Doctor Who 10x9

Directed by Paul Bernard

Vera Fusek as President of Earth • Peter Birrel as Draconian Prince • Ray Lonnen as Gardiner • Barry Ashton as Kemp • Barry Ashton as Hardy

The Doctor and Jo land on a spaceship in the far future as it is attacked by Ogrons, which the human crew see as Draconians. The Doctor and Jo are taken to Earth as spies.

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1. This episode was first shown on 24 February, 1973 and was seen by 9.1 million viewers.

2. The script calls this "a stubby, plain, workmanlike vessel, old and battered, the equivalent of a tramp steamer".

3. The space pilots are described as "tough, laconic" men doing a routine job.

4. There are a few things that were relatively new-fangled in 1973, but have become commonplace.

5. "Clunk click".

6. This moment was parodied in an episode of The Goodies shown on 8 December,1973.

7. At first, scriptwriter Malcolm Hulke planned to start from the opposite point of view.

8. The first scene in his original storyline takes place inside the TARDIS.

9. The Doctor and Jo are travelling through the space-time continuum,

10. when the TARDIS is struck by sudden turbulence.

11. The spaceship emerges from the space-time continuum with the TARDIS inside it.

12. The TARDIS control room set was very large and it wasn't economical to put it up for just a single scene,

13. so that opening sequence in the TARDIS had to be dropped.

14. This dialogue was unscripted, worked out by the actors in rehearsal.

15. This is the second serial in a row in which the Doctor and Jo have arrived in the hold of a cargo ship.

16. Spaceships were central to the imaginative genesis of this serial.

17. In 1971, the BBC acquired a large stock of models from Gerry Anderson's defunct production company, Century 21.

18. The Doctor Who production team saw an opportunity to mount a low-cost space spectacular.

19. Doctor Who's modest budget usually kept such costly effects sequences to a minimum,

20. to arrange the sets so that the cameras could see everything.

21. When we cut to the next shot, remember this one and think about where the camera must be.

22. It's an "impossible" camera angle.

23. The close-ups of Hardy were recorded after the master shot and cut in later.

24. The Head of Visual Effects, Jack Kine, sent Barry Letts an unambiguous memo on 17 April, 1972:

25. "NONE of the Thunderbird models can be used in any Doctor Who.

26. Once dismantled, the "carcasses" were simply discarded.

27. "Doctor Who warms to his subject," says the script.

28. The practicalities of space travel were still a matter of topical interest in the early 1970s.

29. The image is blurred with Vaseline.

30. The vaseline was smeared on a transparent surface in front of the camera lens.

31. The Doctor and Jo encountered the carnivorous Drashigs in 'Carnival of Monsters'.

32. Then we cut to a point-of-view shot showing the Draconian ship, now filling the screen.

33. Look at the digital clock to Stewart's right.

34. It was showing 22.09 earlier, but now we seem to have gone back in time.

35. The episode was mostly recorded in story order, but the clock was wrongly reset between shots.

36. The viewer screens were an afterthought: Hulke originally imagined the cargo ship as equipped only with sound radio.

37. Eight planes had been seized by terrorists in the three years before Hulke began writing his scripts.

38. The Draconian Prince, says the script, "is a young warrior, proud and a little arrogant, like all Draconians."

39. The President, meanwhile, is "an attractive woman in her forties.

40. "A strong personality, but still warm and feminine."

41. A female head of state was a rarity in 1973,

42. but again 'Frontier in Space' shows a future in which the unusual has become commonplace.

43. The script emphasises that the President's gender should simply be taken for granted:

44. "Nothing 'Women's Lib' about her: That battle was won long ago and she is not the first woman President."

45. Briefed for spaceships and inspired by hijackings, Hulke also wanted a diplomatic aspect to the scenario.

46. In 'Balance of Terror', two space empires are separated by a "Neutral Zone".

47. The episode begins with an attack on a Federation outpost, apparently by the Romulan Empire.

48. The Neutral Zone, like the Earth-Draconian frontier, was established after a war.

49. Hulke adopted that bit of the idea relatively late in the process of story development,

50. to give some definition to the character of General Williams, who doesn't feature in the storyline.

