504 The Armageddon Factor: Part Five

EPISODE: The Armageddon Factor: Part Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 504
STORY NUMBER: 103
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 17 February 1979
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 8.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

"I know who you are, Doctor. I have always known. I have been waiting for you. I too serve a Guardian. A Guardian equal and opposite in power to the one who sent you. The Black Guardian, he who walks in darkness, and you are in the valley of the Shadow!"

Leaving the Tardis the Doctor becomes separated from Romana & Astra. Astra takes Romana to the Shadow while the Doctor, following the computer distress beacon K-9 detected, find his old classmate Drax, who was forced to create Mentalis by the Shadow. They start work on a device using Drax's damaged dimensional stabiliser. K-9 is sent to demand Romana's life in return for the five segments of the Key to Time. Drax is set to work freeing K-9 from The Shadow's control. The Doctor bargains with the Shadow, who says he has the sixth segment, and goes to fetch the Key segments from the Tardis but as he opens the Tardis door Drax blasts him with the gun they've made

That's quite a shocking ending with the Doctor's former classmate and old friend Drax shooting him, and shooting him once he'd got the Tardis door open so The Shadow could get the Key To Time! There again there had been an exchange earlier about him working with the Shadow:

DRAX: Well, Doctor, welcome to my world.
DOCTOR: Aren't they stabiliser components?
DRAX: Yeah, they are.
DOCTOR: But you said your Tardis was parked on Zeos.
DRAX: Yeah, well, I took the stabiliser out. Needs a bit of work.
DOCTOR: How long have you been here?
DRAX: About five years. After the war started.
DOCTOR: Five years? For five years you've had a dimensional stabiliser virtually intact and you haven't managed to escape?
DRAX: I told you, it needed work.
DOCTOR: Oh, come on, Drax! You could have repaired that and long-dogged it out of here years ago.
DRAX: Here, what's the game? Oh, I get it. You think I'm in with the Shadow, don't you.
DOCTOR: Aren't you?
DRAX: Now would I.
DOCTOR: Yes, you would. What's he offered you?
DRAX: Nothing.
DOCTOR: Are you about to suggest that you and I make a run for it out of here in my Tardis?
DRAX: Well, it's a good idea.
DOCTOR: Oh yes, it's a very good idea, you and me in my Tardis. And what happens then when we're inside, eh? Sock full of sand, lead pipe and you away with the Key to Time, am I right, Drax?
DRAX: Look, I didn't know it was going to be you, did I. He threatened me with the chop, didn't he. He said I was the only one who could get hold of it.
DOCTOR: If you had, do you think he'd let you get away? You'd be in for the chop, too.
DRAX: Yeah, I would, wouldn't I.
DOCTOR: Of course you would. So why don't you help me? I mean, together we stand a slight chance. And after all, we are Time Lords, you and I. Class of ninety two. If we don't stick together, who will?

And it's not as if other classmates of the Doctor haven't tried to kill him repeatedly in the past have they?

In the first episode of this season the White Guardian told us what he wanted the Key To Time for:

WHITE GUARDIAN: The Key to Time is a perfect cube, which maintains the equilibrium of time itself. It consists of six segments, and these segments are scattered and hidden throughout the cosmos. When they are assembled into the cube, they create a power which is too dangerous for any being to possess.
DOCTOR: Well hidden then, I hope, sir.
WHITE GUARDIAN: There are times, Doctor, when the forces within the universe upset the balance to such an extent that it becomes necessary to stop everything.
DOCTOR: Stop everything?
WHITE GUARDIAN: For a brief moment only.
DOCTOR: Ah.
WHITE GUARDIAN: Until the balance is restored. Such a moment is rapidly approaching. These segments must be traced and returned to me before it is too late, before the Universe is plunged into eternal chaos.

Now we find out what the opposition has planned:

SHADOW: You have your Guardian and I have mine. You and I are on the same quest, Doctor, but whereas you have been scavenging across space and time, I have located the sixth piece here. You are inferior, just as your powers are inferior. Once we have the Key to Time, we shall set not two small planets but the two halves of the entire cosmos at war, and their mutual destruction will be music in our ears. Unlike others, it is not power we seek, but destruction that we glory in. Fetch the Key.

And a hint that a nasty fate lies in wait for the captured Princess, finally released from The Shadow's control:

SHADOW: Now, my Princess, your work is done. Your destiny is at hand.
ASTRA: Who are you?
ROMANA: The Shadow.
SHADOW: The Shadow that accompanies you all.

DRAX: Hello, Theet. How you been, boy?
DOCTOR: What?
DRAX: It is Theet, innit? Theta Sigma? Yeah, 'course it is. Remember me, ay?

DRAX: Drax is the name.
DOCTOR: Drax?
DRAX: Come on, Theet. Class of ninety two?
DOCTOR: Not
DRAX: Yeah?
DOCTOR: Drax.
DRAX: Yeah. We was on the tech course together. Long time ago now, Theet, eh? Must be what, four hundred and fifty years? And a long way from Gallifrey.
DOCTOR: Yes, Gallifrey. Of course! Ha, ha! Drax.
DRAX: Yeah, I was all right at practical, remember?
DOCTOR: Yeah.
DRAX: Temporal theory did me. Still, you did well, mind, getting your doctorate and all that.
DOCTOR: What happened to you?
DRAX: I failed, didn't I. Still, not to worry. I was doing all right till this lot. I went into repair and maintenance. Do anything, anytime, anywhere. I've been all over the galaxy. Buy a bit, do it up, sell it.
DOCTOR: Yeah. What sort of things?
DRAX: Cybernetics, guidance systems, you name it.
DOCTOR: Armaments?
DRAX: Yeah, and that. Not on a regular basis, of course.
DOCTOR: Drax, I was introduced to a computer on Zeos. Called itself Mentalis. Did you by any chance have anything to do with the installation?
DRAX: Strictly under duress. That's why I'm here. The minute I finished the job, wham. Feet never touched the ground.
DOCTOR: The Shadow?
DRAX: I didn't know who he was, did I. Just another customer, I thought. And then he puts the heavy word on. Do it or die. I mean, what would you have done?
DOCTOR: Yes, very tricky.
DRAX: Yeah.

