Thu, 4 September 2008  Synopsis
The TARDIS arrives on the planet, where the Doctor shows Peri a weapon given to him by the "Warlord of Thordon", made on Thoros Beta. He states that has come to find out how the warlords obtained such technology. They enter a cave, where Peri is grabbed by a large monstrous creature, which during a struggle the Doctor shoots with the gun.
A figure arrives and accuses the Doctor and Peri of murdering the Raak, despite their protestations that it attacked them first. The figure asks if they are part of Crozier's group, and the Doctor says that he is. They flee before they can be identified as imposters, but are quickly faced by another monster, but it reacts kindly when the Doctor is nice to it. They are forced to flee further, and as they hide they see three reptilian figures being carried along by guards, the third of the figures is shown to be their old enemy Sil. The Doctor realises that Sil is probably behind the arms sales, and informs Peri that Thoros Beta is the home world of Sil's race, the Mentors. In Crozier's laboratory, King Yrcanos is being experimented on, and the Doctor and Peri sneak inside. As the Doctor sabotages some of Kiv's equipment, Sil arrives in the laboratory. The Doctor is strapped to a table, and Crozier applies a metal helmet to his head. Crozier states that the equipment to extract the truth from a suspect, and that technique could prove fatal. He starts to probe the Doctor's mind, but Yrcanos awakes and destroys the equipment. Overpowering the guards he departs the laboratory, followed by a stunned Doctor and Peri. Yrcanos outlines his plans to attack the Mentors. The Doctor says he would enjoy that, and then collapses.
Yrcanos, the Doctor and Peri go to where new slaves are brought into the base. Yrcanos plans to attack the guards and steal their weapons, but as he sneaks into the room, the Doctor calls out to the guards, giving him away. Yrcanos, unable to fight the guards, flees. Peri points a weapon at Sil, and asks the Doctor for help, but he ignores her. Peri drops the weapon and flees after Yrcanos. Sil asks the Doctor why he helped the Mentors, and he replies that the odds were on their side.
Peri comes across Matrona, who allows her to join the Mentors' servants rather than turn her over to the guards. Covered with a veil, she enters the Commerce Room with Kiv's medication. The Doctor calls to her to get him a drink, so she disguises her voice to avoid being recognised. When she brings him a new drink, the Doctor uncovers her and denounces her as an enemy to the Mentors.
Peri is lashed to rocks on the shoreline and the Doctor stands over her, accusing of being a spy. She asks why he is behaving the way he is, and the Doctor tells her that Crozier is planning to put Kiv's brain into his body unless he can help them. Crozier stops the interegation, saying that they have more effective methods of extracting the truth from Peri. As they re-enter the complex, Yrcanos attacks the guard, and threatens to kill the Doctor. However, Peri smashes the gun from Yrcanos's hands allowing the Doctor to flee. In Crozier's laboratory, the scientist prepares to transplant Kiv's brain into a recently deceased Mentor corpse with the help of The Doctor. The operation proves successful. Meanwhile, Yrcanos, Peri and Dorf team up with members of the Alphan resistance. Agreeing to allow Yrcanos to lead them in an attack on the Mentors, they go to the resistance arms dump, but they are ambushed by Mentor guards and shot down. However, it is revealed they have merely been stunned, and they are taken to cells. In Crozier's laboratory, Lord Kiv is rambling due to the body of the fisherman influencing his brain. Crozier makes plans to transfer the brain into another more suitable body, and suggests using Peri. The Doctor says he would prefer that she is not experimented on, but while he is trying to find another candidate, Peri is brought to the laboratory, and strapped to the operating table. Crozier begins to prepare her for the surgery. The Doctor goes to Yrcanos's cell and tricks the guard allowing Yrcanos and Dorf to escape. Together they free the remaining resistance members. They head towards the control room from where all the slaves are mentally controlled and succeed in freeing the slaves from mental control, but Dorf is killed by a passing guard. Lord Kiv is taken to the laboratory to prepare for the operation. As the Doctor heads towards the lab, he is summoned by the Time Lords and promptly vanishes.
As Yrcanos prepares his attack on the laboratory, the Time Lords capture him in a time bubble so that his attack is perfectly timed. When Kiv awakes in Peri's bald body, the time bubble dissipates and Yrcanos bursts into the laboratory. He is consumed with fury and begins firing his gun wildly.
