on the Skybase orbiting the planet Solos. Ky & Varan, Solonian leaders, have arrived on the Skybase for a conference. Varan is summoned by the Marshall, the military official in charge of Solos. The Doctor & Jo are attacked by a Solonian guard who is starting to mutate, but rescued & held by human guards Cotton & Stubbs. The Marshall argues with the Administrator for Solos: The Administrator intends to use the conference to make Solos independent but the Marshall objects. The Doctor tries to deliver his container but it won't open for the Marshall or Administrator. The Marshall has Varan use his son to assassinate the Administrator, which happens as the Doctor, who has escaped from his imprisonment, enters the room & the box starts to open for Ky. Jo pursues Ky running into the base's teleport with him as the guards open fire...

We'll start with the obvious point: IT'S........ The opening to the episode, with the old man wandering out of the mist towards the screen is so The It's Man, played by Michael Palin, in the opening sequence to many Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes. All involved with this story deny any intentional homage on the DVD.

The Old Man here is David J. Grahame who was previously a Parisian Man in The Massacre, an pedestrian in The War Machines, a Control Room Technician in The Ambassadors of Death and a Villager in The Dæmons. He's back as a Chestnut Seller in The Talons of Weng-Chiang and a Coven Member in Image of the Fendahl.

Yet another mission for the Timelords here, following Colony in Space & Curse of Peladon. Here though we get no pretext about how the Doctor believes he's got the Tardis working: the box turns up and off we go.

JO: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Mmm?
JO: Are you going to be very much longer?
DOCTOR: No, nearly finished, Jo.
JO: What are you doing anyway?
DOCTOR: I'm making a minimum inertia superdrive for Bessie.
JO: Oh. Well, for your information, it's well past lunch time, and I'm
DOCTOR: Eh?
DOCTOR: Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
JO: Lunch?
DOCTOR: No.
JO: Bomb?
DOCTOR: No, nothing so exciting.
JO: Well?
DOCTOR: It's an assignment.
JO: Well then, it is exciting.
DOCTOR: No, it's a container of some kind, Jo, from them.
JO: Time Lords?
DOCTOR: That's right.
JO: Well, aren't you going to open it?
DOCTOR: I'm not allowed to open it.
JO: Huh?
DOCTOR: I couldn't, even if I wanted to. No, I'm not meant to. I couldn't open it, even if I wanted to. No, it's only meant for one person, and or creature. It will only open for one person.
JO: And or creature.
DOCTOR: Yeah, that's right. Yes, I'm just the messenger boy.
JO: Well, can't you just refuse?
DOCTOR: They only send these things in a real emergency, Jo. It's top priority, a three line whip. No, I've got to go.
JO: How do you know where to deliver it?
DOCTOR: I think that has already been decided.
JO: Hang on, wait for me. I'm coming too.
DOCTOR: That's out of the question. It's bound to be dangerous, probably difficult.
JO: All the more reason. You need me to look after you.
DOCTOR: Sorry, Jo, a lot of rubbish. Not this time. Au revoir!
JO: Oh, no you don't!

Several Doctor Who stories have a theme or are about something but the Mutants is possibly the most blatant of these so far. It essentially exists as a commentary on colonialism - at the time this story was written Britain was involved in withdrawing from it's colonial interests and, notably, a deteriorating situation in Rhodesia - and Aparthied - the commentary on the South African situation, can be found in elements of the set design here: The transporter to & from the planet is segregated into Overlords & Solonians and quite clearly labelled as such.

On screen we have Ky, representing those opposing colonial rule, while Varan supports it. Ky in turn blames the Overlords for the changes happening on their planet.

VARAN: Greetings, Ky.
KY: I knew you would be here, Varan, with your Overlord masters.
VARAN: And why are you here?
KY: I was summoned.
VARAN: You will attend the conference?
KY: The conference? More lies from the Overlords. More promises of freedom.
VARAN: Yet Ky still came?
KY: I came to demand that the Overlords stop murdering our people.
VARAN: The mutants must be rooted out. They are evil and diseased.
KY: Who tells us that?
VARAN: My eyes tell me.
KY: No, Varan, the Overlords tell you. They tell you to kill and you kill.
VARAN: My people are warriors. It is honourable to fight.
KY: Where is the honour in hunting down unarmed creatures?
VARAN: It is their duty, Ky. They are diseased.
KY: If it is a disease, what has caused it? Once we were farmers and hunters. The land was green, the rivers ran clear, the air was sweet to breathe. And then the Overlords came, bringing Earth's poisons with them, calling it progress. We toiled in their mines, we became slaves. Worse than slaves!
VARAN: Liar!
KY: Murderer! You have nothing else to hunt, so you hunt your own kind.

