109 The Ark Episode 3: The Return

EPISODE: The Ark Episode 3: The Return
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 109
STORY NUMBER: 023
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 19 March 1966
WRITER: Paul Erickson & Lesley Scott
DIRECTOR: Michael Imison
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 6.2 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Ark

"Take them away to the security kitchen"

The Monoids have taken over the Ark, enslaving the Guardians who were left weakened by the virus, and creating a technology to allow them to speak. Steven is imprisoned in the security kitchen and put to work while The Doctor & Dodo are sent with Monoid 2 and a Guardian on the landing party to Refusis.The Doctor & Dodo are befriended by an invisible but powerful Refusian who inhabits a castle that was built for the expected human visitors. Monoid 2 flees the castle, kills the Guardian and is killed when the landing pod explodes. Meanwhile the Monoids plan to abandon the humans on the Ark and then destroy it using a bomb built into the statue.

While the pace of the story is little pedestrian in places this episode, watching it with the production subtitles on makes me realise what a technical achievement these episodes are with lots of clever camerawork, effects & model sequences.

One thing this episode does is for the first time the Doctor is confronted with the consequences of his actions on a previous visit:

DOCTOR: Well, er, yes. But when we were here some time ago we also were friends of your forebears. They were called Monoids. Things were very different then.
YENDOM: These strangers, they
MONOID 2: You speak of the distant past. Following the recent revolution we are now the masters.
DOCTOR: I see, and the human beings?
MONOID 2: They work for us. Is that not true, Yendom?
YENDOM: Yes.
MONOID 2: We conquered and you obey. And these strangers, they will also obey. Now you will come with us.
STEVEN: Where?
MONOID 2: To our leader

So whatever happened is actually quite a recent occurrence.

MONOID 1: According to the history scan you brought a strange fever that killed many of our ancestors.
DODO: But we also helped to find a cure, didn't we? I mean, the Doctor did.
MONOID 1: He thought he did.
DOCTOR: And what do you mean by that?
MONOID 1: You controlled the immediate impact of the fever, but a mutation of it developed later on that sapped the will of the humans.
DODO: You mean that it was our fault that you took over because of the fever?
MONOID 1: In part.
STEVEN: There were other reasons?
MONOID 1: The main reason was the Guardians themselves. They were a simple people. They actually encouraged the research from which we developed our voice boxes and heat prods. They were totally unprepared for the conflict when it came.
DODO: What happened to them?
MONOID 1: Many were killed. The rest are prisoners. A fact that you will shortly see for yourselves! Two, take them away to the security kitchen and then call a Grand Council.

So what happened to the Monoids to encourage them to revolt? Did their treatment become harsher as the journey progresses? Or did they merely sense and opportunity and grab it? They evidently want to blame the Doctor for the fever so maybe some grudge has been harboured in the Monoids community all these years for the deaths 700 years ago.

THE SECURITY KITCHEN ?????? WHAT ????? Secure kitchen maybe but Security Kitchen? Mad!

Note the upside down Phone Hood on the Security Kitchen's wall ! Then we have the invisible Refusians. Was it so wise to attempt an invisible monster so soon after the Visians in episodes 5 & 6 of the Dalek Masterplan, just 12 weeks previously. The are given marvellous presence by the booming voice of Richard Beale later to return as Bat Masterson in all four episodes of The Gunfighters, the Broadcaster/Propaganda Seller in The Macra Terror and the Minister of Ecology in The Green Death episode three.

DOCTOR: And that was their aim, to land there and recreate life on this planet.
REFUSIAN: Yes. We've known for some time of the journey of the vessel you call the Ark and we welcomed it. That is why we built places like this.
DOCTOR: I see. Just to make us comfortable? I didn't think you needed places like this for yourselves.
REFUSIAN: No. Once we had a shape and form something like you. Then there was a galaxy accident. A giant solar flare. Now, we no longer have a being that you can see or recognise.
DOCTOR: But can you see each other?
REFUSIAN: Not even that. Oh, we can sense one other but that is all. That is why it would have been good for Refusis to be inhabited again by life and the signs of life, provided that the beings that come to take our place are peaceful. Child, you are worried.

Still, unlike the Visians on Mira, the Refusians do seem to be friendly and welcoming, even going to the trouble of constructing dwellings for those that will soon share our world. It's a big contrast from the hostile attitude that Zentos was expecting in the first two episodes.

Last episode we had one of who's most frequent Guest Stars appear for the first time. Here we get the first appearance of arguable Doctor Who's best, certainly most prolific, voice artist: Roy Skelton makes his debut as some of the Monoid voices. He'll be back in a short while for The Tenth Planet, providing probably the best version of the Cybermen voices, which is a role he repeats in Wheel in Space. He provides voices during The Ice Warriors (Computer voice) & The Krotons (Kroton voices), appears in front of camera in Colony in Space (as Norton), Planet of the Daleks (briefly as Wester who he also supplies the voice for), in The Green Death (as James - a role taken on in an emergency as we'll see later) and under make-up in The Android Invasion (as Chedaki) and The Hand of Fear (as King Rokon). His most famous Who role is a recurring one voicing the Daleks in (deep breath) The Evil of the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, Destiny of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks & Remembrance of the Daleks plus the Children in Need special The Curse of Fatal Death. But beating even that for fame, he's the voice of Zippy & George in Rainbow, which he demonstrates to great effect on the Doctor Who - The Cybermen - The Early Years Video.

The ill fated Monoid Two is played by Ralph Carrigan, previously an Extra in The Myth Makers 4: Horse of Destruction. He'll be back as a Cheerleader in The Macra Terror episode 4, a Robot in episode 1, 4 & 5 of The Mind Robber episode 1 and a Cyberman in The Invasion episodes 6-8.

We've seen, or rather should have seen, the actor playing Maharis before: Terence Woodfield was the second Celation in The Dalek Masterplan appearing in episode 8 Volcano and episode 11 The Abandoned Planet.

Terence Bayler, who appears as Yendom, returns as Major Barrington in The War Games Episode One but has cinema immortality for his role in the Monty Python film Life of Brian where he gifts us the following gems:

Gregory: I'm Brian, and so's my wife!

Brian: Please, please, please listen! I've got one or two things to say.
The Crowd: Tell us! Tell us both of them!
Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for your selves! You're ALL individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!
Man in crowd: I'm not...

I saw him in the Polanski version of Macbeth, where he played Macduff. This film greatly amused my class because we clocked Keith Chegwin playing Banquo's son! Toby Hadoke interviews Bayler for Who's Round 74 which is well worth a listen.

Since we're now 700 hundred years in the future we've got a new crop of Guardians in the background for the next two episode: Royston Farrell is back as an Elder in The Savages episode 1, a Technician in The Seeds of Death episodes one & two, another technician in The Claws of Axos episode four and a Guard in The Curse of Peladon episode one. Alan Norburn & Victor Munt are both Inferno Customers in War Machines One (good lord, there's gonna be a lot of extras to list when we get to that episode) plus Munt returns as UNIT in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 3. Michael Osborne was an extra in Small Prophet, Quick Return and returns in the speaking role of Sorak in The Horns of Nimon.

108 The Ark Episode 2: The Plague

EPISODE: The Ark Episode 2: The Plague
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 108
STORY NUMBER: 023
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 12 March 1966
WRITER: Paul Erickson & Lesley Scott
DIRECTOR: Michael Imison
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 6.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Ark`

"The nature of man, even in this day and age, hasn't altered at all. You still fear the unknown, like everyone else before you."

The Tardis crew are imprisoned while Steven represents them at their trial where he pleads for the Doctor to be allowed to investigate before Steven succumbs to it as well. The Guardians are ready to execute them before their ailing commander intervenes. The Doctor comes up with a treatment and synthesises a vaccine. The Tardis crew watch the Earth destroyed and then leave, re materialising on exactly the same spot to find the Guardians gone and the statue completed but sporting the head of a Monoid.

Most of this episode is a little pedestrian with the trial and treatment scenes confined to the main body of the Ark, but we get the Jungle back in the closing minutes.