Continuity
Production
MusicInitially it was intended that the BBC Radiophonic Workshop would provide music scores for both this and the following segment of The Trial of a Time Lord; both were assigned to Malcolm Clarke to begin with, although Terror of the Vervoids got re-assigned to Elizabeth Parker shortly afterwards. However, fellow Radiophonic Workshop composer Jonathan Gibbs left early in 1986 and was not replaced until the following year, leaving the other composers backlogged and no-one free to do the incidental music for Mindwarp. It was suggested that Dick Mills could provide both the music and sound effects, but John Nathan-Turner rejected this idea and instead hired film composer Richard Hartley to create the incidental music for this segment. It would be the only time that Hartley worked on the series. CastingTrevor Laird returned to Doctor Who in the Tenth Doctor era as Clive Jones, father of the Doctor's companion Martha Jones. Similarly, Christopher Ryan returned in 2008 as Sontaran leader General Staal in The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky. Commercial releasesIn October 1993, this story was released on VHS as part of the three-tape The Trial of a Time Lord set. A DVD release is due on September 29th 2008, similarly packaged with the other stories in The Trial of a Time Lord season. Special Features include: deleted and extended scenes • "The Making of the Trial of a Time Lord - Part Two - Mindwarp" (a 20-minute feature) • "Now and Then - On the Trial of a Time Lord" (a 21-minute feature) • "A Fate Worse Than Death" Feature • Doctor Who Lenny Henry sketch • BBC Children in Need archival footage • TV Talkback archival footage • photo gallery • trails and continuities. In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Philip Martin, was published by Target Books in June 1989 and was the final segment of the Trial arc to be adapted. Martin's novelisation adds a joke ending that gives away the revelation regarding Peri's fate in The Ultimate Foe, suggesting an entirely different outcome for the character (and for Yrcanos) than is suggested in the serial. Comments[0] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 3 September 2008  FREE Audio UNIT Adventure!Its Free. Yeah there advertising the rest of the season at a cut price but if you missed this story when it was free with DWM you may as well get it now! Follow the link to the Big Finish Page and download it! I hope to be interviewing the Author on the TDP really soon. cut and paste the link into your browser http://www.bigfinish.com/UNIT-The-Coup http://www.bigfinish.com/UNIT-The-Coup Category: Information -- posted at: 11:38 AM Comments[0] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 31 August 2008 Best Speculative Fiction Fan Podcast Winner Nominees A Different Point of View Category: Information -- posted at: 3:58 AM Comments[0] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 27 August 2008  ERROR IN THE PODCAST. FOR WHICH I AM VERY SORRY. JACKIE LANE HAS NOT PASSED AWAY AS IMPLIED IN THIS TPD. PLEASE FORGIVE ANY PROBLEMS THAT THIS MAY HAVE CAUSED. A FULL APOLOGY WILL FOLLOW IN THE NEXT TDP The War Machines is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 4 weekly parts from June 25 to July 16, 1966. This serial is the first appearance of Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as the companions Ben Jackson and Polly, as well as marking the departure of Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet. It should not be confused with the Second Doctor story The War Games. PlotSynopsisWhen the TARDIS lands in London near the Post Office Tower, the Doctor is unsettled by it. There the Doctor and Dodo meet Professor Brett, the creator of WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue), an advanced computer that even knows what TARDIS stands for. On C-Day, WOTAN will be linked to other major computers to take them over, including those of the White House, Cape Kennedy and the Royal Navy. WOTAN begins to have its own agenda and takes control of Professor Brett through a hypnotic beeping noise. WOTAN's hypnotic influence is exerted over many humans including Dodo until the Doctor breaks her out of it. He subsequently arranges for her to be sent to the country house of Sir Charles Summer, leader of the Royal Scientific Club, who has come to the aid of the Doctor. WOTAN uses its hypnotised workforce in a secret warehouse near Covent Garden to construct an army of War Machines to take over the world. Major Green, the chief of security at the Post Office Tower, has been programmed to oversee the construction of the War Machines. He ensures that any intruders are dealt with and all humans continue working on the project until they drop. Polly, Professor Brett's secretary, is one such production line convert, though a friend of hers, Royal Navy Able Seaman Ben Jackson, evades the production line. He seeks out the Doctor, whom he met through Dodo before her conditioning, and helps flesh out what is known about the threat of WOTAN and the War Machines. The Doctor alerts the army to the warehouse production factory, but their weapons are somehow disabled when they go to confront the War Machines. He knows WOTAN is behind the plot too, but can do nothing as humans cannot enter the Tower through the strong hypnotic beams being emitted. Given scientific and political support, the Doctor manages to capture a War Machine using an electromagnetic trap. He changes its programming and then uses it to enter the Post Office Tower and destroy WOTAN. This ends the threat and immediately releases the human slaves from the hypnosis. Ben and Polly, the two "fab" young people the Doctor has befriended during the adventure, meet him at the TARDIS to explain that they visited Dodo, who has revealed that she has decided to stay in London. The Doctor thanks them and heads into the Police Box - followed by Ben and Polly, who enter the TARDIS with the intent to return Dodo's key to the old man. They are then suddenly whisked off into time and space... ContinuityNaming issuesWOTAN is pronounced "Votan" – as, it is explained, the Norse god sometimes was. It stands, though, for Will Operating Thought ANalogue, which is indicative of its ability to connect to the human brain. WOTAN refers to the Doctor as "Doctor Who" – the only time the character is ever given this name within the series' narrative (though he is often credited as such in the end titles). While there is nothing in the series that directly contradicts it, many fans see this as