51. The storyline simply describes how the expanding empires agreed a frontier

52. "to separate their two spheres of interest".

53. It hasn't been an entirely harmonious coexistence:

54. Two contiguous power blocs with markedly different cultures and political systems.

55. Hulke himself was a Communist.

56. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he believed that East and West could coexist peacefully.

57. Doctor Who was popular with most BBC executives at this time,

58. so the thrust of the discussion was simply to welcome "a good start to another good story".

59. The Doctor and Jo visited the planet Solos in 'The Mutants' the year before.

60. She had long believed that Doctor Who was too frightening for younger viewers.

61. criticising the amount of violence in programmes that were seen by children, such as Doctor Who, she suggested.

62. Paul Fox, the Controller of BBC One, wasn't having any of that.

63. He understood that the survey results had been slanted by the way the questions had been asked.

64. "If you surrender your cargo," it promises, "you will be unharmed."

65. Stewart - the younger, more senior, less worried spaceman - is played by James Culliford (1927-2002).

66. 'Frontier in Space' was to be his last professional acting job.

67. The BBC didn't employ another black newsreader until 1981.

68. In 1973, the "family allowance" was a weekly government payment to mothers of more than one child.

69. That joke slightly overshadows the one about two "totally enclosed" cities being "opened",

70. "The President switches off in disgust," says the script.

71. "Or someone leaked the story," is her scripted reply.

72. This line was unscripted, worked out in rehearsal.

73. "So where's the battle cruiser that's coming to rescue us?" Asks Hardy in the script.

74. "We're still a long way out," replies Stewart.

75. Jon Pertwee's Doctor was always "reversing the polarity"

76. The actor liked the phrase, because it saved him having to learn a new screed of technobabble every time.

77. In the next shot, note the reflection in the cell door of something moving in the studio.

78. Look at the top left corner.

79. That was part of the studio lighting rig in shot.

80. The door "dissolves in a cloud of smoke" in the script.

81. And roll end credits!

82. In the script, the President is dictating an official statement into "a futuristic dictaphone".

83. Script editor Terrance Dicks wanted to capture viewers' attention as early as possible,

84. by running another serial which would serve as a lead-in to the Dalek adventure.

85. He thought of that first serial, which became 'Frontier in Space', as giving the Doctor a problem to solve,

86. and that may be one reason why Hulke was drafted in to write the "lead-in" serial.

87. But there has been no similar break for the Doctor and Jo.

88. They are still wearing their costumes from 'Carnival of Monsters', which was recorded in June.

89. Strange as it may seem, one thing to keep an eye on in 'Frontier in Space' is Jo's knees.

90. But you won't find out why until the next episode!

91. The production team wanted to establish a clear link to the Daleks, despite the Doctor's misdirection here.

92. Hulke had hoped to keep viewers' first sight of the Ogrons back until slightly later in the episode.

93. In most other respects, the storyline is structurally very close to the version that ended up on screen.

94. The complexities of recording some of the effects live in the studio

95. meant that this episode overran its scheduled two hours of recording time by 17 minutes.

96. Overruns were frowned upon at the BBC, because they resulted in hefty overtime payments for actors and crew.

97. Note the metal crates under the chairs, which bring the seats high enough for the pilots to work at the control desk.

98. 'Frontier in Space' was an early assignment for costume designer Barbara Kidd.

99. She contributed frocks to another eight Doctor Who serials, ending with 'Kinda' (1982).

100. Uncredited production contributors

101. Tommy Dawson

102. Mike Turner

103. Christopher Moss

104. - Ogrons! Back to the TARDIS, Jo. Back!

105. Doctor! Doctor!

106. Distress signals have been received

107. from another Earth cargo ship,

108. reporting an attack by a Draconian battle cruiser.

