Cast:
   
Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith); Jeremy James (Josh Townsend); Sadie Miller (Natalie Redfern); Caroline Burns-Cook (Claudia Coster); Juliet Warner (Ellie Martin); Mark Donovan (DI Morrisson); Moray Treadwell (Will Butley); Steven Wickham (Mr. Sharpe); Jane McFarlane (Nurse Jepson); Robert Curbishley (Read); Wendy Albiston (Meg Hawkins); Toby Longworth (Wong Chu); Maggie Stables (Mrs Lythe)
Writer:
    Barry Letts    
Recorded:
    27 February 2002
Director:
    Gary Russell    
Released:
    8 August 2002
Music:
    Davy Darlington    
No. of Discs:
    1
Sound Design:
    Davy Darlington    
Duration
    73' 18"
Cover Art:     Lee Binding    
Production Code:
    SJ02
           
ISBN:
    1-903654-93-9
Synopsis
The body of an old man is found floating in the Thames ­ although the DNA of the corpse corresponds to an 18-year old friend of Josh and Ellie. Sarah Jane heads towards West Yorkshire in a bid to discover what killed the man, why someone is kidnapping homeless teenage boys and whether there is a link between that and the retreat of philanthropist Will Butley which hosts The Huang Ti Clinic. Sarah discovers that there is more to ancient Dark Sorcery than she may have otherwise believed.

New fro the GBC and the BBC the Geordie language converter

exapme from the blog click links to read more from Neil.

AUDIO from the bbc local radio - suplied from the internet/other podcasts and provided here simply incase you missed it.

With the Wife

The Underwater Menace
The Highlanders
The Power of the Daleks
The Hartnell Years
The Tenth Planet
The Smugglers
Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD
The War Machines
The Savages
The Gunfighters
The Celestial Toymaker
The Ark
The Massacre
The Daleks' Master Plan 11-12
The Daleks' Master Plan 5-10
The Daleks' Master Plan 1-4
The Myth Makers
Mission to the Unknown
Galaxy 4
Dr. Who and the Daleks
The Time Meddler
The Chase
The Space Museum
The Crusade
The Web Planet
The Romans
The Rescue
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
Planet of Giants
The Reign of Terror
The Sensorites
The Aztecs
The Keys of Marinus
Marco Polo
The Edge of Destruction
The Daleks
An Unearthly Child

with the Wife in Space

Nuffink in ze world can stop us now! Except this story, obviously...

A couple of hours before we settled down to watch The Underwater Menace, Sue and I appeared as guests on Bob Fischer's BBC Tees radio show to shamelessly plug this blog. You can listen to the edited highlights below (and Sue's PVC Dalek-suit anecdote was news to me!):

Adventures with the Wife on BBC Tees - click to play

Episode One

Sue: That's just great. This story is going to star that ****ing hat. I hate that ****ing hat.

We both enjoy the opening TARDIS scene, especially Jamie's reactions to the insanity he has walked into. There's a playful edge to the proceedings and a warmth we haven't really felt since the glory days of Ian, Susan and Barbara. We chuckle when Ben sarcastically hopes for the Daleks ("I bet the kids wouldn't have complained") while the Doctor's desire to encounter prehistoric monsters is dismissed out of hand ("not on this budget, love").

Me: Where do you hope they'll end up this time?

Sue: Somewhere with decent carpentry.

The TARDIS arrives on a beach and when Polly guesses at their whereabouts, Sue declares, in perfect harmony:

Sue: Cornwall! It's always ****ing Cornwall!

It doesn't take very long for our heroes to find themselves in danger: a platform they have been standing on is actually a lift, and as they hurtle beneath the sea, the TARDIS crew succumb to the bends.

Sue: That's very interesting. Ben just asked Polly to get them out of there. He didn't ask the Doctor and he's standing right next to him. I don't blame Ben though; this Doctor is still pretty useless.

When they regain consciousness, Polly finds some pottery with the logo for the 1968 Mexico Olympiad emblazoned on it, and then our heroes are confronted by a race of people dressed in clam shells and seaweed. Sue believes she has it sussed:

Sue: Are they rehearsing for the Opening Ceremony?

Their high priest even sports a fish on his head:

Sue: Please tell me the Doctor doesn't get a hat like that.

Just as Sue believes she has a handle on events, our heroes are strapped to some slabs and sadistically lowered toward a mad man's pet sharks.

Sue: Is this a Bond movie now?

Me: Yes. You Only Live 13 Times.

Sue: Has this got anything to do with the Olympics? Anything at all?

When the Doctor signs his name 'Dr. W', he reignites an old debate:

Sue: You can't really argue with that, can you? That settles it: his name is Dr. Who. You'll just have to accept it, love.

Me: Unless his real name begins with a W -

Sue: Like Doctor Wibbly-Wobbly-Timey-Wimey? Would that make you feel any better? And does it really matter? I call him Dr. Who all the time -

Me: Yes, I know. And every time you do it, part of me dies.

When Professor Zaroff reveals that they are currently hanging out on the lost continent of Atlantis, Sue doesn't even flinch:

Sue: Atlantis. Of course it's Atlantis. Where else would they be in this ****-ed up programme? So, it's James Bond on Atlantis? Gotcha.

Thanks to those fainthearted Australians, the cliffhanger moves, although we find ourselves sympathising with the censor as Polly is strapped to a table and threatened with a large hypodermic needle by some evil scientists who want to turn her into a fish. Yes, a fish.

Sue: I don't know what Polly is moaning about; I'd love to breathe underwater indefinitely. She could stick around and enter the 1972 Olympics. Mark Spitz would have nothing on her.

Episode Two

Me: How short is Polly's surgical gown -

Sue: Trust you to notice that, love.

The hot topic of conversation during this episode is Zaroff. Who else?

Sue: He reminds me of that mad scientist from that show you love: Comedy Theater 2000 -

Me: Mystery Science Theater 3000 -

Sue: That's it. He reminds me of the mad scientist from that: an over-the-top pantomime villain.

Me: Believe it or not, the guy playing him is actually a very fine actor -

Sue: Oh, I don't doubt it. He's just having a laugh with the part. And who can blame him? How else would you play this character? His plan is completely pointless; there's no clever reason for him to do any of this, he just wants to blow up the world. There's no benefit or motive at all.

Me: He's insane.

Sue: It's lazy. With no motivation or backstory you have to play him as a larger-than-life lunatic. I like him; he's committed. He's definitely the funniest villain we've had in the series so far.

When Ben and Jamie are taken to the mines of Atlantis, a high pitched whining cuts through the scene. We assume it represents the sound of the drilling but whatever it is, it's making our teeth itch.

Sue: If we were 16 years old, we would hear that sound whenever we went near an off-license -

Me: Have you warmed to Troughton yet? He's basically playing his version of the Doctor now. More or less.

Sue: He reminds me of Ken Dodd in some of these stills. That one in particular (see right). The music doesn't help. It's atrocious. It sounds like they've let a small child loose on a Bontempi organ. This is the worst music that I've heard in the series so far. Who's responsible for it?

Me: An Australian called Dudley Simpson -

Sue: Sack him. He's rubbish.

Episode Three

Finally, after enduring thirteen consecutive recons (count them! thirteen!), we are reunited with a real bona fide episode. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this but thank Amdo for The Underwater Menace Episode 3.

Sue: Even though the story is still a complete mess, it's a thousand times easier to follow it when it exists. I don't want to state the bleedin' obvious but even the very worst story improves when you can actually see it. The recons I gave good scores to must have been incredible -

The highlight of the episode for Sue is, of course, the sight of Jamie and Ben in tight-fitting rubber:

Sue: Given the state of some of their costumes, they should have called this story The Underwear Menace.

Me: I think the playwright Joe Orton mentioned this story in his diary. Or was it in Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses? No, it must have been Joe Orton; he fancied Jamie in his rubber suit, I think. Or maybe it was Kenneth Williams. My memory is almost as bad as yours.

Sue: Jamie and Ben wouldn't look out of place at that nightclub, Heaven.

As if to accentuate this observation, Jamie and Ben suddenly launch themselves into the campest salute this side of 'Allo 'Allo.

Sue: I'll say no more.

Sue: Does Troughton ever go through a story where he doesn't play that bloody recorder? And are there any stories where he doesn't dress up at the drop of a hat (which he'll probably pick up and put on)? He's a borderline transvestite.

Me: You might want to hold onto something during the next scene. We're about to meet the Fish People.

Sue: They look like a second-rate dance troupe who are waiting to audition for Britain's Got Talent. They're probably going to do a up-tempo version of Yellow Submarine.

A miner called Jacko attempts to turn the Fish People into striking militants. He does this by winding them up a bit. At one point he cries, "Are you not men?" and, quick as a flash, Sue replies:

Sue: No! We're fish! What are you, blind? Hang on, is that Polly in a snorkel?

Me: No, it's a Fish Person.

Sue: They're having a laugh.

And then it happens. Impossible to describe. Impossible to watch.

Sue: This is the lowest point in Doctor Who yet. By some considerable margin. Please make it stop.

Me: Is this worse than The Web Planet?

Sue: Oh yes, this is even more half-arsed.

Me: It's like a perverse joke: you wait 13 episodes for a real episode and then you get this.

Sue: I take it all back - this would have been much better as a recon.

Something that really niggles at us is the Fish People's economic impact on Atlantis, which is based on the assumption that the food they farm must be consumed immediately:

Sue: OK, let me get this straight: Zaroff has a nuclear reactor but he hasn't got a fridge - or, better still, a fridge freezer - to put any food in? That makes no sense at all.

Me: This is your first proper look at Patrick Troughton. Have you formed an opinion yet?

Sue: I feel a little more comfortable with him now that I've seen him in action. He's far more animated than I expected and he's definitely got charisma. There's something about him. Sadly, the director isn't doing him any favours so I'll have to reserve judgement until I've seen some more.

And then we reach the moment The Underwater Menace is probably best known for. But immediately before it arrives - and I'd completely forgotten this - Zaroff stabs someone with a spear, he shoots someone at point-blank range and then he has two others killed off-screen. It's horrific!

But it's completely eclipsed by what follows:

Sue: Wow.

It's so mesmerising, we have to watch it again. And again. And again.

Sue: He's having a whale of a time.

Me: I'm glad someone is.

Episode Four

Sue: I still can't believe he didn't bring some fridges with him. Still, I guess if you are planning to blow up the world you can't think of everything. You know, I think every episode of Doctor Who could be improved with a Zaroff. The only thing missing is a scene of him tearing his hair out as he screams, "Why am I surrounded by idiots!".

Me: There's still twenty minutes to go. I wouldn't rule anything out.

Sue: I like the way the show has kept to its educational remit.

Me: What?

Sue: Jamie is from the past and therefore he doesn't understand what radioactivity is. Some of the children watching this wouldn't know either -

Me: Yeah, that's great. There's just one tiny problem: they don't explain it. Polly says she can't be bothered!

Polly and Jamie are struggling to escape the rising waters of Atlantis:

Sue: It's turned into a disaster movie now.

Me: Oh, it's a disaster all right.

Sue: Why is Polly wearing a fireplace corbel on her head?

Me: I don't even know what that means.

Thanks to those Aussie wimps, we get to see Professor Zaroff drown. Well, I say drown...

Sue: That's not drowning! Zaroff has hours left before the water rises above his head! Maybe he was bored and he decided to commit suicide?

The world saved, the Doctor and his companions leave the Atlantans to it.

Sue: Why are they bothering to rebuild Atlantis anyway? Why don't they just move up to the surface? They've got fridges up there. And while they missed the 1968 Olympics, Mexico have got the World Cup in 1970. It would be a shame if they missed it.

The Final Score

Sue: That was bonkers. And a little bit shit.

2/10

Sue: Zaroff was excellent, though. I could watch him all day. I'm not convinced that he's dead either; I think he was just wetting his hair a bit. He should definitely return in the new series. The League of Gentlemen could play him.

Me: What, all of them?

The experiment continues.

Tags: anneke wills, frazer hines, innes lloyd, michael craze, patrick troughton

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"The Doctor's Wife" is the fourth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast on 14 May 2011, written by Neil Gaiman.^[2]

[edit] Plot

[edit] Synopsis

While in deep space, the Doctor, Amy and Rory receive a hypercube containing a distress call from a Time Lord. Tracing the source of the call to a rift leading outside the universe, the Doctor deletes part of his TARDIS to generate enough energy to cross through the rift. After landing in a junkyard on a solitary asteroid, the TARDIS shuts down and its matrix suddenly disappears. The three explore, and meet the strange inhabitants, Uncle, Auntie, a green eyed Ood called Nephew and an excited young woman named Idris who fawns all over, and then bites, the Doctor. While Uncle and Auntie lock up Idris, and Amy and Rory return to the TARDIS, the Doctor follows the distress signal and finds a cabinet containing a large number of hypercubes. Upon further investigation of Uncle and Auntie, he finds they are constructed of body parts from other beings, including Time Lords. They are controlled by the asteroid, called House, which is sentient and able to interface with other technology around it. House led the Doctor there and ripped out the TARDIS' matrix, initially in order to consume its Artron energy, but upon learning that the Doctor is the last Time Lord and that no more TARDISes will ever arrive, decides to transfer itself into the TARDIS and escape from the rift. Amy and Rory are trapped inside as the House-controlled TARDIS dematerialises.

The Doctor learns that Idris contains the personality of the TARDIS' matrix. Idris, as the TARDIS, and the Doctor come to realise they selected each other hundreds of years prior when the Doctor fled Gallifrey, and have a personal chat. Without House's support, Uncle and Auntie die. Idris reveals that House had stranded many TARDISes before on the planet, and that this universe only has hours left before it collapses, and that Idris' body only has a short time before it also will fail. The Doctor and Idris work together to construct a makeshift TARDIS from scraps, and then pursue House.

