536 Meglos: Part One

EPISODE: Meglos: Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 536
STORY NUMBER: 111
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 27 September 1980
WRITER: John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch
DIRECTOR: Terence Dudley
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Meglos

"For thousands of years our lives have been dominated by a mystery. The Dodecahedron belongs to all of us, not just the Deons!"

While the Doctor & Romana repair K-9's water damage the population of Tigella, isolated underground by the vicious plant life on the surface, struggle with the dodecahedron that proceeds all their power. The scientific Savants are restricted in what they can do by the religious Deans who worship the Dodecahedron. The leader of the Savants, Zastor, summons the Doctor to help to the consternation of the Deon leader & high priestess Lexa. A group of Gaztaks led by General Grugger kidnap an Earthling taking him to the massive screens on Zolfa Thura where the plant being Meglos outlines it's plan to steal the Dodecahedron. He traps the Tardis in a chronic histeresis(time loop) and assumes the form of the Doctor.

Oh look, it's the return of our old favourite, the Doctor's double. See also: The Chase, The Massacre, The Enemy of the World, Android Invasion, Face of Evil, and the very end of the previous story The Leisure Hive!

We also have companion duplicates also in Inferno, Terror of the Zygons, Android Invasion and Androids of Tara!

Is this the first story where the Doctor hasn't arrived by the end of the first episode? Quite possibly. A lot of mucking about on Tigella setting the situation up, the bandits plotting with the plant to steal the Dodecahedron and all the time the Doctors & Romana are stuck in the Tardis, and for the last third of the episode they're repeating the same actions which gets increasingly annoying!

DOCTOR: What's the matter?
ROMANA: Well, now his probe circuit's jammed.
DOCTOR: Well, that's easy. Just waggle his tail.
ROMANA: All right. We've tried everything else.
K9: Thank you, mistress. Repairs complete.

See the walls of Meglos' command centre? Yup, it's the triangular/hexagonal pattern first seen in The Mutants again. Last seen in Horns of the Nimon, they'll be around a lot for the next few years.

Playing High Priestess Lexa is Jacqueline Hill who had previously appeared in Doctor Who as one of the first companions, Barbara Wright, from An Unearthly Child to The Chase. Prior to Doctor Who she had appeared in Out of This World playing Lil Harmon in Medicine Show. She was married to television director Alvin Rakoff and died on 18th February 1993.

This is the first and only time a former companion returns onscreen in a different role. Peter Purves (Steven Taylor), Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier), John Levene (Sgt Benton) and Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) all played roles in the series before they appeared as companions. In addition K-9's voice actor John Leeson appears in another role during his time as K-9 and does provide a voice for a later Doctor Who story.

Playing Zastor, leader of the Tigellans, is Edward Underdown. He'd appeared in the surviving Doomwatch episode You Killed Toby Wren playing the Chairman of Tribunal, which you can see on The Doomwatch DVD, and plays Frank Garner in three episodes of Survivors: The Peacemaker, Sparks & The Enemy.

This is the only four part Doctor Who story where all the credited cast are in every episode. The only other multi-part story this is true for is the 2 part Edge of Destruction. There are plenty of uncredited cast too though who aren't in all the episodes!

Of Lexa’s Deons, who don't appear in the second episode, Eddie Sommer was a Mutant in The Mutants, and a Servant at the Ball in Masque of Mandragora. In Blake's 7 he's a Helot in Traitor and in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy he's the Magrathean Robot in episode 4.

Ray Knight was the UNIT Soldier in the bunker in Robot, a Sorenson Monster in Planet of Evil, a Man in Image of the Fendahl, a Mentiad in Pirate Planet and one of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive. He returns as The Policeman (with bicycle) in Logopolis, a Trion in Planet of Fire, a Guard in Vengeance on Varos, and one of Glitz's Crew in Dragonfire. He appears in Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in Countdown, a Rebel in Rumours of Death and a Federation Trooper in Warlord.