109. Rescue ships are now on their way.

110. There have been anti-Draconian riots in Tokyo and Belgrade,

111. and the Draconian Consulate in Helsinki has been burnt to the ground.

112. In Los Angeles, demonstrators burnt an effigy of you.

113. Yes?

114. They have just found the cargo ship, Madam President,

115. - but it is not responding to signals. - And the Draconians?

116. There is no sign of any Draconian ships, sir.

117. - They are about to board... now. - Thank you.

118. We shall soon know what really happened.

119. If there's anyone alive to tell them.

120. JO: Doctor?

121. - Jo? - JO: Doctor!

122. - Jo? - JO: Doctor, I'm over here.

123. All right, Jo, what are you doing in there?

124. Oh, Doctor, thank goodness, you're all right.

125. I thought they'd killed you.

126. Come on, come and sit down.

127. Must have been some kind of neuronic stun gun.

128. I wonder why they didn't kill me? What exactly happened, Jo?

129. Well, they took the cargo, threw me in here and...

130. - Doctor? - Hmm?

131. - They also took the TARDIS. - Oh...

132. Oh, we're stranded. What are we going to do?

133. Well, try and get the TARDIS back, of course.

134. Why should the Ogrons attack this ship?

135. - To steal the cargo. - No. No, there's more to it than that.

136. That... That sound that you heard,

137. it's all too sophisticated for the Ogrons.

138. - Well, they're gone now. - Yeah, the question is, where?

139. Hey, Doctor, last time we met the Ogrons

140. they were working for the Daleks, right?

141. - Well, you don't suppose that that... - No, no, not necessarily.

142. No, the Ogrons are mercenaries.

143. Other life forms use them to do their dirty work.

144. Come on, Jo, let's go and find the crew.

145. Take a look at that one.

146. Well, they're both stunned, just as I was.

147. That's funny. The Ogrons have repaired the airlock door.

148. Well, that was nice of them.

149. Well, if they hadn't, we'd have both been done for.

150. All the air would have escaped when the ships unlocked.

151. Why should they go to all that trouble?

152. Well, maybe they've got kind hearts. There's good in everyone you know, Jo.

153. Earth battle cruiser to Earth cargo ship number C982.

154. We are now approaching you. Do you read me?

155. - Look after them, will you? - Right.

156. Do you read me?

157. Earth battle cruiser to Earth cargo ship number C982.

158. We are now approaching you. Do you read me? Over.

159. Earth battle cruiser to Earth cargo ship number C982.

160. We are now approaching you. Do you read me? Do you read me?

161. Prepare to be boarded. Repeat, prepare to be boarded.

162. Do you read me? Over.

163. Hello battle cruiser, battle cruiser, this is the cargo ship. Over.

164. What is your situation?

165. The ship has been attacked and the cargo stolen. Over.

166. Do you have casualties?

167. Yes, the crew are stunned, but otherwise they're unharmed. Over.

168. We shall lock on. Five seconds from now.

169. It's all right, Jo. We're being rescued.

170. - What happened? - Well, don't worry, old chap.

171. You'll be all right now. I think...

172. Draconians! They're boarding!

173. - Stewart? Who are you? - Passengers.

174. I see. Having a fancy dress party? What happened?

175. - Dragons attacked us. - Did they get the cargo?

176. - I don't know. - Yes, they took everything.

177. Including some rather valuable property of mine.

178. - Well, tough luck. - Oh, thank you very much.

179. - Dragons... They attacked us. - Yes, we know.

180. You say you're passengers. Isn't that a little unusual on a cargo ship?

181. Well, we're here, aren't we?

182. Where did you pick these two up?

183. I don't know. I can't seem to remember...

184. Pull yourself together! How did they get on board?

185. Stowaways... That's it, they were stowaways.

186. - They were sending messages. - That's right.

187. They were helping the Dragons. They're traitors!