Aboard the Doctor's TARDIS, House threatens to kill Amy and Rory. He plays with their senses as they try to flee through the corridors, then sends Nephew after them. Idris makes a psychic connection with Rory to give him directions to a secondary control room, where he and Amy are able to lower the TARDIS shields without House's interference. This allows the Doctor to land the makeshift console in the secondary control room, which atomises Nephew. House deletes the secondary control room as he prepares to break through the rift, which the Doctor anticipates. The TARDIS safety protocols transfer them to the main control room, where the dying Idris releases the TARDIS matrix back to where it belongs, deleting House from the TARDIS machine. As the Doctor, Amy, and Rory recover, a remnant of the TARDIS matrix, still in Idris' body, sadly comments she will not be able to communicate with the Doctor after this but will be there for him. Idris' body disappears as the TARDIS matrix is fully restored.

The Doctor installs a security field around the matrix to prevent it from being compromised in the future. Rory asks the Doctor about some of Idris' final words—"The only water in the forest is the river"—but the Doctor doesn't understand. After Amy and Rory leave to find a new bedroom, their original purged by House, the Doctor talks to the TARDIS, and, in response, a nearby lever moves on its own, sending the TARDIS to its next destination.

[edit] Continuity

This section may contain previously unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the original sources. See the talk page for details. (May 2011)

This section describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (May 2011)

"The Doctor's Wife" revisits many mythology elements regarding the Doctor and the TARDIS established from the original run of the show and continued into the new series. Idris, as the TARDIS, affirms that the Doctor left with her, a type 40 TARDIS, to flee Gallifrey more than 700 years ago, and the TARDIS' history of unreliability is explained as her taking the Doctor not where he wants to go, but where he needs to go. The Doctor has mentioned that the TARDIS is alive in previous episodes, including in The Five Doctors, and has referred to 'her' as "old girl" many times, and as "sexy" occasionally in his Eleventh incarnation, both of which Idris indicates she likes.

The Doctor refers to altering the control room's appearance as changing the desktop, as the Fifth Doctor does in "Time Crash". Like the Third Doctor in Inferno, the Doctor and Idris operate a TARDIS control panel outside of an outer TARDIS shell. The Doctor also jettisons TARDIS rooms to create thrust, as in Logopolis and Castrovalva. The TARDIS is mentioned to have retained an archive of previous control rooms unbeknownst to the Doctor, including many he has yet to create; the one shown in this episode is the design featured between "Rose" and "The Eleventh Hour", used by the Ninth and Tenth Doctors.

When speaking of his fellow Time Lord the Corsair, the Doctor implies that Time Lords can change gender on regeneration. The Doctor admits he killed all of the Time Lords, alluding to the events of the Time War and The End of Time. In The War Games, the Second Doctor contacted the Time Lords using a cube similar to those seen in this episode. The Doctor suggests visiting the Eye of Orion, which is seen in The Five Doctors. The Doctor again refers to himself as "a madman with a box", reprising Amy's and his own description of himself in "The Eleventh Hour".

The Ood "Nephew" displays green eyes (indicating, as with the green-lit TARDIS, that he is possessed by House);^[3] Oodkind's eyes also changed colour in "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit" and "Planet of the Ood". Alluding to the Ood controlled by the Beast in the former episodes, the Doctor refers to Nephew as "another Ood I failed to save."

The Doctor states that the Corsair always put a tattoo of a snake eating its own tail on each of his new bodies; the tattoo is on the left arm of his final body, being worn by Auntie. The Third Doctor's body came complete with a snake tattoo on his left arm, as shown when he showers in Spearhead from Space.

[edit] Production

[edit] Writing

"The Doctor's Wife" is Neil Gaiman's (pictured) first contribution to Doctor Who.

The episode was written by Neil Gaiman. After Steven Moffat replaced Russell T Davies as the showrunner of Doctor Who, being a fan of Gaiman's blog, Moffat met with Gaiman and Gaiman asked to write an episode. In an interview Gaiman stated "I came up with something that was one of those things where you thought that nobody's done that before."^[4] The episode was originally titled "The House of Nothing".^[5] Gaiman suggested they make an episode which centres on the TARDIS itself, which was not done before for the entire series since it began in 1963. The central idea was a "what if" scenario to see what would happen if the Doctor and the TARDIS got to talk together. Head writer Steven Moffat liked the idea of featuring the TARDIS as a woman, believing this to be the "ultimate love story" for the Doctor.^[6]

Gaiman began writing the episode before Matt Smith was even cast as the Eleventh Doctor; Gaiman envisaged David Tennant's performance in the first draft, knowing Smith would play the Doctor differently. Despite this he had no issue writing the dialogue. The episode was originally slated for the eleventh episode of the fifth series. However, it was delayed to the sixth because of budget issues; the eleventh episode would be replaced with "The Lodger".^[4] Even so, Gaiman was forced to operate with less money than he would have liked; for instance, he had to scrap a scene set in the TARDIS' swimming pool.^[7]

The move to the sixth series also meant Gaiman had to include Rory, who ceased to exist in the original slot in the fifth series. With Rory included, Gaiman had to "reshape" much of the second half of the episode, featuring Amy being on the run in the TARDIS. In the original draft where Amy was the only companion, Gaiman added a "heartbreaking monologue" by the character, further stating "you get to see what it's like to be the companion from the companion's point of view, and she got to talk about essentially in that version how sad it is, in some ways. One day something will happen to her, she'll get married, she'll get eaten by monsters, she'll die, she'll get sick of this, but he'll go on forever."^[4] At a certain point, Gaiman had tired of re-writing drafts and asked Steven Moffat for help. Moffat wrote in what Gaiman called "several of [the episode's] best lines" and rapidly rewrote several scenes when budget problems harmed filming locations.^[8]

[edit] Casting

In September 2010, Suranne Jones announced she was cast a guest spot on Doctor Who as Idris for an episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who. Jones previously played Mona Lisa in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode Mona Lisa's Revenge.^[9] Sometime after appearing on The Sarah Jane Adventures, Jones was contacted to appear on Doctor Who at Gaiman's request, because they were looking for an actress who "is odd; beautiful but strange looking, and quite funny."^[10] Moffat meanwhile described Idris as "sexy plus motherly plus utterly mad plus serene."^[6] During a read-through of the script, the producers asked her to "neutralise [her] a bit," because they did not want Jones to "be a Northerner" or have a standard accent, but to act "kinda like the Doctor."^[10] Later, in March 2011, Gaiman confirmed Michael Sheen would also guest star in the episode to voice a character.^[11] Adrian Schiller previously appeared in the Eighth Doctor audio drama Time Works where he played Zanith.^[12]

[edit] Filming

It was planned as the third episode in the 2011 series but the order was changed during the production process.^[13] Filming took place in August 2010,^[5] although during a 10 October 2010 appearance on Daybreak, guest star Suranne Jones stated that she had been filming green screen special effects only the night before.^[14] The scenes where Amy and Rory are on the run allowed the audience to explore the TARDIS outside the control room, something the producers had wanted to do for a while. A series of corridors was constructed and retained for future use. ^[15] The episode also featured the return of the older TARDIS control room from the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant era. Gaiman had originally wanted to reconstruct a console room from the original series, but the cost proved prohibitive. ^[16] The set was retained after filming for "The Eleventh Hour", but has since been removed.^[17] Arthur Darvill noted the floor of the older set had a cheese grater-like quality to it, so when the scene called for the cast to fall on it, they found it uncomfortable to stay down for a long period of time.^[6]

"The Doctor's Wife" features a make-shift TARDIS console, which was piloted by the Doctor and Idris. The console was designed by Susannah Leah, a schoolgirl from Todmorden, who won a competition on Blue Peter, a children's creative arts program, that challenged its viewers to imagine a TARDIS console based on household objects.^[18][19] Leah's design was selected by Moffat, Edward Thomas, a production designer for Doctor Who, and Tim Levell, a Blue Peter editor, along with final input amoung the three age-group winners from Smith.^[19] Michael Pickward, the production designer for the series, commented that Leah's design captured the nature of "bits and pieces" of what TARDIS consoles have been in the past, as well as the nature of the makeshift console needed for this episode.^[19] The drawing was redesigned faithfully by the production team into the prop for the show, including the use of a coat hanger to start the makeshift TARDIS.^[19] Leah was brought by Blue Peter to see both the set under construction and on location during filming of the makeshift TARDIS scenes, meeting Smith and the other actors and production crew.^[19] Character Options will release a toy playset based on Leah's console later in 2011.^[19] The House planetoid in the pocket universe was filmed on location at a quarry outside Cardiff.^[6]

[edit] Broadcast and reception

After its original broadcast, "The Doctor's Wife" received overnight figures of 6.09 million viewers, with a 29.5 per cent audience share. It became the third highest broadcast of the night, behind Britain's Got Talent on ITV1, and the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, which was shown later on BBC One.^[20] The episode recieved a final BARB rating of 7.97 million with an audience share of 34.7%.^[21]

The episode was positively received. The Guardian's Dan Martin said: "With so many wild ideas at play, this would have been so easy to get wrong...yet in every sense it was pitched perfectly".^[22] The AV Club gave the episode a score of "A", saying it was a "pretty terrific [episode]...a brisk, scary, inventive adventure filled with clever concepts and witty dialogue. And a lot of heart when in the way it deals with an important relationship rarely addressed on the series".^[23]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Matt Smith Video and New Series Overview". BBC. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
2. ^ "Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife". Radio Times. 4 May 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
3. ^ "Monsters: The Ood". BBC. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Brew, Simon (9 May 2011). "Neil Gaiman interview: all about writing Doctor Who". Den of Geek. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
5. ^ ^{a b} Masters, Tim (24 May 2010). "Neil Gaiman reveals power of writing Doctor Who". BBC News. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
6. ^ ^{a b c d} "Bigger on the Inside". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 14 May 2011. No. 4, series 6.
7. ^ Martin, Dan (14 May 2010). "Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife – Series 32, episode 4" (in English). The Guardian. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
8. ^ "Adventures in the Screen Trade". Neil Gaiman. 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2011-05-21.
9. ^ Jeffery, Morgan (23 September 2010). "Suranne Jones cast in 'Doctor Who'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
10. ^ ^{a b} Martin, Will (14 May 2011). "Suranne Jones ('Doctor Who') interview". Cult Box. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
11. ^ James, Richard (21 March 2011). "Michael Sheen to appear in new series of Doctor Who". Metro (Associated Newspapers). Retrieved 20 May 2011.
12. ^ "Doctor Who - Time Works". Big Finish. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
13. ^ "Episodes shuffle for the 2011 series...". Doctor Who Magazine (430): 7. 9 Feb 2011 (cover date).
14. ^ "Broadcast of 10 October 2010". Daybreak. ITV. ITV. 10 October 2010. ; YouTube video, accessed 20 May 2011.
15. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/may/16/neil-gaiman-doctor-who-doctors-wife?commentpage=1#comment-10775927
16. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/may/16/neil-gaiman-doctor-who-doctors-wife?commentpage=1#comment-10775927
17. ^ "Coming to America". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 23 April 2011. No. 1, series 6.
18. ^ "Blue Peter awaits for our Susannah". Todmorden News. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
19. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "TARDIS Console Competition". Presenters: Helen Skelton,Barney Harwood, and Andy Akinwolere. Blue Peter. BBC. 10 May 2011.
20. ^ Millar, Paul (15 May 2011). "Eurovision TV ratings reaches 11-year high". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
21. ^ "Final BARB-Rating". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. BARB. 9 May 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
22. ^ "Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife – Series 32, episode 4". The Guardian. 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-05-21.
23. ^ "The Doctor's Wife". 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-05-21.

"Day of the Moon"^[2] is the second episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The second episode of a two-part story written by Steven Moffat, it was broadcast on 30 April 2011 in the UK on BBC One, in the U.S. on BBC America, and in Canada on Space.

[edit] Plot

In the three months since the end of "The Impossible Astronaut", the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song have been attempting to track the Silence, an alien race who cannot be remembered after they are encountered. Reunited at Area 51 with Canton Delaware, who had been pretending to work against them, the Doctor plants a communication device in each of the group's hands to record audio of meetings with the Silence. Amy tells the Doctor she was mistaken and is not pregnant.

While the Doctor alters part of the command module of Apollo 11, Canton and Amy visit an orphanage, hoping to find where the girl in the spacesuit was taken from. Amy discovers a nest of the Silence, and a photograph of her and a baby amongst pictures of the little girl from the space suit. The girl enters with the Silence, and Amy is abducted and taken to their time engine control room. Arriving too late to help Amy, the Doctor and his allies find her recording device. Canton is able to shoot and wound one of the creatures, and from it the Doctor discovers the creatures are the Silence, a group he was warned about by several of his foes in his recent adventures. Analysing the now-empty space suit, River realises that the girl possesses incredible strength to have forced her way out of it, and that the suit's advanced life-support technology would have called the President as the highest authority figure on Earth when the girl got scared. The Doctor realises why the Silence have been controlling humanity — by guiding their technological advances, they have used humanity to build a spacesuit, which must somehow be crucial to their intentions. Meanwhile Canton interrogates the captured Silent in the Area 51 prison, who mocks humanity for treating him when they should "kill us all on sight". Canton records this using Amy's mobile phone.

The Doctor uses Amy's communication chip to track her location, and lands the TARDIS in the Silence's control room five days later. As River and Rory hold the Silence at bay, the Doctor shows them the live broadcast of the moon landing. As they watch, the Doctor uses his modification of the Apollo command module to insert Canton's recording of the wounded Silent into the footage of the landing. Because of this message, humans will now turn upon the Silence whenever they see them. The group frees Amy and departs in the TARDIS, while River kills all the Silence in the control room. Amy reassures Rory that the man he overheard her speaking of loving through the communication chip was him, not the Doctor.

River refuses the Doctor's offer to travel with him, returning to her Stormcage prison in order to keep a promise. She kisses the Doctor goodbye, and as the Doctor has never kissed her before deduces that this is her last kiss with him. In the TARDIS, Amy appears unable to remember seeing her picture in the orphanage and claims that she told the Doctor, rather than Rory, when she believed she was pregnant through fears that travelling in the TARDIS might have affected her child's development. As the trio set off, the Doctor discreetly uses the TARDIS scanner to attempt to determine if Amy is pregnant.

Six months later, a homeless man in New York City comes across the young girl, previously seen in the astronaut's suit. The girl says she is dying, but can fix it; before the man's eyes, she appears to begin regenerating.