an error and several theories have tried to account for it, one noting that WOTAN may have been misinformed, since it also described the Doctor as "human". WOTAN also manages to discern the meaning of the acronym TARDIS; how it manages to do so is not explained. [edit] Destination EarthThis serial is the first in the series to be completely set on a contemporary Earth. The previous landings of the TARDIS in the 1960s were either brief (the Empire State Building sequence from The Chase, several landings during The Daleks' Master Plan, the stop over on Wimbledon Common in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve) or exceptional (Planet of Giants, where the TARDIS crew were shrunk down to the size of insects and could not fully interact with present day humans). Here, for the first time, we see the Doctor take a leading role in the protection of the planet, which becomes a regular theme for the series from here on. The decision to set more episodes on present-day Earth was taken because the producers felt that the audience was becoming bored with the purely historical episodes that had been a major element of the show to date. As a result, this story marks the beginning of the turn away from historical stories. The next two historical stories, "The Smugglers" (which immediately follows "The War Machines") and Season 4's "The Highlanders", were to be the last historical stories until Season 19's "Black Orchid". [edit] SynchronicityThe episode appears to be set on 20 July 1966 - Ben and Polly leave the Doctor in the Second Doctor story The Faceless Ones set in London on the same date (see the Chronology). However, the days of the week mentioned in The War Machines mean it cannot be 1966 if they're the same in Doctor Who continuity as in the 'real' world. Curiously, at the start of the latter serial, the Doctor comments that he feels the same sensation as he felt when the Daleks were around. While this appears to be intended to equate the War Machines and WOTAN to the Daleks, it is interesting to note that the events of the serial are revealed later in the series to happen contemporaneously with the Second Doctor serial The Evil of the Daleks. The Past Doctor Adventures novel The Time Travellers by Simon Guerrier is set in an alternate reality where the Doctor had not been around to stop WOTAN. The villain is never referred to by name, only as "the Machine", and while he was overthrown thousands were left insane by his mind-control and Britain was reduced to a technologically backward dictatorship. A later serial that also foreshadows the internet is The Green Death, which features a very similar computer villain. The Face of Evil also sees the Doctor encountering another such being (this time having been linked with his own brain rather than that of a human) and commenting on how familiar the threat has become. Production
Working titles for this story included The Computers.[1]. The idea for this story came about when Kit Pedler was being interviewed for a position as science advisor to the series. The producers asked all of the interviewees what would happen if the recently-built Post Office Tower somehow took over. Pedler suggested that it would be the work of a rogue computer that communicated with the outside world by means of the telephone system. The producers liked this suggestion and not only offered Pedler the job but developed the idea into a script (one of the few to feature a 'Story Idea by' credit). Only one War Machine prop was actually constructed; the production team changed the numbers, to represent the different machines. The titling style of each episode in this serial differs from the standard titles of other serials. Instead of a title overlay, after the "Doctor Who" logo has faded, the screen shifts to a solid background containing four inversely-coloured rectangles aligned down the left-hand side (reminiscent to an old-style computer punch card). The title, one word at a time, scrolls upwards - "THE", "WAR", "MACH", "INES" - with a final flash displaying the complete title on two lines. Another flash reveals the writer, the next flash reveals the word "EPISODE", and the final flash shows the actual episode number. All of the lettering displayed in this titling sequence is shown in a retro-computer font. Each of the four episodes' title sequences have slight variations to them. Casting
Missing episodesAside from its soundtrack (recorded off-air by fans), this serial was lost in the junk of episodes in the 1970s. The master videotapes for the story were the last of those starring William Hartnell to be junked, surviving until 1974.[2] The 16mm film telerecording copies held by BBC Enterprises were also the last of their kind to be destroyed, surviving until 1978, shortly before the junking of material was halted by the intervention of fan Ian Levine.[3] In 1978, a collector in Australia provided a copy of episode 2. Later in 1984 copies of all four episodes were returned from Nigeria. Episodes 2, 3 and 4 all had cuts to them, but most have been restored due to a combination of the other copy of episode 2, material used in a promotional item on the BBC's Blue Peter and censored clips from Australia. Some of the restored footage did not have its accompanying soundtrack, and so the missing sound was restored from the off-air recordings. To date, only episodes 3 and 4, do not exist in their entirety as was originally intended. Episode 3 is missing a visual brief bit of dialogue with Krimpton talking. This was replaced in the VHS release with a combination of a shot of WOTAN with the accompanied dialogue from the off-air recordings. Episode 3 is also missing around 59 seconds worth of the battle in the warehouse. Episode 4 is missing only a small amount of material. The first instance occurs with the man in the telephone box. Part of the continuing closeup of the man talking on the telephone is missing, but this was compensated on the VHS release by continuing in audio-only over the top of the beginning of the high shot of the phone box. There are also two lines of dialogue missing when Polly reports back to WOTAN. This scene, however, has not been re-instated for the VHS release as it was felt that there wouldn't be enough visual material to drop into the gap. The DVD release will have all of the episodes in their entirety. Commercial releasesThe serial was released on VHS in 1997, with an item from Blue Peter and a BBC1 "globe ident" (from the first part of the story) as extras. A DVD issue has been announced for August 25th 2008. Also, in 2007, an audio CD of the serial's soundtrack, with linking narration by and bonus interview with Anneke Wills, was released. In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Stuart Black, was published by Target Books in February 1989. Comments[0] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 19 August 2008 Parsec Award 2008 Finalists