At this point five year old Philip rejoins the story recalling the Doctor's college friend Drax and the Doctor crawling around tunnels, throwing the controlled K-9 to him. Drax as a character had been floating around Bob Baker & Dave Martin scripts for a while, first appearing in early drafts of The Hand of Fear, as a slightly shady Time Lord Mechanic.

DOCTOR: Drax, I don't want to pry, but where did you acquire this peculiar vocabulary?
DRAX: Brixton, weren't it?
DOCTOR: Brixton?
DRAX: Brixton. London. Earth.
DOCTOR: I've been to Earth.
DRAX: Yeah, me transport broke down. Hyperbolics, as usual. And I was investigating certain possibilities with regard to replacements. I got done, didn't I. Ten years I got. Well, I had to learn the lingo, didn't I, to survive. Why, is there something funny about the way I talk?
DOCTOR: No, no. It's very colourful. Very demotic.
DRAX: Yeah, well thanks, Theet.
DOCTOR: Doctor.
DRAX: Oh yeah.
DOCTOR: No offence.
DRAX: None taken.

Drax is played by Barry Jackson, who was previously Ascaris in The Romans and Jeff Garvey in Mission to the Unknown. There's several other science fiction series on his CV including A for Andromeda where he plays a Sentry in two episodes, one of the few surviving third season Doomwatch episodes Hair Trigger where he plays Dr. McEwan, which you can see on The Doomwatch DVD and Blake's 7 where he's Dr. Kendall in Mission to Destiny. He was also various roles in An Age of Kings and is Bob in The Professionals episode Stake Out.

Nowadays Barry Jackson is best known as Dr George Bullard in Midsomer Murders where he appeared in nearly every episode from the show's inception till his departure in 2011. In a few of the earlier episodes that George Bullard doesn't feature in his place is taken by Dr. Dan Peterson played by Toby Jones, later to memorably play The Dream Lord in the 2010 Doctor Who episode Amy's Choice.

If IMDB had a tool similar to Cricinfo's Statsguru I'd try telling you how many other Doctor Who actors have been in Midsomer Murders. It hasn't so I shan't! But from this story John Woodvine has also done two episodes of it!

IMDB lists Stephen Calcutt as playing a Mute in these last two episodes. He was previously a Muto in Genesis of the Daleks and returns as a Marshman in Full Circle, and a Tribe member in Kinda. He also played Leonardo da Vinci in a second season episode of Rentaghost, was a Transylvanian in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and an Azurian Man in Flash Gordon.

Two days after this episode was broadcast the Blake's 7 episode Killer was shown.

503 The Armageddon Factor: Part Four

EPISODE: The Armageddon Factor: Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 503
STORY NUMBER: 103
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 10 February 1979
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 8.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

"There will be a rather large bang, big enough to blow up Zeos, take Atrios with it, and make certain the whole thing ends in a sort of draw. That's the way these military minds work. The Armageddon factor."

The Doctor sends Shapp & Merak back to Atrios to stop the Marshal but Merak is distracted by an illusion of Astra and is captured while Shapp is stunned by one of the Shadow's servants as he enters the transmat. The Doctor creates a fake sixth segment to use the power of the other five to time loop the Marshal's ship to prevent it attacking but as the fake segment decays the loop stretches. Astra is controlled by the Shadow and he sends her to retrieve the segments the Doctor has. K-9 is lured to the Shadow's base planet through a computer distress beacon placed in a transmat. Astra uses Merak to get introduced to the Doctor then, on the pretext of taking him to Atrios, abandons him in the corridors of Zeos. The injured Merak transmats back to Atrios but Astra, pursued by the Shadow's guards, is sheltered in the Tardis and is attracted to the Key To Time. The Doctor moves the Tardis to the Shadow's base planet, lying between Atrios & Zeos where the Shadow and a controlled K-9 are waiting.

I said last episode that I remembered nothing of that episode from my youth: the same applies here! When I last watched these for the blog I said

I also said that I'd watched these episodes a few days prior to writing the text (a long story involving my mother being hospitalised and dog sitting) One of the side effects of this is I'm reading the text above, written while watching the episode, and still remembering nothing of note. That may be an indication of it's quality in the middle of a six part story!

It's quality also isn't helped by the money having blatantly run out as testified to by the sheer number of reused props! Last episode we had some we had some UFO computer banks but this episode is prop spotting heaven!

I wouldn't have spotted either of these without the knowledge that the first appear in a future story in the same colour.

Behind the head of the pilot, played by Pat Gorman, is a black square panel. It's a repainted 2001 spacesuit chest unit, last seen under the desk in Stones of Blood in it's usual orange! That got me looking at the rest of the picture and in particular the thing just left of middle at the top. That's a 2001 Spacsuit backpack, again repainted black.

Both pop up later in the episode, here they both are near the Transmat on Zeos!

Then later I spotted the console in Mentalis' control room:

That's the console the spacesuit chest units were under in Stones of Blood. I'm told it was also in Underworld but it's original was in the Main Mission set in Space: 1999!

Then there's this box by the Tardis. There's two of them, one either side of the chair they sat the Doctor in while interrogating him last episode:

That was previously in The Green Death and, since it is with a pile of UFO computer banks, probably came from UFO too!

This is the first Tom Baker six part story to be made entirely in the studio, which unfortunately removes me telling you about the story's location filming as an option. The last entirely studio bound six parter was Jon Pertwee's penultimate story, The Monster of Peladon, five years previously in 1974. Before that the next previous six parter made in the studio was 1969's Patrick Troughton story the Space Pirates.

Playing Princess Astra of Atrios is Lalla Ward, the stage name of the honourable Sarah Ward, daughter of Edward Ward, 7th Viscount Bangor. Having studied at drama school from 1968-1971 she'd worked for a few television series.... but this role would prove to be a vital one for her getting her noticed and cast in the role for which she became famous for. More on this shortly..... She had previously had a leading role in The Duchess of Duke Street where she played Lottie, the title character's daughter. Outside of Doctor Who the thing most people will have seen her in is The Professionals episode When the Heat Cools Off where she plays Jill Haydon. This episode is the only one in the regular repeats package that still has the original season 1 title sequence.

Her love interest Merak is played by Ian Saynor. This was his second broadcast tv job.