ZENTOS: That's another victim. Another death. And more human Guardians have also been taken ill. Thank heaven none of them has died yet.
MANYAK: What will happen if one does?
ZENTOS: It'll be disaster. Each man has his allotted task. No one had reckoned on this eventuality.

Is there no redundancy in roles on the ark? What happens if someone is killed? And if the voyage does take 700 people will die and need replacing. They've got the idea that this is a generational mission illustrated to us by having Children present in many of the crowd scenes so there's got to be some forward planning and training for the voyage going on.

Mind you Zentos is quick to step into the breach left by the ailing commander and obviously wants the job!

The main thrust of this episode is xenophobic attitudes on display by most of the Ark's inhabitants and command staff.

BACCU: My contention is that it was no accident that this disaster has happened. I say that you came here intentionally to spread the disease.
STEVEN: But that's utter nonsense. I mean how can you possibly
BACCU: And that you are agents of the planet towards which this spaceship is proceeding. That you came here to destroy us.
STEVEN: Why? We're human beings like you are. Why should we?
ZENTOS: There is the crux of the matter. Do you expect us to believe that nonsense, that you manage in that ridiculous machine called the Tardis, have managed to travel through time? Guardians, Monoids, these beings, whatever they are, place a heavy strain on our credulity.
STEVEN: Well that's not very difficult! If your medical records are anything to go by, this segment of time, far from being one of the most advanced in knowledge, is one of the worst!
ZENTOS: We can cope with all things known to the fifty seventh segment of Earth life, but not with strange diseases brought by you as agents of the intelligences that inhabit Refusis!
STEVEN: Are you still on about that? I've told you before. We know nothing of that planet.
ZENTOS: My instinct, every fibre of my being, tells me differently.
STEVEN: And that, unfortunately, tells me only one thing.
ZENTOS: What's that?
STEVEN: That the nature of man, even in this day and age, hasn't altered at all. You still fear the unknown, like everyone else before you.

This attitude even seems to extend to the being they share a ship with:

MANYAK: Steven, prove to us your good faith. Would your friend, the Doctor, have any knowledge how to deal with this fever?
STEVEN: Yes, he probably would if you'd let him out of that cell so that he had a chance to experiment.
ZENTOS: Yes, of course he would. He would love that and by such means spread the fever even further and faster. Perhaps even kill one of the Guardians.

So it's bad if the Monoids are dying but much worse if one of the Guardians does. which of course they do shortly after

BACCU: Guardians, listen to me! I've just had news of another disaster. One of our kind, one of the Guardians has died from the fever.

It's only the commander rising from his sick bed to order the Doctor be allowed to find a cure that save the situation. But to his credit Zentos does apologise to the Doctor as they prepare to depart:

ZENTOS: Doctor, for the fact that I mistrusted you, misjudged you, I'm sorry.
DOCTOR: Remember your journey is very important, young man, therefore you must travel with understanding as well as hope. Goodbye, Zentos.
ZENTOS: Goodbye Doctor.

One of the more striking images inside the Ark is that of the Monoid funeral party, hinting at spiritual beliefs for the mute creatures. Even though they have no voice they can sign to communicate, are seen operating machinery, driving the little car, tending to the animals and even assisting the Doctor in his experiments which leads the Doctor to conclude there's more to them than initially meets the eye

DOCTOR: Ah, thank you, thank you. You know, you're far more knowledgeable than most people realise, aren't you?

DOCTOR: Oh, thank you, thank you, yes. You know, I don't know what I would do without you.

And in the middle of all the action we get to see the Earth die, burnt up and trailing smoke in it's orbit, a theme the new series returns to in it's second episode, End of the World, where various dignitaries gather to watch the Earth's demise.

The very end of the episode is superb, subverting form by having the Tardis return to where it's left when you think the story is over. We saw the statue's feet, and plans, briefly in the last episode where it appeared as background details m("Hang the gun on the wall") Here' it serves to tell us that some amount of time has passed and that something has happened on voyage for it to acquire the head of a Monoid in place of the planned human head.

Ladies and Gentlemen, on Doctor Who debut in this episode: Mr Michael Sheard. Famous to people of my age as teacher Mr Bronson in Grange Hill he's a frequent Doctor Who guest artist appearing here as Rhos, one of the Ark's medics, and then in The Mind of Evil (as Dr. Roland Summers), Pyramids of Mars (as Laurence Scarman), The Invisible Enemy (as Lowe), Castrovalva (as Mergrave) and finally, with more than a little bit of an in-joke, in Remembrance of the Daleks as the Headmaster. If you don't know who from any of these then you'll have seen him as Admiral Ozzel in the Empire Strikes Back and Hitler in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, one of five times that he plays the Nazi dictator.

The only other new speaking role this episode is Ian Frost as the prosecutor Baccu, a character who displays very similar traits to his superior Zentos. Frost returns for Frontier in Space Episode Five as the Draconian Messenger and can be seen in the partially surviving Out of the Unknown third season episode The Little Black Bag as Johnny which you can find on the Out of the Unknown

Both director Michael Imison and writer Paul Erickson are also making their Doctor Who debuts here. Erickson requested that the episode be jointly credited to his then wife Lesley Scott but I believe that there's little evidence to suggest she actually wrote any of it which is a shame because she's the first credited female writer on the show.

107 The Ark Episode 1: The Steel Sky

EPISODE: The Ark Episode 1: The Steel Sky
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 107
STORY NUMBER: 023
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 05 March 1966
WRITER: Paul Erickson & Lesley Scott
DIRECTOR: Michael Imison
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 5.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Ark

"The Earth also is dying. We have left it for the last time."

The Tardis lands in a jungle containing animals from many areas of Earth. Dodo, who has a cold, thinks they are in Whipsnade Zoo until the Doctor points out the steel roof and they meet the one eyes shaggy haired reptiles the Monoids. The mute Monoids serve the Guardians, humans who have left a doomed Earth behind that will shortly be destroyed by the sun. The Ark they are travelling in journeys to the far off planet of Refusis. The rest of the population of the Earth is stored in a shrunken state on the ship as are any Guardian punished for neglect of their duties. Although most are welcoming, showing the travellers the massive statue being constructed by hand during their 700 year voyage, some of the Guardians are hostile, and this increases when first the Monoids and then the humans are affected by a fever. They have caught Dodo's cold and as the cold virus was eradicated on Earth centuries ago they have no defence. When a Monoid dies from the fever and the expedition's commander is taken ill the travellers are imprisoned.

That wasn't bad at all.

There's some cracking concepts being thrown around here: the jungle in a spaceship, the signing aliens, Earth to be destroyed by the sun and the shrunken populace of the planet being transported to a new home in a massive starship. The scale of the Ark is emphasised by the large main set complete with an electric car moving round it.

Having wussed on doing a real Cyclops in the Myth Makers this story opens with one fully visible on screen and goes on to show us a decent Jungle set with the background of some music reused from The Daleks.

The Jungle set is partially pre filmed at Ealing, where our friend the Elephant puts in it's appearance and is presumably where the cracking shots from some height were filmed too:

Of course our expectations of the Monoids as a threat are some what under mined by seeing them working with the humans early on, maybe that could have been saved until after they'd captured the Tardis crew.

Steven's judgement on them is a little odd:

DOCTOR: What do they look like, dear boy?
STEVEN: Terrifying. Is this is Earth, it's no longer inhabited by human beings.
DOCTOR: Shh. You'll frighten the child. Come on.

Has he so quickly forgotten the events of Galaxy Four a few stories previously?

It's left to the commander to explain what they're doing there:

STEVEN: Look, who are you and these creatures that serve you?
COMMANDER: Like you, we come from the Earth. The origin of the Monoids is obscure. They came to Earth many years ago, apparently from their own planet which was dying. They offered us their invaluable services for being allowed to come on this joint voyage.
STEVEN: And where you are going?
COMMANDER: To Refusis Two. The Earth also is dying. We have left it for the last time.
STEVEN: The last time?
COMMANDER: Yes. In a short time it will burn and be swallowed in the pull of the Sun.
STEVEN: Then we must have journeyed forward millions of years.