[edit] Continuity

• The Silence's 'time engine' set was previously used in "The Lodger".^[3] The Doctor describes it as "very Aickman Road", a reference to the house the ship occupied in that episode.^[4]
• When the Silent reveals his species' name to the Doctor, the Doctor has flash-backs to "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Vampires of Venice", the first mentions of the Silence.^[4]
• The Doctor is held captive in Area 51, which he had visited previously in the Tenth Doctor animated story Dreamland.
• The Doctor and Rory discuss both being present at the fall of Rome. As an Auton, Rory guarded the Pandorica from the Roman era to the present day in "The Big Bang", and the First Doctor indirectly instigated the Great Fire of Rome in The Romans.
• "Eye Patch Lady" (Frances Barber) briefly appears to Amy in the orphanage, and will return in a later episode.^[4]
• The Doctor is imprisoned within walls of "zero balance dwarf star alloy, the densest material in the universe..." Dwarf star alloy first appeared in the 18th season Tom Baker story "Warriors' Gate", forming the hull of a slave ship capturing time sensitive Tharils. The density prevented the Tharils (who possessed the ability to go out of phase with time) from escaping.

[edit] Outside references

• Near the end of the episode, President Richard Nixon asks the Doctor if he will be remembered by future generations. Amused by the question, the Doctor coyly remarks that the American people will never forget Nixon, a reference to the Watergate scandal that effectively ended Nixon's presidency. The Doctor also tells Nixon to record every word spoken in the Oval Office, another reference to the Watergate scandal (which revolved around the Oval office secret taping system).

• The Doctor also tells Nixon to say hi to David Frost. Frost is a British journalist, who had a famous interview with Nixon.

• During his conversation with the president, Canton confirms that his lover (whom he wishes to marry) is black. Interracial marriages had still been banned in certain states as recently as 1967. This revelation seems to explain Canton's previous statement about being fired from the FBI for "wanting to get married" in "The Impossible Astronaut" until he clarifies that his lover is a "he". Same-sex marriage was not legal in the United States in 1969.

[edit] Production

Steven Moffat, head writer of the new series, said before broadcast that this would be one of the darkest openers to a series ever done for Doctor Who.^[2] Director Toby Haynes believed that the darker episodes like "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" would allow the series to get into "more dangerous territory."^[3] The creation of the Silence was partly inspired by the figure from the Edvard Munch painting The Scream.^[2] Introducing the alien villains became a "big challenge" for the producers; it would tie in with the loose "silence will fall" arc that carried through the fifth series. Moffat did not wish to end the arc in the previous series, as he felt it would be "more fun" to continue it. Elsewhere in the episode, Delaware was written to be deceptively antagonistic towards the protagonists, which was based on actor Mark Sheppard's past as villains for his work in American television. Moffat was also keen on the idea of having the Doctor imprisoned with a beard in Area 51.^[3]

Many of the opening scenes of the episode were filmed on location in the United States. The sequence where Delaware chases Amy was shot in the Valley of the Gods in Utah. Gillan found it difficult to run because of the altitude. The sequence where Delaware chases Rory was shot at the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. The Dam sequence was the final scene to be shot in the States. The sequence where Delaware chases River in New York was in fact shot in central Cardiff. A set was later constructed in a studio for the jump sequence, and Kingston was replaced by a stunt woman to perform the jump. The scenes set in Area 51 were filmed in a large disused hangar in South Wales.^[3]

The Florida orphanage was filmed at the abandoned Troy House in Monmouthshire, which many of the cast and crew believed is haunted. To add the effect that a storm is outside the building, the production crew placed rain machines outdoors and flashing lights to simulate lightning. The Silence were portrayed by Marnix van den Broeke and other performers. The masks caused vision difficulties from the performers, who had to be guided by two people when they have to walk. Broeke does not provide the voices of the Silence, as it would be replaced during post-production. The control room set used from "The Lodger" was used again for this episode. Moffat wanted the set to be used again, feeling it would be a suitable Silence base. The set was adapted to give it a darker, evil feel.^[3]

[edit] Cast notes

Ricky Fearon who played the tramp previously played Foreman in the Torchwood episode To the Last Man.

[edit] Broadcast and reception

"Day of the Moon" was first broadcast on 30 April 2011 at 6 pm.^[5] The episode received preliminary overnight ratings of 5.39 million viewers, equalling a 30.5 per cent audience share. The episode was down by 1.1 million from the previous week, but was still the second most seen broadcast for the day, behind Britain's Got Talent on ITV1.^[6]

Dan Martin of The Guardian liked the episode for its "action, tension, horror and River Song in a business suit," but felt it "sags a little around the middle."^[7] Martin believed the scenes with Amy and Delaware in the orphanage was the "fear factor" of the episode.^[7]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Matt Smith Video and New Series Overview". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110411_01/Matt_Smith_Video_and_New_Series_Overview. Retrieved 15 April 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Doctor Who boss says season start is 'darkest yet'". BBC. 5 April 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12969897. Retrieved 7 April 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Breaking the Silence". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 30 April 2011. No. 2, series 6.
4. ^ ^{a b c} BBC - BBC One Programmes - Doctor Who, Series 6, Day of the Moon
5. ^ "Doctor Who, Series 6, Day of the Moon". BBC Online. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010y5l3. Retrieved 2 May 2011. 
6. ^ Millar, Paul (1 May 2011). "'Doctor Who' audience slips to 5.4m". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a317300/doctor-who-audience-slips-to-54m.html. Retrieved 2 May 2011. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Martin, Dan (30 April 2011). "Doctor Who: Day of the Moon — Series 32, episode 2". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/apr/30/doctor-who-day-of-the-moon. Retrieved 2 May 2011.

Plot

The arrival of the TARDIS on Manussa, formerly homeworld of both the Manussan Empire and Sumaran Empire, triggers nightmares in Tegan, who dreams of a snake-shaped cave mouth. It is evident to the Fifth Doctor that the Mara is reasserting itself on her mind following her possession by the entity while on the Kinda planet of Deva Loka (Kinda). He attempts to calm her by taking her and Nyssa in search of the cave but Tegan is too scared to enter when they find it, and runs away. Alone and confused Tegan lapses under the control of the Mara once more, revelling in horror and destruction. The emblem of the snake soon returns to her arm.

Manussa is in the grip of a festival of celebration of the banishment of the Mara from the civilisation five hundred years earlier. In the absence of the Federator, who rules over the three-planet Federation, his indolent son Lon is to have a major role in the celebration, supported by his mother the Lady Tanha and the archaeologist Ambril, who is an expert in the Sumaran period. Lon is intrigued with the notion that the Mara might one day return as prophesied, but Ambril is unconvinced and believes such talk is the product of cranks. When the Doctor tries to get Ambril to take the threat seriously he too is dismissed as a maverick, though the young deputy curator Chela is more sympathetic to the Doctor and gives him a small blue crystal called a Little Mind's Eye, which is used by the Snakedancers, a mystical cult, in their ceremonies to repel the Mara. The Doctor realises the small crystal and its large counterpart, the Great Mind's Eye, can be used as focal points for mental energy and can turn thought into matter. This, he determines, is how the Mara will transfer from Tegan's mind to corporeal existence. He realises that the Manussans must once have been a very advanced people who could use molecular engineering in a zero-gravity environment. They created the Great Mind's Eye without realising its full potential, and the crystal drew the fear, hatred, and evil from their minds, amplified it and fed it back to them. Thus the Mara was born into Manussa and the reign of the Sumaran Empire began.

Meanwhile Tegan makes contact with Lon and passes the snake mark of the Mara to him too. They visit the cave from Tegan's dream which contains a wall pattern which could accommodate the Great Crystal. Lon is sent back to the Palace while she causes more havoc and takes control of a showman, Dugdale, who is used for her pleasure. Lon meanwhile covers his arm and goes about trying to persuade Ambril to use the real Great crystal in the ceremony, placing it in a position in a wall carving that will evidently enable the Mara to return as the Doctor predicted. To persuade him to comply, Ambril is shown a secret cave of Sumaran archaeological treasures and warned they will all be destroyed if he does not help him. Ambril thus agrees to the change in format.

The Doctor and Nyssa have meanwhile been aided by Chela, who shares with them the journal of Dojjen, a snakedancer who was Ambril's predecessor. All three venture to the Palace to persuade the authorities to do something about the situation, but soon see Lon is in the grip of the Mara and orchestrating a very dangerous situation. All three escape and the Doctor now uses the Little Mind's Eye to contact Dojjen, who lives in sandy dunes beyond the city. They venture there and the Doctor communes with Dojjen by opening his mind after being bitten by a poisonous snake. He is told by the wise old snakedancer that the Mara may only be defeated by finding a still point in the mind. All three now head back to the city to prevent the ceremony of defeating the Mara using the real Great Crystal. The festivities are now at a peak, with a procession taking place which culminates in a ceremony at the cave. Lon plays the role of his ancestor Federator in rejecting the Mara. After a series of verbal challenges he seizes the real Great Crystal and places it in the appropriate place on the wall. Tegan and Dugdale arrive and she displays the Mara mark on her arm, which is now becoming flesh having fed on the fear in Dugdale's mind. With the crystal in place, the Mara is able to create itself in the cave, becoming a vast and deadly snake. However, the Doctor arrives in time and refuses to look at the snake or recognise its evil, relying instead on the still place he finds through mental commune with Dojjen via the Little Mind's Eye. This resistance interrupts the manifestation of the Mara and its three slaves are freed while the snake itself dies and rots. The Doctor comforts a distraught Tegan, sure that the Mara has at last been destroyed.

[edit] Cast notes

Features a guest appearance by Martin Clunes. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who. Brian Miller is the husband of Elisabeth Sladen who portrayed long-time companion Sarah Jane Smith. He later played Harry Sowersby in The Mad Woman in the Attic, an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Brian Grellis previously played Sheprah in Revenge of the Cybermen and Safran in The Invisible Enemy.

[edit] Continuity

• Every story during Season 20 had the Doctor face an enemy from the past. For this story, the enemy was the Mara, who was featured in the previous season's story Kinda (1982).

• In the redesigned TARDIS of the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, one of the consoles displays different time eras such as the Rassilon Era, Humanian Era and the Sumaron Era. The Sumaron era may be a reference to this episode.

[edit] Production

• In post-production, episode four of this story overran very badly. As a result, it had to be completely restructured. Originally the door for a third Mara adventure was to be left open, with closing scenes discussing the ultimate fate of the Great Crystal. Furthermore, a sequence in which the Doctor comforts Tegan had to be removed. The scene was reincorporated into the beginning of the subsequent serial, Mawdryn Undead (1983).
• The success of Kinda and this story prompted Script Editor Eric Saward to commission Bailey to write a third and final story to feature the Mara: May Time. However, the story was abandoned due to production problems.
• This is one of the very few Doctor Who stories in which no one dies.

[edit] In print

Doctor Who book
Snakedance
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	83
Writer	Terrance Dicks
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Andrew Skilleter
ISBN	0-426-19457-8
Release date	3 May 1984

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in January 1984. It was the first of several to feature Peter Davison's image in the logo.

[edit] Broadcast and VHS release

• This story was released on VHS in December 1994.
• This story was released on DVD on 7 March 2011 along with Kinda in a special edition boxset entitled Mara Tales.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Snakedance at BBC Online
• Snakedance at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• Snakedance at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

[edit] Reviews

• Snakedance reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• Snakedance reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

[edit] Target novelisation

• On Target — Snakedance

Jedi knights?!

How many Jedi Knights were in the UK 2001 Census?

Over 390,000 people answered “Jedi” in the 2001 census for England and Wales and 14,000 in Scotland (a lower proportion). This is more than the number of identifying Sikhs, and more than Jews and Buddhists combined. However, this did not mean that Jedi became an official religion- it doesn’t work like that!

Why answer Jedi?

Much of the public and media discussion focused on legitimate concerns with the census, which the “Jedi” answer could be disruptively used to promote. Some reasons people answered “Jedi” include:

• concern about how ‘religion’ data might be used
• concern about the inclusion of a question on religion at all
• making a statement about privacy or annoyance with interference
• a reaction against the apparent presumption of having a religion
• making a point about the way people tend to legitimize religion based on its antiquity or number of adherents

Should I answer “Jedi”?

Our recommendation is that if you are not religious, answer “No religion”, because at some time or place, someone will refer only to the explicit “No religion” answers, from which you will be left out if you answered “Jedi”. If you want to write Jedi as a protest against anwering the question at all, see Why should I answer the question at all?

Doctor

    * Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor)

Companions

    * Matthew Waterhouse (Adric)
    * Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)
    * Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka)

Others

    * Richard Todd — Sanders
    * Nerys Hughes — Todd
    * Simon Rouse — Hindle
    * Mary Morris — Panna
    * Sarah Prince — Karuna
    * Adrian Mills — Aris
    * Lee Cornes — Trickster
    * Jeff Stewart — Dukkha
    * Anna Wing — Anatta
    * Roger Milner — Annica

Production
Writer     Christopher Bailey
Director     Peter Grimwade
Script editor     Eric Saward
Producer     John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)     None
Production code     5Y
Series     Season 19
Length     4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast     February 1–February 9, 1982
Chronology
← Preceded by     Followed by →
Four to Doomsday     The Visitation

Kinda is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from February 1 to February 9, 1982.
Contents
[hide]

    * 1 Synopsis
    * 2 Plot
    * 3 Continuity
    * 4 Production
    * 5 Outside references
    * 6 In print
    * 7 Broadcast and VHS release
    * 8 References
    * 9 External links
          o 9.1 Reviews
          o 9.2 Target novelisation

[edit] Synopsis

An idyllic paradise-like planet, Deva Loka, is not as it seems. Its inhabitants, the Kinda, are a gentle and seemingly primitive people. On the surface, a perfect place to colonise. But if it is so perfect, why are the colonisation team disappearing one by one? When Tegan sleeps near the Windchimes she is confronted by the true evil that threatens Deva Loka.
[edit] Plot

An Earth colonisation survey expedition to the beautiful jungle planet Deva Loka is being depleted as members of the survey disappear one by one. Four have now gone, leaving the remainder in state of deep stress. The leader, Sanders, relies on bombast and rules; while his deputy, Hindle, is evidently close to breaking point. Only the scientific officer, Todd, seems to deal with the situation with equanimity. She does not see the native people, the Kinda, as a threat, but rather respects their culture and is intrigued by their power of telepathy. The social structure is also curious in that women seem dominant and are the only ones with the power of voice. The humans are holding two silent males hostage for "observation". Todd believes they are more advanced than they first appear, as they possess necklaces representative of the double helix of DNA, indicating a more advanced civilisation.