I was convinced John Woodvine, here as the Marshal, had been in more than one Doctor Who but apparently not! His main claim to fame is appearing in 60 episodes of Z-Cars as Det. Insp. Witty but he can also be found in the cult classic An American Werewolf in London as Dr. J. S. Hirsch, Edge of Darkness as Ross, The Tripods as Master West 468 (was he just the voice or in the costume?) and Knights of God, second Doctor Patrick Troughton's last transmitted TV work, as Prior Mordrin.

Davyd Harries plays Major Shapp. He was in the missing Out of the Unknown episode 1+1=1.5 as Yates and the Blake's 7 episode Moloch as Doran.

Davyd Harries is responsible for the worst prat fall in Doctor Who during this episode when he's shot by the Mutes in the teleporter!

Two days after this episode was broadcast the Blake's 7 episode Trial was shown.

502 The Armageddon Factor: Part Three

EPISODE: The Armageddon Factor: Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 502
STORY NUMBER: 103
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 03 February 1979
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

"The war is over. The bombardment is over. The next step is obliteration!"

The Doctor is transmatted to Zeos where he is interrogated by the Shadow, who has brought the Tardis there and wants the Doctor's 5 segments to the Key To Time. The Shadow vanishes, returning to his base where he then interrogates Astra. Romana & K-9 attempt to break in to the Transmat room but when they do Merak seizes the tracer and transmats ahead sealing the room behind him. Romana & K-9 follow, pursued by the Marshal's second in command Shapp who finds the Doctor on Zeos. The skull behind the mirror, a communication device from the Shadow, assures the Marshal there will be no more Zeon attacks so the Marshal decides to attack Zeos. Romana finds Merak, who has been led by the tracer to a bracelet belonging to Astra, The Doctor summons K-9 who helps them find Romana and then leads them to the Zeon commandant, the computer Mentalis who tell them the war is over and Obliteration is next. The Marshal nears Zeos and prepares to destroy it.

The episode starts full of dark corridors as we get to meet the Doctor's opposition in this story, The Shadow, who has been lying in wait for him for a rather long time:

SHADOW: You think I would trust you?
DOCTOR: No. And I certainly don't trust you. Bit of an impasse, eh?
SHADOW: No, Doctor, there is no real difficulty. I have waited so long, even another thousand years would be nothing for me. But you, I have watched you and your jackdaw meanderings. I know you and I know there is a want of patience in your nature.
DOCTOR: That's right. Fools rush in.
SHADOW: Exactly. Leave him. He will make his own mistake. Then, Doctor, I shall be waiting.

As well as the Doctor he has Princess Astra as a prisoner too:

ASTRA: I don't know! I don't know, I tell you.
SHADOW: You must know. You are a daughter of the Royal House of Atrios.
ASTRA: Yes, and I tell you, whoever you are, that I've never heard of the sixth segment or the sixth anything!
SHADOW: And I tell you, Princess, the secret has been passed down through generation after generation of the Royal House, and since you are the sole surviving member of the line, you must know and you will tell me, if I have to tear it from the living fibre of your very being. Do you understand?
ASTRA: Yes. And if I knew, I would tell you!

The identity of the other foe isn't really what we expect: it's not the Zeons but a computer, Mentalis:

DOCTOR: There's your enemy, Shapp. Runs everything. Attack, defence, surveillance, production, everything. The ideal war general. No glory, no speeches, no medals and no blood.
SHAPP: What do you mean?
DOCTOR: It's fully automated. There are no Zeons on Zeos.
SHAPP: No Zeons on Zeos.
DOCTOR: No. Just this passionless lump of minerals and circuitry. Highly efficient, doing very well, giving Atrios a battering, killed millions without a flicker. Just doing its job. And totally invincible.

I remember nothing of the middle two episodes of this serial from my youth so it's always a big surprise to me when we find ourselves in the room containing Mentalis, complete with the UFO computer banks. And, writing this just after having watched the episode, that's about all I remember of it now!

Playing the Shadow is William Squire. The same year this story aired he was also in the Blake's 7 episode Horizon as Kommissar. Elsewhere on his long CV is the Late 1950s H.G.Wells' Invisible Man where he plays Waring the Valet in The Big Plot. He was in acclaimed Shakespeare series An Age of Kings in various roles. He works with Tom Baker again in The Hound of the Baskervilles where he plays Frankland.

Playing the speaking Technician in the Atrios control room is Iain Armstrong who can be seen in as a Villager in both parts of the Robin of Sherwood story The Time of the Wolf.

Playing the Marshal's pilot in the last few episodes of this serial is someone who's probably been in more episodes of Doctor Who than anyone else: regular supporting artist Pat Gorman! He first appeared as a Rebel in Dalek Invasion of Earth, we last saw him as Kro in The Ribos Operation and he'll be back as a thug in The City of Death.

Two days after this episode was broadcast the Blake's 7 episode Pressure Point was shown.

501 The Armageddon Factor: Part Two

EPISODE: The Armageddon Factor: Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 501
STORY NUMBER: 103
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 27 January 1979
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 8.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

"Six ships? Is that it? The mighty battlefleet of Atrios?"

The Doctor, Romana & Merak return to K-Block, but discover Astra gone, so then return to the Marshal's control room who now treats them like old friends. The Marshal has had K-9 recycled but the Doctor rescues him from the furnace. However Romana notices a device on the Marshal's neck and further investigation of the Marshal's Mirror, which he continually stands in front of, reveals a skull hidden behind it. The Doctor promises the Marshal a psychological deterrent against the Zeons but needs to speak with one. The Marshal says he knows of a secret transmat to Zeos but when the Doctor investigates he is captures by the same black clad strangers who kidnapped Astra and transmatted away....

The thing I remember most about this episode is the lengthy sequence where K-9 is sent along a conveyor belt to the scrap metal furnace. Five & Half year old Philip loved it. Forty Five & a Half year old Philip looks at it and thinks "Filler". It serves no purpose to the plot and all it adds is a bit of quickly forgotten about peril. Worse still watching K-9 passing from left to right does rather remind people of The Generation Game!

I suppose you could argue that it illustrates the dire straits that the Atrians are in that everything must be recycled but the presence of only 6 Atrian battleships also makes this point quite clearly.