When the Doctor tells him of their travels through time he is able to narrow it down slightly as to how far they've travelled:

DOCTOR: Including the Daleks.
COMMANDER: Nero, the Trojan wars, the Daleks. But all that happened in the first segment of time.
DOCTOR: Segment? To use your phrase, sir, what segment are we in now?
COMMANDER: The fifty seventh.
DOCTOR: Good gracious! We must have jumped at least ten million years.

The unnamed Commander, Eric Elliott, is in charge of the expedition but Zentos, Inigo Jackson, is swift to taker control when he's taken ill. By this point I'd already taken against him. He's prosecuted a man earlier in the episode who's involved with Mellium, the commanders daughter played by Kate Newman, and from the look he gives her he's obviously got designs on her. He then shows a suspicious almost paranoidly xenophobic attitude towards the new arrivals and any potential inhabitants of the planet they're journeying to:

ZENTOS: You yourself, I take it, are human?
STEVEN: Why yes, of course.
COMMANDER: Why do you doubt him?
ZENTOS: They could be Refusians sent here to intercept us, to sabotage our mission.
STEVEN: Refusians? From the planet you're headed for?
COMMANDER: Explain.
ZENTOS: We only know them as intelligence's that inhabit that planet. They might have a way of assuming human bodies, of using them to pass, to mingle amongst us!

As soon as the cold virus takes hold he's quick to have the travellers arrested!

ZENTOS: Seize them! All of you listen! The success of all we stand for, everything aboard this spaceship is suddenly endangered by the strange fever. A fever brought by these strangers in our midst! I invoke the special Galactic law against them. Hold them, take them into custody, and later they will be made to suffer for the crime that they have committed!

Only one other human is named in this episode: Manyak, the chief controller who shows the Doctor the control deck is played by Roy Spencer who later returns in the currently missing Troughton serial Fury from the Deep as Frank Harris.

There's several people, both those credited on the episode, and uncredited, appearing as Monoids. Eric Blackburn had been an extra in Myth Makers 1: Small Prophet, Quick Return, as was David Greneau, the Defendant as the trial, while Monoids Bernard Barnsley and Chris Webb would return as a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 2 and a guard Curse of Peladon episode 1 respectively. All the Monoids we mention appear in all four episodes of this tale.

As you can see there were a lot people cast as Guardians, the Ark's crew. Roy Douglas was an Extra in Myth Makers 4: Horse of Destruction while Mark Allington is a Lynch Mob Member in Don't Shoot the Pianist & Johnny Ringo, the second and third episodes of the Gunfighters later this series before appearing sixteen years later as a Man in Market in Snakedance part one. Most of the Guardians, for reasons which will become obvious, only appear in the first two episodes of this serial but Iris Fry who's only in this episode later returns as a slave in Day of the Daleks Episode Three. When I originally watched this for the blog this entry went up Wednesday, 9 March 2011 and I said

A brand new DVD of the Ark awaits me: It's been a while since I saw this story so I'm approaching it almost new.

The DVD was released 14th February 2011 about three weeks before the original blog entries for this story went up!

This is only the second time the Tardis has landed in a Space vehicle (1964's The Sensorites is the first) but it will become a staple of the series. Troughton does it in Wheel in Space & The Space Pirates, Pertwee in The Mutants and Frontier in Space, Tom Baker in Ark In Space, The Invisible Enemy, Underworld, Nightmare of Eden and would have done in Shada. Peter Davison visits Spaceships via the Tardis in Four to Doomsday, Mawdryn Undead, Terminus & Enlightenment, Colin Baker does it in the Terror of the Vervoids section of Trial of a Timelord leaving McCoy & McGann as the only original Doctors not to visit a space vehicle using the Tardis.

106 The Massacre Episode 4: Bell of Doom

EPISODE: The Massacre Episode 4: Bell of Doom
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 106
STORY NUMBER: 022
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 26 February 1966
WRITER: John Lucarotti & Donald Tosh
DIRECTOR: Paddy Russell
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 5.8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2

"In any case, I cannot change the course of history, you know that."

Steven returns to Preslin's shop and meets Anne there. They spend the next day searching for the Tardis key and are stunned when the Doctor turns up, unwilling to say where he's been or what he's been doing. The Doctor learns the year & date, and knowing what's to come sends Anne away while he & Steven return to the Tardis. As they leave anti-Huguenot violence erupts as the Massacre begins. Steven is angry with the Doctor for abandoning Anne to near certain death and walks out on the Doctor the next time the Tardis lands, as it happens on Wimbledon common. The Doctor, alone in The Tardis for the first time since we met him, reflects on events and his friend's departure:

"Steven... Even after all this time, he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions; he did remember to look at the scanner before he opened the doors. And now, they're all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan. Or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton - Chesterton - they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home. Back to my own planet. But I can't... I can't..."

However at that moment a young girl charges into the Tardis, mistaking it for a real Police Box, seeking help. She is closely followed by a returning Steven who warns the Doctor of approaching Policemen, causing the Doctor to dematerialise the Tardis with the stranger aboard. She is Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet, an orphan who lives with a great aunt who will not miss her. She reminds the Doctor of his much missed granddaughter Susan. Steven is startled by the surname and Dodo reveals she had a French Grandfather leaving Steven to wonder if Anne survived after all....

Much better episode this one, definitely improved by having Hartnell back in his usual role and the Doctor being present for the first time since episode one.

So where was the Doctor in this story and what was he doing?

DOCTOR: Oh, my dear boy, had you stayed at the tavern all this mix-up could have been avoided.
STEVEN: I did stay at the tavern, you didn't turn up!
DOCTOR: Yes, well, I was unavoidably delayed. Never mind that now. Come along, we must go. Come along.

Was he actually the Abbot in disguise? We don't see the murder onscreen and without the visuals it's hard to tell if they show the body to be Hartnell. Could the Abbot actually be a persona adopted by the Doctor for whatever reason?

And what about Preslin who the Doctor was last seen with? We last see him in his shop in episode 1 yet the very next day in episode 2 we get this exchange between Steven, Nicholas and an old woman they're enquiring of:

MUSS: What? Monsieur Preslin doesn't use his shop?
OLD LADY: Does it look like it? Nothing lives there except the rats.
STEVEN: And where is Preslin now?
MUSS: How long since he's lived here?
WOMAN: Oh, a long time. Two years about. He was arrested for heresy.
STEVEN: What? Do you mean, you mean he's in prison?
WOMAN: Burnt I expect. And if he isn't, he should be.

Another pass needed by the script editor? Or was the man the Doctor encountered in the shop not Preslin after all?

There's a real sense of grimness and doom about the episode as it progresses as first the Queen Mother issues her orders changing the plan from targeted eliminations to full attempting to wipe out the Huguenots.

TAVANNES: Simon?
CATHERINE: No, Marshall.
TAVANNES: Madame. I apologise, I thought that
CATHERINE: Never mind. I have it here, the order signed by the King. Our plans for tomorrow can go ahead.
TAVANNES: Thank God.
CATHERINE: God had very little to do with it. What is this?
TAVANNES: The list, Madame. When those Huguenots are killed we need have no further fear of a Protestant France.
CATHERINE: We have no need of lists, Marshall. The good people of Paris know their enemies. They will take care of them.
TAVANNES: The good people? Madame, if you rouse the mob the innocent will perish with the guilty.
CATHERINE: Innocent? Heresy can have no innocents. France will breath of pure air after tomorrow.
TAVANNES: And Navarre, Madame, your son-in-law? Is he to be slaughtered with the others?
CATHERINE: Tomorrow Henri of Navarre will pay for his pretensions to the Crown.
TAVANNES: Madame, we must not kill Navarre.
CATHERINE: Must not?
TAVANNES: Protestant Europe will merely shed a pious tear over the death of a few thousand Huguenots. The death of a prince will launch a Holy War.
CATHERINE: If one Huguenot life escapes me tomorrow, we may both regret this act of mercy.
TAVANNES: Not mercy, Madame. Policy.
CATHERINE: Very well, Marshall. Then you must get him out of Paris. After tomorrow, even I could not save him.
TAVANNES: I will see to it, Madame.
CATHERINE: And Marshall, close the gates of the city now.

