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.