THE MARSHAL: Now, Doctor, you shall see the mighty battlefleet of Atrios, the weapons that are available to you.
DOCTOR: Me?
THE MARSHAL: The new architect of our victory. Shapp, order the counter-attack.
SHAPP: Yes, sir. Base to fleet, commence attack. Attack, attack, attack.
DOCTOR: Six ships? Is that it? The mighty battlefleet of Atrios?
THE MARSHAL: It does the people no good to know the truth, Doctor. They live on hope, nothing else. It's been a long, hard struggle. Production is slow, losses are crippling, but we fight on. That's the main thing.
DOCTOR: Why?
THE MARSHAL: To win. What else? War is an expensive business, Doctor, but worth it.

The main source of mystery here comes from the Marshal of Atrios and the missing Princess Astra:

ROMANA: Doctor, when you went into the furnace after K9, the Marshal almost went berserk at the thought you might be killed.
DOCTOR: He did? How very considerate of him.
ROMANA: No, it wasn't. Because what he said was, the Doctor must not die. Not yet.
DOCTOR: What?
ROMANA: And listen, I saw something at his throat like a little black cylinder.
DOCTOR: What, a device of some sort? Something you weren't meant to see?
ROMANA: Yes, yes, I'm sure of it.
DOCTOR: A control device?
ROMANA: Yes. If the Marshal's a puppet, who's pulling the strings?
DOCTOR: Yes, and what's behind that mirror he's so fond of looking at?
MERAK: Questions, questions.
ROMANA: Shush.
MERAK: And no answers. MERAK: We're no closer to finding Astra or whatever it is you're looking for. Well, are we?
DOCTOR: Merak, I believe we're closer to finding Princess Astra than we realise. What worries me is, are we supposed to?
ROMANA: A trap.
DOCTOR: Who's pulling the wool over who's eyes? Are we supposed to fall for the Marshal's bluff or is he supposed to fall for our?
MERAK: Listen, Doctor, you said a minute ago that we were close to finding Astra. Please tell me where she is or where you think she is.
DOCTOR: It wouldn't make any difference. Even if I told you, you couldn't reach her.
MERAK: Why not?
DOCTOR: Because I think that Astra's on Zeos.

The Marshal's revealed to have a device on his neck and be talking to a skull through a two way mirror so he's clearly up to no good!

MERAK: It's the Marshal.
ROMANA: It's a two-way mirror.
MERAK: What's that?
ROMANA: Shush.
THE MARSHAL: It's done. The Time Lord suspects nothing. I've directed him to the transmat point in K block where your agents will be waiting.
ROMANA: Time Lord? How does he know?
MERAK: What?
ROMANA: Shush.
THE MARSHAL: My lord, once you have the secrets of time, please, give me my victory. I've waited so long. Please, my lord.
MERAK: He said K block. Astra was in K block.
ROMANA: We'd better warn the Doctor. Come on.

Astra's only appearance this episode comes from a broadcast to Atrios urging them to lay down their arms!

ASTRA: People of Atrios, lay down your arms. Surrender. Resistance is useless. The Zeons can never be defeated. They have taken me captive. My people, my people, they have sworn to destroy Atrios unless you surrender now. If you love me, my people, save me. Save yourselves. Hand over the Marshal and surrender. Surrender now. The war is over.

Our old friend Mister Harry Fielder makes a rare credited speaking appearance as a guard in this episode. Aitch had previously been a Central European Guard in The Enemy of the World, a Wheel Crew member in The Wheel in Space, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom where he actually got a credit in part 4, a Guard in The Deadly Assassin part one, a Sevateam Tribesman in Face of Evil, a Titan Base Crewman in The Invisible Enemy part one, a and a Levithian Guard in The Ribos Operation. He'll be back as a Tigellan in Meglos and a Security Guard in Castrovalva part one. His Blake's 7's include an Armed Crewman in Space Fall & Cygnus Alpha, a Scavenger in Deliverance and a Federation Trooper in Weapon, Trial, Voice from the Past, Children of Auron, Games, Warlord and Blake. In Space: 1999 he's a Medic in The AB Chrysalis, Security Guard in Catacombs of the Moon, Gerry in The Beta Cloud, a Command Centre Technician in The Lambda Factor, Security Guard George in The Seance Spectre, a Survey Team Member in The Immunity Syndrome and a Medic in The Dorcons. In a long career he's been in absolutely everything!.

Two days after this episode was broadcast the Blake's 7 episode Horizon was shown.

500 The Armageddon Factor: Part One

EPISODE: The Armageddon Factor: Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 500
STORY NUMBER: 103
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 20 January 1979
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 7.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

"People of Atrios, once more the hated forces of Zeos clamour at our gates. Once more, they shall not pass!"

Approaching the planet Atrios, at war with it's close neighbour Zeos, the Tardis is attacked by a nuclear warhead. On Atrios opposition is growing to the Marshal's military leadership of the war, lead by Princess Astra and Surgeon Merak. Under the Marshal's orders Astra is led astray by her guard and shut in a highly radioactive area. Arriving on Atrios, The Doctor breaks into the sealed K-block , where he & Romana see the missing princess Astra, but they are captured by The Marshal and accused of being spies alongside surgeon Merak. Astra is abducted by a black robed & masked figure. The Doctor, Romana & Merak are freed by K-9 but when they flee they discover the Tardis gone.

Bit of a setup episode with little indication of where the sixth and final segment of the Key To Time is. But the situation, two planets at war with each other, is clearly explained and a hint is dropped that Zeos isn't where it should be.

The Marshall: People of Atrios, once more the hated forces of Zeos clamour at our gates. Once more, they shall not pass. Be brave, my people. Be steadfast, be strong. This rain of death which the Zeons pour upon us, will it extinguish the flame of liberty, my people? No, our sun will rise again, and Atrios from its ashes will rekindle a mighty resolve, an implacable wrath, crushing the hated Zeon beneath the heel of Atrios! Even now we know the Zeon will to fight is failing. They cannot go on. Our ships dominate their skies. All I ask, my people, is that you, who have suffered so much, clench the jaw, grimly endure a short while more, until we can deliver the final blow which will bring Zeos to its knees. Victory will be ours!

The layout in the Atrian war room gives away who's in charge here: the Princess stands at the back as a Figurehead while the Marshal gets a nice comfy chair!

Two notable landmarks are reached this episode. Firstly it's Doctor Who's 500th episode, and secondly it's Tom Baker's 119th episode bringing him level with Patrick Troughton but still behind Jon Pertwee on 128 and William Hartnell on 134.