Tavannes is in thrall to his political mistress Catherine de Merdici but seeing a larger picture than she does make a small alteration to the plan:

DUVALL: Well, my lord?
TAVANNES: The order has been given. You may begin.
DUVALL: My men are ready. Where's the list?
TAVANNES: There is no list.
DUVALL: But I thought?
TAVANNES: We are to unleash the wolves of Paris. None are to be spared.
DUVALL: Even better, my lord.
TAVANNES: Is it? I wonder. And Simon, when you have passed on the order I have a special charge for you.
DUVALL: My lord?
TAVANNES: Henri of Navarre.
DUVALL: I am to have the honour?
TAVANNES: Yes, but not of killing him. You will escort him out of Paris.
DUVALL: But my lord!
TAVANNES: You not hear me? You will be responsible for his safety. You will have to leave tomorrow's work to others. Now get out. TAVANNES: At dawn tomorrow this city will weep tears of blood.

The sounds of the massacre supposedly play out over woodcuts depicting the event though obviously we can't see this!

The historical setting for this story is somewhat obscure thus making this serial more educational than many Doctor Who stories. The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre is an actual event and was triggered by the wedding of Henry III of Navarre and Margaret of Valois, who are mentioned in the story, and the assassination of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny who appears in the story as do Charles IX of France and his mother Catherine de Medici who is the power behind the throne. Other characters, including Preslin whose scientific achievements are so highly praised by the Doctor, I am unable to find any record of.

The Massacre is followed though by some fabulous scenes in the Tardis. Steven's see three friends die recently, Katerina, Brett Vyon & Sara Kingdom plus is still feeling the departure of Vicki. This pushes him over the edge and he decides to leave the Doctor:

STEVEN: Surely there was something we could have done?
DOCTOR: No, nothing. Nothing. In any case, I cannot change the course of history, you know that. The massacre continued for several days in Paris and then spread itself to other parts of France. Oh, what a senseless waste. What a terrible page of the past.
STEVEN: Did they all die?
DOCTOR: Yes, most of them. About ten thousand in Paris alone.
STEVEN: The Admiral?
DOCTOR: Yes.
STEVEN: Nicholas? You had to leave Anne Chaplet there to die.
DOCTOR: Anne Chaplet?
STEVEN: The girl! The girl who was with me! If you'd brought her with us she needn't have died. But no, you had to leave her there to be slaughtered.
DOCTOR: Well, it is possible of course she didn't die, and I was right to leave her.
STEVEN: Possible? Look, how possible? That girl was already hunted by the Catholic guards. If they killed ten thousand how did they spare her? You don't know, do you? You can't say for certain that you weren't responsible for that girl's death.
DOCTOR: I was not responsible.
STEVEN: Oh, no. You just sent her back to her aunt's house where the guards were waiting to catch her. I tell you this much, Doctor, wherever this machine of yours lands next I'm getting off. If your researches have so little regard for human life then I want no part of it.
DOCTOR: We've landed. Your mind is made up?
STEVEN: Goodbye.
DOCTOR: My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're all too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don't try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes, that I firmly believe.

But then, although only briefly at the end, welcome Jackie Lane as new companion Dodo Chaplet. She arrives courtesy of some location film work at Windmill road in Wimbledon. According to the book Doctor Who: Companions by David J. Howe and Mark Stammers, this sequence would have included a cameo appearance by former companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. The scene — which was scheduled to be filmed but was cancelled — had Ian and Barbara witnessing the dematerialisation of the TARDIS after Dodo enters. A nice touch, but perhaps the availability of William Russell and Jacqueline Hill put paid to it. The sequence does feature Marguerite Young as the Woman with Dog, recorded before her appearance as a Parisian woman in episode 3 of this story, Priest of Death.

Dodo's arrival, the first of several accidental stumblings into the Tardis, enables a quick restatement of what the series is about:

DODO: Wait a minute, if this isn't a police box, what is it? And who are you?
DOCTOR: Well, my dear, I'm a doctor of science, and this machine is for travelling through time and relative dimensions in space. Now you
DODO: Come again?
DOCTOR: Oh, never mind, my dear, never mind. Run along.
DODO: There's something odd going on here.

Of course at the sight of the Policemen Steven come running back to to warn the Doctor and on hearing the surname Chaplet Steven automatically jumps to the conclusion that she's a descendant of Anne, who he's just left and who's fate is unknown. People have pointed out that it's difficult for Dodo to be Anne's descendant if they have the same surname but there's several solutions including a descendant of hers (with her married name) marrying into the Chaplet name or Anne producing a child out of wedlock - is she pregnant at the time of the Massacre and uses the chaos afterwards to pretend she had a husband who has been killed? And if she is pregnant by the end of the story is anyone we know responsible?

I'm not sorry to see the Massacre finish: It doesn't do it for me, except for the final episode, and this is a similar impression to the one I got when I listened to the story for the first time about six months before I originally blogged it and when I listened to it then. There's a gaping Doctor shaped hole in the middle of it, possibly not a good idea in the first story where there's just one companion. I have very little sympathy for many of the characters finding some of them downright unpleasant. The sense of adventure and wonder appears to be missing from it and the danger is more a grim real world one. There's no humour to mellow it like Reign of Terror or The Romans, no futuristic element like the Time Traveller. It's just a straight up retelling of a grim event in history hamstrung by the lack of the main character. I don't enjoy it and I don't like it and can't see why it's held up to be such a masterpiece by so many.

Onto the cast: The actor playing the Officer, John Slavid returns in The War Machines Episode 4 as Man in Telephone Box. We saw Reg Pritchard, the actor playing the policeman at the start of An Unearthly Child, in an earlier episode. Now we get Leslie Bates, who casts the shadow at the end of that episode, as a Guard. He was also a Tribesman in Unearthly Child 2 The Cave of Skulls, the Man at Lop in The Roof of the World, a Mongol Warrior in Five Hundred Eyes and a Mongol Bandit in Rider from Shang-Tu, the first, third and fifth episodes of Marco Polo. He's a Villager at Inn / Pirate in The Smugglers Episode 1, a 1862 Soldier The War Games Episodes Three & Four, a BBC3 TV Crewmember in The Dæmons Episode Two, a Lunar Guard in episode three and a Draconian in episode Five on Frontier in Space, an Extra in Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part One and an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks: Parts One to Three.

Onto the uncredited extras, and although there's not so many this week all but one of them has other who Appearances to their name. Alan Vicars, the Servant, returns in Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 1 as a Technician. All the rest of the extras here are playing guards: Derek Chafer was a Saxon/Saxon Warrior in The Meddling Monk & Checkmate, the 2nd & 4th episodes of The Time Meddler and a Greek Soldier in Temple of Secrets, Death of a Spy and Horse of Destruction (1965), the 1st, 3rd & 4th episodes of the Myth Makers. He's back as a Lynch Mob Member in Don't Shoot the Pianist and Johnny Ringo, the 2nd & 3rd episodes of The Gunfighters, a Cybermen in The Moonbase Episodes 3 & 4, a Cyberman in The Invasion: Episode 6, for which he's credited for the only time on Doctor Who, an extra in The Space Pirates Episodes 4 & 5 (1969), a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 3, a Prisoner in The Mind of Evil Episode Four, a Guard in The Curse of Peladon Episode One, another Exxilon in episodes One to Three of Death to the Daleks, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon Part One, and the Armourer in The Masque of Mandragora Part Four. Geoffrey Witherick was a Cricketer / Reveller in Volcano, the eight episode of Daleks' Masterplan, a Man in Market in The War Machines Episode 3, a Villager in the third and a Coven Member in the fourth & fifth episodes of The Dæmons Episode Five, a Guard in Frontier in Space Episodes Two & Three and a Security guard in Image of the Fendahl Part Two.