Best Speculative Fiction Fan Podcast
A Different Point of View * Doctor Who: Tin Dog Podcast * Galactica Quorum * The GeekSpin * The Signal I'm aghast! parsec awards pagehttp://parsecawards.com/node/541 Title: The Third Annual Parsec Awards
Wish I could be there! Do you get a certificate for being listed? Category: Information -- posted at: 7:08 AM Comments[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 18 August 2008 Dont worry the TDP hasnt gone anywhere. I've just been busy with other projects that have taken up a lot of time and other things. There will be at least one TDP later next week.regardsTin Dog Category: Information -- posted at: 8:25 AM Comments[0] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 3 August 2008  The Mysterious Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from September 6 to September 27, 1986. It is part of the larger narrative known as The Trial of a Time Lord, encompassing the whole of the 23rd season.PlotSynopsis
The Doctor and Peri arrive on Ravolox, which is virtually identical to Earth. He tells Peri that the official records state that the planet was devastated by a fireball, but they note that the forest they are walking through suggests otherwise. They are seen by Sabalom Glitz and Dibber, who attempt to shoot the Doctor; but he moves off just in time. Glitz and Dibber discuss their plan to destroy the "L3 robot" by sabotaging its light conversion system, which has been turned into a totem by a primitive tribe on the planet. The Doctor and Peri find an apparently abandoned building and explore it. Peri discovers a sign saying "Marble Arch" — a London Underground sign, which means that they are on Earth. Peri begins to mourn for her planet.
The Doctor goes into the complex alone because Peri is upset, but she is captured by two masked figures. Meanwhile, Glitz and Dibber are brought before Katryca, Queen of the tribe. Glitz claims that the totem attracted the fireball that devastated Ravolox, and asks for it to be taken down. The Queen tells him that others have asked for the totem to be dismantled, and none have succeeded. Glitz and Dibber draw out their guns, but they are overpowered and locked up. The Doctor finds an underground complex, but is caught. He is accused of spying, and sentenced to be stoned. The Doctor tries to block the rocks with his umbrella, but is knocked unconscious.
Other officials arrive and break up the stoning. The Doctor is still breathing, but before he can be killed, Merdeen receives a message from the Immortal stating that he wishes to question the Doctor. The Immortal, revealed to be a huge humanoid robot, commands its two assistants to release the service robot. Peri is brought before Katryca, who informs Peri that as there are few women, she will need to take many husbands. She is then put in the same prison as Glitz and Dibber. They tell Peri their plan to destroy the Robot. They are taken back to Katryca, who tells them that Glitz will be sacrificed because of his attempt to destroy the great totem. The Doctor is taken to the Immortal, who introduces itself as Drathro. He commands that the Doctor work with the two assistants. The Doctor identifies the problem, and tries to leave in order to fix it, but Drathro does not allow him to leave, as his instructions were to maintain an underground system. The Doctor electrifies the robot and his assistants, and escapes. Drathro sends the service robot to track down the Doctor. Meanwhile, Peri, Glitz and Dibber overpower the guards and escape. Dibber remains behind to plant a bomb on the Black Light converter, whilst they go to the underground complex. In Marb Station, Merdeen tells Balazar that there has been no fire for hundreds of years, and that he should leave the complex. They encounter the Doctor, and Merdeen implores him to help Balazar escape. Peri, Glitz and Dibber, pursued by tribesmen, find the Doctor, and they flee into the Marb Station, but are trapped between the tribe and the service robot. The tribesmen shoot at the service robot and disable it. The Doctor tries to re-enter the underground complex, but the tribesmen insist they all return to the village. There, The Doctor is brought before Katryca, but she is unimpressed with his explanation of the true nature of the Totem, and puts them all back in the prison cell. Glitz confirms that the planet is actually Earth. Drathro reactivates the service robot, and send it to the village. It breaks into the building with the Doctor, stuns him and takes him away. The tribesmen disable the service robot, and decide to attack the Immortal's castle to steal his technology. Peri rescues the Doctor from the service robot, and they set off to the underground complex to stop Katryca and disable the black light system. Katryca and tribesmen arrive at the Castle, where they are confronted by Drathro,. He electrocutes Katryca, and dismisses the rest of the tribe. The Doctor enters Drathro's domain, promising to help repair the black light system. However, he determines it to be beyond repair, and tells Drathro that he must shut down the Black Light System to prevent a massive explosion. Drathro refuses to allow that as it would mean its own destruction. The Doctor pleads with him, saying that the explosion could destroy the entire universe, but that only makes Drathro determined to allow what he thinks is a unique event. Balazar and Peri plead with Merdeen to help them, noting that he would die if the converter exploded. Glitz and Dibber arrive and follow them into the Castle through a food chute. Drathro attempts to kill by turning on the food processing system, but Dibber shoots him through the wall. Glitz tells Drathro that they have black light on their ship, and offers to take the robot to the Andromeda Galaxy. Drathro agrees, and leaves with Glitz and Dibber. The Doctor realises that the black light system has already begun to self-destruct, and that all he can do is prevent it starting a chain reaction. The system explodes, but the blast only destroys the Castle, and as a result Drathro collapses. The Doctor and Peri leave Merdeen and Balazar to take the remaining inhabitants to a new life on the surface.
