1. '\'\Accused of being Draconian spies,
Jo and the Doctor
are taken back to Earth.Copy !req
2. '\'\The Doctor is caught in the middle of
a power struggle between two empires -
and comes under attack
from both sides!" (Radio Times)Copy !req
3. This episode was first shown
on 3 March, 1973, and was seen
by 7.8 million viewers.Copy !req
4. In 1973, Doctor Who was ten years old:
It had been a long life
for a television programme.Copy !req
5. Though they liked the series,
the upper echelons of the BBC
were giving serious consideration
to ending it.Copy !req
6. Then Richard Henwood came along
with a proposal
that changed their minds.Copy !req
7. He was the commissioning editor
of Target, the newly-launched
children's imprint of Tandem Books.Copy !req
8. Target was reprinting
three old Doctor Who '\'
ovelisations"
from the mid-1960s,Copy !req
9. and he wanted to run book versions
of more recent adventures.Copy !req
10. Once the deal had gone through,
the BBC stayed its hand:
The television series was safe
until executives got the chanceCopy !req
11. to assess the impact of the books
on the viewing figures.Copy !req
12. The first new novels
were published in January, 1974,
and it was the turn of
'Frontier in Space' in September,1976.Copy !req
13. It was the series' practice
to retitle some adventures,
so in book form it became
Doctor Who and the Space War.Copy !req
14. The two principal contributors
to the range were to be
script editor Terrance Dicks
and scriptwriter Malcolm Hulke.Copy !req
15. Hulke (1924-79) began writing
for television in his mid-30s.Copy !req
16. He wrote in most of
the medium's typical genres,
mainly for the ITV companies.Copy !req
17. He contributed to police series
such as No Hiding Place (1959-65),
Ghost Squad (1961),
and Gideon's Way (1965).Copy !req
18. He worked on many types of espionage
series, from The Avengers (1962-9)
To Danger Man (1965)
To Spyder's Web (1972).Copy !req
19. His first foray into science fiction
was the children's serial
Target Luna (1960) and its sequels,
the three Pathfinders series (1960-1).Copy !req
20. His first Doctor Who script followed
in 1967, and was highly regarded
by contemporary reviewers:
'The Faceless Ones'.Copy !req
21. The pushing business
was devised in rehearsal.
Jo originally said her line, cheekily,
to the guard rather than the Doctor.Copy !req
22. In the script,
Jo catches the guard's eye,
but he doesn't respond when she tries
giving him a little smile.Copy !req
23. Jo is now in her third series
as the Doctor's assistant:
She knows the routine.Copy !req
24. The '\'\terrific idea" was Katy Manning's:
It's an unscripted
rehearsal improvisation.Copy !req
25. Likewise, Jon Pertwee coined
the '\'\perishing panda" phrase.Copy !req
26. '\'\They've constructed
a new kind of reality,"
says the Doctor in the script.Copy !req
27. One person watching this episode in 1973
was Andrew Osborn,
the BBC's Head of Drama Series.Copy !req
28. He hadn't seen Doctor Who for a while
(it wasn't made by his department),
and he was favourably impressed.Copy !req
29. The episode was '\'\remarkably good",
he told his colleagues
at the regular programme review meeting.Copy !req
30. Have you been paying attention
to Jo's knees? Then you'll have noticedCopy !req
31. that she has put on a pair of tights
between episodes!Copy !req
32. The script describes General Williams
as '\'\a handsome, striking man
in his mid-forties,Copy !req
33. '\'\a lifelong professional soldier
now involved in politics
because of his high rank.Copy !req
34. '\'\He is a strong, dominating personality,
formal and stiff-necked, but no fool."Copy !req
35. The actors were asked to play a tension
between him and the President.Copy !req
36. Partly this is professional, but it may
also have a personal dimension.Copy !req
37. The director of 'Frontier in Space'
was Paul Bernard (1929-97).Copy !req
38. He trained as a painter,
and first broke into television
as a scenic designer.Copy !req
39. In that capacity, he shuttled