Elsewhere in the jungle the TARDIS crew are also under stress, especially Nyssa of Traken, who has collapsed from exhaustion. The Fifth Doctor constructs a delta wave augmenter to enable her to rest in the TARDIS while he and Adric venture deeper into the jungle. They soon find an automated total survival suit (TSS) system which activates and marches them to the Dome, the colonists' base. Sanders is a welcoming but gruff presence, further undermining Hindle at regular intervals. At this point Sanders decides to venture out into the jungle in the TSS, leaving the highly strung Hindle in charge. His will is enforced by means of the two Kinda hostages, who have forged a telepathic link with him believing their souls to have been captured in his mirror. The Doctor, Todd and Adric are immediately placed under arrest as Hindle now evinces megalomania.

Tegan faces a more metaphysical crisis. She has fallen asleep near the euphonious and soporific Windchimes, unaware of the danger of the dreaming of an unshared mind (one not engaged in telepathic activity with another humanoid). Her mind opens in a black void where she undergoes provocation and terror from a series of nightmarish characters, one of which taunts her: “You will agree to being me, sooner or later, this side of madness or the other". The spectres are a manifestation of the Mara, an evil being of the subconscious that longs for corporeal reality. Mentally tortured, she eventually agrees to become the Mara and a snake symbol passes to her own arm. When her mind returns to her body she is possessed by the Mara. In a scene reminiscent of the Book of Genesis she passes the snake symbol to the first Kinda she finds, a young man named Aris, who is the brother of one of the Kinda in the Dome. He too is transformed by evil and now finds the power of voice.

Back at the Dome, Hindle has conceived a bizarre and immolatory plan to destroy the jungle, which he views as a threat. Adric plays along with this delusion. Hindle’s world soon starts to fall apart when first Adric 'betrays' him and then Sanders defies expectation and returns from the jungle. However Sanders is radically different from the martinet in earlier episodes. Panna, an aged female mystic of the tribe, presented him with a strange wooden box (the 'Box of Jhana') which when opened has regressed his mind back to childhood. Sanders still has the box and shows it to Hindle, who makes the Doctor open it.

The Doctor and Todd see beyond the toy inside and instead share a vision from Panna and her young ward, Karuna, who invites them to cave. The shock of the situation (accompanied by strange phenomena) allows the Doctor and Todd to slip away into the jungle where they encounter Aris dominating a group of Kinda and seemingly fulfilling a tribal prophecy that “When the Not-We come, one will arise from among We, a male with Voice who must be obeyed.” Karuna soon finds the Doctor and Todd and takes them to meet Panna in the cave from the vision, with the wise woman realising the danger of the situation now Aris has voice. She places them in a trance like state and reveals that the Mara has gained dominion on Deva Loka. The Great Wheel which turns as civilisations rise and fall has turned again and the hour is near when chaos will reign, instigated by the Mara. The vision she shares is Panna’s last act: when it is finished, she is dead.

In the Kinda world, multiple fathers are shared by children, just as multiple memories are held, and at Panna's death her life experience transfers to Karuna. She urges Todd and the Doctor to return to the Dome to prevent Aris leading an attack on it which will increase the chaos and hasten the collapse of the Kinda civilisation.

Back at the Dome Hindle, Sanders and Adric remain in a state of unreality, with the former becoming ever more demented and unbalanced, and infantile. Adric eventually escapes, and attempts to pilot the TSS but is soon confronted by Aris and the Kinda. He panics, and Aris is wounded by the machine (which responds to the mental impulses of the operator) and the Kinda scatter.

The Doctor and Todd find an emotionally wrecked Tegan near the Windchimes and conclude that she was the path of the Mara back into this world. They then find Adric and the party heads back to the Dome where Hindle has now completed the laying of explosives which will incinerate the jungle and the Dome itself: the ultimate self-defence. Todd persuades Hindle now to open the Box of Jhana, and the visions therein restore the mental balance of the two. The two enslaved Kinda are freed when the mirror entrapping them is shattered. The Doctor then realizes the only method of combating the Mara- he realises the one thing evil cannot face is itself and so organizes the construction of a large circle of mirrors (actually reflective solar panels) in a jungle clearing. Aris is trapped within it and the snake on his arm breaks free. The Mara swells to giant proportions but then is banished back from the corporeal world to the Dark Places of the Inside.

With the threat of the Mara dissipated, and the personnel of the Dome back to more balanced selves, the Doctor, Adric and an exhausted Tegan decide to leave (as does Todd, who decides 'its all a bit green'). When they reach the TARDIS, Nyssa greets them, fully recovered.
[edit] Continuity

    * The Mara features again in the next season's serial Snakedance.
    * Delta waves reappeared in the 2005 episode "The Parting of the Ways". Far from the brain wave-enhancing recuperation devices from Kinda, however, delta waves were described by Jack Harkness as being "waves of Van Cassadyne energy...your brain gets barbecued."
    * A fairy like creature which is compared to a Mara features in the 2006 Torchwood episode Small Worlds, however there may be no connection between the two.
    * In Time Crash (2007), the Tenth Doctor asks the temporally misplaced Fifth where (i.e. when) he is now – and speculatively references Tegan, Nyssa and the Mara from his own memories.
    * In Turn Left (2008), the time beetle on Donna Noble's back is also revealed when faced with a circle of mirrors.

[edit] Production
Serial details by episode Episode     Broadcast date     Run time     Viewership
(in millions)
"Part One"     1 February 1982 (1982-02-01)     24:50     8.4
"Part Two"     2 February 1982 (1982-02-02)     24:58     9.4
"Part Three"     8 February 1982 (1982-02-08)     24:17     8.5
"Part Four"     9 February 1982 (1982-02-09)     24:28     8.9
[2][3][4]

    * The working title for this story was The Kinda.
    * This was the first story to feature Eric Saward as script editor.
    * In the ancient language Sanskrit, "Deva Loka" means "Celestial Region".
    * Nyssa makes only brief appearances at the start of episode 1, and at the end of 4, because the script had largely been developed at a time when only two companions for the Doctor were envisioned. When it was known a third companion would also be present, rather than write Nyssa into the entire storyline it was decided she would remain in the TARDIS throughout and be absent through most of the narrative. To account for this absence Nyssa was scripted to collapse at the end of the previous story, Four to Doomsday. In this story she remains in the Tardis, resting. Sarah Sutton's contract was amended to account for this two-episode absence.[4]
    * For the scene in episode 2 in which the two Tegans talk to each other about which of them is real, John Nathan-Turner allowed Janet Fielding to write her own dialogue.

[edit] Outside references

    * Writer Christopher Bailey based this story heavily on Buddhist philosophy. He used many Buddhist words and ideas in writing Kinda; most of the Kinda and dream-sequence characters have names with Buddhist meanings, including Mara (temptation — also personified as a demon), Dukkha (pain), Panna (wisdom), Karuna (compassion), Anicca (impermanence) and Anatta (egolessness). Additionally, Jhana (also spelt Jana in the scripts) refers to meditation.
    * This serial was examined closely in the 1983 media studies volume Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text by John Tulloch and Manuel Alvarado. This was the first major scholarly work dedicated to Doctor Who. Tulloch and Alvarado compare Kinda with Ursula K. Le Guin's 1976 novel The Word for World is Forest, which shares several themes with Kinda and may have been a template for its story. The Unfolding Text also examines the way "Kinda" incorporates Buddhist and Christian symbols and themes, as well as elements from the writings of Carl Jung.[5]

[edit] In print
Doctor Who book
Book cover
Kinda
Series     Target novelisations
Release number     84
Writer     Terrance Dicks
Publisher     Target Books
ISBN     0-426-19529-9
Release date     15 March 1984
Preceded by     Mawdryn Undead
Followed by     Snakedance

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in December 1983.

In 1997 the novel was also issued by BBC Audio as an audio book, read by Peter Davison.
[edit] Broadcast and VHS release

    * The serial was repeated on BBC One over 22-25 August 1983, (Monday-Thursday) at 6.25pm. This story was released on VHS in October 1994 with a cover illustration by Colin Howard.
    * This story is set to be released on DVD in 2011 along with Snakedance in a special edition boxset entitled Mara Tales. It will feature an audio commentary by Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding and Nerys Hughes.[6]

[edit] References

   1. ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 119. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.
   2. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Kinda". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. http://web.archive.org/web/20080731011611/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=5y. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
   3. ^ "Kinda". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5y.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
   4. ^ a b Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Kinda". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/5y.html. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
   5. ^ Tulloch, John; and Alvarado, Manuel (1983). Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-21480-4.
   6. ^ Matthew Waterhouses' autobiography Blue Box Boy

[edit] External links

    * Kinda at BBC Online
    * Kinda at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
    * Kinda at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
    * KI'n'DA - Cardiff Doctor Who group

[edit] Reviews

    * Kinda reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
    * Kinda reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

[edit] Target novelisation

    * On Target — Kinda

William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011)^[1][2] was a British television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.^[3]

Early life

Courtney was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of a British diplomat and educated in France, Kenya and Egypt. He served his National Service in the British Army, leaving after 18 months as a private, not wanting to pursue a military career. He next joined the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art,^[4] and after two years began doing repertory theatre in Northampton. From there he moved to London.

Prior to Doctor Who, Courtney made guest appearances in several cult television series, including The Avengers (1962, 1967), The Champions (1968) and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969) and as a racing driver in Riviera Police (1965).

Doctor Who

Director Douglas Camfield originally considered Courtney for the role of Richard the Lionheart in The Crusade (1965), a role that ultimately went to Julian Glover,^{[citation needed]} and kept him in mind for future casting. Courtney's first appearance in Doctor Who was in the 1965 serial The Daleks' Master Plan, directed by Camfield, where he played Space Security Agent Bret Vyon opposite William Hartnell as the Doctor. Camfield liked Courtney's performance, and when the director was assigned the 1968 serial The Web of Fear, he cast Courtney as Captain Knight. However, when David Langton gave up the role of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart to work elsewhere, Camfield recast Captain Knight and gave the part to Courtney instead.

Lethbridge-Stewart reappeared later that year in The Invasion, promoted to Brigadier and in charge of the British contingent of UNIT, an organization that protected the Earth from alien invasion. It was in that recurring role that he is best known, appearing semi-regularly from 1970 to 1975. Courtney made return appearances in the series in 1983, and his last Doctor Who television appearance was in 1989 in the serial Battlefield (although like many other former cast members, he returned to the role for the charity special Dimensions in Time). Coincidentally, he appeared with Jean Marsh in both his first and last regular Doctor Who television appearances.

Courtney has played Lethbridge-Stewart, either on television or in audio plays, alongside every subsequent Doctor up to and including Paul McGann, as well as substitute First Doctor Richard Hurndall. He did not appear in the revived series. While he has acted with Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant in the Big Finish audio dramas Sympathy for the Devil and UNIT: The Wasting, Tennant was playing a different character, Colonel Ross Brimmicombe-Wood, on both occasions.

The character is referenced in the Series 4 episode "The Poison Sky" and is said to be "stuck in Peru". Fifteen years after Dimensions in Time, Courtney returned as Lethbridge-Stewart (now, Sir Alistair), freshly returned from Peru, in "Enemy of the Bane", a two-part story in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures aired in December 2008, starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. The story pitted Sir Alistair and Sarah Jane against Commander Kaagh and Mrs. Wormwood who try to wake Horath using the Tanguska Scroll. It was intended by the Sarah Jane Adventures production team that Courtney would reappear in the following year's The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith so that Lethbridge-Stewart would meet the Tenth Doctor, but Courtney was recovering from a stroke and unable to take part.^[5]

After Doctor Who

Courtney continued to act extensively in theatre and television after his main Doctor Who appearances, guest-starring in such popular television programmes as Minder (1984), All Creatures Great and Small (1980, episode "Matters Of Life And Death"), Only Fools and Horses (1988) and Yes, Prime Minister (1986). In 1982 he was cast alongside Frankie Howerd in the World War II-set comedy series Then Churchill Said to Me but the series remained untransmitted for over a decade due to the outbreak of the Falklands War. He also had a regular role in the comedy French Fields between 1989 and 1991. He has also appeared in the Big Finish Productions audio drama Earthsearch Mindwarp, based on a James Follett novel, broadcast on the digital radio station BBC 7.

He also appeared in an episode of the long-running BBC TV series The Two Ronnies alongside Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett as the character of 'Captain Dickie Chapman', a fellow prisoner-of-war (POW) in Colditz during World War II, in a sketch based on the original BBC TV series, Colditz.

In 1985, Nicholas played 'The Narrator' in The Rocky Horror Show. Amanda Redman also starred in the production as Janet.

Courtney starred as Inspector Lionheart opposite fellow Doctor Who actor Terry Molloy in the audio series The Scarifyers, from Cosmic Hobo Productions. The first two Scarifyers adventures, The Nazad Conspiracy and The Devil of Denge Marsh, were broadcast on BBC 7 in 2007; the third, entitled For King and Country in 2008, and fourth, The Curse of the Black Comet, in 2010.

He regularly made personal appearances at science fiction conventions and was also from 1997 the honorary president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. His theatrical agent was former Doctor Who actress Wendy Padbury.

In 1998, Courtney released his autobiography, titled Five Rounds Rapid! (ISBN 978-1852277826) after an infamous line of dialogue the Brigadier had in the 1971 Who serial The Dæmons. He recorded his memoirs, subtitled A Soldier in Time for release on CD in 2002 by Big Finish. An updated autobiography, Still Getting Away With It (ISBN 978-1871330731), was published in 2005, with co-author Michael McManus. Until his death, he lived in London with his second wife, Karen.