Continuity
ProductionThe details available for each episode of this story are outlined in the table below[1][2][3].
PreproductionIn February 1985, the BBC announced that the planned twenty-third season of Doctor Who had been canceled. After vocal protests by the press and Doctor Who fans (including a charity single, Doctor in Distress), the BBC announced that the progamme was merely on "hiatus", and would return in September 1986. Several stories which had been planned or commissioned for the original Season 23 were abandoned in favour of an overarching "trial" theme, reflecting the fact that the programme itself was on trial at the BBC.[4] This story was the last complete Doctor Who story written by Robert Holmes. Its plot is similar to Holmes' first contribution to Doctor Who, The Krotons. In both stories, an alien machine subjugates a humanoid civilization and forces its brightest young people into its service.[5] [edit] CastingThe actor playing Merdeen, Tom Chadbon, had previously appeared in the 1979 Fourth Doctor serial City of Death. ProductionThe opening model shot of the Time Lord Space Station where the trial is held throughout the season was the most expensive model shot from the classic series run (costing more than £8,000).[6] The sequence depicts the Time Lord Space Station orbiting in space then dragging the TARDIS inside via the use of a tractor beam. From this serial onwards, all location work would be recorded on Outside Broadcast (OB) tape instead of 16mm film. This practice would continue until the end of the series. The only footage shot on film for this episode was the opening special effects shot of the TARDIS. The BBC had been encouraging the replacement of film cameras with OB cameras since the early 1980s on the grounds that they were cheaper, and mixed with studio-shot material better. John Nathan-Turner had actually wanted to switch to OB shooting as early as Peter Davison's first season in 1982, but met with resistance from the directors working on the show at the time. Post-productionDominic Glynn was hired to score the music for The Mysterious Planet, and John Nathan-Turner offered him the chance to rearrange the opening title music. His new score for the opening theme was the shortest lived, lasting this season alone (not counting the unused 1973 version by Delia Derbyshire and Paddy Kingsland). Some saw it as an improvement on the Peter Howell version, while others criticized it for being "too quiet" or "not scary enough". It has since been used on the majority of the Big Finish Productions audio plays featuring Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor. Commercial releasesIn October 1993, this story was released on VHS as part of the three-tape The Trial of a Time Lord set. A DVD release is due in 2008, similarly boxed with the other stories in The Trial of a Time Lord season. In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in November 1987. External links
Reviews
Target novelisationComments[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 19 July 2008  The Brain of Morbius is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from January 3 to January 24, 1976.
[edit] SynopsisYears ago, the Time Lord known as Morbius tried to lead a revolution but was executed for his ambition on the planet Karn. When the Fourth Doctor and Sarah arrive on the planet, they discover that, thanks to Dr Solon, the dead may rise. [edit] Plot SummaryOn the planet Karn, an insect-like alien crawls away from an escape pod. It is ambushed and killed by Condo, a large man with a hook for a hand, who takes its head to a castle and his master Solon. However, the head is unsuitable — Solon needs a humanoid, warm-blooded and with a central nervous system. The TARDIS materialises on Karn in the middle of a lightning storm, and the Fourth Doctor rushes out, ranting at the Time Lords for diverting him to this planet. Sarah suggests that perhaps the TARDIS malfunctioned again, but the Doctor is insistent there is something going on which the Time Lords do not want to sully their hands with. While the Doctor sulks, Sarah finds the escape pod, and climbing to a higher point, sees a valley filled with wrecked spacecraft. She comes across the headless body of the alien and gasps, which finally attracts the Doctor's attention. The Doctor identifies it as a Mutt. He also now recognises the stars — his homeworld is within a couple of billion miles from this planet. Sarah spots the castle just as it starts to rain, and the two travellers make for it, all the while observed by a girl in a strange headdress. The girl, Ohica, reports to the elderly Maren, the leader of the Sisterhood of Karn. Maren does not believe Ohica at first, insisting that no ship could approach Karn without attracting their honed senses. Maren shows Ohica the Flame of Life, which is burning low. Without the Flame, there is no Elixir, and there has not been for over a year — the chalice stands empty. The secret of the Elixir is known only to the Sisterhood and the High Council of the Time Lords, with whom they shared the Elixir. Now, there is none left, except for the few vials they have kept for themselves. Maren fears that the Time Lords have sent agents to steal the Elixir. Maren tells Ohica to summon the other sisters to form a circle. In the castle, Solon scolds Condo, warning him that if he does not obey him, he will not reattach Condo's arm. The Doctor and Sarah ring the doorbell, seeking shelter. Solon is delighted at the arrival of humans, and