between the BBC and the
independent television companies,Copy !req
40. designing sets for such series as
Ghost Squad (1961)
And The Avengers (1961-3),
Hugh and I and Maigret (both 1962).Copy !req
41. He trained as a director in 1963-4,
when the BBC was seeking
new production personnel
prior to the launch of BBC Two.Copy !req
42. His first production as director
was an episode of Z Cars broadcast
live on April Fools' Day, 1964.Copy !req
43. He directed two serials
for the 1972 series of Doctor Who,
including the Ogrons' debut,
'Day of the Daleks'.Copy !req
44. After finishing 'Frontier in Space',
he went to work at Thames Television,Copy !req
45. where he directed the entire first
series of The Tomorrow People (1973),
touted as ITV's answer to Doctor Who.Copy !req
46. Gardiner is played by Dorset-born actor
Ray Lonnen (born 1940),Copy !req
47. who tended to play characters who were
professional, masculine, and decent
(or seemingly decent).Copy !req
48. By the time he made 'Frontier in Space',
he had begun his occasional appearancesCopy !req
49. as a detective sergeant in Z Cars,
which eventually grew
into a semi-regular role.Copy !req
50. He was later best known
as a British agent in the spy series
The Sandbaggers (1978-80).Copy !req
51. His later stage career covered the usual
whodunnits, farces, and musicals
which are the staples
of British commercial theatre.Copy !req
52. The Doctor is even more of an old hand
with the mind probe
than he makes out in this scene.Copy !req
53. Regular viewers would have remembered
his previous encounter with the device
in 'Day of the Daleks'.Copy !req
54. The leg was
Jon Pertwee's unscripted embellishment.Copy !req
55. Pertwee's Doctor often
told improbable anecdotes
about the strange beings he had met
on his travels across the universe.Copy !req
56. Pertwee enjoyed playing two-handed
character-based scenes like this one.Copy !req
57. He sometimes found the Doctor
a little two-dimensional,
a purveyor of necessary plot information
and '\' ai" karate,Copy !req
58. a '\'\self-opinionated bore",
as he once told the press.Copy !req
59. So he relished the opportunity
to variegate the character
with the charm and humour
of this kind of scene.Copy !req
60. The yellow screen
that dominates the back wall
is designed for use with
the Colour Separation Overlay process.Copy !req
61. Most of the video screens you'll see
in this serial, like the one
on the bridge of the cargo ship C982,Copy !req
62. are 21 -inch television monitors
built into the set walls,
which show the output
of one of the studio cameras.Copy !req
63. The President's big screen works
by '\'\keying out" the yellow
and replacing it with moving footage,
often played in from film.Copy !req
64. In the next shot,
there's a boom shadow to be seen,
discreetly retreating across
the Draconian secretary on the left.Copy !req
65. A microphone boom rushes in
to catch the Doctor's line,
and casts its shadow across him.Copy !req
66. On 14 April, 1972, three days after
he wrote his preliminary storyline,Copy !req
67. Malcolm Hulke was commissioned
to produce a revised version,
with a 1 May deadline.Copy !req
68. He hit that deadline
right on the button,
and on 4 May there followed a commission
for the six scripts.Copy !req
69. From the first storyline
to the broadcast version,
the serial was always
officially entitled 'Frontier in Space'.Copy !req
70. But, people being people,
the wording sometimes shifted a bit
on the production documents.Copy !req
71. Some of the paperwork
refers to it as 'Frontiers in Space',Copy !req
72. and chalked onto
the countdown clock blackboard
for this episode
is 'Frontieres of Space' (sic).Copy !req
73. Those weren't alternative titles,
just old-fashioned human error!Copy !req
74. (Well, 'Frontieres of Space' might have
been a crew member's joke
rather than a mistake,Copy !req
75. playing on the title
Jeux Sans Frontieres, the European
'\'\silly Olympics" shown by the BBC
each summer since 1967.)Copy !req