It's last Doctor Who appearances for guards John Freeman, previously a G Greek Soldier in Temple of Secrets and Death of a Spy, the first and third episodes of The Myth Makers and a Guard in The Sea Beggar the second episode of this story Francis Willey was previously (somehow) the invisible Visian in Dalek Masterplan episode 6 Coronas of the sun.

A first appearance though for Roy Pearce as a Guard who'll be back as a Soldier in Snow Camouflage / Engineer #2 in The Tenth Planet Episode 3, a Chameleon in The Faceless Ones episode 1, the Cyberman in The War Games episode ten, an extra in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 6, a Villager in The Dæmons episodes one & two, a Solos Guard in The Mutants episodes three to five (and even gets a credit on part 4!), another Exxilon in Death to the Daleks parts one & two, a Courtier in part one and a Brother in part three of The Masque of Mandragora. He's also got three early episodes of Blake's 7 to his name appearing as an Armed Crewman in Space Fall, a Federation Trooper in Time Squad and a Scientist in Project Avalon. Likewise James Appleby also returns in The Faceless Ones Episode 1, but as a Policeman, and he's in The Masque of Mandragora Part Two as a Guard while Arthur McGuire is in The Enemy of the World Episode 4 as a Guard and Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 3 as a UNIT Soldier. James Haswell is an extra in episodes 3 to 5 of The Space Pirates and a pirate in episode 6 before playing a prisoner in the second episode of the next story The War Games. He's got a credited part as as Corporal Champion in The Ambassadors of Death Episode 2 and turns up as a Beat Policeman in The Talons of Weng-Chiang part one. He's also got Blake's 7 on his CV appearing in Children of Auron as an Auron Technician and The Harvest of Kairos as a Labourer. Finally the biggest name amongst the guards is Mike Reid making his second Doctor Who appearance after a Greek Solider in Myth Makers 3 Death of a Spy. He'll be back as a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines Episode 3 and a Soldier in The War Machines Episode 4 where he's easily spotted. He goes onto fame as a comedian, host of Runaround and as Frank Butcher in Eastenders.

Donald Tosh, outgoing Script Editor, supposedly performed extensive rewrites on John Lucarotti's final script for the series and now he's off staff he's credited for the work. Lucarotti would write a draft for Ark in Space for Tom Baker's Doctor but the majority of the work for that story was done, and credited to, then script editor Robert Holmes. Lucarotti would return to the world of Doctor Who in the 80s when he novelised all three of his script, with the adaptation of this story becoming a version closer to what was written before Tosh changed it. Donald Tosh did some writing work after leaving Doctor Who, but then went to work for English Heritage. As of me writing this he is both the sole surviving Hartnell era script editor, and, since the death of Glyn Jones, the last surviving Hartnell author.

So out goes Donald Tosh. In comes Gerry Davis! Huzzah! Already experienced through working on Coronation Street & United, Davis is a key appointment in taking the show forward. The next three, possibly four, stories (The Ark, The Celestial Toyroom, The Gunfighters & The Savages) were all dreamed up under the Tosh/Wills regime so if you want to see what the Davis vision of the show looks like then come back for The War Machines.

This story was novelised in the 1980s by the original author, was the first of the BBC Missing Collection releases in 1999 (which is long out of print and trading for a penny or two) was part of the Adventure in History boxset (again again long out of print) and has recently been reissued as part of Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: (1965-1966) No. 2 which is selling on Amazon for cheaper than the original CD!

105 The Massacre Episode 3: Priest of Death

EPISODE: The Massacre Episode 3: Priest of Death
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 105
STORY NUMBER: 022
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 19 February 1966
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Paddy Russell
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 5.9 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2

"So, the Sea Beggar lives. You have failed!"

Last time I blogged the story I was struggling with who the characters were, telling them apart and identifying who they work for. So in the interests of trying to get a better understanding of the story I tried to sort the cast out into allegiances:

Admiral Gaspard de Coligny - prominent protestant Huguenot who's got a group of them staying in his house. He supports the protestant Dutch, nicknamed the Sea Beggars, in their war with Catholic Spain so has become known as the Sea Beggar.

Charles Preslin - Huguenot apothecary who's being persecuted for his religious and scientific beliefs. Last person to see the missing Doctor and has disappeared since.

Nicholas & Gaston (center left and far right in the photo above) Huguenot drinkers in the tavern that befriend Steven
Anne Chaplet (middle right in the photo above) Huguenot servant girl who while working for the Abbot overheard a plot to kill Huguenots and assassinate Prince Henri of Navarre.

Landlord - allows Huguenot drinkers in the tavern but reports to Simon Duval.

Abbot of Amboise - prominent Catholic persecuting Huguenots. The Double of the Doctor.
Simon Duval - Catholic agent of the Abbot
Roger Colbert - Catholic secretary to the Abbot. I can recognise him cos he's played by Chris Tranchell.

Marshal Tavannes - He tells Simon Duval that something will happen to the Sea Beggar, which Steven overhears

Right got that straight. Now I

A) have to recognise them in the sound recording

and

B) hope no new characters are introduced!

Steven wants to seek the Doctor at the Abbot's house and disguises himself. In the Louvre, the Queen Mother, the King, the Marshal, the Admiral, and Charles de Teligny discuss allying themselves to the Dutch but conversation turns to protestant Huguenot persecution. Steven meets the Abbot bringing Anne with him as Marshal Tavannes arrives. Waiting outside they overhear the conversation discussing killing the Sea Beggar and leave to speak to Nicholas just before they are recognised by Roger Colbert. Admiral de Coligny is shot and wounded on his way home from the meeting. Nicholas and Steven take the wounded Admiral home, while the Catholic conspirators blame the Abbot for things going wrong. The Huguenots believe that the Abbot is behind the assassination but Steven denies it believing him to be the Doctor. However word arrives that the Abbot has been killed. The Queen Mother incites the King to believe his life is under threat from the Huguenots. Steven returns to the Abbot's house to see if the body is the Doctor. The crowds believe the Huguenots are responsible and are demanding blood. When Steven arrived Roger Colbert identifies him as the killer forcing him to flee.

Right that made a bit more sense now I'm sure who everyone is. However as a story it's still not doing much for me: Steven spends lots of the time running around confused.

Thankfully there's a lot more Hartnell this episode giving a clear performance with no stammering over his words which makes you think that Fluffing Billy might be part of the persona he adopts for the Doctor rather than forgetting his lines as is frequently assumed. The death of his character, the Abbot de Amboise, throws Steven into confusion as he still believes that the Abbot might be the Doctor:

TOLIGNY: The Abbot of Amboise was murdered just outside his own house.
STEVEN: What?
TOLIGNY: The Abbot is dead and they're blaming it on the Huguenots.
STEVEN: But, he wasn't the Abbot!

Among the several new character we meet in this episode is Charles IX of France, played by Barry Justice. In the above photo he's the one who looks like Edmund Blackadder! Charles is seemingly unconcerned with affairs of state and more interested in his own pleasure:

CHARLES: Ha, ha! Admiral, come with us. We are going to play tennis.
DE COLIGNY: Your Majesty, I must beg to be excused. I have work which must be done.
CHARLES: Oh, my dear Admiral, we are pleased with you. Since now our mother will not speak to us for the rest of today, you will come with us. I have a new racquet I want you to see. Come.

CHARLES: Now what's the matter? Why must I always be interrupted? And I was winning.

It takes the attempt on de Coligny's life to rouse him which puts him into conflict with his mother, the Queen Mother Catherine de Medici.