Terence Creasy was a Crewman in Nightmare of Eden and would have been a Young Scientist in Shada. He was in Blake's 7 as a Kezarn Native in City at the Edge of the World and a Rebel in Rumours of Death. In Hi-de-Hi! he plays Yellowcoat Gary.

I can't find Deon Chris Marks on IMDB or spot another Doctor Who appearance for him. Deon elder Stephen Nagy is similarly evasive and the best guess I have for elder Lewis Hopper is that he's the Lewis Hooper who's a Gallifreyans in Arc of Infinity. Sylvia Marriott we can place: she's in Never Say Never Again as a French Minister.

535 The Leisure Hive: Part Four

EPISODE: The Leisure Hive: Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 535
STORY NUMBER: 110
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 20 September 1980
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Lovett Bickford
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 4.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive

"Guides of Argolis. According to our ancient laws, we, Pangol, declare ourselves your new leader. We are the future, guides of Argolis, for what is about to happen and for the eons that lie beyond, you will grant us your unquestioning obedience!"

The Foamasi with the Doctor unmasks Brock's assistant Klout as a Foamasi too then removes Brock's translation device and uses it to explain that "Brock & Klout" are agents of a Foamasi criminal organisation the West Lodge who have been sabotaging the Hive. The ailing Mena argues with Pangol and falls to the floor. The Doctor works out a way of overcoming the problems with the Generator using the Randomiser from the Tardis. Pangol seizes the Helmet of Theron, the legendary Argolin leader, and goes to the Generator. As he gives a speech The Doctor sneaks into the Tardis, and then the Generator. Hardin & Romana discover Mena is still alive and the Doctor has gone to the Generator. The Foamasi shuttle attempts to take off without permission and Pangol has it destroyed. Pangol dons the helmet and enters the shuttle, creating an army of duplicates of himself. Some of the duplicates take Romana away. Hardin finds Mena as Pangol orders her body disposed of. He takes her dying body to the Generator room. The duplicates reveal themselves to Romana to be duplicates of the de-aged Doctor as they start deteriorate and vanish, leaving Romana with the original. Pangol orders the experiment replicated but Hardin interrupts him placing Mena in Generator. Pangol tries to have her removed but becomes locked in the Generator with her as it runs in overdrive de-aging them. The Foamasi appears and reveals that it wasn't on the shuttle when it takes off and commences discussions with the youthful Mena as the Doctor & Romana leave in The Tardis without the discarded Randomiser.

This episode is a perfect summary of the entire production: it looks superb, it sounds fabulous and it's confusing rubbish. The Foamasi are completely underdeveloped, instead of being the gangster like aliens they were meant. For a plot line that came from almost nowhere last episode Pangol being the child of the generator takes centre stage just as he dives off the deep end!

The ending is rushed, yes you can see (just about) what's going on but there's a few real leaps needed. In the early 80s you'd have probably seen something once (this just about predates common VCR usage) and if you watch something and think "what on earth was going on there?" you're less likely to come back the next week.

I think I might have been tempted to structure the story a little differently, speeding up the slower first half and slowing down the rushed ending. I'd have the Doctor aged by accident at the end of the first episode, then at the end of the second reveal the Foamasi. To conclude the third have Pangol's proclamation that he's the child of the generator. It'd add more pace earlier on, which is too slow, and slow down the end which is rushed.

So at the end of this it's goodbye to David Fisher, who never wrote for Doctor Who again but did do some more writing with his old friend former script editor Anthony Read. This is also the only appearance for director Lovett Bickford rumoured to have hideously overspent on this serial. IMDB reckons he hasn't worked as a director since 1982.

The credited Foamasi is Andrew Lane you can see him in Yes Minister as the Topic Floor manager in Big Brother. He is not the same Andy Lane as wrote the Virgin New Adventures books.