76. Paul Bernard imagined the setting here
as a futuristic citadel.Copy !req
77. In reality, it is
the Royal Festival Hall arts complex
on the south bank of the Thames.Copy !req
78. Bernard chose it as a location
because he so disliked the modern,
brutalist style of the architecture.Copy !req
79. Its ugliness, in his eyes,
made it the perfect representation
of a futuristic prison.Copy !req
80. The South Bank sequences
were the first to be filmed
after Doctor Who's summer break
in production.Copy !req
81. The shoot took place
on Sunday 10 September, 1972.Copy !req
82. The choice of a Sunday
was for practical reasons.Copy !req
83. There were fewer people about.Copy !req
84. The BBC had asked for permission
to close off the location
to the general public,
but the authorities refused.Copy !req
85. The potential collision
of two interplanetary civilisations
was one of the key conceptual
starting-points for this serial.Copy !req
86. Barry Letts was keen
that the alien civilisation
should be presented on an equal footing
with that of the Earthmen:Copy !req
87. They were to be just as established
in the universe as humanity,
and just as individually distinctive
as the human characters.Copy !req
88. Originally they were to be
the people of Andromeda,
not the Draconians.Copy !req
89. As Hulke at first imagined them,
they were physically
much more similar to human beings.Copy !req
90. The main difference is the Andromedans'
distinctive, aquiline facial features.Copy !req
91. When it was decided
to make the Draconians
more obviously alien beings,Copy !req
92. Hulke introduced elements
of classical Japanese culture
to the characterisation.Copy !req
93. Inscrutability is an attribute
conventionally ascribed to Easterners
by occidentals,Copy !req
94. but in line with Letts's wishes,
they have their own point of view:
To them,
the Earthmen are the inscrutable aliens.Copy !req
95. The Draconian Prince
is played by Peter Birrel (1935-2004).Copy !req
96. In the early 1960s,
he contributed many performances
to the 'Living Shakespeare' series
of recordings for schools.Copy !req
97. You can see him without his make-up
in episodes of
Man in a Suitcase ('The Bridge', 1967),Copy !req
98. Budgie ('Brains', 1971),
Steptoe and Son
('Back in Fashion', 1974), and Cribb.
('Swing, Swing Together', 1980).Copy !req
99. A few months after 'Frontier in Space',
he played a Spanish hotelier
in the sitcom The Fenn Street Gang.Copy !req
100. In line with the mid-twentieth-century
screen convention that a Jewish actor
can play any ethnic group,Copy !req
101. he maintained
a pan-European playing range,
including Frenchmen, Dutchmen,
and Germans (and Englishmen, of course).Copy !req
102. He even played an Italian national
for an Italian production company,
in Around the World in 80 Days (1989).Copy !req
103. If you think the mask looks odd
around his upper lip, that's because
he's wearing it over his own moustache.Copy !req
104. The Draconians' beards, however,
were all prosthetics.Copy !req
105. A routine task during studio recording
of any television programmeCopy !req
106. was to make the opening
and closing title sequences.Copy !req
107. This entailed running the generic film
of the programme's title graphics
and music,Copy !req
108. and transferring it to video
with an overlay of caption slides
showing the credits
for that particular episode.Copy !req
109. Several attempts to record
this serial's end credits foundered
when the caption slide scanner
persistently broke down.Copy !req
110. Four sets of titles were finally
recorded on the last studio day,
1 November.Copy !req
111. It was only ten minutes' work,
but it took place after 10 p.m.,Copy !req
112. and thereby generated
the inevitable apologetic overrun memo
from Barry Letts.Copy !req
113. That left two episodes - this one
and Part 6 - without any closing titles.Copy !req
114. They were finally taped
11 days before Part 2 was broadcast,
at the last day's recording
for 'Planet of the Daleks'.Copy !req
115. - On your feet.
