322 The Mutants Episode Five

EPISODE: The Mutants: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 322
STORY NUMBER: 063
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 06 May 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

"The slightest accident in this stage of the proceedings and we'd all reverse instantly into antimatter. Blasted out to the other side of the universe, as a flash of electromagnetic radiation. We'll all become unpeople, undoing unthings untogether. Fascinating!"

Reaching the surface the Doctor & Sondergaard are subjected to the rocket bombardment while making their way to the Skybase transfer station. Cotton, Stubbs, Jo & Ky escape from the depressurised section but are immediately recaptured. The Marshall puts them in front of a firing squad but it's interrupted by Jaeger protesting that the Marshall's actions have wrecked his experiments on Solos contaminating the surface. The ailing Sondergaard returns to the caves while the Marshall & his guards hunt for the Doctor who escapes to Skybase but is captured trying to free the prisoners. He is pressed into service helping Jaeger. Jo organises an escape. Cotton attempts to contact the Investigator's ship while Stubbs defends them from attacking guards. They get though but Stubbs is killed as they escape. They are recaptured and taken to Skybase's refuelling chamber. Sondergaard is found by an Overlord guards but saved by Mutants who recognise him. They believe they are sick but Sondergaard explains the mutation process to them and they agree to help him. The Doctor & Jaeger manage to eliminate the contamination using jury rigged equipment. The Marshall threatens Jo in an attempt to force the Doctor's cooperation. As the Hyperion docks it starts to refuel exposing the captives to deadly Thesium radiation.

A bit of escaping, running around and getting recaptured this episode. The chase with the Solos guards does rather expose that the teleport machine is the same in both locations but with the sign changed!

Essentially the episode treads water with the just the Doctor's capture and Stubb's death advancing the plot. Rick James' (Cotton's) acting is at it's most animated when Stubbs dies but even then it's not good.

Visible among the Skybase Guards fr the first time is out old friend Dave Carter making his first appearance this season. He was a Male Rebel in The Power of the Daleks, an IE guard in The Invasion, the Old Silurian and an Ambulance Man in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Primord in Inferno, the Museum Attendant in Terror of the Autons and a Prison Officer in The Mind of Evil, He returns as a Roundhead Officer in The Time Monster, Sergeant Duffy in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Grierson in The Android Invasion.

Martin Taylor, another of the Skybase Guards in this episode, is later seen as Corporal Norton in Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

A Solos guard Damon Sanders later works with Jon Pertwee again on Worzel Gummidge where he plays Mr. Mooney in A Fair Old Pullover. Shortly after the time of broadcast he was due to appear in Doomwatch as Robbie in Hair Trigger.

The Mutants features the début of something that we'll see time and time again in Doctor Who: the wall panels here with their tessellating triangular design. Designer Jeremy Bear is responsible for their initial appearance here but they, or new segments made from the same moulds, will be back in many other Doctor Who stories.

The Mutt Mad documentary, concerning the production of this story, on The Mutants DVD shows them in Horns of the Nimon, Meglos, where someone has put lights in the corner intersections and Terminus/

They've been in many other Doctor Who stories: the room in Terminus belongs to Adric and that's also seen in Earthshock and they stick in my mind for being in the cells in Stones of Blood.

As well as appearing in Doctor Who they can be found in Blake's 7: Servalan's office in Seek, Locate, Destroy and on the planet Kezam in City At The Edge Of World are two examples.

They're also used in The Adventure Game and I was surprised to spot them in a repeat of The Crystal Maze!

We'll be looking out for these panels again in future episodes.

Also visible on Skybase are a number of panels of squares, here used in the lighting panels. We'll be seeing them, or something very similar, regularly in the early years of the Fourth Doctor Tom Baker.

If that wasn't enough, then parts from the spaceship walls from the Ambassadors of Death make an appearance round the ceiling of Jaeger's lab!

Then there's two things that look like they're from somewhere else: the square panel of LEDs on the Skybase transporter:

Finally there's a device on the airlock door on Solos which also looks suspiciously like it was taken sourced from elsewhere!

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!