But what they don't know is that Earth has decided to cut it's losses and leave Solos. Unfortunately The Marshall doesn't seem keen to loose what he sees as his personal domain:

MARSHAL: I've asked for a full report, Administrator.
ADMINISTRATOR: I should think so. What happened to your security arrangements? And why wasn't I informed that Varan was here? Really, Marshal, on the eve of the independence conference.
MARSHAL: They'll be a full security clampdown. The Solonians will never know. As for Varan, he was merely reporting on Ky's activities.
ADMINISTRATOR: Spying for you, you mean.
MARSHAL: All part of security.
ADMINISTRATOR: Security? Such as we had tonight? Natives and the devil knows who else running amok. Good heavens, man, we're not at war with the Solonians. We're giving them independence.
MARSHAL: Oh, eventually.
ADMINISTRATOR: Not eventually, Marshal, now. Total and absolute independence. We're pulling out.
MARSHAL: Pulling out?
ADMINISTRATOR: I take it you've been too busy with security to study the latest reports from Earth? We can't afford an empire any more. Earth is exhausted, Marshal. Finished. Politically, economically and biologically finished.
MARSHAL: Then why go back? We could keep Skybase on Solos, take over the whole planet.
ADMINISTRATOR: Out of the question. Apart from the Solonians themselves, there's the problem of the atmosphere.
MARSHAL: Well, they're both problems that can be solved.
ADMINISTRATOR: Ky's already making political capital out of your experiments in that field.
MARSHAL: The mutants.
ADMINISTRATOR: Exactly.
MARSHAL: There is no proof that my atmospheric experiments have anything at all to do with these mutations. The Mutts are a menace and must be wiped out.
ADMINISTRATOR: And that's your alternative to independence? Genocide?
MARSHAL: Give them independence, they'll starve out of total incompetence.
ADMINISTRATOR: Nevertheless, they shall have their independence. Whether they're ready for it or not.
MARSHAL: When you summoned this conference, Administrator, I assumed it for your usual line.
ADMINISTRATOR: Which is?
MARSHAL: Fob them off with promises, a few minor concessions. It's always worked before.
ADMINISTRATOR: Well, this time I'm conceding all Ky's demands.
MARSHAL: But
ADMINISTRATOR: We have no choice. We must return to Earth.
MARSHAL: But I've put years of my life into this planet. The whole, my whole career
ADMINISTRATOR: Yeah, well, I'm afraid things are going to be a bit tricky for ex-colonial officials. Still, don't worry, old chap. We'll find you something. The Bureau of Records, perhaps. Something clerical.

Playing the assassinated Administrator is Geoffrey Palmer who was previously Masters in The Silurians. Over a long career he's been in nearly everything! Palmer features in Out of the Unknown three times playing the Chief Officer in the first episode No Place Like Earth, which you can see on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set, then returning in the third season as Gosford in 1+1=1.5 by Doctor Who author Brian Hayles and finally playing Jack Mervyn in he penultimate episode The Uninvited. He was in Doomwatch twice, as Major Sims in the second season episode Invasion, which is on The Doomwatch DVD and Chief Supt. Mallory in he missing third season episode Say Knife, Fat Man. He can be seen in The Sweeney as Commander Watson in Feet of Clay, Fawlty Towers as Dr. Price in The Kipper and the Corpse, The Professionals as Simon Sinclair in Where the Jungle Ends and Avery in The Ojuka Situation, in Clockwise as a Headmaster, Inspector Morse as Matthew Copley-Barnes in The Infernal Serpent, Blackadder Goes Forth as Field Marshal Haig in Goodbyeee, Ashes to Ashes as Lord Scarman in the eighth episode and Tomorrow Never Dies as Admiral Roebuck. He returned to Doctor Who as Hardaker in Voyage of the Damned, which was directed by his son Charles Palmer who's worked on many new series episodes.