- Hmm, why?Copy !req
116. Unfortunately, they put in the wrong set
of slides and, in effect,
re-recorded the credits for Part 1.Copy !req
117. You heard me. Move.Copy !req
118. Not unless you give me some good reason.Copy !req
119. The President wants you.
Is that good enough?Copy !req
120. In consequence, the Newscaster
and Draconian Space Pilot from Part 1
get a second mention,Copy !req
121. Perhaps she believed you?Copy !req
122. Are you sure it's the President and
not another ridiculous interrogation?Copy !req
123. I said move!Copy !req
124. while the Draconian First Secretary
and this Cell Guard,
who both appear only in this episode,
get no credit at all.Copy !req
125. Come on, Jo,
perhaps we can convince them after all.Copy !req
126. Until now, that is...Copy !req
127. The correct credits will appear
at the foot of the screen
during the closing titles,
in the originally intended position.Copy !req
128. Move, Jo! Get up! Run!Copy !req
129. Look at the way the light falls
in this film sequence.Copy !req
130. Quickly, the Doctor!Copy !req
131. The long shadows betray the fact
that shooting took place
early in the morning.Copy !req
132. But you don't understand!Copy !req
133. It's the Draconians.
They've got the Doctor.Copy !req
134. We must demand the immediate
withdrawal of the Draconian embassy.Copy !req
135. Break off diplomatic relations
completely?Copy !req
136. What diplomatic relations?Copy !req
137. The embassy staff have behaved
like criminals.Copy !req
138. The President is played by Czech actress
Vera Fusek (born 1932).Copy !req
139. We don't know that the ambassador
was behind this.Copy !req
140. The attackers were Draconians.
They were clearly seen.Copy !req
141. She left Prague as a teenager to escape
the February Revolution of 1948,
which saw the Communists take over.Copy !req
142. The Draconian embassy tricked you
into moving the prisoners,Copy !req
143. then mounted an armed attack
in order to rescue their agents.Copy !req
144. - Is the girl here?
- She's outside now.Copy !req
145. After a spell working as a secretary
in Ireland, she came to Britain in 1949
to study
at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.Copy !req
146. Bring the girl in.
I wish to question her.Copy !req
147. And the closing of
the Draconian embassy?Copy !req
148. She worked at the German
and Czech theatres in London
and broadcast on the BBC World Service
and Radio Free Europe.Copy !req
149. I do not intend to
break off diplomatic relations.Copy !req
150. But surely there's no alternative
once this news gets out.Copy !req
151. Then it mustn't, General Williams.Copy !req
152. In 1952, she moved to the USA
for four years.Copy !req
153. It is your responsibility to ensureCopy !req
154. a complete security blackout
on this incident.Copy !req
155. In Ohio, she played Miranda in the first
Western production of The Tempest
to use the Sibelius score.Copy !req
156. Very well, Madam. Under protest.Copy !req
157. She then played Hecuba and Antigone
in New York and also
made her television debut there.Copy !req
158. You can go.Copy !req
159. Come forward, my dear.Copy !req
160. She crossed back over the Atlantic
in 1956 to film the steamy thriller,
Escape in the Sun, in Kenya.Copy !req
161. You realise that the escape
of your colleagueCopy !req
162. has left you in a very serious position?Copy !req
163. Thereafter, she worked
predominantly in Britain.Copy !req
164. But he didn't escape, he was kidnapped!Copy !req
165. He was rescued
by your Draconian paymasters.Copy !req
166. The wisest course you can take now
is to make a full confession.Copy !req
