Doctor Who 14x1

Directed by Rodney Bennett

Jon Laurimore as Count Federico • Antony Carrick as Captain Rossini • Gareth Armstrong as Giuliano • Tim Pigott-Smith as Marco • Norman Jones as Hieronymous

The Doctor and Sarah arrive in Renaissance Italy unaware that they have brought a deadly alien energy force with them.

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1. This episode was first shown on 4 September, 1976.

2. It was seen by 8.3 million people.

3. It was a photograph matted in with the green-screen process Colour Separation Overlay,

4. whereas the three-dimensional TARDIS control room took up too much of the studio's floor space.

5. No size issue here: Elisabeth Sladen is indeed 5'4" tall.

6. So producer Philip Hinchcliffe decided to introduce a new, smaller control room. And here it is.

7. Though we've never seen it before, the set is dressed with some artefacts associated with earlier Doctors,

8. including Jon Pertwee's velvet jacket and frilly shirt, and Patrick Troughton's recorder.

9. The script calls for a swivel mirror to be part of the console itself, rather than standing on top.

10. Originally the instrument hire firm, Maurice Placquet of Shepherd's Bush, sent a treble recorder - the wrong size.

11. This is the second attempt at representing the Helix on screen.

12. Instead, they used a controlled whirlpool in a perspex cone, shot from above and lit from beneath.

13. For budgetary reasons, the effect was done "live" in the studio, rather than pre-filmed, as was the norm.

14. Only one of the console flaps had controls inside.

15. The plan was to add more in later serials - though, in fact, the set was only used three more times.

16. This is another mirrorlon shot.

17. It doesn't say XOB ECILOP

18. because a second mirror was used to turn the image the right way round again.

19. The intention was to suggest that the time machine is "breaking up as it travels down the vortex".

20. Barry Newbery's inspiration for the new control room set was Jules Verne.

21. He'd just seen the 1954 Disney film version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,

22. It's not real mahogany, though: It's a plastic wall covering.

23. The script calls this the "Titan Hall".

24. It wasn't only the TARDIS control room that was remade for this serial: The police box is a new prop too.

25. The replacement was made of more lightweight materials,

26. to make it easier for the scene shifters to move about, especially on location.

27. Note the visible inner wall of the TARDIS prop.

28. Barry Newbery's version of the TARDIS interior included a completely new control console.

29. Director Rodney Bennett asked for a moving central column, like on the old console.

30. He suggested that the top should open with an iris, and a dome come out.

31. Hinchcliffe and Newbery overruled him, partly on grounds of cost,

32. Another idea which didn't make it to the final design had been in Newbery's mind since 1968.

33. He wanted a TARDIS control system that was more sophisticated than knobs and levers,

34. so he suggested a panel on which the Doctor would simply "write" instructions to the machine.

35. As you've already seen, the finished console ended up with rows of buttons.

36. Can you spot the giant Buddha in the shadowed portico in front of the dome?

37. This led scriptwriter Louis Marks to the pseudo-science of astrology,

38. which ascribes significance to planets and stars and their relative positions as they move through the heavens.