HEROINE: Darling.
HERO: Oh, my love.
HEROINE: Don't go.
HERO: I must.
HEROINE: But you'll be killed!
HERO: Perhaps.
HEROINE: I can't bear it. I love you.
HERO: There is a greater love. Men out there, young men, are dying for it. Dying so that Atrios might live.
HERO: You must be strong. We must all be strong and play our parts until victory is won, evil vanquished, and peace restored. Then, and only then, my darling, can we love again. I must go. Kiss the children for me. Tell them their daddy will return before long.

'Hero', the male actor in the public information film that opens the show is Ian Liston, better known amongst sci fi fans for playing Wes Janson, Rogue 3's/Wedge's Snowspeeder gunner in The The Empire Strikes Back.

'Heroine' meanwhile is played by Susan Skipper. She was Chadwick's Secretary in Sweeney!, the first film adaptation of the TV series, and later appeared regularly in Don't Wait Up as Madeline, he elder Dr Latimer's secretary and the younger Dr Latimer's eventual second wife.

The ill fated guard in this episode is John Cannon who was, most prominently, the possessed technician Elgin in The Hand of Fear part 2. Prior to that he'd been in Monster of Peladon as a Miner.and returned as a Passer by in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, a Trog in Underworld and a Technician in The Pirate Planet. He will later be a Guard in The Creature from the Pit, the executioner in Shada, an Extra in Time-Flight, Striker's Helmsman in Enlightenment and Sir Raulf Fitzwilliam's 1st Servant in The King's Demons. Blake's 7 include a Federation Trooper in Project Avalon, Cevedic's Heavy in Gambit, a Labourer in The Harvest of Kairos and a Federation Trooper in Children of Auron while he's got a Moonbase 3 appearance as a Technician in Castor and Pollux as well as an appearance in The Empire Strikes Back as a Holographic Imperial Officer. Away from science fiction he worked with acclaimed Doctor Who director Douglas Camfield as a Legionnaire in Beau Geste (TV Mini-Series), he was in I, Claudius as a Cake Ship slave in A Touch of Murder, Porridge as Prison Inmate in A Night In, The Professionals as Huey in It's Only a Beautiful Picture and two appearances in The Sweeney as a constable in Supersnout and a Policeman in Thou Shalt Not Kill, where he also worked with Camfield.

Amongst the uncredited guards we have Peter Roy. He was a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, an Extra in The Highlanders, an Airport Police Sergeant in The Faceless Ones, a UNIT / Bunker Man in The Invasion, a Guard in The Seeds of Death, a Space Guard in The Space Pirates, an uncredited extra in Doctor Who and the Silurians, Technic Obarl in Hand of Fear, a Guard in The Face of Evil, an Extra in The Sun Makers, a Galifreyan Guard in The Invasion of Time and a Gracht Guard in The Androids of Tara. He returns as a Policeman in Logopolis, an Ambulance Man in Castrovalva, a Man in Market in Snakedance and a Walk on in Resurrection of the Daleks. Like many extras at this time he has Blake's 7 form too appearing as a Citizen / Prisoner in The Way Back & Space Fall, an Alta Guard in Redemption, an Albian Rebel in Countdown and a Federation Trooper / Rebel in Rumours of Death. He was in Doomwatch as a man in Project Sahara and Flood. In the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy he plays the Limousine Chauffeur in episode 2. He's got a notable role in the James Bond film Thunderball where he played British Secret Agent 006. He has a less obvious appearance in Return of the Jedi as Major Olander Brit but that hasn't stopped the character from getting a Wookipedia page!

Also appearing as a guard is Barry Summerford He'd already been a Golden Age Man in Invasion of the Dinosaurs part six, an Elite Guard in Genesis of the Daleks, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen part one, Private Thurston in Terror of the Zygons part two, a UNIT Communications Soldier in The Seeds of Doom part six, a security guard in The Hand of Fear, a Steaming Audience Member in The Sun Makers part four and a Shrieve in The Ribos Operation. He'll be back as another Guard in The Creature from the Pit part one and a Foster in The Keeper of Traken part one. His Blake's 7 include a Federation Trooper in The Way Back, a Rebel in Pressure Point, a Rebel in Voice from the Past, a Customer / Gambler in Gambit, a Federation Commando in Volcano, a Monster in Dawn of the Gods and Tando in Blake making him one of the four actors to appear in both the first and last episodes. He was also in the Castor and Pollux episode of Moonbase 3 as a Technician and played the same role in a later episode, View of a Dead Planet.

Our final guard this episode, but there's another familiar face in he next, is Richard Sheekey.He'd been in - The Talons of Weng-Chiang as a Beat Policeman and returns in State of Decay as a Guard. He'd been in Doomwatch as a man in Flight Into Yesterday and appears in two Blake's 7 episodes: Cygnus Alpha as a Prisoner and The Harvest of Kairos as a Federation Trooper.

Finally appearing as the Mute that teleports away with Princess Astra is Derek Suthern who first appeared as a Path Lab Technician in The Hand of Fear followed by a Mentiad in Pirate Planet and a Gracht Guard in The Androids of Tara. He's in the next season 3 times as a Guard in The Creature from the Pit, a Mandrel in Nightmare of Eden and a Guard in The Horns of Nimon and would have made a fourth appearance as a Krarg in Shada if that hadn't have been cancelled. That also deprives him of appearances in five consecutive Doctor Who stories as he then plays a Argolin Guide in The Leisure Hive, the first story of the next season. He returns at the end of that season as PC Davis in Logopolis part one followed by playing a Cricketer in Black Orchid and a Man in Market in Snakedance. In Blake's 7 he was a Federation Trooper in The Way Back, a Scavenger in Deliverance, a Federation Trooper in Trial & Countdown, a Customer / Gambler in Gambit, a Hommik Warrior in Power and a Space Princess Guard / Passenger in Gold. He appears in the Roger Moore James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me as an Atantis Guard and is in Fawlty Towers as a Hotel Guest in both The Germans and The Psychiatrist.

Two days after this episode was broadcast the Blake's 7 episode Weapon was shown.