Also appearing as a Foamasi is James Muir who had previously been a UNIT Soldier in The Time Monster, a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Muto in Genesis of the Daleks, a UNIT Soldier in Terror of the Zygons, a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Death Attendant in The Sun Makers, a Technician in The Pirate Planet, a Druid in The Stones of Blood, a Louvre Detective in City of Death and a Mandrel in Nightmare of Eden then would have been the Man Fishing and a Krarg in Shada.He returns as a Gaztak in Meglos and a Tharil in Warriors' Gate, a Police Driver in Black Orchid, a Policeman in Time Flight and an RAF Driver in Remembrance of the Daleks. He'd been in Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in Seek-Locate-Destroy, a Phibian in Orac, a Rebel in Pressure Point, a Monster in Dawn of the Gods, a Link in Rescue, a Helot in Traitor, a Pirate Guard in Assassin & a Federation Trooper in Blake. He was the Vl'Hurg Leader in episode 4 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and was a technician in Moonbase 3: Castor and Pollux. He was in The Professionals as a Police Man in Stakeout and Rentaghost as a Party Guest in the third series' fourth episode.

Another Foamasi David Korff had been a Mandrel in Nightmare of Eden. while David Bulbeck returns as a Castrovalvan Man in Castrovalva and a Lazar in Terminus.

Pangol's Cloned Army is large and uses a lot of actors:

Leslie Weekes had been a Varga Plant in Mission to the Unknown, a Highlander in The Highlanders, a Prison officer & UNIT Soldier in The Mind of Evil, a UNIT stretcher bearer & SRS Bouncer/Officer/Audience in Robot, multiple Vogans in Revenge of the Cybermen, and a Peasant, a Pikeman, a Traveller, a Drummer & a Brethren Member in The Masque of Mandragora, He return as a Businessmen Passenger in Time-Flight and a Time Lord in Trial of a Time Lord: Mysterious Planet. In Blake's 7 he was a Scientist in Project Avalon and in Doomwatch he was a Man in The Islanders.

One of the actors presents a problem: we believe there are TWO David Coles who have worked on Doctor Who. There is a David Cole who played Billy Clanton in 1966's Gunfighters He was born on April 8, 1936 so, aged 43, is likely to have still been working at this time. During this period fro the late 70s through to the mid 80s there's a supporting artist under this name playing a Crewman in Nightmare of Eden, a Student in Shada, a member of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive, a Savant in Meglos, a Citizen in Full Circle, a Kinda in Kinda, a Student in Arc of Infinity, a Schoolboy in Mawdryn Undead, a Mutant in Mawdryn Undead, One of Ranulf's Knights, a Spectator & a Beggar in King's Demons and a Trooper in The Awakening. Some of those could well be the David Cole from the Gunfighters but The Students in Shada & in Arc of Infinity and the Schoolboy in Mawdryn Undead would seem to require a much younger actor and indicate that there is a second one so who knows quite how these roles are split!

Stuart Myers made his debut in the Silurians where he was a Plague Victim, UNIT Soldier & Technician. He then played a Unit Soldier in Ambassadors of Death, an Axon in Claws of Axos, a Draconian in Frontier in Space, the Photographer in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and a Titan Base Crewman in Invisible Enemy He returns as a Foster in Keeper of Traken, a Cricketer in Black Orchid, a Buccaneer Officer in Enlightenment, a Citizen/Unbeliever in Planet of Fire, a Resistance Fighter/Alphan in Trial of a Timelord 5-8 Mindwarp and a Customer/Mercenary in Dragonfire. In Blake's 7 he was a Crewman in Space Fall and in Moonbase 3 a Technician in Outsiders and Castor and Pollux. In Monty Python's Flying Circus he's a Water Rat in Spam and a Tour de France Man in Bed / Man in Computer Hamlet. He plays a briefly seen human Mos Eisley denizen in Star Wars: there's a picture on his Aveleyman entry which also lists an unnamed role in The Sweeney episode Payoff.