CATHERINE: You summoned the council?
CHARLES: I gave orders I was to be left alone.
CATHERINE: Without my knowledge or consent?
CHARLES: I asked to be left alone, mother.
CATHERINE: The threat over your friend, the Admiral. You are the King.
CHARLES: Yes, I am the King, and to be obeyed! Now keep out of my sight unless you care to end your days in a convent.
CATHERINE: I would wish you have the courage, my son.
CHARLES: I have but to give the order.
CATHERINE: Summon your guards, have me arrested. But you had better have a good reason for the council and for the people.
CHARLES: The attempted assassination of my Admiral, by you and Tavannes. Do you deny it, Madame?
CATHERINE: No.
CHARLES: Have a care. I mean what I say. I shall send Tavannes to the block!
CATHERINE: You would execute the Marshall of France for doing his duty?
CHARLES: Duty? He's an assassin!
CATHERINE: He tried to rid you of a dangerous enemy.
CHARLES: de Coligny is my friend. You, Madame, are my enemy.
CATHERINE: If ever I were to be.
CHARLES: May God help you.
CATHERINE: Look at these before you decide who are your enemies. You think the Huguenots would stop at killing me? They want your blood too.
CHARLES: So you keep telling me every day of my life. Why? I protect them. They're all my subjects. What have they to gain?
CATHERINE: Until now, nothing.
CHARLES: And now?
CATHERINE: We have a Protestant prince in Paris, Henri of Navarre. You think they give a fig for your protection, now that one of their own is within grasp of the throne?>

This exchange seems to make the Queen Mother's previously contradictory actions much clearer. She has arranged the marriage of her daughter the Catholic Margaret of Valois to Huguenot Henry III of Navarre, which was being celebrated in episode one as a way to bring the Catholics and protestant Huguenots of France together. Now, coupled with the order to have de Coligny assassinated, it would seem to be part of a larger plan by her to ferment tension and attack the Huguenots.

Joan Young plays Catherine de' Medici, pictured above with André Morell as Marshal Tavannes. She specialised in battleaxe parts and can be found in many 1950s and 60s comedy films including The Plank.

The new character we can't see a picture of is Teligny played Michael Bilton. He had a long television careerand later played Collins in Pyramids of Mars and a Time Lord in The Deadly Assassin.

Onto the new extras used in this episode, and again I'll group them by their role.

Top of the list of Parisians in Rue des Fosses St. Germain will be Derek Martin, stuntman & Charlie Slater in Eastenders, who we last saw in The Romans episode 4: Inferno and next shows up in The Web of Fear episode 1. Peter Stewart returns as a Policeman in The War Machines Episode 1 while Eddie Davis is a worker in episode 3 of the same story. Valerie Stanton returns for the penultimate Patrick Troughton story where she's the Issigri Secretary in The Space Pirates episodes 2-6.

Onto the Parisian Men and a distinctly Excellent theme develops here: Len Russell was an Alien Delegate in Mission to the Unknown. Delegate Detective isn't certain which one he is though! Eric Mills was in episode 8 of the previous story, the Dalek Masterplan: Golden Death as an Egyptian Warrior a role that Barry Noble plays in episode 10 Escape Switch. He is then an Inferno Customer in episode 1 of the The War Machines before playing a Cyberman in episode 4 of the Moonbase. Declan Cuffe is another Inferno Customer in the first episode of the War Machines and is also a Cyberman in episode 3 of the Moonbase as well as the preceding episode. Edward Phillips is in the first three episodes of the same serial as No 7: Scientist Bob Anders while Jerry Holmes is one of the Cybermen in The Wheel in Space Episodes 2 - 6.
Alan Wakeling is a worker in episodes 1 & 3 of the War Machines while Pat Leclerc is a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines: Episode 3 and a Soldier in The War Machines Episode 4.

The only one of the Parisian Woman who trouble the scorers again is Marguerite Young who is back in the fourth episode of this serial 4 as the Woman with Dog.

Of the Council Members Les Shannon reappears first in The Gunfighters episodes 2 & 3 Don't Shoot the Pianist & Johnny Ringo as a Lynch Mob Member before returning in Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 6. Graham Tonbridge is in The War Machines Episode 1 as a Journalist while Robert Pearson is a Soldier in Episode 3 of the same story.

Norton Clarke, the Secretary, was a Greek Soldier in Death of a Spy and Horse of Destruction, the third & fourth episodes of The Myth Makers and later returns as a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 1

Of the Guards Dennis Plenty was a Tavern Customer in episode 1 of this series, War of God. He has the inevitable War Machines credits appearing in episode 3 as a Worker / Soldier and a Soldier in Episode 4. He's then a Prison Guard in Frontier in Space Episodes Two & Three, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks Parts Two and Three, a Peasant villager in The Masque of Mandragora Part One and a Brother in part three of the same story. Brother (uncredited) The Masque of Mandragora: Part Three. Another guard Nigel James in in The War Machines as a Inferno Customer / Man in Crowd / Soldier. Did they not keep track of which extra was doing what in the War Machines?

George Romanov is another returnee in Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 6 and a Kaled Councillor in Genesis of the Daleks Parts One & Three. Finally Tom Sye was a Parisian Man in episode one of this story and now plays the silent assassin Bondeaux (your mileage may vary on the spelling depending on your source!)

As a note this is the last episode to credit Donald Tosh with being script editor. He's done extensive rewrites on this story but BBC rules have prevented him from taking an on screen credit. Most of the remaining stories this season are commissioned under his reign so his influence is felt for a while yet. War Machines is the first story to be 100% developed by the new producer & script editor team, the latter of which we will meet for the first time next episode.

104 The Massacre Episode 2: The Sea Beggar

EPISODE: The Massacre Episode 2: The Sea Beggar
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 104
STORY NUMBER: 022
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 12 February 1966
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Paddy Russell
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 6 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2

"Between you, you will find the Abbot and you will give him this message for me. Say the decision has been made. Tell him the Sea Beggar dies tomorrow."

Steven hunts for the Doctor, alienating his new French friends who think he's working for the Abbot. He finds out about an attempt to be made to assassinate "The Sea Beggar" but doesn't know who this is. Meeting Anne in the street they go to shelter in Preslin's shop. It's revealed that the Sea Beggar is Admiral De Coligny.

Last time

Straight off the bat: Maybe it's because I wasn't feeling too good when I listened to this but it passed me by completely. As with the previous episode I'm just completely confused with identity and allegiance.

I'm following much better this time, thanks to the photos, script and writing down who was allied to who last time I watched the episode but it's leaving me cold still. Yeah I don't like historicals, but this is leaving me colder than most.

I think my biggest problem with this episode is that it's one of the ones where Hartnell's on holiday. His only appearance is a brief pre filmed segment at the start where Steven sees the Abbot of Amboise with Colbert. Whose idea was it to let Hartnell have a week off during this a story where he plays two roles? Madness. This is compounded by it being the first story with only one companion so with Hartnell absent Peter Purves is carrying a lot of the action.

Against that having the Abbott absent creates something of a mystery about him that sadly has been eroded by the passage of time. Is he or isn't he the Doctor? Colbert and Duvall are sceptical about the Abbott too:

COLBERT: I parted with the Abbot at de Coligny's house. He did not tell me where he was going.
DUVALL: Oh, very well. Tell me what you know about the Abbot.
COLBERT: He's been specially appointed by the Cardinal.
DUVALL: I don't mean that. How long have you known him?
COLBERT: I only met him yesterday, but he's worked for His Eminence the Cardinal of Lorraine for many years and has done him many services.
DUVALL: You saw him for the first time yesterday?
COLBERT: No, I met him for the first time. I saw him once at an encyclical meeting held by the Cardinal.
DUVALL: And that was the only time you've seen him?
COLBERT: Yes.

However the mystery of is the Abbot the Doctor or not is soon overtaken with another: who the target for the assassination is:

TAVANNES: Between you, you will find the Abbot and you will give him this message for me. Say the decision has been made.
DUVALL: You mean
TAVANNES: You interrupt me, Simon. Tell him the Sea Beggar dies tomorrow.
COLBERT: Tomorrow? Where?
TAVANNES: He will attend an early council meeting at the Louvre. On his return, Bondeaux will be waiting for him.
COLBERT: Do you wish that the Abbot instructs Bondeaux?
TAVANNES: No. Bondeaux already has his orders. You may tell the Abbot that also, when you find him. Is that clear?
COLBERT: Yes, Marshall.
TAVANNES: Good.
DUVALL: So, the royal command has been given.
COLBERT: What do you mean?
DUVALL: That order didn't come from Marshall Tavannes. It came from the Queen Mother.