167. Notable stage roles included
the title character's mother
in The Diary of Anne Frank (1956-7)Copy !req
168. Remember your colleague has left you
to your fate.Copy !req
169. And Marie Antoinette
in The Magnificent Egotist (1957).Copy !req
170. But you've got it all wrong!Copy !req
171. You see, the Doctor was pleased
when you sent for himCopy !req
172. because he wanted to talk to you. And...Copy !req
173. A solid professional career
in British television and film
included appearances inCopy !req
174. We have eye-witness reports
on what occurred.Copy !req
175. We need to know how you came to work
for the Draconians.Copy !req
176. The Third Man (1959),
The Four Just Men (1960),
and The Troubleshooters (1968).Copy !req
177. When were you recruited?Copy !req
178. How many agents do they have on Earth?Copy !req
179. What are their plans?Copy !req
180. If you tell us everything,Copy !req
181. I'll promise I'll see to it personally
that you will be treated leniently.Copy !req
182. But I don't know what
you're talking about.Copy !req
183. Look, we told you the truth when
we first came here.Copy !req
184. We're not working for the Draconians.Copy !req
185. We're wasting time.Copy !req
186. I suggest you let me apply depth
interrogation techniques without delay.Copy !req
187. Look, you can use your mind probe
or whatever.Copy !req
188. I'm telling you the truth.Copy !req
189. Barbara Kidd's original plan
was to give the Draconians
a futuristic version of platform shoes.Copy !req
190. Well, I must say it's very nice of
you gentlemen to invite me here.Copy !req
191. She created a pair
for the Draconian Prince
by adapting some '\'\flip-flops", a type
of open shoe popular in the 1970s.Copy !req
192. And where is Miss Grant?Copy !req
193. Your companion is still with
your fellow Earthmen.Copy !req
194. Don't you realise what you've done?Copy !req
195. She glued several sets of soles together
to create a '\'\stack" effect.Copy !req
196. You've now finally convinced them
that we're both Draconian agents.Copy !req
197. There is no need to
maintain this pretence.Copy !req
198. Unfortunately, the footwear wasn't
designed for the rigours of a muddy,
wet location in an English autumn.Copy !req
199. We know that you are both agents
of the Earth government.Copy !req
200. You're part of a plot
against the Draconian empire.Copy !req
201. My dear chap, I've already
been through all thisCopy !req
202. with the President of Earth.
She thinks I'm working for you.Copy !req
203. On the planet of the Ogrons,
the Draconian Prince found his shoes
disintegrating underneath him!Copy !req
204. - You are working for General Williams.
- I'm what?Copy !req
205. General Williams hates our people.Copy !req
206. So for the studio scenes,
Barbara Kidd had to make some new ones
from different materials.Copy !req
207. Once before, he caused war
between us and the Earthmen.Copy !req
208. Now he plans to do so again.Copy !req
209. And such a war would be madness
since both empires will be destroyed.Copy !req
210. Take a moment to appreciate
the contrasts between
the individual Draconians' make-up.Copy !req
211. Yes, I couldn't agree with you more.Copy !req
212. That's exactly what I've been trying to
say to you.Copy !req
213. The Earth cargo ship was not attacked
by Draconians.Copy !req
214. It was not attacked at all.
The whole story is a lie!Copy !req
215. The Draconians are an aristocratic race,
not a democracy,
so power comes from noble birth
rather than worldly experience.Copy !req
216. I can assure you that it was attacked,
but by Ogrons.Copy !req
217. - Ogrons?