Mike Mungarvan had been a Mutant in The Mutants, a Guard in The Face of Evil, a Gallifreyan (IMDB says an Outsider/Outcast Time Lord) in The Invasion of Time, a Druid in The Stones of Blood, a Gracht Guard in The Androids of Tara, a Dalek Operator in Destiny of the Daleks and a Louvre Tourist & Plain Clothes Detective in the Louvre in City of Death He returns as a Citizen in Full Circle, Kilroy in Warriors' Gate, a Kinda Hostage in Kinda, one of Ranulf's Knights in The King's Demons, a Soldier in Resurrection of the Daleks, a Jacondan Guard in The Twin Dilemma, a Resistance Fighter in The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp, the Duty Officer in The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids, a Lakertyan / Tetrap / Genius in Time and the Rani and a Policeman in Silver Nemesis. He's also been in the new series once as a Passer By in The Christmas Invasion. He was in Blake's 7 as a Prisoner in The Way Back & Space Fall, an Alta Guard in Redemption, a Customer / Gambler in Gambit, a Helot in Traitor and a Rebel Technician / Federation Trooper in Blake, making him one of the few people to appear in the first and last episodes of that series. He was also in Fawlty Towers as a Hospital Orderly in The Germans, The Sweeney as a Constable in Victims and The Professionals as Will in Black Out.

Ray Knight was the UNIT Soldier in the bunker in Robot, a Sorenson Monster in Planet of Evil, a Man in Image of the Fendahl, and a Mentiad in Pirate Planet. He returns as one of Lexa's Deons in Meglos, The Policeman (with bicycle) in Logopolis, a Trion in Planet of Fire, a Guard in Vengeance on Varos, and one of Glitz's Crew in Dragonfire. He appears in Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in Countdown, a Rebel in Rumours of Death and a Federation Trooper in Warlord.

Harry Van Engel was a Scientist in Genesis of the Daleks & a Megro Guard in The Sunmakers. In Blake's 7 he was the Disintegrating Dorian in Rescue.

Bruce Guest was a Control Room Technician in Hand of Fear. In Blake's 7 he was a Prisoner in Project Avalon, a Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, a Technician in Dawn of the Gods, a Bidding Agent in Assassin, and a Mecronian in Games.

Douglas Auchterlonie was one of the Complex Personnel in Hand of Fear.

Bobby James was a a Gallifreyan in Invasion of Time, a Engineer in Creature from the Pit, He returns as a Citizen in Full Circle. He may or may not be the Bob James who was a Villager/Coven Member/UNIT Soldier in The Daemons.

Ray Lavender was the Taran Wood Beast & a Gracht Guard in Androids of Tara, and a Skonnan Elder in Horns of the Nimon. He returns a Snakedancer in Snakedance. In Blake's 7 he's a Guard in City in City at the Edge of the World.

Kevin O’Brien is making his Doctor Who debut. He returns as a Citizen in Full Circle. a Cricketer/Spectator in Black Orchid, Trooper Collis in Earthshock, the Photographer in Time Flight, a Guard in Arc of Infinity, a Vanir in Terminus, one of Ranulf's Knights in Kings Demons, a Crewmember & Soldier in Resurrection of the Daleks, a Guardolier in Timelash, a Resistance Fighter in Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp and a Court Guard in Trial of a Timelord: Terror of the Vervoids & Ultimate Foe. In Blake's 7 he was a Technician in Dawn of the Gods and he plays a Hell's Angel in Red Dwarf: Meltdown.

Also on debut is Harry Payne He returns as a Citizen in Full Circle, Kinda in Kinda, and a Soldier in Caves of Androzani

Tim Goodings returns as a Citizen in Full Circle and a Crewmember in Earthshock. Attempts to identify him there make us think he has red hair.

Mark Middler returns as a Rebel in State of Decay and a Foster in Keeper of Traken.

Michael Leader. returns as a a Terileptil in The Visitation and a Mutant in Mawdryn Undead and a Man at Arms in King's Demons. In Blake's 7 he was a Technician in Dawn of the Gods and a Rebel in Rumours of Death. In Red Dwarf he's one of the Hooded Horde in Terrorform. He was an extra in Star Wars where he recalled playing a Stormtroooper. He had a recurring role in EastEnders as The Milkman and the 27th December 2016 episode carried an "in memory of" caption following his death.