In 2008 he appeared in the film Incendiary, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, alongside Ewan McGregor.

Death

Nicholas Courtney's death was reported by SFX^[1] and The Stage^[2] early in the morning of 23 February 2011. The exact nature of his death was not given in these early reports. Doctor Who audio play producers Big Finish, with whom Courtney had worked on several releases in his continuing role as the Brigadier, confirmed the date of his death as 22 February 2011.^[6] The BBC reported that he had "died in London at the age of 81".^[7] According to his official web site, he died following a long battle against illness.^[8] Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss called him "a childhood hero and the sweetest of gentlemen".^[7] Former Doctor Tom Baker also paid tribute, having visited him on the Friday before his death. Baker wrote "We shall miss him terribly" in a newsletter on his website, in which he also indicated that Courtney had been battling cancer.^[9]

References

External links

• Official Web site
• Nicholas Courtney at the Internet Movie Database
• Voice Agent profile and contact
• Obituary in The Guardian
• Obituary in The Independent
• Obituary in The Telegraph

all three parts back to back

Podcasting Panel

Arival and first impressions of the con

Dirk Gently

Dirk Gently (real name Svlad Cjelli, also known as Dirk Cjelli) is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams and featured in the books Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. He is portrayed as a pudgy man who normally wears a heavy old light brown suit, red checked shirt with a green striped tie, long leather coat, red hat and thick metal-rimmed spectacles. "Dirk Gently" is not the character's real name. It is noted early on in the first book that it is a pseudonym for "Svlad Cjelli". Dirk himself states that the name has a "Scottish dagger feel" to it.

  Holistic detective

Dirk bills himself as a "holistic detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. This involves running up large expense accounts and then claiming that every item (such as needing to go to a tropical beach in the Bahamas for three weeks) was, due to this "interconnectedness," actually a vital part of the investigation. Challenged on this point in the first novel, he claims that he cannot be considered to have ripped anybody off, because none of his clients have paid him yet. His office is supposed to be located at 33a Peckender St. N1 London, with telephone number 01-354 9112 (407-2882 in the advertising campaign for the book).

Gently has an odd facility for accurate assumptions, as every wild guess he makes turns out to be true. As a student at Cambridge University (St. Cedd's College) he attempted to acquire money by selling exam papers for the upcoming tests. His fellow undergraduates were convinced that he had produced the papers under hypnosis, whereas in reality he had simply studied previous papers and determined potential patterns in questions. However, while innocent, he was arrested and sent to prison when his papers turned out to be exactly the same as the real ones, to the very comma.

Portrayals

Dirk Gently was played by Michael Bywater in a 1992 TV documentary on The South Bank Show. Scot Burklin portrayed Dirk in the 2006 American premiere of the play Dirk at The Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles. Harry Enfield played the character in the 2007 and 2008 BBC Radio 4 adaptations of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Stephen Mangan, of Green Wing fame, was cast as Gently in a pilot episode for a proposed TV series broadcast on BBC4 on 16th December 2010.

Aborted third book

Douglas Adams was working on a third Dirk Gently novel, The Salmon of Doubt, at the time of his death. However Adams said "A lot of the stuff which was originally in The Salmon of Doubt really wasn't working", and that he had planned on "salvaging some of the ideas that I couldn't make work in a Dirk Gently framework and putting them in a Hitchhiker framework... and for old time's sake I may call it The Salmon of Doubt."^[1][2] The first ten chapters of this novel, assembled from various drafts following Adams' death, together with a memo suggesting further plot points, appear in The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time.

References

External links

• BBC Dirk Gently guide
• BBC4 Dirk Gently

Almost ten million years in the future, the TARDIS materialises on a vast spacecraft including its own miniature zoo and arboretum. The First Doctor and Steven Taylor are still explaining the basics of their time travel ability to new companion Dodo Chaplet when she starts to show signs of a cold. It is only a matter of time before they are found and taken to the control chamber of the vessel. Their captors are the mute Monoids, seemingly identical alien beings with a single eye. The Monoids live in peace alongside the humans who command the spaceship, their own planet having been destroyed, but often do much of the menial work. The humans in charge of the ship explain that the Earth is about to be destroyed because of the expansion of the sun, and that this ship is an Ark sent into space with the last remnants of humanity, civilization and various forms of flora and fauna. The human Guardians in charge of the craft run a tight ship: failure to conform to rules means either death or miniaturisation until they reach their destination, an Earth-like planet called Refusis II, which takes nearly 700 years to get to. As an amusement during the journey a vast statue is being carved by hand, depicting a human being.

Dodo's cold has now spread amongst the Monoid and human populations, but regrettably, they have little natural immunity. When the Commander of the Ark collapses with the malady, the whole ship is placed on alert as Zentos, the Deputy Commander is suspicious of the travellers and believes they have deliberately infected the ship. When the first Monoid dies, there is little the Doctor can say to pacify the angry Guardians. Zentos places the Doctor, Steven and Dodo on trial for their crimes, with a young Guardian called Manyak and the Commander's daughter Mellium as defence. Steven acts as the first defence witness, attacking the closed nature of the minds of the Guardians, but exhausts himself in the process and collapses with the fever. His words have no impact on Zentos, who orders their execution, but the ailing Commander intervenes to protect the three travellers and permit them access to medical equipment to devise a cure to the cold. The Doctor is thus able to recreate the cold vaccine from the membranes of animals on the craft, and this is administered throughout the crew. The Commander, Steven and the others infected are soon on the road to recovery. Their work done, the trio have only time to observe the end of Earth on the long-range scanner before the Doctor leads them back to the TARDIS.

Curiously, when the TARDIS rematerialises, they are still on the Ark. However, seven hundred years have passed and there has been a major change: the Monoids are in control. They have completed the statue in the image of themselves, having staged a coup during the long journey. This was made possible by a genetic weakness introduced into the humans, but not the Monoids, by a second wave of the cold virus 700 years earlier. The Monoids also now have voice communicators and use numerical emblems to distinguish each other. The humans are now little more than slaves, with the odd exception like the collaborator subject Guardian Maharis, and have little hope of change. The Doctor and his friends encounter the Monoid leadership, installed in a throne room on the Ark, after which they are sent to the security kitchen to help prepare meals for the Monoids. Two humans, Manissa and Dassuk, believe the moment of their liberation is at hand. Steven tries to help them in a revolt which is unsuccessful.

The arrival on Refusis is close at hand and a landing pod is prepared. Monoid 1 wants to make sure that the new world is inhabited only by Monoids, despite promises that the human population will be allowed to live there too. A landing party is assembled – the Doctor, Dodo, Monoid 2 and a subject Guardian named Yendom – and they soon reach Refusis II and start to investigate. A stately castle which seems to be unoccupied is in fact the home to the invisible Refusians, giant beings rendered invisible by solar flares. They welcome their guests and have been expecting them but only want to share the planet with other peaceful beings. Monoid 2 and Yendom flee the castle, and en route Yendom realises the humans will not be allowed to reach Refusis with the Monoids. Monoid 2 kills him and is shortly afterward killed himself when the landing pod explodes.

The tension of the situation foments dissent in the Monoid ranks, with Monoid 4 openly opposing Monoid 1's plans to abandon the humans and colonise Refusis without more checks on the planet. Three launchers are sent to the planet, Monoids 1 and 4 commanding them, and when the crews emerge Monoid 4 interprets the destroyed landing pod as evidence of the danger that Monoid 1 has led them to. A civil war erupts between the two Monoid factions. The Doctor, Dodo and a Refusian use the confusion to steal one of the launchers and pilot back to the Ark.

The Monoids have placed a bomb on board the ship and plan to evacuate soon to the planet surface, leaving the humans to die on the spaceship. Word of this threat spreads and spurs a human rebellion. The arrival of the Doctor and the Refusian spur things along, and they soon realise the bomb has been placed in the head of the statue. Thankfully the Refusian is able to help dispose of the statue into space before the bomb explodes. The humans now begin to land on Refusis themselves, having been offered support on peaceful terms by the Refusians. Many of the Monoids have been killed in their civil war and those that remain are offered peaceful settlement alongside the other two species.

Once more the TARDIS departs, and this time the curiosity is that the Doctor simply vanishes from the TARDIS control room…

[edit] Continuity

In The Ark in Space, the Earth was also evacuated because of solar flare activity that rendered the biosphere uninhabitable for five thousand years. There, however, the survivors of mankind slept in suspended animation and returned to repopulate the planet after that period had passed.

The Earth is seen trailing smoke as it heads towards the Sun at the close of episode two. The Doctor estimate the date as 10,000,000, however in the 2005 episode "The End of the World", Earth is finally destroyed by the expanding Sun around AD 5,000,000,000. Series writer Paul Cornell opines that the fictional Time War alluded to in the revived series of Doctor Who rewrote some historical events, among them the destruction of Earth.^[1]

The Monoids also feature in the Bernice Summerfield audio drama The Kingdom of the Blind by Big Finish Productions.

The TARDIS is referenced in the first episode as "that black box" whereas by the time of the third doctor when the series was recorded in color it is obviously a blue police box.

[edit] Production

Although Lesley Scott is credited as a co-writer, she does not appear to have done any actual work on the scripts. Her then-husband, Paul Erickson requested that she be given a credit, but her name appears on no other related documents^[5]. Despite this, Scott was credited as a contributor to the Dr. Who Annuals published by World Distributors/World International^[6].

The Monoids were played by actors, each holding a ping-pong ball in his mouth to represent the alien's single eye. The upper portion of the actor's face was hidden by a Beatle wig.

This serial features a guest appearance by Michael Sheard. (See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.)

Doctor Who book
The Ark
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	114
Writer	Paul Erickson
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	David McAllister
ISBN	0-426-20253-8
Release date	October 1986 (Hardback) 19 March 1987 (Paperback)
Preceded by	Black Orchid
Followed by	The Mind Robber

[edit] Commercial releases

This story was released on VHS, in 1998. It was later released on CD (The CD version contains a two minute reprise from the end of the previous story The Massacre), with linking narration by Peter Purves. The CD also includes an interview with Peter about this story and his time on Doctor Who. This CD is available as an Audio Book on the iTunes store.

It is scheduled to be released on DVD in 2011 and will have an audio commentary with Peter Purves and Michael Imison^[7].

[edit] In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Paul Erickson, was published by Target Books in October 1986.

[edit] References

Some cds to consider buying to get the covers signed by guests and some advice on going to a convention

The Four Doctors is a Big Finish Productions audiobook based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is free to subscribers of The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories.

[edit] Plot

The Fifth Doctor investigates the Vault of Stellar Curios, where he has observed evidence of time leakage. But then the Daleks attack, looking for the contents of the mysterious vault. The Eighth Doctor also shows up and he and his former self create a time loop trap, spanning between their lives. This sends the Daleks to the Seventh Doctor's encounter with Michael Faraday in 1854 and the Sixth Doctor's visit to an early Dalek battlefield.

[edit] Cast

• Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
• Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
• Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann
• Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
• Professor Kalinda - Ellie Burrow
• Colonel Ulrik - David Bamber
• Michael Faraday - Nigel Lambert
• Roboman - Alex Mallinson
• Lady Cowen - Ellie Burrow
• Whitmore - David Bamber
• Magran - Nigel Lambert
• Jariden Device - Alex Mallinson

[edit] Continuity

• This is the first performed multi-Doctor story to feature the Daleks, apart from one scene and one Doctor in The Five Doctors.
• The Special Weapons Dalek featured in Remembrance of the Daleks.
• Robomen were used in The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
• The Dalek Prime was in the novel War of the Daleks.

[edit] Notes

• This is the first time all four Big Finish Doctors have teamed up in one story, apart from a brief scene in Zagreus set within the Eighth Doctor's mind.

The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. As with all Doctor Who spin-off media, its relationship to the televised serials is open to interpretation. It features the winner of Big Finish's Opportunity for New Writers contest in which they accepted unsolicited amateur submissions. Rick Briggs's "The Entropy Composition" was chosen from about 1200 submissions.

[edit] The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories

• The Doctor - Peter Davison
• Nyssa - Sarah Sutton

[edit] The Demons of Red Lodge

by Jason Arnopp
Nyssa and the Doctor suddenly wake up in Red Lodge, Suffolk in the year 1665. Panicked by recent memory loss, they quickly run into some very familiar faces.

• Emily Cobham/Ivy Cobham - Susan Kyd
• Villagers - Duncan Wisbey, John Dorney

[edit] The Entropy Composition

by Rick Briggs
White Waves, Soft Haze, a prog rock symphony by Geoff Cooper, was produced in 1968, but never released.

• Erisi - Andree Bernard
• Naloom - Ian Brooker
• Mrs Moloney - Joanna Munro
• Geoff Cooper - James Fleet

[edit] Doing Time

by William Gallagher
The Doctor spends over a year locked up in a prison on the planet Folly.

• Janson Hart - John Dorney
• Governor Chaplin - Susan Kyd
• Dask/Judge/Jabreth/Hobbling Pete - Duncan Wibsey

[edit] Special Features

by John Dorney
The Doctor contributes DVD Commentary to a 1970s horror movie, Doctor Demonic's Tales of Terror.

• Martin Ashcroft - James Fleet
• Sir Jack Merrivale/Professor Bromley/Narrator - Ian Brooker
• Johanna Bourke/Carlotta - Joanna Munro
• Mr Pinfield/Yokel/Running Man/Carriage Driver - John Dorney

[edit] External links

• The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories
• The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

• This is also the first Big Finish collaborative multi-Doctor story since their very first Doctor Who release The Sirens of Time.

his article is about the 1972 Doctor Who serial. For other uses, see mutant (disambiguation).

063 – The Mutants
Doctor Who serial
A mutated Solonian on the planet Solos.
Cast
Doctor Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor)
Companion Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Others Paul Whitsun-Jones — The Marshal George Pravda — Jaeger Christopher Coll — Stubbs Rick James — Cotton James Mellor — Varan Jonathan Sherwood — Varan's Son Garrick Hagon — Ky John Hollis — Sondergaard Geoffrey Palmer — Administrator Peter Howell — Investigator David Arlen — Warrior Guard Roy Pearce, Damon Sanders, Martin Taylor — Guards Sidney Johnson — Old Man John Scott Martin — Mutt
Production
Writer	Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Director	Christopher Barry
Script editor	Terrance Dicks
Producer	Barry Letts
Executive producer(s)	None
Production code	NNN
Series	Season 9
Length	6 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	April 8–May 13, 1972
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Sea Devils The Time Monster

The Mutants is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 8 to May 13, 1972.