499 The Power of Kroll: Part Four

EPISODE: The Power of Kroll: Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 499
STORY NUMBER: 102
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 13 January 1979
WRITER: Robert Holmes
DIRECTOR: Norman Stewart
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 9.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

"If you fire that rocket, it's not just the monster that'll die. You'll destroy a civilisation as old as your own!"

Several of the Swampies pursuing the Doctor & Romana are seized by Kroll and the rest flee. Thawn plans to use the next orbit shot from the refinery to attack Kroll, and destroy the Swampies in one go. The Doctor & Romana return to the refinery and witness Dugeen standing up to Thawn's plans. He forces Fenner to cooperate at gunpoint, but the Doctor sneaks into the rocket silo to sabotages the launch. The wounded Dugeen tries to about the launch but is killed by Thawn. The Doctor's sabotage halts launch with 3 seconds to go as Kroll submerges. Thawn goes to check the ignition and catches The Doctor & Romana leaving the rocket launching chamber. The Swampies invade the refinery. As Thawn returns to the control room with the Doctor & Romana, Fenner detects Kroll approaching the refinery. The Swampies enter, slaying Thawn, as Kroll attacks the refinery. The Doctor has Fenner operate the base centrifuge, the noise of which drives Kroll away. The Swampie leader Ranquin believes that Kroll has heard his prayers but his followers realise it was the machinery. Ranquin is taken by Kroll. The Doctor tests his theory and touches Kroll with the tracer, transforming it into the fifth segment of the Key To Time. Fenner realises the rocket firing bay is blocked, but the computer is trying to run the next launch sequence. The Doctor sabotages the computer deactivating the launch sequence. They leave Fenner behind awaiting a pick up from the authorities. The Doctor explains how Kroll consumed the High Priest's object of power, the fifth segment, and used it to grow to giant size.

We start the episode with the very real and very very large threat of Kroll:

FENNER: It's over two miles away.
THAWN: Still, if it's as big as we think it is. Dugeen, train the receptor aerial on that settlement.
DUGEEN: Right.
FENNER: What are you going to do?
THAWN: Just checking that the next orbit shot is charged and ready to fire.
FENNER: It's not due for another two hours.
THAWN: It might be early this time, Fenner.
DUGEEN: Look at that!
FENNER: It's a lot bigger than we thought.
THAWN: A hundred tons of hydrogen peroxide will still vapourise it.
FENNER: What's that supposed to mean?
THAWN: I'm going to drop our next orbit shot into the neck of that overgrown jellyfish.
DUGEEN: You can't!
THAWN: Bearing ninety seven, maximum depression.
DUGEEN: You're mad. Think of the settlement!
THAWN: Dugeen, have you never heard of the expression killing two birds with one stone?
FENNER: Now, Thawn, you think what you're doing.
THAWN: I have thought.
FENNER: Because you could kill us all. The atmosphere here is thin already. Now a fireball that size could asphyxiate us.
THAWN: I don't think so.
FENNER: You don't think so. Have you worked out the risk?
THAWN: Countdown commencing. Now get to your places.
DUGEEN: You're mad. Fenner, we've got to stop him.

Thawn's obviously taken a dive off the deep end now and his desire to be rid of the monster and the Swampies leads him to murder Dugeen:

DUGEEN: Thawn, you can't kill innocent people!
THAWN: They're Swampies.
DUGEEN: Call them what you like, they're no different from you or me.
THAWN: They are very different, Dugeen! Now get back to your place.
DUGEEN: No.
THAWN: Are you refusing to obey orders?
DUGEEN: On moral grounds, sir. Look, if you fire that rocket, it's not just the monster that'll die. You'll destroy a civilisation as old as your own.
THAWN: I don't count the Swampies as being civilised. You're talking like one of those cranks from Sons of Earth.
DUGEEN: They're not cranks. All life began on Mother Earth. All life is sacred!
THAWN: I'm giving you one last chance, Dugeen.

THAWN: Now then, Fenner, do you want to give me an argument?
FENNER: Countdown in two minutes.
THAWN: Right. Now, keep a track on that thing.

FENNER: Thirty seconds. Burner eight hundred, increasing.
THAWN: Dugeen, get back.
DUGEEN: You can't do it, Thawn.
THAWN: Touch that abort button and I say I'll kill you.
DUGEEN: Then kill me, but you're not going to kill the others.
THAWN: I warned him, Fenner. You heard me warn him.
FENNER: That was murder. That was cold-blooded murder.
THAWN: The countdown! Look, he hasn't aborted. It hasn't stopped.
FENNER: The master cut-out's failed. Then you shot him for nothing, didn't you. Didn't you!

THAWN: But I don't understand. There was no delay in the cut-out.
FENNER: According to the computer, there's a fault in the primary ignition panel.
THAWN: Well, I'll soon fix that.
FENNER: Too late.
THAWN: What?
FENNER: Come and look at this. It's submerging again, back into the mud, and you're not going to hit it there.
THAWN: If that spineless fool hadn't interfered
FENNER: He'd be alive now, wouldn't he, and I'm reporting you for murder.
THAWN: It was justifiable homicide! You heard me warn him not to touch that abort panel. It was an act of sabotage.
FENNER: He didn't like your methods. That did not make him a saboteur.
THAWN: He was a plant from the Sons of Earth! It's obvious that he was sent here to cripple this project any way that he could.
FENNER: You don't kill a man because you suspect he belongs to the Sons of Earth.
THAWN: All right, Fenner. That will sound very good when we get back. But remember this. If we don't get back, it'll be his fault and not mine.

Thawn isn't the only leader having trouble as there's dissent in the Swampie ranks too:

RANQUIN: What's that?
SKART: It is only the machinery, Ranquin.
RANQUIN: This place is an abomination.
SKART: Yeah, on Delta Magna all the dryfoots live in these metal boxes.
RANQUIN: When we have completed our task here, I will ask Kroll to destroy it all.
VARLIK: Ranquin, why should Kroll do as you ask?
RANQUIN: What?
VARLIK: Well, if he's the Great One and you're but his Servant.
RANQUIN: While the People of the Lakes serve and do honour to Kroll, he will protect us against those who invade our waters.
VARLIK: Kroll destroyed our village. Was that to protect us?
RANQUIN: These are blasphemous questions, Varlik!
VARLIK: I'm only asking what must be on all minds.
RANQUIN: We promised Kroll the lives of the two dryfoots who profaned his temple. We failed to keep that promise. I tell you Kroll will not rest easily beneath these waters until he has eaten of their souls.