Geoffrey Whitestone was a Tourist in the Louvre in City of Death He returns as a Tigellan in Meglos, one of the Crowd in the Marketplace in Snakedance and the Court Clerk in Trial of a Timelord: Mysterious Planet. In Blake's 7 he was a Star One Technician in Star One.

In addition to playing members of Pangol's cloned army here, Timothy Oldroyd, Douglas Roe and Reg Woods were all Pangol Body Parts in Part 1: you can see their other appearances listed there. I can't find Eric Hamilton on IMDB or elsewhere in Doctor Who.

Onto the Pangol-Doctors:

Jeff Wayne was a Mentiad in The Pirate Planet, He'll be back as as The Scytheman in The Visitation. a Cyberman in Earthshock and a Trooper in Resurrection of the Daleks. In Blake's 7 he's a Federation Trooper in Blake.

Ridgewell Hawkes had been a Mute in Armageddon Factor, a Bearer in Creature from the Pit and would have been a Space Monster in Shada (Dalek/Sontaran/Zygon) He returns as a Security Guard in Timeflight, a Seabase Guard in Warriors of the Deep and a Gastropod in Twin Dilemma. In Blake's 7 he's a Rebel in Pressure Point, a Customer / Gambler in Gambit, a Goth Guard in The Keeper, a Guard in Dawn of the Gods, a Menial in Ultraworld and a Hommik in Power. In The Professionals he's a Policeman in The Purging of Ci5.

Mike Handley had been a Bearer in Creature from the Pit, He returns as one of Wrack's Deck Crew and one of Striker's Deck Crew 1 in Enlightenment

In addition to playing Pangol Doctors in this episode Derek Chafer, David Rolfe and Roy Seeley all played Doctor Body parts in part 1: see there for their credits.

Finally Baby Pangol is played by Alys Dyer. She was booked for Full Circle but not used but returns as a Child in Trial of a Timelord: Mysterious Planet with Lucy Dyer - is that her sister?

The making of this story was covered in the book A Day in the Life of a TV Producer, which may not be a 100% accurate record of a day, showing location & studio filming on the same day plus the producer approving merchandise which had been out for several years previously!

The Leisure Hive was novelised by it's author in 1982. I can remember being given it as a present for either Christmas or Birthday and being decidedly unimpressed. I may give it another go to see if it's as bad as I remember. It was released on video in January 1997 and on DVD on 5th July 2004. The music has been released on CD, but there's an isolated score on the DVD that should now render this redundant. And the DVD is cheaper :-)

Doctor Who Season 18, including The Leisure Hive, was released on Blu-Ray on 18th March 2019.

534 The Leisure Hive: Part Three

EPISODE: The Leisure Hive: Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 534
STORY NUMBER: 110
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 13 September 1980
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Lovett Bickford
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive

"Despair is the death of hope, and all our hope died years ago."

The aged Doctor is taken to a cabin by Romana, where Pangol has their movements restricted, arguing that the Doctor is still on trial for murder. Mena hints that technology once held hope for the Argolin before. Pangol reveals to Mena that the experiments were faked. The Doctor ponders why Pangol is the only young Argolin. He and Romana deduce the Tachyon generator has a second function. Hardin asks the Doctor & Romana for help as the Doctor wonders if the Recreation Generator isn't a Re-Creation Generator. Pangol rejects the Foamasi offer document and reveals to Brock that he is the child of the generator. The Doctor distracts the Argolin so Romana can examine the Generator. Pangol detects their presence and sounds an alert. Romana is rescued from the Generator by a Foamasi who shows the Doctor a device they found within the Generator. Seeing someone on the monitor the Foamasi hurries off followed by the Doctor & Romana . Reaching the boardroom it attacks Brock, ripping his face off to reveal a Foamasi underneath....

I'm struggling with this story anyway but there's a obvious problem in this episode: Tom Baker's performance is not old enough. It's almost the same as usual, just a little slower in places and a little more subdued and doesn't match what we see on the screen in terms of the aged Doctor makeup.