The Mutants is also the title used by the production team for the series' second serial, which introduced the Daleks. To distinguish between the two, the earlier serial is usually referred to as The Daleks. Sometimes both stories are referred to as The Mutants, further distinguished by the production codes — (B) for the former and (NNN) for the latter.

[edit] Synopsis

It is the 30th century, near the end of the Earth Empire. On the colony world of Solos, something is transforming the human population, turning them into hideous mutants. But as the Third Doctor and Jo find out, that is only the beginning.

[edit] Plot

In the 30th century, the Earth Empire is contracting and plans are being made to decolonise the colony world of Solos. The militaristic Marshal and other human soldiers, known as Overlords, rule it from Skybase One. The Marshal opposes the decolonisation plans outlined to him by Administrator sent from Earth, and is also obsessed with eradicating the Mutants or Mutts that have sprung up on the planet below. The Solonians themselves are a tribal people, split between those who actively oppose the occupation, such as Ky, and those like Varan who collaborate with the imperialists. Indeed, the Marshal and Varan ensure the Administrator is murdered before he can confirm to Ky and other tribal chiefs that the Earth Empire is indeed withdrawing from Solos.

The Third Doctor and Jo arrive on Skybase One, their TARDIS having been transported there by the Time Lords. They have with them a message box which will only open for an intended recipient – and that is not the Marshal or his entourage – but seems to be for Ky, who has been framed for the murder of the Administrator. Jo and Ky flee to the surface of Solos, which seems to be poisonous to humans during daylight hours, and this affects Jo quite soon. Ky saves her with a stolen oxygen mask. The Doctor learns from the Marshal and his chief scientist Jaeger that they are involved in an experiment using rocket barrages to terraform Solos, making the air breathable to humans, regardless of the cost to indigenous life. They continue to bombard the surface with ever more deadly rockets.

Varan by now has discovered the Marshal’s treachery and events make him an outlaw on Skybase. The Doctor makes contact and together they persuade Stubbs and Cotton, the most senior soldiers to the Marshal, that much is wrong on Skybase. He then flees to Solos with Varan, and at the thaesium mine where Ky and Jo are hiding he encounters many Mutts, who are not as hostile as they first appeared. The Doctor passes the message box to Ky, and it opens to reveal ancient tablets and etchings which are written in the language of the Old Ones of the planet. Help in avoiding poisonous gas released by the Marshal is provided by a fugitive human scientist, Sondergaard, who lives in the caves and knows much about Solonian anthropology. Sondergaard explains he tried to inform Earth Control about the Marshal's evil, but he was prevented and forced to flee to the caves, where the radiation seems to have affected him. He interprets the contents of the box as a “lost Solos Book of Genesis”, and the Doctor then calculates a Solonian year to be equivalent to two thousand human years, with natural changes in the population every five hundred years within the cycle. Investigating a more radioactive part of the caves, the Doctor thus deduces the Mutant phase is a natural part of the Solonian racial life-cycle.

Varan has by now become a Mutt himself, the transformation beginning with his hand. He hides this and leads a Solonian attack on the Skybase which results in his death and those of many of his warriors. On Skybase Jo, Ky, Stubbs and Cotton are captured by the Marshal, and Stubbs is killed in a failed escape attempt. The Doctor meanwhile has returned to the Skybase – without Sondergaard, who seems too weak following the radiation contamination. He instead returns to the caves to communicate with the Mutants and explain to them the changes in their metabolisms are natural and not to be feared.

The Doctor is now back on Skybase and surmises the Marshal to be mad. It becomes clear that the Earth Government has now dispatched an Investigator to look into the strange events on Solos. The Marshal’s rocket attacks have not terraformed the planet, but they have left a hideous environmental impact and he knows he must clean this up or face problems when the Investigator arrives. Under duress the Doctor uses Jaeger’s technology to conduct a rapid decontamination of the planet’s surface. The Investigator arrives and demands answers, but is given more lies by the Marshal, supported by the Doctor, who fears Jo will be killed if he does not co-operate. Luckily Jo, Ky and Cotton have escaped their detention and arrive in time to help the Investigator see the truth of the situation on Solos and the crimes of the Marshal and Jaeger. The Doctor accuses them of "the most brutal and callous series of crimes against a defenseless people it's ever been my misfortunate to encounter." Sondergaard now reaches the Skybase with some Mutants, one of whom scares the Investigator enough that he accepts the Marshal’s analysis that the creatures should be killed.

Ky now begins a process of mutation, but it is accelerated beyond the Mutant phase so that he emerges as a radiant angel-like super-being. He communicates with thought transference, can float and can move through whole walls. Dispensing justice, Ky eradicates the Marshal. Jaeger has been killed too and the Investigator now makes sense of the situation. Sondergaard and Cotton elect to stay on Solos to see the other Solonians go through the mutation process, while Jo and the Doctor slip away, their mission from the Time Lords complete.

[edit] Continuity

A Mutt appears in the beginning of The Brain of Morbius. The Doctor describes it as being one of a mutant insect species that is widely established in the Nebula of Cyclops. Whether this is the location of Solos is not stated.

[edit] Production

Working titles for this story included Independence and The Emergents.

The opening shot of the story features a bedraggled, hermit-like bearded figure (Sidney Johnson) shambling out of the mist towards the camera. Both fans and Jon Pertwee alike have compared the scene to the "It's" man at the start of most episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus.^[4][5]

[edit] Outside references

This serial is mentioned in Salman Rushdie's controversial novel The Satanic Verses, where it is criticised for alleged racist attitudes. Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin, as well as producer Barry Letts, actually intended for the story to have an anti-racist message.^[6]

So powerful was this story's condemnation of the policy of Apartheid in South Africa, many polytechnic student unions renamed buildings "Bob Baker and Dave Martin House", in honour of its writing team.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] In print

Doctor Who book
Doctor Who and the Mutants
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	44
Writer	Terrance Dicks
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Jeff Cummins
ISBN	0-426-11690-9
Release date	29 September 1977
Preceded by	Doctor Who and the Planet of Evil
Followed by	Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in September 1977. This was the only book to feature the abbreviation "Dr Who" on the spine.

[edit] Broadcast and commercial releases

• This story came out on VHS in February 2003.

This story is due for DVD release in 2011 and will have an audio commentary by Katy Manning, Garrick Hagon, Bob Baker, Jeremy Bear, Brian Hodgson, Terrance Dicks and Christopher Barry moderated by Nick Pegg.^[7]

The music from this serial was released as part of Doctor Who: Devils' Planets - The Music of Tristram Cary in 2003.

A Christmas Carol" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.^[12] It is the sixth Doctor Who Christmas Special since the programme's revival in 2005, and was broadcast on 25 December 2010 on both BBC One and BBC America, making it the first episode to premiere on the same day in both the United Kingdom and United States. It was broadcast on 26 December 2010 on ABC1 in Australia^[13] and on Space in Canada.^[14]

The episode features the acting debut of Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins,^[15] She stars alongside Michael Gambon, Micah Balfour and Pooky Quesnel.^[6]

The episode had an initial rating of 10.3 million viewers on BBC One and BBC One HD according to overnight figures, making it the second most watched programme on Christmas Day, just behind EastEnders. The rating was roughly comparable to the 2009 episode, The End of Time Part 1, which had 10.0 million watching on BBC One and 0.4 million on BBC HD.^[16]

A preview of the episode was shown during the Children in Need annual telethon on 19 November 2010.^[16]

The crew of a space liner carrying more than 4000 passengers struggles to maintain the ship's course while traveling through the strange cloud cover of a human-inhabited planet that interferes with their controls. Amy and Rory, aboard the liner for their honeymoon, send a distress call to the Doctor to help. The Doctor is unable to use the TARDIS directly to save the liner, and lands at a house topped by a giant antenna-like spire that seems to control the clouds. The sole resident of the house is bitter, peevish, old Kazran Sardick. The wealthiest and most powerful man on the planet, his father had built the spire. The Doctor tries to convince Kazran to turn off the cloud controls — isomorphically locked to him — but he mockingly refuses. Kazran, like his late father, considers the rest of the population of the planet little more than cattle, and cares not for the lives aboard the liner either. This becomes apparent to the Doctor when Kazran refuses to release a young woman, Abigail, from cryonic storage to her family for even a Christmas day. Recognizing that Kazran's father has had a significant effect on Kazran's life, the Doctor devises a scheme inspired by Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the idea being to influence Kazran in his past and present to become more compassionate to the lives aboard the liner.

The Doctor visits a young Kazran shortly after his father had struck him for trying to experiment with a unique phenomenon of the planet: the ability of all manner of fish to "swim" in the foggy air. The Doctor discovers the ice in the clouds contain a weak electrical charge; this is what allows the fish to swim, but is also what is disrupting the space liner. The "boys" experiment with the fish anyway, until a shark attacks them and swallows the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The Doctor recovers half, but inadvertently harms the shark in the process; it cannot return to swim in the clouds. The Doctor concludes that some sort of life support container could transport the shark safely to the clouds. Young Kazran shows the Doctor a system of cryonic chambers beneath the spire, where Kazran's father stores as "security" family members of people to whom he has lent money. Kazran directs the Doctor to Abigail's chamber; Kazran knows she had been fascinated by the fish before she was put into storage. They release her, and she sings to the shark, resonating with the ice crystals, and calming it. The three then successfully return the shark to the clouds.

Before putting Abigail back into her chamber, Kazran promises that he and the Doctor will return every Christmas Eve to celebrate it with Abigail. The Doctor keeps this promise, travelling forward every year to reunite Kazran and Abigail, taking them across time and space, and watching them develop a romance as he grows to a young adult and is introduced to her family. However, after several Christmas Eves, Abigail reveals a secret to Kazran, leading him to decide to end the tradition and leave her in cryonic storage indefinitely. The Doctor gives the broken half of the sonic screwdriver to Kazran to use when he needs it. Meanwhile, in the present, older Kazran enjoys his many new memories, but, heartbroken at Abigail's fate, still refuses to disable the spire.

From the liner, Amy appears to present-time Kazran as a hologram. She shows Kazran the crew of the doomed liner, singing Christmas carols, using the musical vibrations to partially stabilise the ship within the cloud system, just as Abigail calmed the shark, but still leaving the ship doomed to crash. Kazran waves away the holograms, continuing to refuse to release the controls. When the Doctor appears and tries to show Kazran his future, Kazran reveals Abigail's secret, that she was dying before she was frozen and will live only one more day outside of the chamber. Fully admitting that he will die alone, he values the one day left he has with Abigail over the thousands on the liner or the population of the planet. Unbeknownst to Kazran, the Doctor has brought young Kazran into the present to show the boy his future; he is shocked by his elder self's revelation. This change is reflected in the newly compassionate older Kazran, and he agrees to release the spire controls. They find, however, that the Doctor's interference has changed Kazran's past too much; Kazran's father, seeing his boy too kind to others, never programmed the spire's controls to recognise Kazran.

The Doctor concocts a new plan: by unfreezing Abigail and having her sing through the broken half of the sonic screwdriver amplified by the spire, the other half, still inside the shark, would be able to resonate the ice crystals, disrupting the cloud field, and allowing the liner to safely land. Kazran is aware that Abigail will die after one day, but he releases her anyway; she comforts him, reminding him they have had many Christmas Eves together and it is time for Christmas Day to come. The Doctor's plan is successful, and as the ship safely lands on the planet, the breakup of the clouds releases snow across the city. As the Doctor takes young Kazran back to his past and reunites with Amy and Rory, the old Kazran and Abigail celebrate a shark-drawn carriage ride together.

[edit] Continuity

Several nods to earlier outfits in the series appear in A Christmas Carol. Amy Pond wears her kissogram policewoman's outfit from "The Eleventh Hour", while Rory wears a Roman centurion's outfit as seen in "The Pandorica Opens". In one of the many Christmas Eves the Doctor and Kazran spend with Abigail, they present themselves to her in matching long, stripy scarves. The Fourth Doctor's trademark accessory was long, striped scarves. The two also appear in fezes, an item of clothing the Doctor became fond of in "The Big Bang".^[17]

The Doctor initially scoffs at the idea of "isomorphic controls" – controls that will operate only for a specific person or limited set of people. In the classic series Pyramids of Mars the Doctor states to Sutekh that the TARDIS controls are isomorphic, although many other characters are seen operating them. In "Last of the Time Lords", the Master had a laser screwdriver with isomorphic controls.

During one of his trips with Kazran and Abigail, the Doctor introduces them to Frank Sinatra and inadvertently ends up marrying Marilyn Monroe, though he later attempts to claim that the ceremony did not take place in a legitimate chapel.^[18] The Doctor has hinted at marriage before during "The End of Time", suggesting his wife was Queen Elizabeth I, which was also reported upon by Liz 10 in "The Beast Below".

[edit] Production

[edit] Writing

According to Ben Stephenson, Controller of BBC Drama Commissioning, the episode is a "clever twist on the much loved A Christmas Carol".^[19] Matt Smith added "It's as Christmasy as it comes in 'Doctor Who' land. It's loosely based on a 'Christmas Carol' with a time travelling twist. Steven has managed to reinvent it. I think those two things marry quite well together — 'Doctor Who' and Christmas."^[20] Steven Moffat, writer for this episode said "It's all your favourite Christmas movies at once, in an hour, with monsters. And the Doctor. And a honeymoon."^[12]

A read-through took place in Cardiff on Thursday, 8 July and production started on 12 July 2010 and lasted into August 2010.^[21][19]

[edit] Cast notes

Arthur Darvill is included in the opening credits in this episode, for the first time since he joined Doctor Who.