welcomes the two, complimenting the Doctor on his "magnificent" head. The Doctor notices a clay bust, but Solon quickly draws a sheet over it. When the Doctor asks Solon about the Mutt and the wrecked ships, Solon suggests that it is due to the magnetic radiation around the planet. Solon rescued Condo from one such starship, and had to amputate his arm to save his life. The Sisterhood chant in a circle, allowing Maren to see the TARDIS reflected in her ring. Concentrating further, they make the TARDIS materialise in their shrine in the midst of a strange mist. Examining the ship, Maren identifies it as a Time Lord vessel, and concludes that the Doctor is here on their behalf to steal the elixir. The Sisterhood's powers can overwhelm most others and drive them insane, but the Time Lords are their equals in mind power. The circle continues to chant, seeking the Doctor. The Doctor knows of Solon, who was an authority on microsurgical techniques and tissue transplants. He remarks that Solon's disappearance caused quite a stir and there were rumours that he had joined the Cult of Morbius. The Doctor now recognises the clay head — it is that of Morbius, one of the most despicably criminal minded Time Lords in history. Before he can say anything further, the drugged wine takes its effect, and the Doctor falls over unconscious as does Sarah. Solon and Condo take the Doctor's body to the laboratory, not realising that Sarah was only feigning unconsciousness. In the laboratory, Solon's examination of the Doctor confirms he is a Time Lord. Condo is concerned about their power, but Solon dismisses them as spineless parasites. Morbius offered them power, but they rejected it, and they will now feel the power of his revenge. Needing proper lighting for the operation, Solon and Condo go to repair the generators that have been knocked out by the storm. Once they leave the room, however, the Doctor's body vanishes in the same mist the TARDIS did. Sarah keeps hidden as Solon and Condo pass, and enters the lab. She draws back the curtain on a bed, thinking it is the Doctor, but as the lights come up, she sees a headless, patchwork creature made from various body parts. It sits up... Sarah moves away from it quickly, but hears Solon and Condo returning to the laboratory and has to hide. Solon finds the Doctor gone, and concludes that it must be the work of the Sisterhood. Solon swears revenge, and he and Condo go to get the Doctor's body back. The Doctor regains consciousness to find himself surrounded by members of the Sisterhood. Maren accuses him of being sent by the Time Lords to steal the Elixir. The Doctor denies this, saying that the last thing he remembers is having wine with Solon and Morbius... but Morbius is dead, executed by the Time Lords on Karn for leading a rebellion. His body was placed in a dispersal chamber and atomised. The Doctor realises that he just before he passed out, he felt the mind of Morbius. Maren refuses to believe that Morbius is alive and says that the Doctor will join him in death shortly. Sarah trails Solon and Condo as they make their way towards the shrine. They observe the Sisters gathering wood to burn the Doctor at the stake. The Doctor points out that the Time Lords have always been friendly to the Sisterhood — they saved them when Morbius overran the planet. Maren retorts that this was out of self-interest as they needed the Elixir. Ohica reveals that the Flame is dying. The Doctor is puzzled, as the Flame is fed by gases from deep within the planet and should last for millions of years unless there has been some subterranean movement. They tie the Doctor to the stake while chanting the Song of Death. The Doctor warns them that if the gases are sealed in, the mountain could explode. Solon and Condo interrupt the ceremony, to Maren's anger. Solon asks them to spare the Doctor, even offering Condo in his place. When that is denied, he begs them to give him the Doctor's head. While Maren dismisses Condo and Solon, a disguised Sarah sneaks up behind the Doctor and cuts his bonds. The ceremony starts again, and as the flames lick up, Maren's eyes close. The Doctor and Sarah take the opportunity to slip away, but Maren spots them, hitting Sarah with a blue bolt from her ring before they get away. Back at the castle, Condo is angered by Solon's offer to sacrifice him, and threatens to kill Solon. Pleading for his life, Solon offers to restore Condo's arm and tells him to prepare the laboratory. Meanwhile, Sarah and the Doctor have escaped the shrine, but Sarah has been blinded by the energy from Maren's ring. She is worried that it may be permanent, but the Doctor assures her that the flash merely numbed the optic nerves and she should recover in a few hours. Despite Sarah telling him about the headless body she saw, the Doctor leads them back towards Solon's castle. Solon speaks with a tremulous voice he addresses as Morbius. Solon asks for more time, but Morbius is impatient. Condo calls from above: the Doctor and Sarah have arrived. The Doctor asks him to examine Sarah's eyes, and they go to the laboratory. As Solon does so, the Doctor finds the headless body hidden behind the curtain. Condo escorts Sarah back to the parlour, while the Doctor speaks to Solon. Solon tells him that Sarah's retinae have been almost completely destroyed, but there is one chance: the Elixir of Life. Despite the risks, the Doctor must return to the shrine. Solon summons Condo, who leaves Sarah in the parlour. Solon gives a note for Condo to pass to the