OK then: Masque of Mandragora establishes the Tardis translates speech for the Doctor and his companions (and us?) so why can't Doctor understand the Foamasi?

Lots of revelations this episode. We already knew that Hardin's experiment was faked and that now gets revealed to the Argolins. The real surprise here is the true purpose of the recreation generator:

MENA: Your West Lodge can raise that much money?
BROCK: Easily.
PANGOL: We don't need it. I have something better than money.
BROCK: A novel concept.
PANGOL: Manpower.
BROCK: Excuse me for reminding you that this is a sterile planet. There haven't been any Argolins born here since the war.
PANGOL: Which was forty years ago. But how old do you think I am, Mister Brock?

MENA: No, Pangol! No!
PANGOL: It's time you understood, Mister Brock. You must be more stupid than you look. Mena is not my mother.
MENA: No, Pangol! You've said too much already.
BROCK: You mean you're not an Argolin?
PANGOL: Of course I'm an Argolin! The first of the new Argolin. I am the child of the Generator.

BROCK: You mean the Argolins donated cells from their bodies to this Recreation Generator and cloned themselves? There's a flaw in your story. Where are all the others?
MENA: The theory was still primitive. There were many failures.
BROCK: And yet he survived.
PANGOL: For twenty years a moratorium was declared on the technique, until I came of age, a thoroughly proficient tachyon engineer. There will be no more disfigured mutants in our next reduplication programme.

PANGOL: With Mena's death, the future arrives. The Children of the Generator will rise to claim their inheritance!

Then we finally get to see the creatures we've seen sneaking round the Leisure Hive: They're revealed as the Argolins ancient enemy the Foamasi which leads to the episode's final revelation that Brock is another Foamasi in disguise!

One thing I loved about this episode, and the whole story, is the fabulous music within. It's been issued on CD, but sadly is long out of print, but thank the Lord the DVD has an isolated music option!. So I'm sitting here listening to the music for the episodes as I write this.

Douglas Adams, for all his marvellous qualities, may not have been the best script editor the show has ever had. (For my money that's Terrance Dicks.) I think he did a decent job fleshing out whatever Terry Nation gave him for Destiny of the Daleks (your mileage may vary with that statement) but even there he missed a vital error in the plot that the Daleks aren't robots. Gradually as the season went his attention was drawn elsewhere and as a result when new producer John Nathan-Turner and script editor Christopher H. Bidmead took over the script cupboard was bare of usable scripts. The first two stories into production this year were The Leisure Hive, from an idea David Fisher had had about aliens running a holiday camp, and State of Decay by Terrance Dicks, which had effectively been sitting on the shelf for three years since when it had been cancelled while it was known as the Witch Lords.

The stories for the first half of this season were made in this order:

5N The Leisure Hive
5P State of Decay
5Q Meglos
5R Full Circle

But their order on transmission was somewhat different:

109 The Leisure Hive
110 Meglos
111 Full Circle
112 State of Decay

Apart from these two stories recorded first all the writers for this first new season of Doctor Who are new. The evidence seems to suggest that this is a conscious "new broom" choice by the production team as no director that has previously worked on the series gets used this year either. Terrance Dicks will return in a few years time as will another former script editor Robert Holmes. Similarly of all the directors used on the series before the Leisure Hive director only one ever returns and that's Pennant Roberts, who directed the unfinished Shada that closed the previous season and returns to take charge of Warriors of the Deep and Timelash

533 The Leisure Hive: Part Two

EPISODE: The Leisure Hive: Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 533
STORY NUMBER: 110
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 06 September 1980
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Lovett Bickford
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive

"His scarf killed Stimson!"