As the episode closes the identity of The Sea Beggar stand revealed: Admiral Gaspard de Coligny whose house Steven stayed in the previous night and a prominent Huguenot. But hang on, the Queen Mother is attempting to engineer the assassination, which would surely increase tensions between Catholics & Huguenots? The previous episode she had arranged a marriage to do the opposite!

One thing we're aware of in this episode is the passage of time: Steven has been in Paris at least 24 hours. He arrived in the morning with the Doctor and then, after hearing the curfew bell, spends the night as a guest of DuMuss at De Coligny's house then spends the next day searching for Doctor, finding Anne as the curfew bell rings again.

Doubles is a recurring theme in Doctor Who: We'll meet the second Doctor's double Salamander in Enemy of the World, while Xoanon in Face of Evil uses the Doctor's face, Meglos disguises itself as the Doctor in Meglos, Nyssa meets an identical double and there's a case of stolen costumes with someone pretending to be the Doctor in Black Orchid and Omega assumes the Doctor's form in Arc of Infinity. Then we've got Mawdryn Undead which really does feature two of the same person wandering about!

A notable first for this story: Doctor Who's first female director. Patricia "Paddy" Russel, had previously worked as a production assistant under Rudolph Cartier of Quatermass fame. She directed three other Doctor Who stories: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Pyramids of Mars & Horror of Fang Rock. Doctor who had four other female directors: Julia Smith (later co-creator with Tony Holland of Angels, EastEnders and Eldorado) who directed The Smugglers and The Underwater Menace, Fiona Cumming director of Castrovalva, Snakedance, Enlightenment (which was also written by a woman making it the only Doctor Who story 100% written and directed by women) & Planet of Fire. Mary Ridge, more well known for her Blake's 7 work, directed Terminus while Sarah Hellings was in charge of Mark of the Rani.

This story is packed with guest artists who are famous for other rolls. André Morell (Marshal Tavannes) was the third Professor Bernard Quatermass in Quatermass & The Pit. The BBC original is available on DVD and well worth watching.

Leonard Sachs (Admiral de Coligny), who is famous as the compère in The Good Old Days, later played the third version of the Time Lord Borusa in Arc of Infinity. We saw Hugh Cecil, a Priest, in The Nightmare Begins, the first episode of the the last story The Daleks' Masterplan as a Technix and he's back in The War Machines Episode 3 as a Worker and Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 6. His distinctive bald head makes him easy to spot in the many productions he's appeared in such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. John Freeman, a Guard was in the second & third episodes of The Myth Makers, Temple of Secrets & Death of a Spy as a Greek Soldier. Another guard is regular extra and occasional monster Pat Gorman who has a Doctor Who career so long that I won't even attempt to list it - have a peak at IMDB for details of the NINETY episodes he appears in!

103 The Massacre Episode 1: War of God

EPISODE: The Massacre Episode 1: War of God
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 103
STORY NUMBER: 022
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 05 February 1966
WRITER: John Lucarotti
DIRECTOR: Paddy Russell
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 8 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2

"Steven's been travelling abroad. He knows nothing about what's been happening here. Do you?"

The Tardis materialises in Paris, 1572. The Doctor wishes to see an apothecary called named Preslin who was way ahead of his time. They overhear much talk of tension between Catholics and Protestants. The Doctor goes to seek Preslin leaving Steven in a tavern where he promptly gets into trouble and is befriended by Nicholas Muss. The Doctor arrives at Preslin's shop and meets the man himself who is wary of the Doctor. Steven speaks with people in the Inn, telling them he's been in Egypt, taking directions from them. As he leaves he nearly runs into a servant girl, Anne Chaplet, a protestant Huguenot being hunted by Catholic guards. She is hidden in the pub and Steven returns to speak with her. Preslin tells The Doctor that he is frightened of the Abbot of Amboise. Anne has overheard a Catholic plot to slaughter Huguenots: the recent marriage of Protestant Prince Henri of Navarre to Catholic Princess Marguerite de Valois, the sister of the King, has heightened tensions and it has been decided to assassinate Henri of Navarre . They decide to hide Anne in the kitchens of Admiral de Coligny, the innkeeper's master. Simon Duval returns and questions the Inn Keeper. Nicholas, one of the people Steven's been talking to, convinces Steven to stay the night at Admiral de Coligny's house. Simon Duval reports Anne's whereabouts to his master the Abbot of Amboise, a double of the Doctor!

I am approaching this story with some trepidation. It's not my favourite Hartnell story at all even though I know many other hold it in very high esteem. It's just NEVER worked for me. The first time I listened to it for the blog I wrote

Struggled with this one. It's hard to keep track of who is who and which of the factions they are allied to. Without the visuals the show's climatic reveal is lost, spoiled as it is by the passage of time and the knowledge that it's a double and not the Doctor himself.

But since I last looked at the story I've found some pictures and I can look at the script so let's see how we go this time. Is this one of the first occasion's the Tardis Wardrobe is raided for appropriate clothes?

DOCTOR: You'd be surprised what I've got in my wardrobe.

Hmmm. They grab cloaks from it in The Time Meddler and both Steven and Vicki raid it for clothes in The Myth Makers. But I think it's the first time the Doctor has obliged himself of something more appropriate to the time with his clothes in Reign of Terror and The Crusade being acquired after his arrival.

Muss starts to hint at the cause of what's happening in Paris:

MUSS: You're too suspicious. Steven's been travelling abroad. He knows nothing about what's been happening here. Do you?
STEVEN: No, no. I really do know very little.
GASTON: Yes, but as you come from England you must be for the Huguenot. What you call a Protestant.
STEVEN: Oh, yes, yes.
GASTON: There, you see? It's just that I'm interested in our friend. Now tell us where you've been travelling.
STEVEN: Well, I've been, I've been in Egypt.

Steven's telling the truth: He was in Egypt in Daleks' Masterplan 9 & 10 Golden Death & Checkmate.

Anne then tells them what she's overheard:

GASTON: What's that?
ANNE: They said it would happen again, and my father died there.
GASTON: Vassy?
MUSS: Calm down, Gaston.
GASTON: What did you hear?
ANNE: I was just passing the room and I heard them mention Vassy.
GASTON: What did they say?
ANNE: Something about it happening before the week was past.
GASTON: Who spoke?
ANNE: The Captain who followed me inside and another man.
GASTON: Now tell us exactly what you heard.
ANNE: Just, just the word that made me stop, sir. My father died at Vassy and
GASTON: Yes, yes, I know, but
STEVEN: What are you all talking about?
MUSS: Ten years ago at Vassy, a small town some miles south of Paris, a hundred Huguenots were slaughtered by the Catholics.
STEVEN: Why?
GASTON: Because they were Huguenot.

The Massacre of Vassy is a documented historical event, which ignited tensions between French Catholics and Protestants/Huguenots. The Queen Mother seeks to diffuse those tensions as Muss explains:

MUSS: My English friend, it's really quite simple. Henri of Navarre is a Huguenot, a Protestant prince. Yesterday he married Marguerite of France, a Catholic. The marriage was arranged by the Queen Mother in the hope that it would heal the religious wound that's tearing France in two. But in the light of what that girl overheard, it looks as if the Catholics are plotting against Navarre's life. Do you understand?

But there appears to be a conspiracy to undermine this.....

Let's look at the ending of the episode I mentioned above. We haven't seen the Doctor for a bit: Preslin's exchange with a boy who he has had help the Doctor is the last time he's mentioned:

PRESLIN: You showed the old man the way? Good. I only hope he succeeds. You were not seen? Let's hope not. You've done well.

But before that Preslin and the Doctor have been talking about the Abbot of Amboise

DOCTOR: But, who is this Abbot?
PRESLIN: The Abbot of Amboise. He hates us all.
DOCTOR: Yes, I suppose just now all churchmen are rather suspicious of your work. But surely you can carry on without his knowledge?
PRESLIN: Oh, you don't know the man. The Abbot of Amboise is the Cardinal of Lorraine's right hand. With the Cardinal in Rome, the Abbot has decided to come to Paris. We shall be hunted down. That man is far more dangerous than the Cardinal.
DOCTOR: I suppose there's no point in going to see him?
PRESLIN: None, unless you want to be thrown in prison for heresy.
DOCTOR: Hmm, I wonder.