- Yes.Copy !req
218. Some third party's employing themCopy !req
219. trying to make trouble
between Earth and Draconia.Copy !req
220. So the Prince is not only
the most powerful character in the room,
but also the youngest.Copy !req
221. If you tell us the details
of General Williams' plan,Copy !req
222. we shall be able to
expose him to your President.Copy !req
223. Accordingly, make-up designer
Sandra Shepherd gave him the vibrant,
glossy, black beard of a man
(or lizard?) in his prime.Copy !req
224. There will still be a chance for peace.Copy !req
225. My dear chap, nobody is more devoted
to the cause of peace than I am.Copy !req
226. But I cannot tell you something
that I don't know.Copy !req
227. We have mind-probing techniquesCopy !req
228. Now compare
the First Secretary's facial hair,
reflecting his distinct character
and personality.Copy !req
229. just as efficient as those
employed by you Earthmen.Copy !req
230. If you do not speak now,
we shall force you to confess.Copy !req
231. No artificial hairpiece here,
though the bouffant effect
was sometimes abetted
by a spell in curlers.Copy !req
232. Don't you realise you're
completely on the wrong tack?Copy !req
233. There is a plot, yes.Copy !req
234. But the Earthmen are not behind it,
any more than you are.Copy !req
235. The Doctor
is played by Jon Pertwee (1919-96),Copy !req
236. Take him away!Copy !req
237. except when it's his stunt double,
Terry Walsh (died 2002).Copy !req
238. No!Copy !req
239. The script calls for
a startled Draconian gardener.Copy !req
240. Stop him!Copy !req
241. There follows an extended hunt
through the embassy's formal gardens.Copy !req
242. Halt!Copy !req
243. The Doctor vaults the embassy wall,
which has '\'\DRAGONS GO HOME"
daubed on the outside.Copy !req
244. But there are Earth guards
waiting for him in the street.Copy !req
245. That sequence was shot
on 13 September, 1972,
the production's last day on location.Copy !req
246. A private house in Highgate
served as the embassy.Copy !req
247. Hello, Jo.Copy !req
248. Doctor, where've you been?Copy !req
249. It was the home of Paul Bernard's
fellow television director Naomi Capon.Copy !req
250. I've been paying a brief but unwilling
visit to the Draconian embassy.Copy !req
251. And I'm afraid I had to
leave in rather a hurryCopy !req
252. and found myself back here.Copy !req
253. It was designed in 1964
along ultra-modern lines,
and became a Grade II listed building
in 2000.Copy !req
254. What happened?Copy !req
255. Well, believe it or believe it not, Jo,Copy !req
256. they think we're working for General
Williams and trying to provoke a war.Copy !req
257. Oh, no!Copy !req
258. Yes, Earth is blaming Draconia
and Draconia is blaming Earth.Copy !req
259. In the future, Bernard reasoned,
people would live in classic
20th-century houses, just as
they live in Tudor cottages today.Copy !req
260. - And both sides are blaming us.
- That's about it.Copy !req
261. What's the matter?Copy !req
262. Well, that sound, the one
I heard on the cargo ship.Copy !req
263. Once the house was chosen,
the scripted sequence was reworked
to suit the location.Copy !req
264. I think I can hear it again.Copy !req
265. All was not well
when the film crew arrived
at the South Bank on the Sunday morning.Copy !req
266. The usual Bankside population of drunks
and vagrants were sleeping rough
exactly where they wanted to film.Copy !req
267. Send in the Ogrons!Copy !req
268. The actors, already in full costume,
were asked to clear the area.Copy !req
269. For at least one tramp, this meant
a rude awakening that morning
- to say nothing
of the fright of his life!Copy !req
270. JO: Ogrons!Copy !req
271. You, come!Copy !req
272. Also seen in this episode were:Copy !req
273. Jim Delaney, Pat Gorman,
Jamie Griffin (Presidential Guards)Copy !req
274. Steve Ismay, Clinton Morris,
Wolf van Jurgen (Presidential Guards)Copy !req
275. Bill Burridge, Ray Millar,
Kevin Moran, Terry Sartain (Draconians)Copy !req
276. David Billa, Terence Denville,
Emmett Hennessey (Prison Guards)Copy !req
277. Derek Hunt, Brian Nolan, Dennis Plenty,
George Ribitt (Prison Guards)Copy !req
278. Lawrence Davidson
(Draconian First Secretary),
Timothy Craven (Cell Guard)
joins me here.
We shall question them together.Copy !req