The Doctor escapes from the Tachyon Generator, what Romana saw having been just a Tachyon projection. The Doctor is taken to meet the newly arrived Hardin & Chairwoman Mena: he is persuaded into assisting the scientist Hardin. Mena explains to the Doctor & Romana about the 20 minute war that devastated her world and how the hive was set up to give them shelter and promote understanding between species. Another fault occurs, leading Mena to explain that there have been a number of recent faults and they suspect sabotage. She tells them that the Argolins are sterile as she herself begins the process of dying. Hardin refuses to demonstrate his process for Brock and tries to keep the Doctor & Romana away from the equipment. When Romana tells Hardin the equipment could be used to save Mena's life he confesses that his experiments don't work and he had been forced to pretend otherwise by backer Stimson. Stimson seeks out Brock, but finds a skin suit of Brock's lawyer, Klout, hanging in the cupboard. Stimson is killed by an unseen creature. The Doctor interrogates the Tachyon Generator's computer before being summoned: the Argolins have found his scarf wrapped round the neck of Stimson's corpse. Hardin's modified equipment struggles even with Romana's modifications. It temporarily runs back an hour glass but once unobserved it explodes. The Doctor is tried for Stimson death. Pangol is suspicious of Hardin's work and the Doctor volunteers to test the modifications to the Tachyon Generator having a couple of decades shaved off his age. Romana finds that the test failed but is too late to stop the test the Doctor is involved in: when the Tachyon Generator is opened the Doctor is incredibly aged.

The aged Fourth Doctor is a very good cliffhanger shock and a decent bit of make up!

That ticked along nicely while I watched it but now a few hours later there's little that stands out. Yes the business with the scarf is quite funny, but it sticks out in the new, humour depleted version of Doctor Who:

Brock: His scarf killed Stimson!
The Doctor: Arrest the scarf then!

However coming in at 20m50s, that's quite a short episode! Especially when you consider that there's 30 seconds of opening titles at the start, another minute of recap, 10 seconds of repeating the shuttle shot for the third time, and that end titles crash in 1m20s from the end. So just 17m50s of new footage!

Joining new producer John Nathan-Turner is script editor Christopher H. Bidmead (who you can follow on Twitter). Nathan-Turner and Bidmead both wanted a much more serious version of Doctor Who, feeling that in recent times it had all got a bit too silly. While the appearance of the Major Bloodnok's Stomach sound effect in Horns of the Nimon is a step too far, I don't think the humour in general was too much. I certainly don't think that the Nathan-Turner/Bidmead version of Doctor Who was quite what the public were looking for at the time. In fact, in the wake of the summer's release of The Empire Strikes Back what I think they wanted was spectacular space battle. And, as we saw last episode, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was serving that up on the other side and had nicked a further 0.9 million of Doctor Who's viewers between last week and this.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking against Bidmead and Nathan-Turner this early just for the sake of it. In fact three of my favourite Doctor Who stories make up the tail end of this season. I'm just not sure they were making the right choices to start with, so not giving what the public was expecting, IE The Tom Baker show, and indeed what they really wanted, dramatic space battles with lasers. If anything I think ESB was more of a game changer for Doctor Who than Star Wars was. Following Star Wars, Doctor Who had 3 very successful years. Following ESB it got destroyed in the ratings, couldn't do sci fi humour because Douglas Adams was doing it with Hitch-hikers, couldn't do the effects to Star Wars standards because it didn't have the money did and, partly as a result of loosing it's family audience to Buck Rogers & partly through wanting to be more serious, ended up appealing to a more niche fan market. Around this time Ian Levine's hanging round the production office and becomes the series unofficial continuity adviser, further moving the show into the fans territory and out of the area of family drama appealing to the general public. This will cause problems further down the line the root of which are some of the decisions being made here. But, given where the new production team find themselves, they aren't necessarily the wrong decisions at the time....

We mentioned Nigel Lambert's role as the narrator of Look Around You when his very similar voice over unintentionally spoiled our viewing of episode one. Again if you've not Look Around You, or don't own a copy, then buy one now as it's fabulous. You can see his character Hardin clearly for the first time this episode - he was only vaguely visible in a video in the previous episode. He has a lengthy CV and is one of those actors I keep spotting in odd places: he was in the surviving first season Out of the Unknown episode Come Buttercup, Come Daisy, Come......? as the Milkman and you can see that on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. He's got two appearances in The Avengers to his name in The Master Minds as Lt. Hardcastle and The £50,000 Breakfast as the 2nd Doctor. He can be seen in UFO as a Moonbase Operative in Computer Affair and is in the first episode of Blake's 7 The Way Back as the Computer Operator.