So the Doctor's intention would appear to have been to go and see the Abbot. So when the Abbot shows up at the end the the audience automatically thinks is this the Doctor, impersonating the Abbot.

We're back in Paris for this story, which seems to be one of the Doctor's favourite places to visit - see The Reign of Terror. It's not the first place the Tardis has visited twice - That's London in An Unearthly Child, in the future in Dalek Invasion of Earth and again to contemporary London, at the cricket match in Dalek Masterplan. In fact he's not landed in Paris twice yet: The Tardis materialises at least 14 kilometres outside Paris in Reign of Terror. They've not even landed in a similar time, like with London or even closer chronologically the two trips to Kembel in Daleks' Masterplan, with the caveat that the second one was guided by stolen technology. We can date the Doctor's visits to Paris very accurately: Robespierre was arrested 27th July 1794, an event seen in Reign of Terror part 6 while the Massacre of this stories title took place on 24th August 1572, 222 years earlier.

And while we're at it: The story title. For years it was The Massacre, and then scholars switched to the longer The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, which is a little too long. I'll stick to the Massacre on the grounds that

1) That's the title I grew up with.

2) That's the title on the book

(neither compelling arguments in themselves I will admit)

3) The historical event is known as The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre!

Sadly this story is one of the many missing from the archives and, like Marco Polo and Mission to the Unknown, not a frame of footage from it has ever been found. So we're reliant on a very small number of photos to help us with this story. The one further up shows the Doctor & Steven in the Tavern. Sadly there isn't one of the Abbot so we can't see what William Hartnell looks like in this other role.

This one however shows the Tavern with Steven, on the left, and three of the major players in the story: Nicholas Muss, Anna Chaplet and Gaston, Viscount de Lerans.

David Weston (Nicholas Muss) returns to Doctor Who many years later as Biroc in Warrior's Gate. Toby Hadoke interviewed him in Who's Round episode 33 which is well worth a listen. His books Covering McKellen: An Understudy's Tale and it's sequel Covering Shakespeare: An Actor's Saga of Near Misses and Dogged Endurance are well worth a read too, and feature plenty of Doctor Who actors treading the boards in the Bard's plays.

Annette Robertson plays Anne Chaplet. I've never seen her in anything else but apparently the actress was first wife of John Hurt, who played the War doctor in Day of the Doctor.

Eric Thompson (Gaston, Viscount de Lerans) was the Husband of Phyllida Law and the father of Emma and Sophie Thompson, but is most famous to people of my generation as being the narrator (and English language writer) of The Magic Roundabout. Thompson also has a stint as a Play School presenter on his CV.

Another member of the cast also has a Play School stint to his name: Christopher Tranchell (Roger Colbert) who later played Jenkins in The Faceless Ones and Commander Andred in The Invasion of Time. Oddly the Doctor's previous visit to Paris in Reign of Terror has another character called Colbert in it: There Leon Colbert is played by Edward Brayshaw, famed for his role in another childhood favourite of mine, Mr Meeker in Rentaghost. Tranchell isn't the only member of this cast to have been in Invasion of Time: Reginald Jessup, playing the servant in the first three episodes here, was in The Invasion of Time Part One as Lord Savar while Erik Chitty, who was Charles Preslin, was in the previous Time Lord tale The Deadly Assassin as Coordinator Engin. Come back next episode for another Time Lord in the guest cast!

Onto the uncredited extras, and the Massacre's episodes have more than the usual number of them with surprisingly few in more than one episode!

We'll start with those listed as Parisian Men and first on the list has to be Reg Cranfield who was the first person seen in Doctor Who when he played the Policeman in An Unearthly Child. This is his first return to the program but he'll be back as a Lynch Mob Member in Don't Shoot the Pianist & Johnny Ringo, the second and third episodes of The Gunfighters and a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 3 as was Charles Erskine who's also a Kaled Scientist in Genesis of the Daleks Part Four. Oddly enough also in this episode as a Parisian Man is Frederick Rawlings who played the Policeman at the start of the pilot version of An Unearthly Child!

More Parisian Men: David J. Grahame will be an Extra in The War Machines Episode 4, a Control Room Technician in The Ambassadors of Death Episode 1, a Villager in the first two episodes and coven member in the last two episode of The Dæmons, The Old Man in The Mutants Episode One and the Chestnut Seller in The Talons of Weng-Chiang: Part Two. More War Machines for John Pollock who's a Worker / Soldier in episode 3 and a Worker in episode 4 alongside Darroll Richards who plays a similarly named role both here and there. Bill Howes returns as a shelterer in The Enemy of the World: Episodes 4-6, the last two of which he shelters with with one of the Parisian Women here Valerie Taylor. Another Parisian Woman Jean Channon has a Doctor who extra career stretching from here till the final story: She's an extra in The Green Death Episode One, a Masquer in The Masque of Mandragora Part Four, a Passser By in The Talons of Weng-Chiang Part Two, an extra in all four parts of Nightmare of Eden, the third and fourth parts of Castrovalva, a Dinner Guest in Snakedance Part Two, a Lazar in all four parts of Terminus and finally an Extra in Survival Part One

Vic Taylor, a Cardinal's Guard, has prior Who form appearing as a Saxon/Saxon Warrior in episodes 2 & 4,The Meddling Monk & Checkmate, of Time Meddler. He too is a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines: Episode 3 before playing a Soldier in the fourth part and is a Guard in The Enemy of the World Episode 4 and another UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 3 and, again, a Villager in the first two and a Coven Member in the last two episodes of The Dæmons. I'm going to have to find out who worked on all these stories to keep the same actors coming back!

Tavern Customers: Les Conrad is back as a Pirate in The Space Pirates Episodes 1 & 4, a 1862 Union Soldier in The War Games Episode Four and an Alien Guard in Episode Seven of the same story. Oh look he's a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 3 too as well as a Soldier in The Ambassadors of Death Episode 3 and another UNIT Soldier in Terror of the Autons Episode Four before appearing as a Prisoner in The Mind of Evil Episodes Three & Four before playing a Thal Survivor in Genesis of the Daleks Part Six and Mestor's Guard in The Twin Dilemma Part One. Peter Day has an interesting CV: As well as a Trojan Soldier in Myth Makers 3 Death of a Spy and the inevitable Worker in The War Machines Episodes 3 & 4 he's worked on visual effects for The Evil of the Daleks, The Tomb of the Cybermen, Fury from the Deep, The Ambassadors of Death, The Dæmons and The Sea Devils before becoming visual effects designer for The Monster of Peladon Parts One & Six, Genesis of the Daleks, The Deadly Assassin & The Sun Makers. Edward Granville was previously a Xeron in The Search & The Final Phase, the last two episode of the Space Museum. Emmett Hennessy is an Inferno Customer in The War Machines Episode 1, a Roman Soldier in The War Games Episode Two, a Guerilla in Day of the Daleks Episode Three and an American Aide in episode Four before playing a Prison Guard in Frontier in Space Episodes Two & Three. Ken McGarvie is another Saxon/Saxon warrior in the second and fourth episodes of the Time Meddler and was a Cricketer / Reveller in Volcano, the eighth episode of The Daleks' Masterplan. He's the Man in Newsroom in The War Machines: Episode 4 and the Soldier in Tracking Room (uncredited) The Tenth Planet Episodes 1 & 2 - is he the one the Cybermen shoot?

Dennis Plenty plays two roles in this serial: He's a Tavern Customer here and a Guard in the next episode, Priest of Death. He's, yet again, a Worker / Soldier in Episode 3 and a Soldier in episode 4 of The War Machines and a Prison Guard in Episodes Two & Three of Frontier in Space before playing an Exxilon in the middle two episodes of Death to the Daleks, a Peasant villager in Part One and a Brother in Part Three of The Masque of Mandragora. Finally Parisian man Tom Sye also has two roles reappearing as the Bondot in episode 3 The Sea Beggar.