Of the prominent Solonians Ky is played by Garrick Hagon, a familiar genre figure with a CV as long as your arm He appears in Terrance Dicks & Barry Letts' Moonbase 3 as Bruno Ponti in Behemoth, Outsiders & View of a Dead Planet. He returned to modern Doctor Who as Abraham in A Town Called Mercy. His career involves a lot of voiceover work, including providing the Skybase announcer voice here, and frequently appears alongside his wife the actress Liza Ross: Both were involved in one of my favourite TV shows Star Fleet, the English language version of the Japanese X-Bomber, with Garrick Hagan voicing Captain Carter and Liza Ross Lamia, amongst others. Star Fleet has finally come out on DVD so you can now enjoy it for yourselves. Best puppet series ever. Oh and Garrick Hagon was also in another science fiction film that you might have seen, but we'll come on to that in later episodes when another actor involved also shows up.

His opposite number Varan is played by James Mellor who was previously in The Wheel in Space as Sean Flannigan. He was also a man in the 1972 Doomwatch film.

Jonathan Sherwood plays Varan's Son who is used to assassinate the Administrator.

Varan's mutating bodyguard is regular extra Steve Ismay who'd been a BBC3 TV Crewmember in The Dæmons, a Guerilla & Stills Cameraman in Day of the Daleks and a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils. He returns as a Presidential Guard in Frontier in Space, a UNIT Soldier in The Time Warrior, an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, a Metebelis 3 Guard in Planet of the Spiders, a Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Gracht Guard in The Androids of Tara, a Citizen in Full Circle and a Cyberman in Earthshock. He also plays another role in this episode! Outside of Doctor Who he's in Blake's 7 as a Scavenger in Deliverance, Guard in Dawn of the Gods, Convict in Moloch and a Hommik in Power while in Doomwatch he plays a man in Flood and The Islanders. He's in The Tomorrow People twice as a Vesh Rebel in Worlds Away and a S I S Sergeant in The Dirtiest Business, The Sweeney as a Policeman in Cover Story, a Driver in Golden Boy and a Villain in Stoppo Driver, and in Porridge he plays a Prison Warden in A Night In and a Gardener in Happy Release.

In the Solonians with Ky & Varan we find Vic Taylor who was a Saxon in The Time Meddler, a Cardinal's Guard in The Massacre, a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines, an English soldier in The Highlanders, an ATC Technician in The Faceless Ones, a Guard in The Enemy of the World, a Technician in Fury from the Deep, a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians and a Villager in The Dæmons. In Doomwatch he's a man in Burial at Sea and a Police Constable in Fire and Brimstone. He was a TA Soldier in the Adam Adamant Lives! episode D for Destruction which features Second Doctor Patrick Troughton

Another Solonian is Brychan Powell, who we last saw as the Daleks' Guard and a Russian Aide in Day of the Daleks. He returns as the Prime Minister in The Green Death, a Mentiad in The Pirate Planet, a Noble in The Androids of Tara, a Logopolitan in Logopolis, an Umpire in Black Orchid, a Business Passenger in Time Flight and a Citizen in Planet of Fire. He can also be seen in Doomwatch as a Man in Flood.

Peter Whitaker meanwhile was the ill-fated Inspector Gascoigne in The Faceless Ones episode 1 and a Weather Station Worker in The Seeds of Death. He returns as a Thal Politician in Genesis of the Daleks, a Mentiad in The Pirate Planet, a Logopolitan in Logopolis, a Grecian Man in Four to Doomsday and an Onlooker in Remembrance of the Daleks. He was in Blake's 7 as a Scientist in Project Avalon and Doomwatch as a Ministry Inspector in Train and De-Train and a Man in Flood.

Amongst the Solonians this episode is the very first actor seen in Doctor Who: Reg Cranfield played the policeman at the start of An Unearthly Child, replacing Frederick Rawlings who fulfilled the same role in the pilot. Cranfield then went on to play a Parisian Man in The Massacre, a Lynch Mob Member in The Gunfighters, a Priest & a Man in the Market in the Gunfighters, a UNIT Soldier/Bunker Man in The Invasion and a UNIT Soldier in the Silurians. He returns as a Villager in The Green Death and a Time Lord in the Deadly Assassin. He also plays a Soldier in the Adam Adamant episode D for Destruction.

Finally one of the Solos Guards/Overlords is regular stuntman Terry Walsh.