David Allister plays he ill fated Stimson. He returns in The Trial of a Time Lord: The Terror of the Vervoids as Bruchner. He#'s got an Out of the Unknown on his CV too playing Fuller in the missing fourth season episode The Uninvited. However the complete audio for this episode exists, one of the few Out of the Unknown episodes for which this is the case, and is also on the DVD set.

Adrienne Corri plays Mena: she was in the UFO episode The Square Triangle as Liz Newton.

Mena's son Pangol is played by a young David Haig. His career isn't that old but he's already appeared in Blake's 7 as Forres in Rumours of Death. Nowadays he's a familiar face on television but is probably still most recognisable as playing Bernard, the Groom at the second wedding, in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Brock, who spends most of his brief appearances this episode with his back to the camera, is played by John Collin. You can see him in The Sweeney as Parish in Contact Breaker.

His silent assistant Klout, whose skin appears to be hanging in Brock's wardrobe, is played by Ian Talbot who was in The Silurians episode 4 as the technician Travis. According to IMDB he was awarded the O.B.E. in the 2008 Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to drama as the former Artistic Director of the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park in London.

Roy Montague plays an Argolin Guide but I've not seen him in anything but there's more Argolin Guides from this episode onwards that we do know:

Kenneth Sedd had been a Wheel Crewmember in The Wheel in Space, a Bi-Al Member in The Invisible Enemy and should have been a Young Scientist in Shada. He returns as one of the Airport Management in Timeflight and a Guest Gambler in Enlightenment. He's also in Doomwatch as a Man in You Killed Toby Wren, Flight Into Yesterday, The Inquest & The Logicians, a Barman in High Mountain and a Man in Club in The Killer Dolphins. He appears in our favourite Adam Adamant Lives! episode D for Destruction as a TA Soldier and in A Sinister Sort of Service as an S.S. Guard. He was a long term associate of comedian Benny Hill appearing frequently in his programs.

Mary Rennie was a Kitchen Hag in The Time Warrior, a Villager in Planet of the Spiders and a Peasant & Traveller in The Masque of Mandragora. She returns as a Traken Citizen in Keeper of Traken, one of the crowd in the Marketplace in Snakedance and as a Citizen/Unbeliever in Planet of Fire.

Mike Reynell was an Exillon in Death to the Daleks, a SRS Bouncer/Officer/Audience member in Robot, a Scientist in Genesis of the Daleks and a Council Member in Face of Evil. In Blake's 7 he was a Prisoner in Space Fall while in the The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin he was a Restaurant Patron in Elizabeth's New Admirer. He accomplishes a rare treble by appearing in all 3 Sweeney productions: In The Sweeney (Television series) he was a Customs Officer in Golden Boy, in the first Sweeney! film he was a Detective, a role he repeats in Sweeney 2. In other films he appears in Carry On Abroad as a Holiday Maker, The Empire Strikes Back as an Imperial Officer, the Roger Moore James Bond film Octopussy as an Auction Patron, Morons from Outer Space as the Policeman Collecting Matteson and A Fish Called Wanda as a Man in Street.

There's two voices heard in this story: The voice of the Generator is Clifford Norgate who provided the voice of the Nimon in the previous broadcast story The Horns of Nimon.

Harriet Reynolds is the Tannoy Voice: you can see what she looks like in A Very Peculiar Practice: A Very Long Way from Anywhere where she plays the chancellor's wife Deirdre Hemmingway. She's also in Jeeves and Wooster as Harriet in Bertie Takes Gussie's Place at Deverill Hall. IIRC this was the story that the BBC had a complaint for for their use of the word Tannoy due to it being a registered trade mark!