[edit] Broadcast and reception

A Christmas Carol was tied with Come Fly with Me as the second most-watched program on Christmas Day in the United Kingdom, following EastEnders, and with a average viewership of 10.3 million peaking at 10.7 million.^[22]

[edit] International broadcast

A Christmas Carol is the first episode of Doctor Who that was broadcast the same day in the United Kingdom and in North America through BBC America. Previous episodes from the revitalized series would have from a week to months-delay between the BBC and the BBC America or Sci Fi channel airing. Richard de Croce, Vice-President of Programming at BBC America, stated that they will try to continue the same-day airing on both stations with future episodes of Series 6.^[23] In the United States, 727,000 viewers watched A Christmas Carol, an 8% increase on the previous holiday special, The End of Time.^[24]

My Short Trips comp entry is this years Christmas short Story.

Enjoy

Short Story (The Outpost)

One of my Entries into the Big Finish "Short Trips" Comp. Longer story in the Christmas TDP

Also

Messages from other Podcasters and a Chritmas Doctor Who Update

The Prion star system contains two habitable planets which have supported civilisations: Zolfa-Thura, a desert world devoid seemingly of life structures bar five giant screens; and Tigella, a jungle world inhabited by the humanoid, white haired Tigellans. The structure of Tigellan society is based on two castes: the scientific Savants, led by the earnest Deedrix; and the religiously fanatical Deons, led by Lexa. The latter worship the Dodecahedron, a mysterious twelve-sided crystal which they see as a gift from the god Ti. The Savants, however, have utilised its power as an energy source for their entire civilisation. The planet’s leader, Zastor, mediates between the two factions, whose tensions have grown greater as the energy source has begun to fluctuate. When Zastor’s old friend the Fourth Doctor gets in touch, the weary leader invites him back to Tigella to investigate and help. When the Doctor, Romana and K-9 try to land the TARDIS on Tigella someone intervenes, trapping them in a time bubble known as a chronic hysteresis, causing them to repeat their words and actions over and over again.

The culprit is Meglos, the last Zolfa-Thuran, a cactus creature who has remained hidden below the surface of his planet in a secret structure. He has summoned a band of ramshackle space pirates called Gaztaks to help him in an audacious plan, and their leaders Grugger and Brotodac are greedy enough to try. Meglos wants to steal the Dodecahedron back from Tigella, as it is a Zolfa-Thuran energy source of immense power. To aid him, Meglos uses an Earthling captured for him by the Gaztaks to occupy and take on humanoid form: and the humanoid form he chooses is the Doctor, whom he has trapped in the bubble. While the hysteresis persists Meglos gets the Gaztaks to take him to Tigella, and infiltrates the city in his new identity. Zastor greets “the Doctor” warmly as an old friend, asking him to examine the Dodecahedron, but others are less sure, especially Lexa.

The Doctor and Romana break out of the bubble by throwing it out of phase, and then land the TARDIS on Tigella – but in the middle of the hostile jungle rather than near the city. As the Doctor heads off to find Zastor, Romana stumbles across the dangerous vegetation – deadly bell plants – and then the Gaztaks, waiting patiently for Meglos to return to their spaceship. She gives them the slip after a while and heads off to the city herself.

Meglos has used his time as the Doctor to access and steal the Dodecahedron, shrinking it to minute size. Not all goes smoothly, however, as the Earthling fights back against his occupation, causing green cactus spikes to break out on his skin. When the Tigellans sound the alarm Meglos hides away but the real Doctor arrives at the same time and is accused of theft. His bewilderment and charm are little defence as both Savants and Deons start to panic as the energy levels of the city start to fail. Lexa uses the situation to her own ends. Zastor and Deedrix are arrested in a Deon coup, with other Savants expelled to the hostile surface of the planet, while the Doctor himself is prepared for sacrifice to Ti.

The doors of the city are sealed, with Meglos still trapped inside, with a hostage Savant named Caris for company. She soon gets the upper hand when the Earthling tries another bout of resistance. In a subsequent mix up Romana overpowers Caris, letting Meglos escape and reunite with the Gaztaks, who have staged an attack on the city to rescue him. The Dodecahedron is in his possession and the pirates soon blast off back to Zolfa-Thura – though three Gaztaks, half the crew, have been lost.

The real Doctor has by now been able to prove to the Tigellans he did not steal the artefact and there is a doppelgänger at work. Lexa realises her mistake but does not live long to regret it when she is shot dead by a wounded Gaztak who was left behind. The Doctor, Romana, Caris and Deedrix head with K9 for the TARDIS, determined to follow the Gaztak ship.

Grugger’s ship touches down on Zolfa-Thura and Meglos wastes no time in restoring the Dodecahedron to full size and placing it at a spot equidistant between the Screens. He reveals his race perished in a civil war over the control of the crystal, which can power a weapon strong enough to destroy planets. At Grugger’s urging Meglos decides to use the weapon again and to aim it at Tigella.

When the Doctor arrives he plays Meglos at his own game and tries a little impersonation. The situation becomes so confused the Gaztaks lose track of which one is which, enabling the Doctor to change the settings of the super-weapon. Meglos abandons the Earthling, leaving a bemused man watching a cactus creature reassert himself in his laboratory. Meglos knows the Doctor has realigned the weapon. The creature is unable to stop the Doctor fleeing back to the TARDIS, taking the Earthling with him, and is also unable to persuade Grugger not to fire the weapon. From the TARDIS the Doctor and his friends witness the destruction of Zolfa-Thura, the Gaztaks, Meglos and the Dodecahedron.

Caris and Deedrix return to rebuild Tigella, recognising with Zastor and the Deons that old enmities must be put aside and a new society forged. The Doctor and Romana depart and prepare to take the Earthling home, but as they are leaving Romana receives a message from the Time Lords that she must return to Gallifrey…

A re issue of the First TDP Promo as part of the build up to the 150th TDP!

Starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred with Philip Olivier

(Duration: 120' approx)

CAST:

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Philip Olivier (Hex), Michael Brandon (CP Doveday), Kate Terence (Dr Freya Gabriel), Stuart Milligan (Emerson Whytecrag), Alex Lowe (Professor August Corbin), Sam Clemens (Slade), Duncan Wisbey (Captain Akins)

SYNOPSIS:

check

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Part One Edit

Sarah Jane faces her saddest day, as she realises that no one can defend the Earth forever. She’s saved the world so many times, but must now hand over the task to safer hands. Clyde and Rani are distraught, and the forces of darkness gather as the inevitable day approaches.

Part Two Edit

Sarah Jane has gone – but a new regime begins at Bannerman Road! Clyde and Rani must face the fact that nothing lasts forever – but can they still unite as a team, to face a new and deadly threat from outer space? Or is the old gang finished for good?

Plot Edit

Part One Edit

A meteor hurtles towards Earth. Mr Smith redirects it to safer co-ordinates, and says it will contain germ pathogens. The gang hurry to neutralise it and stop the germs escaping. The meteorite reads all clear, then a strange woman appears, claiming to be saving the world. She drives off in a red sports car, and Clyde points out that she is doing the same thing as Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane does not look pleased.

They find the woman has just moved in across the street and go to find out who she is. She behaves coldly towards them, telling them to get out of her house. Her name is Ruby White, and she sees them as amateurs. She moved to Ealing because of all the alien activity- Trueman, the bubbleshock factory, rhinos in police cars and alien plant life. Sarah Jane decides to stay away from Ruby, but keep her eyes open.

The next day, Gita waves to Sarah Jane on her way home. Sarah Jane says she has to make Lukes tea, and then realises he is at university. Clyde and Rani go to check that she is alright. She calls Luke, just two hours after she last spoke to him, and can't remember K9's name. Rani suggests she take a holiday and visit Luke, when Mr Smith gives a red alert. A fleet of Dark Horde warriors are heading for Earth. They trace the scan beam and lock on to the attic to neutralise enemy technology. Mr Smith diverts the teleport to an uninhabited area. Sarah Jane starts acting out of character, giving Clyde a gun and saying they must protect the Earth by any means.

An advance party of three warriors lands on Earth. Sarah Jane plans to use a device to overload their sensors. She asks Clyde for the sonic lipstick, but he said she told him to bring the gun (which isn't even charged). Sarah Jane has made a big mistake. Then Ruby arrives and tosses spheres to both Rani and Clyde. She uses an artificial intelligence to project the Dark Horde with a stronger version of themselves; their logical reaction was to flee. Clyde suggests calling the AI 'Mr White'.

They take Ruby back to the attic, where Mr White gets along well with Mr Smith. Sarah Jane says she'd be glad to have an adult friend. Whilst explaining to Ruby how she became involved with aliens, Sarah Jane forgets the Doctor's name for a moment, something she can't believe she did. She orders Mr Smith to medi-scan her; he tells her there is evidence of brain tissue deterioration. Sarah Jane takes this to mean she is now too old to continue defending the Earth. Ruby makes friends with Clyde and Rani, who are eager to show off their knowledge of aliens, and Sarah Jane feels very left out.

Sarah Jane asks Ruby to take over the duty of protecting the Earth, offering her the house, Mr Smith and Clyde and Rani. Ruby agrees. Sarah Jane goes to leave, not even bothering to tell Luke she is going, and orders Mr Smith to wipe her voice from the command program so she can no longer order him. She realises something is wrong and begs Ruby to help her. Instead, Ruby teleports her to a 'secret cellar' which houses her stomach. She reveals that she is the one making Sarah Jane ill, draining her life force. She is a Katesh, whose race devours peoples thrills and emotions. She targeted Sarah Jane as she has the most exciting life on Earth. Mr White is making a farewell message for Clyde and Rani so they will believe Sarah Jane has gone because 'she' will tell them. Ruby's stomach drains Sarah Jane directly, as Ruby gloats about how she will feast on the Earth...

Part Two Edit

Ruby explains that rather than stop aliens, she will help them, and feed on the excitement and terror that humanity will feel. Back in the attic, Clyde and Rani watch Mr Whites faked video. Clyde can't believe she has just gone, and blames Rani for putting the idea of a 'holiday' in her head. Mr Smith starts acting strangely, trying to give Clyde a warning- 'Beware Ruby'. Ruby shuts down Mr Smith and teleports Clyde to her spaceship. It was once her prison, until she reprogrammed it's game console (Mr White). Ruby leaves Clyde in the prison to suffocate.

Rani tries to call Clyde, and then hears a knock at the door. She opens it to find Luke. K9, who is back in Oxford, tracks Clydes phone to space. Rani goes to place the phone near Mr White so K9 can reset him and free Mr Smith from his influence, as well as rescue Clyde. Clyde leaves a message on his phone for the others to find and collapses. Rani distracts Ruby, who isn't convinced, but luckily K9 manages to reset Mr White in time. Clyde and Rani go to rescue Sarah Jane. Ruby corners them in the cellar and threatens to devour them completely.

Luke arrives and gives Ruby a warning to leave Earth. When she refuses, Mr White sends a hologram, so everyone on Earth sees a meteor hurtling straight for them. Ruby cannot handle the sudden inrush of emotions and thrills from 6 billion people. The stomach swells, then shrinks and releases all the energy it took from Sarah Jane back into her. Sarah Jane sends Ruby back to her prison ship, but Ruby swears to get revenge on her. Luke takes them all out for a treat, and Sarah Jane says that although the universe is full of amazing things, they have stiff competition on Earth.

Cast Edit

• Sarah Jane Smith - Elizabeth Sladen
• Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
• Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
• Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
• Luke Smith - Thomas Knight
• K9 Mark IV - John Leeson (Part 2 Only)
• Gita Chandra - Mina Anwar
• Haresh Chandra - Ace Bhatti
• Ruby White - Julie Graham
• Mr White - Eddie Marsan

Crew Edit

to be added

References Edit

• Ruby refers to Sarah Jane's area as "The Ealing Triangle", a play on the Bermuda Triangle, an area in the North Atlantic Ocean, where a number of planes and sea vessels have mysteriously vanished over the years.
• Ruby mentions she has a bio damper.

Story notes Edit

to be added

Ratings Edit

to be added

Myths Edit

• Luke and K9 will return. This was proven true

Filming locations Edit

to be added

Production errors Edit

to be added

Continuity Edit

• Clyde is once again splattered with alien slime. (SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen, Enemy of the Bane, The Gift, The Nightmare Man)
• Ruby White mentions in passing the events of SJA: Invasion of the Bane, Secrets of the Stars, Prisoner of the Judoon and The Gift.

Starring Mark McDonnell, Hannah Smith and Barnaby Edwards

(Duration: 240' approx)

CAST:

Mark McDonnell (Liam Barnaby), Hannah Smith (Samantha Thorn), Barnaby Edwards (Paul Hunt), Jo Castleton (Hazel Trahn), Ian Brooker (Yan), Ian Hallard (Chessman), Andrew Dickens (Milo Taggart), Toby Hadoke (Louis Richter), Martin Trent (Merced), Cal Jaggers (Becca Trahn),  Jess Robinson (Janice Webb), Stuart Crossman (The News), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber Voices)

SYNOPSIS:

CHRONOLOGICAL PLACEMENT:

This story is set after the events of Cyberman, the first series.

NOTE:
CDs only available as a boxed set. Box cover enhanced with silver foil. CD 5 is a behind-the-scenes

Plot

[edit] Part 1

Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde are lured by an article to a shop where an alien has been sighted. When they arrive, they are met by the mysterious shopkeeper and his parrot. The Shopkeeper needs their help to save the Earth. They need to find three pieces made of chronosteen, a metal forged in the Time Vortex which can reshape destiny, before it is too late. They can be found at key points of the Earth's history. The Shopkeeper is able to open a time window, into which Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde are forced. They are transported in time to three different eras, and each must face danger alone.

Rani ends up in the Tower of London on 19 July 1553, to be a lady-in-waiting to Lady Jane Grey, who is about to be usurped by Mary I. It is the final day of her reign. Rani and Lady Jane easily become friends. Mary's army have reached London. Rani discovers a plot to kill Lady Jane that very night.

Clyde ends up in an English coastal village in 1941 during World War II. He meets George, an adolescent evacuee, who has spotted three Wehrmacht soldiers on the beach. They are now the only people who can save Britain from an invasion. They hide in the church, but are found. The Germans have a hammer - Thor's Hammer. With this they can block radar systems and start the invasion of Britain.