Sisterhood before the Doctor gets there. Sarah hears Morbius's voice calling for Solon. Following the sound, she enters a hidden laboratory. As she stumbles blindly towards Morbius, who is a glowing brain in a tank, he accuses her of being a part of the Sisterhood, sent here to destroy him... Solon enters and drags Sarah out of the laboratory. As he closes the door, Sarah hears Solon address the voice as "Morbius" and hears how Solon has sent the Doctor into a trap. Sarah locks Solon in the laboratory and, still blind, makes her way out of the castle. In the shrine, Maren gives five of the Sisters, including Ohica, the last of Elixir. Only these five will survive when the Flame finally dies. The letter from Solon arrives, and Maren tells Ohica to warn the guards. When the Doctor enters the tunnels, a net falls on him and he is surrounded. When he explains why he came back, Maren tells him that the effects of the ray are not permanent, and Solon knows that. Maren demands to know why the Doctor is here, if it is not to steal the Elixir, and the Doctor replies that he feels something evil is brewing, something to do with Morbius. Maren still does not believe — she saw Morbius being dispersed. The Doctor asks if Solon was here at that time, and Maren says many came to Karn at the time. Morbius led an army of mercenaries, promising them the Elixir and immortality and revealing its existence to the cosmos. The Doctor tells Maren that if she wants his help, the wrecking of spaceships simply passing by Karn has to stop. Outside, Sarah continues to work her way along the rocks and runs into Condo, who had orders to find her. He tells her the Doctor is dead and carries her, struggling, back to the castle. The Doctor persuades Maren to let him see the Flame, the first one outside the Sisterhood to see it. The Doctor admires the process — the heat of the Flame causes oxidation of chemicals in the surrounding rocks, with the reaction of superheated gases forming drops of the Elixir. The Doctor insists the process is not mystical and with analysis, the Elixir could probably be synthesised, but the consequences would be disastrous with everyone trying to live forever. Even the Time Lords only take it in rare cases, not regularly like the Sisterhood, who because of it have become stagnant, unchanging, without progress. The Doctor takes something from his hair and puts it in the Flame, seemingly extinguishing it. Horrified, Maren orders the Doctor killed, but the flames ignite again, brighter than ever. It was merely soot that was blocking the gases. At the castle, Sarah is bound hand and foot and lying on a table. Solon rants about how others called him insane, and only Morbius believed in him. When Solon tells Morbius that the Doctor is a Time Lord, Morbius calls him a fool — that means that the Time Lords have tracked him down and will return in force. Morbius insists that he be transferred into the body now, and asks about the artificial brain casing Solon once constructed. Solon protests that he abandoned it because there was no way to stop the static electricity build-up, which risked severe pain and seizures. Morbius tells him that he will take his chances. Back in the castle, Solon prepares to operate, but Condo is enraged when he recognises his lost arm attached to the patchwork body. He attacks Solon, who shoots him in the belly. As the two struggle, Morbius's brain falls to the floor. Not knowing what damage has been done, Solon places the fallen brain in the casing, releasing Sarah so she can assist in the operation. If Morbius dies, so does she. The wounded Condo crawls into the hallway as outside, the Sisters carry the Doctor's seemingly dead body through the lightning storm. In the meantime, the operation is finished — within minutes Morbius will live again. Solon goes to answer the door bell, and sees the Sisters leaving the Doctor's body in the parlour. In the laboratory. Sarah's eyesight starts to clear, but the monstrous body of Morbius gets off the operating table and lumbers towards her... Sarah screams as she sees the Morbius creature, and dodges out of the way. She warns Solon that the creature is loose and he runs back to the laboratory. Sarah notices the Doctor's body, but as she approaches, the Doctor wakes up and smiles at her. He is here to stop Solon, but Sarah tells him it is too late. Morbius sees his new body in the mirror, and smashes it angrily. Solon tries to calm him down, but Morbius renders him unconscious. When the Doctor meets the creature, he too is struck down. Morbius chases Sarah, but Condo intervenes, knocking Sarah down the stairs into the cellar while he grapples with Morbius. However, Morbius is too strong, and kills Condo instead. Morbius wanders out of the castle as the Doctor regains consciousness. He carries Sarah into the secret laboratory to let her recover. Solon, too, has awakened, and assembles a tranquilizer gun. He tells the Doctor that the operation was not complete, only the motor functions are working, the rest on an instinctual level. Knowing Morbius's hatred, he will seek out the Sisterhood. Sure enough, Morbius finds one of the sisters in some ruins nearby and kills her. The Doctor and Solon find the body and they search the ruins. Morbius attacks the Doctor, but is knocked out by Solon's tranquilizer. As they carry the creature back to the castle, the Doctor tells Solon that Morbius's brain will be detached and returned to the Time Lords. The body of the dead Sister is brought back to Maren. Ohica