In a way Ranquin is right, as Kroll shows up very shortly afterwards and starts tearing the refinery to pieces!

But that gives the Doctor an unexpected opportunity:

ROMANA: Where are you going?
DOCTOR: To test a theory. All theories have to be tested sometime, and this seems as good as any. You stay here in case I'm wrong.
ROMANA: About what?
DOCTOR: The Symbol of Kroll's power.

Sure enough, just like Cessair of Diplos' power came from the third segment of the Key To Time, Kroll's comes from the fifth segment and when he comes into contact with the tracer it returns to it's natural form and Kroll is destroyed.

So we've defeated the monster but suddenly the computer wants to launch the rocket automatically and we must stop it, which looks like an obvious bit of padding at the end. It timed at just over 21 minutes so was under running a tad even with a lengthy reprise and the padding added on but there was some action in it, we got some of the message behind the story coming through with Thawn racist attitude to the Swampies and we got to do something with the series story for the quest for the Key to Time. Not a bad episode!

The first and last episodes of Power of Kroll aren't too bad at all. The middle two episodes, less so, but I found them much better this time round. But it's not a popular story and blame for is usually laid at the door of director Norman Stewart, especially since he also directed the #1 Turkey from the previous season, Underworld. But I'm not sure it's his fault at all: he makes great use of the location and the model work isn't bad either. Neither does writer Robert Holmes have to shoulder the blame as there is some good stuff going on here with an underlying anti-racism message. I know the script was written in a hurry to cover a script that fell through and perhaps, like Seeds of Doom, it could have done with another pass or two by the script editor before reaching the screen but I don't think there's anything basically wrong here. Holmes takes leave of the show for a while following this story, but he'll be back in a few years time.

Power of Kroll was novelised by Terrance Dicks. It was released on video in June 1995 on the same day as the following story, the Armageddon Factor, to form the final pair of stories from the Key to Time season released, with The Ribos Operation & The Pirate Planet coming out in April of the year and followed by Stones of Blood & Androids of Tara in May. The Key To Time season was a set of releases which came with a specially designed spine picture that ran over all six title. While there has never been a video boxset release of the Key To Time, it's only ever been available as a boxset on DVD. In October 2002 all six Key To Time stories were released in Region 1 with minimal extras & restoration to help satisfy the American demand for Tom Baker stories. The Key to Time was then released as a special edition, numbered & limited to 15,000 with brand new extras in Region 2 on the 24th September 2007, which sold out very quickly with this set commanding a premium price on eBay for quite some time. The Key to Time Box Set was reissued in a non limited edition in November 2009 and can now be had for a very reasonable price.

Two days after this episode was broadcast the Blake's 7 episode Shadow was shown.

498 The Power of Kroll: Part Three

EPISODE: The Power of Kroll: Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 498
STORY NUMBER: 102
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 06 January 1979
WRITER: Robert Holmes
DIRECTOR: Norman Stewart
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 8.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

"By the powers that I hold, I shall learn the truth. But if the dryfoots are not found and sacrificed according to the Holy Ritual, then all my people will suffer the anger of Kroll!"

Harg is pulled into the pipes to his death. The Doctor, Romana & Rohm-Dutt are tied up inside the temple with the sun shining on the creepers they are tied to and stretching them to death. The Doctor becomes interested in the source of Kroll's power, a holy relic which it swallowed. Rohm-Dutt reveals that Thawn paid him to supply the Swampies with weapons so he had an excuse to wipe them out and that the "Sons of Earth" group, the supposed weapons suppliers could be discredited. Kroll is measured by the refinery radar and found to be over a mile across. A storm hits the area, rocking the refinery platform. When the temple window breaks and the room is flooded with water, the Doctor, Romana & Rohm-Dutt are able to escape, but their absence is quickly discovered. As they reach the edge of the swamp the water starts to bubble & Rohm-Dutt is seized by one of Kroll's tentacles. The Doctor & Romana steal a boat to escape from the Swampies but find their escape blocked but Kroll who has risen to the surface.

DUGEEN: Six hundred yards.
THAWN: Six? From the end of its tentacles, that makes it, it must be nearly a mile across!
DUGEEN: Not far off. The central mass is a quarter of a mile in diameter by about a hundred and forty feet high.
THAWN: That radar doesn't show enough detail.
DUGEEN: I've counted thirty tentacles on one side alone.
FENNER: Well? Anything fresh?
THAWN: It still hasn't moved.
DUGEEN: Probably doesn't need to move much. We were just trying to decide what it'd look like out of the water.
FENNER: Very big and very ugly. What do you think it looks like?

Robert Holmes' brief for the story was to come up with the largest monster yet seen in Doctor Who. Over the years the Kroll creature, and director Norman Stewart's split screen filming techniques to show it, have come in for some unfair criticism but you know what? I don't think it looks too bad so far, especially in the long shots we've seen where it dominates the screen.

Before this the Doctor, Romana & Rhom-Dutt have had to escape from being sacrificed to Kroll, in Romana's case for the second time!

ROHM-DUTT: Varlik. Varlik? What is this seventh ritual?
VARLIK: It is the slowest of all.
ROMANA: I knew it.
VARLIK: I tried to persuade Ranquin that only Rohm-Dutt deserved to be punished by the seventh ritual and that you others should die by the first. That's very easy. They just throw you down the pit and drop rocks on you.
ROMANA: Oh, thank you. It's nice to know who your friends are.