Sarah Jane ends up in a house haunted by ghosts in 1889. She meets the girl Emily Morris, who is looking for the ghosts. At eight o'clock the "haunting" begins. They hear a woman talk and children playing with fire. The "ghosts" are not from the past, but the future, where a fire will start and kill the children. Sarah Jane and Emily must find a way to stop this from happening.

[edit] Part 2

Rani stops Lady Mathilda from killing her with the dagger of Chronosteen. Mathilda wanted to make Lady Jane a martyr to inspire the Protestants to rise up against Mary. Rani stays with Jane until the latter is taken to the keep. She promises Lady Jane that she will not be forgotten by history or by her. Taking the dagger, Rani disappears through the time window. Jane believes that Rani is an angel and, reasoning that angels speak only the truth, goes to her death confident that she will be remembered.

Clyde distracts the Wehrmacht with his mobile phone, claiming it to be a sophisticated bomb; George is able to use that moment to snatch Thor's Hammer. The pair lock themselves in a chamber below the bell tower, and repeatedly chime the bell to alert the townsfolk and Home Guard of the emergency. The Germans dash back to the beach but are captured by the Home Guard. George asserts his duty and desire to join the military as soon as he is of age, dismissing Clyde's request that he wait until 1945; Clyde implores him to be careful before disappearing into the time window. George arives on the beach and poses armed for a photograph with the German troops whose capture he and Clyde had facilitated. George survives combat and goes on to contribute significantly to the post-war development of radar, for which he is honoured late in life by the Queen.

Sarah Jane resets the clock to eight o'clock and the "haunting" continues. This time they see the future nanny talking on a mobile telephone. The children are locked in a room playing with a candle. Emily manage to call out to the children and they hear her. It is her fear when she lost her mother that connects her with them. Emily uses this ability to turn the key in the lock and the children escape. Sarah Jane, now holding the key, starts disappearing through the time window, but Emily takes the key and won't let go. When Sarah Jane returns the time window has become critical and without the key, the world will be sucked into the time vortex. At this moment a woman appears at their side with the key. The time window closes. The Shopkeeper, without explanation of the whole thing, bids them farewell and disappears with his parrot called Captain.

The woman is Angela Price, a granddaughter of Emily. She has been told to come to the shop shown in the article on this exact day and give the key back. While walking out of the shop, Clyde compliments Rani's makeover into Tudor dress.

interview featurette.

 SJSA 4.2 4.3 and 4.4

Part 1

A teenage girl enters an asylum, and approaches The Vault of Secrets. She tries to access it, but only has one disc. She is then confronted by The Alliance of Shades, so she escapes, injures herself and falls over. Androvax exits her body, and escapes. The Alliance of Shades (a.k.a Men In Black) arrive at the scene, and scan the unconscious girl. The Veil is declared no longer in her.

Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani are in the attic, speaking to Luke on webcam, and Mr Smith interferes with a NASA space probe on Mars, to prevent it discovering an ancient and deadly civilisation.

Gita and her husband Haresh have joined B.U.R.P.S.S. (The British UFO Research and Paranormal Studies Society) due to Gita's encounter with the Judoon and Androvax in the past. When the couple arrive home on Bannerman Road, Gita spots Androvax entering Sarah Jane's front garden.

Haresh arms himself and goes to investigate, and encounters Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde. Haresh leaves after a conversation with them, and Androvax enters Rani's body. Sarah Jane scans for alien activity, and realises Rani has been taken over. Sarah Jane and Clyde chase her/him to the attic, and order Mr Smith to contain him after exiting Rani's body.

They discover that Androvax is dying, having escaped a prison in a swamp and been poisoned by an alien viper. He intends to free 100 of his people from cryogenic sleep in The Vault of Secrets - the last survivors of the Veil species, aside from Androvax himself.

Ocean Waters, the founder of B.U.R.P.S.S., arrives with Minty to scan for alien activity by picking up Beta particles. Sarah Jane uses her Sonic lipstick to deactivate this device.

The three of them go to investigate at a mental asylum, where they encounter the base of the Men In Black. They are detected, and the Men In Black go to confront them. They discover that Ocean Waters was abducted in 1972 and encountered the Men In Black. The Men In Black then arrive to confront them, and activate their robotic hands. They tell Sarah Jane she must hand over Androvax and their disc, or prepare to be incinerated.

The gang arrive home, where they agree with Androvax to let him use Clyde's body. They then speak to Ocean and Minty. Ocean turns out to have the other disc required to enter the Vault, and she recalls past encounters with the Men In Black and Mister Dread. Then the Men In Black arrive and tell them they must prepare to be incinerated.

[edit] Part 2

The incineration is averted, Androvax escapes and enters Gita's body. Gita leaves for the Vault, and is followed by Mister Dread, Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde. Sarah Jane causes Mister Dread's car to malfunction, so he acquires a new one.

They all arrive at the asylum, where Rani and Clyde rescue Gita. Androvax then leaves and encounters Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane refuses to help him because when the Veil are reawakened and leave Earth, the spaceships will cause Earth to explode, ending the human civilisation. Sarah Jane's body is then taken over by Androvax.

Clyde jumps away from an incineration blast from two Men In Black, and the two men destroy each other. Rani explains to her mother about aliens, and how Sarah Jane, she and Clyde have encountered them. Mister Dread is placed into his capsule and made to sleep. Androvax goes to the Vault, in Sarah Jane's body, pretending to be her. He/she opens the Vault, revealing many spaceships, much to Gita's surprise. Androvax then leaves Sarah's body, and locks himself inside the Vault, which uses a Transmat to make it bigger on the inside. The team awaken Mister Dread, who gives up 450 years of his energy to allow Androvax and his race to leave Earth without harming anybody, by being beamed into space.

Mister Dread now lacks power, and declares his mission terminated. He erases the memory of Gita, who intends to tell the world about their experiences, and goes to sleep in his capsule. The team return home, and Ocean and Minty arrive to ask about the Men In Black. Sarah Jane denies everything and Gita says she doesn't believe in aliens. Minty and Ocean say that the aliens have won again and decide to leave. In outer space, Androvax flies away to find a new world, having saved his species.

Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde are talking to Luke via webcam but are interrupted when Mr Smith alerts them that a UNIT armed forces convoy is converging on the house. The commanding officer, Colonel Karim, informs the group that the Doctor is dead, despite Sarah Jane's protests that it can't be possible. It is claimed that the Doctor died in the Wastelands of the Crimson Heart, where he had saved the lives of 500 children from the Scarlet Monstrosity. A race called the Shansheeth ^[3] have retrieved the body and are holding a funeral for the Doctor at UNIT Base 5, buried underground at the foot of Mount Snowdon. Sarah Jane still believes that the Doctor must be alive, and so goes along to search for evidence that it is a hoax.

Upon arrival at the base they find that a small number of other mourners have been invited, as few survive their encounters with the Doctor. Many also couldn't make it including the Brigadier, who is stranded in Peru. The team also find, to their surprise a Groske working in the base, a blue skinned cousin of the Graske race they have had problems with in the past. The Doctor's body is to be blasted into space via a huge rocket, built by the Groske. They proceed to the ceremony of remembrance, however Clyde's left hand develops a growing blue electric charge, which he is unnerved at. At the ceremony, music is played which recalls memories for all about the Doctor; for Sarah Jane it is memories of the Third and Fourth Doctors, while for Rani and Clyde it is their encounters with the Doctor at Sarah Jane's wedding. Clyde then realises that the charge is Artron energy, which he had previously carried after touching the vanishing TARDIS at the wedding. The ceremony is interrupted by the clumsy arrival of Jo Jones (née Grant), as she drops a vase of flowers. She is accompanied by her grandson, Santiago. The two former companions chat, as do the children, and both women agree that they are sure that the Doctor must still be alive.

In their dormitory, the two women make a list of enemies that might try to fake the Doctor's death, while the children leave and wander round the base. Outside the room, Clyde again receives a shock on his hand and reveals the affliction to the other two. They encounter the lead Groske again, who informs them that the rising artron energy signals that an unidentified someone is getting closer and closer. Clyde, desperate to find out more pursues the Groske down an air vent, where they watch as the Shansheeth plot to make the two companions relive their days with the Doctor and therefore drain their minds for an unknown purpose, killing them in the process. The Shansheeth play music down the ventilation shafts to the former companions, where they start to recollect their adventures with the Doctor. The children are discovered by the Shansheeth when another artron energy discharge gives away their position.

The children flee and run into Sarah Jane and Jo who sense they are in trouble. After recollecting what the Shansheeth are doing, they are surprised to hear an adult male talking through Clyde's mouth. However, the next minute Clyde appears normal. He then gains the Doctor's hand before seemingly morphing into the Doctor. The Doctor, now in the UNIT base, explains that he used Clyde's residual Artron Energy to make a complicated swap of 10,000 light years. The result of this is, as the Doctor realises, is that he can fight the Shansheeth while Clyde however is where the Doctor just was: trapped in danger on an alien world. Sarah Jane realises that the man standing before them is the Doctor's newest incarnation shortly before the Shansheeth catch up with the group where the Doctor confronts them. A Shansheeth quips that they will ensure their announcement of the Doctor's death is correct this time, they then proceed to launch a beam of energy from their claws at him, causing him to yelp in pain and collapse to the floor.

[edit] Part 2

The Doctor disappears and Clyde reappears—they have swapped places again. Clyde, Jo, Rani, Santiago and Sarah Jane run away from the Shansheeth to safety, the Doctor swapping places again with Clyde part way. The Doctor, Jo and Sarah swap places with Clyde and go to the alien planet, where they talk. The Doctor says that he visited Jo before he regenerated and told Jo that he had been into her future and seen her thirteenth grandchild. The Doctor works on perfecting the machine which allowed them to swap places with Clyde. When fixed, it can transport them without needing to swap with Clyde. Clyde and Rani talk with Santiago, who reveals he hasn't spoken to his parents in six months. Colonel Karim meanwhile is with the Shansheeth, and they are plotting to use Jo and Sarah Jane's memories of the TARDIS to create a new TARDIS Key, so the Shansheeth can stop death across the universe by interfering with the timelines and so that Colonel Karim, in return, shall visit the stars because she has nothing left for her on Earth.

Rani, Santiago, Clyde and a Groske try to get through the ventilation shafts, but Colonel Karim heats the shafts up, until the children are in danger of roasting. The Doctor, Jo and Sarah Jane go to the rescue, but Jo and Sarah Jane are kidnapped and the Doctor must go on alone. Sarah Jane and Jo are strapped up and the Memory Weave is used on them. Their minds are scanned and they begin remembering the TARDIS, these memories generate a new TARDIS Key as the Shansheeth and Colonel Karim make their intentions clear.

The Doctor, Rani, Clyde, Santiago and a Groske come to the room Sarah Jane and Jo are in and tell them to remember other experiences. Sarah Jane and Jo both remember past encounters with the Doctor and all the creatures and enemies they met. Jo remembers all the countries she has been to as Sarah Jane remembers her battles with aliens. The memory weave overloads and explodes, the room is on fire. Sarah Jane and Jo hide in the lead coffin and shut themselves inside to survive the explosion. Later, they are taken to Sarah Jane's house, alive and well. Jo and Sarah Jane talk with the Doctor inside the TARDIS; Jo mentions the Time Lords and the Doctor mentions a foreshadowing (that if he ever were to die, the universe would shiver). He then allows them to leave, and demateralises. Jo and Santiago leave for Norway, and the trio are left behind, where Sarah Jane tells them of Tegan Jovanka, Ben Jackson, Polly, Harry Sullivan, Ace, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. They say that with friends like themselves, the Doctor will never die.

Rani and Clyde are the only people left in the world and are trying to find other people. This episode includes red and yellow robots that try to attack Clyde and Rani.

After detecting an alien energy source, Clyde and Rani go to bed while Mr Smith tries to trace it. But in the morning, Rani realises that her parents are missing and so is Sarah Jane and everyone on Bannerman Road.

Starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred with Philip Olivier
(Duration: 120' approx)

CAST:

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Philip Olivier (Hex), Stephen Chance (Sir William Abberton), Maggie O’Neill (Captain Lysandra Aristedes), Philip Dinsdale (Sergeant Jarrod), Ingrid Oliver (Helen/Oracle)

SYNOPSIS:
1999: Leaving her infant son behind, a young mother named Cassandra Schofield departs Bolton, seeking a better life amid the lights of London.

2004: Despite the best efforts of the time-travelling Doctor, 'Cassie' Schofield dies on Dartmoor, a vampirised victim of the sinister organisation called The Forge.

2021: All grown up, and a nurse at St Gart's Hospital, Thomas Hector Schofield – known as 'Hex' – meets, and becomes a companion to, that time-travelling Doctor… but remains unaware that his alien friend knew his mother, and watched her die.

1854: In the Crimean War, Hex takes a bullet, and is seriously injured. The Doctor promises to return him to St Gart's.

2025: Now. In a London ravaged by a deadly contagion… destiny awaits.

Starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred
(Duration: 120' approx)

CAST:

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Maggie Stables (Evelyn), Ian Reddington (Nobody No One), John Dorney (Corporal/Novice), Alison Thea-Skot (Ayl-San/Faber/Nurse), Andrew Dickens (Captain Stillwell/Applin/Tour Guide), Harriet Kershaw (Ann-the-Van/Story Speaker/Webster)

SYNOPSIS:
"The future folds into the past. The homeless hero has fallen. Now begins the time of three tales: The Tale of the Herald. The Tale of the Hidden Woman. The Tale of the Final Speaker. When the last tale is told, all the lights shall fail. The world will end."

21st century London: Nobody No One, the extra-dimensional Word Lord, is again running amok. Only this time, he's unbeatable – and a terrible tragedy is about to unfold.

It is written.
AUTHOR:     Steven Hall
    DIRECTOR:    Ken Bentley
SOUND DESIGN:    Richard Fox and Lauren Yason     MUSIC:    Richard Fox and Lauren Yason
COVER ART:    Simon Holub
    NUMBER OF DISCS:    2
RECORDED DATE:    28/29 April 2010     RELEASE DATE:    31 October 2010
PRODUCTION CODE:    7W/N     ISBN:    978-1-84435-499-3