reports that witnesses saw a creature and then the Doctor and Solon hunting for it. Maren realises that Solon has succeeded in his experiments and resurrected their ancient enemy. But Maren is too old and weak to leave the shrine, and she gives Ohica permission to lead the Sisters to the castle. The Doctor gives Solon five minutes to disconnect the brain as he goes and checks on Sarah. However, Solon locks them in the secret laboratory instead and begins to repair Morbius. Using materials from the secret laboratory, the Doctor makes cyanide gas, which he then pipes through a vent that leads to the operating room above. Solon has finished the operation, but the gas chokes him and he dies. The alien lungs of Morbius, however, are more robust and the creature walks out of the room unharmed. He goes to confront Sarah and the Doctor — he claims that when the knowledge of his resurrection spreads, his followers will rise in their millions. The Doctor and Sarah mock Morbius in an attempt to overheat his brain, and the Doctor challenges him to a mindbending contest. They grab hold of the appropriate apparatus in the laboratory and begin. The machine's display begins to show Morbius's brain casing head, then his previous face, then the Doctor, then the Doctor's previous incarnation. Further and further back into the Doctor's past the images go, as Morbius asks, "How far, Doctor? How long have you lived?" The face of the First Doctor fades into a series of eight other faces, with the current Doctor interspersed between them looking more defiant... then Morbius's brain case shorts out. The Doctor collapses, as Morbius stumbles out in a daze. Ohica's band of sisters finally reach the castle, and threaten Morbius with lit torches. Ohica goes down to the secret laboratory while the other Sisters herd Morbius out into the mountains. Ohica finds Sarah cradling the dying Doctor. Outside, the Sisterhood chases Morbius over a cliff, where he falls to his death. Taking the Doctor back to the shrine, Maren says only the Elixir of Life can save him, but there is none left. However, the revived Flame has gathered enough Elixir. There is enough for the Doctor, but not for Maren, who accepts that the Doctor was right: there should be an end. The Elixir is given to the Doctor, who revives almost immediately. Maren steps into the Flame of Life, becoming younger, and then vanishes. Ohica starts to thank the Doctor, but he stops her, saying that Sarah and he have another engagement. Before they leave, he gives her a match and touch paper in case they need to relight the Flame again. This time, the TARDIS vanishes in a puff of light and smoke... [edit] Cast notes
[edit] Continuity
[edit] The "Morbius Doctors"The faces appearing on the mind test machine are those of various members of the production team. After a complaint and as recompense the BBC paid a sum of money to the actors union Equity.[5] The faces are those of George Gallaccio (Production Unit Manager), Robert Holmes (script editor), Graeme Harper (production assistant), Douglas Camfield (Director), Philip Hinchcliffe (producer), Christopher Baker (production assistant), Robert Banks Stewart(Writer), and Chris Barry (director).[6] Those same faces have caused much debate among fans because they seemingly show past incarnations of the Doctor prior to the First Doctor, contradicting The Three Doctors (which refers to the First Doctor as the earliest incarnation), The Five Doctors (which explicitly states that the Doctor is in his fifth incarnation) the fifth Doctor serial Mawdryn Undead (which numbers his current and previous incarnations) and Time and the Rani, (which has the Doctor saying that he is in his seventh incarnation). The faces are commonly referred to as the "Morbius Doctors". Alternative explanations are that the faces are Morbius' previous incarnations or the Doctor's potential future incarnations.[7][6] The brain-tank and humanoid versions of Morbius are also seen in the mind test machine. See also Other (Doctor Who) and "The Doctor's regenerations". [edit] ProductionThe details available for each episode of this story are outlined in the table below[8][9][10].
The original script was written by Terrance Dicks, using some ideas from his script of the stage play Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday; however after delivery he was out of the country when production limitations required substantial changes to the story. Script editor Robert Holmes undertook the rewrites without informing Dicks, who could not be contacted. Upon his return to the United Kingdom, Dicks learnt of the changes and disliked them; as a result, he demanded the replacement of his name on the credits with a "bland pseudonym".[6] The American tapes appear to have been produced without an incidental music/SFX track for the first episode. This is especially noticeable in the "movie-length" edit, when the music soundtrack suddenly cuts in at the start of episode two. [edit] Outside references
[edit] In print
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Mon, 14 July 2008 here is a link to a drawing/map of Doctor Who Fandom Land. hope you like it. click here to download the map Category: Information -- posted at: 11:28 AM Comments[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 11 July 2008 The Stolen EarthFrom TARDIS Index File, the free Doctor Who reference.
The Stolen Earth is the penultimate episode of the fourth series (season 30) of Doctor Who.
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