The Doctor uses it as an opportunity to solicit information:

DOCTOR: Ranquin, what was the secret of Kroll's power?
RANQUIN: What do you know of that, dryfoot?
DOCTOR: I've read about it somewhere.
RANQUIN: Kroll had the power of the Symbol. He sees all.
DOCTOR: Yes, I know Kroll has it now, but what was it?
RANQUIN: The Symbol was a holy relic brought here by our ancestors at the time of the settlement.
DOCTOR: Yes, but what was the power?
RANQUIN: He who holds the Symbol can see the future. The power revealed how the dryfoots would destroy Delta Magna with their fighting and their greed and the evil of their great cities. That is why my people came to settle here.
DOCTOR: Your people were evicted from their homeland, Ranquin. You had no choice.
RANQUIN: What do these questions matter to you who are already dying?
DOCTOR: I like to get things straightened out.
ROMANA: Must you use expressions like that?
RANQUIN: Your mind is bent, dryfoot. It's well that you die.
DOCTOR: He's got narrow little eyes. You can't hypnotise people with narrow little eyes.
ROMANA: Oh, that's what you were trying to do.
DOCTOR: Yes, trying to persuade him to untie us. Our only chance.
ROHM-DUTT: How long have we got?
DOCTOR: I don't know the contraction rates of creeper, or the breaking point of bones and ligament.
ROHM-DUTT: I can feel it dragging already.
DOCTOR: Sorry you didn't stay on Delta Magna now, eh? Who paid you to bring the natives guns?
ROHM-DUTT: Thawn. He wanted an excuse to wipe them out.
DOCTOR: And who do they think brought them?
ROHM-DUTT: I told them the guns were sent by the Sons of Earth. Oh, I got a signed receipt, too, for Thawn to use to discredit them.
DOCTOR: Why the Sons of Earth?
ROHM-DUTT: Do you have to keep asking questions at a time like this now?
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, shush. Why did Thawn want to discredit the Sons of Earth?
ROHM-DUTT: They're a crank organisation. They support these primitives. They want Thawn's company to pull out.
ROMANA: Why do they call themselves the Sons of Earth? Not that I care very much.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, that's a very good questions. After all, none of them can ever have seen the Earth.
ROHM-DUTT: Mother Earth, they call it. They believe colonising the planets is a mistake. They want us all to return to the Earth and starve. Oh! Oh! My ankles are breaking!
DOCTOR: Imagination.

Their method of escape is one of the daftest things I've seen for a long while. In the middle of the strongest storm the moon has ever witnessed the temple window breaks. Is it the force of the storm that does it? No: it's the Doctor suddenly being able to project a high frequency note. Bwah? No previous hint the Doctor could do that, and it's not even necessary, the storm could have quite easily smashed the window! I'm sensing some Tom improvisation in rehearsals here!

So Thawn is behind the plan to supply guns to the Swampies and his motives are also revealed:

THAWN: It still hasn't shown up. Where is it?
FENNER: It's gone right off the screen now.
DUGEEN: Just ploughed straight on. It must be somewhere under the swamp by now.
THAWN: Can't you get a track on it?
DUGEEN: At a viscosity level of forty percent solids, this box goes blind.
FENNER: You know, the incredible thing is, it didn't even slow down. It seems to be able to move as easily through swamp as through water. It was on a bearing of ninety seven degrees. Hmm. Do you know where that's taking it?
THAWN: Where?
FENNER: Straight to the settlement.
DUGEEN: That could just be a coincidence, Fenner.
FENNER: Oh yes, it could have headed off in any direction. It so happens it's heading for the settlement, so the Swampies have some problems.
DUGEEN: How could it possibly know there's anything there? The settlement's two miles away.
FENNER: How did it know that Harg was in the pump chamber? It seems to have a highly sensitive mechanism for detecting food.
THAWN: In which case, the Swampies most certainly do have some problems.
FENNER: You know, I don't particularly like the Swampies, but I can't say I really hate them.
THAWN: Oh, I don't hate them, Fenner. I just want them removed permanently. I spent many years persuading the Company to back this project, and now that we're on the verge of success I'm not going to be stopped by lily-livered sentimentalists wailing about the fate of a few primitive savages.

Playing Thawn is Neil McCarthy who was previously the convict Barnham, who had his "evil impulses" removed in The Mind of Evil. He can also be seen in The Professionals as Sam Armitage in It's Only a Beautiful Picture, Clash of the Titans as Calibos and Time Bandits as the 2nd Robber.

Playing Fenner, in his last Doctor Who appearance, is regular Doctor Who guest Philip Madoc. He's taking the place of Alan Browning at the last minute when he dropped out. It's been speculated over the years that Madoc thought he was playing the larger role of the lead villain Thawn. Madoc had previously been in writer Robert Holmes' first Doctor Who story, The Krotons, as Eelek also appearing in The War Games as the War Lord and The Brain of Morbius as Mehendri Solon, as well as appearing in the second 1960s Dalek Movie: Dalek Invasion of Earth 2164ad as Brockley.

He's been in loads of television including UFO as Straker's ex wife's new partner in A Question Of Priorities and the first episode of Space: 1999, Breakaway, as Koenig's predecessor Commander Gorski. I recently saw him in Midsomer Murdersplaying Barnaby's former (Welsh) DCI in The Axeman Cometh, a barking episode involving a rock group. But not half as barking as Country Matters is! Those are just the ones off the top of my head: checking IMDB also found me an Out of This World, as George Mathias in Target Generation, five roles in The Avengers, another UFO as Captain Steven in Destruction, The Sweeney as Det. Supt. Pettiford in Golden Fleece, Porridge as Williams in Disturbing the Peace and Survivors as Max Kershaw in The Chosen.

He's got a talent for playing German officers and in this role he can be seen in one of the most repeated clips on television. He plays the commanding officer of the U-Boat crew captured by the Walmington-on-Sea home guard in the Dad's Army episode "The Deadly Attachment".

Dugeen too was meant to be played by another different actor: Martin Jarvis, previously of the Web Planet & Invasion of the Dinosaurs, but he too dropped out at a late stage. Jarvis was replaced as Dugeen by regular K-9 voice actor John Leeson, who was not required in his usual role in the series. Away from the K-9 role Leeson provided the voices of the Dalek Battle Computer and, uncredited, other Dalek voices to Remembrance of the Daleks. He'd also been in Dad's Army as the 1st Soldier in Sons of the Sea, but is most famous for playing Bungle in Rainbow. He's appeared twice in Blake's 7 playing Pasc in Mission to Destiny and Toise in Gambit. He worked on the well remembered children's TV series Jigsaw as the voices of Jigg, Pterry & Biggum and used his years of anonymity as a voice artist well as Jeremy Beadle's regular hatchet man in stunts on Beadle's About!

Grahame Mallard plays Harg, the refinery worker dragged to his death at the start of this episode. He'd been in The Sweeney as Ingram in Faces.

Three episodes in and no sign of the fifth refinery crew member mentioned in episode one!

Two days after this episode was broadcast the first episode of the second series of Blake's 7, Redemption, was shown.