39. The twelve significant constellations are still familiar: The signs of the zodiac.

40. Mars and Saturn were both malign influences and "the House of the Ram" signified leadership and power.

41. So Hieronymous's prophecy makes sense in its own terms.

42. Louis Marks saw the fifteenth century as a crucial moment in human history when superstition lost out to reason.

43. That conflict is at the centre of 'The Masque of Mandragora'.

44. Medieval Christianity had definite ideas about mankind's place in the universe.

45. Creation was a fixed hierarchy of beings, with humanity in the middle, above the beasts and below the angels.

46. In Renaissance Italy, however, there developed a new theory of mankind: Humanism.

47. You could make yourself a beast or a god, depending on what you did.

48. In this scene, Giuliano explicitly aligns himself with this new school of philosophy.

49. Louis Marks imagined Hieronymous with "sinister and fantastic" clothing, a black beard, and "evil features".

50. We've already heard that the moon is "full grown", which will become important in the final episode.

51. Now we learn that it is the summer solstice, when the sun is highest in the sky.

52. In the northern hemisphere, this falls in mid-June.

53. You may have noticed a small crocodile above the window (with a smaller lizard pinned beneath it).

54. The traditional alchemist's hanging croc derives from a 1680 painting by David Teniers of Antwerp.

55. It was scripted as a rougher landing, ending with the TARDIS wedged into a bush.

56. But the door opens easily, and they find themselves in a vineyard.

57. Elisabeth Sladen originally planned to leave Doctor Who at the end of the 1975-6 series.

58. So that's why Sarah Jane's still here:

59. They were scripted as peaches, not oranges.

60. The plan was for Sarah to be dragged, not carried.

61. This was scripted as a faster-moving sequence:

62. The Doctor and the Brother run to intercept one another, followed by a more extended karate fight.

63. Most of the dialogue was improvised on location.

64. Composer Dudley Simpson aimed to lighten this violent moment with what he hoped would be slightly comical music.

65. The ball of helix energy was electronically overlaid when the film was recorded to videotape.

66. It was scripted as an invisible force which leaves a blackened trail and wisps of smoke behind it:

67. When it moves, we hear a "mine-detector wail", and leaves and branches shrivel as it passes.

68. To look suitably "alive", it had to be an intense light source, so an industrial sparkler was used.

69. The location shoot was in early May, 1976.

70. Although the film unit had priority, the Portmeirion authorities were unable to keep members of the public away.

71. The forking peasant is stuntman Stuart Fell.

72. The first take of this shot was ruined by intruding children.

73. Explosives were set in the water just above where the rock had landed.

74. followed by the lake surface boiling as the energy skims along it.

75. The vapour contained hydrochloric acid, a corrosive chemical by-product.

76. That's one reason why titanium tetrachloride is now banned from use in special effects.

77. On an earlier take, there was so much smoke from the body that the Doctor couldn't be seen.

78. Luckily that effects smoke was non-toxic!

79. The leg of Guiliano's table is distinctly out of period: It's a Victorian jardiniere.

80. The table itself is even newer: It was specially made for the production out of blockboard.

81. In 1490, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Wrote of "making glasses to see the Moon enlarged".

82. In reality, Leonardo was no longer in Florence: He left in 1482 to work at the court of Milan.

83. Marco refers to the geocentric cosmology in which the Sun moves around a stationary Earth,

84. whereas Giuliano is at the cutting edge of new astronomical thinking in the late fifteenth century.

85. The carved wooden chest by the door is a modern reproduction.

86. It was still an expensive piece, though, valued at £2,000.

87. Much of the scenic furniture was hired from the specialist London firm, Farley.

88. It was Philip Hinchcliffe who first thought of doing a serial set in the time of the Borgias.

89. Script editor Robert Holmes wasn't enthusiastic: He didn't much care for Doctor Who in historical settings.

90. Hinchcliffe persuaded him that the period would give the drama added "bite" and some striking visuals.

91. The idea had an unlikely source: The future co-author of the sitcom Yes, Minister.

92. in terms of the pragmatic principles of statecraft developed by Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527).

93. Holmes also couldn't imagine a location that would be both economical and effective. But Hinchcliffe could.

94. He remembered a visit to Portmeirion during his student days at Birmingham.

95. Yes, We Have No Bananas, whistles the Doctor as he eats his orange.

96. In television "grammar", movement across the frame should be consistent from shot to shot.

97. Most of the chase coming up was shot with the horses galloping from right to left of frame.

98. A continuity problem arose when they realised the Doctor rides in from frame left in the final shot.

99. Stunt guard Peter Pocock goes off the horse and stunt Doctor Roy Street mounts it.

100. The horses are sped up by undercranking the camera.

101. On the first take, the camera was overcranked by mistake, resulting in a rather slow chase!

102. This shot caused the left to right problem.

103. In the script, Sarah wetly asks, "Please, what have I done? Please let me go."

104. Her lines were rewritten in rehearsal to make her more assertive.

105. The High Priest is played by Scottish actor Robert James (1924-2004).

106. He'd recently played another Renaissance cleric, Archbishop Cranmer, in The Prince and the Pauper (1976).

107. Soon afterwards, he was the definitive Newman Noggs in the BBC's 1977 version of Nicholas Nickleby.

108. Now, remember the astronomy - a full moon at the time of the summer solstice?

109. What better time for the cult to sacrifice to Demnos, god of moontide and solstice?

110. The mural behind Count Federico is in the style of the Venetian painter Paolo Veronese (1528-88).

111. The Doctor's answer was Tom Baker's unscripted contribution.

112. One the props ordered for use in this serial was indeed a rack.

113. That's why they all wait to hear his reaction before feeling free to laugh themselves.

114. Barry Newbery's previous Doctor Who assignment was 'The Brain of Morbius', made in October, 1975.

115. While at Television Centre, he noticed a magnificent Renaissance doorway in the set for a production in Studio 1.

116. He already knew what his next job was to be, so he asked for the door to be retained.

117. Here it is in the centre of the screen.

118. It was expensive to store the piece for seven months - but not as expensive as making a new one from scratch!

119. As he does so, the curfew bell starts to toll in the background.

120. The plastic replica sword has a length of "quick-match" igniter cord down one side.

121. The make-up brief specified that this actor was "to look unlike Pat Gorman".

122. A tall order, perhaps, since it was Pat Gorman.

123. and a lunar eclipse marks a great turning-point in human life.

124. It was originally intended that Count Federico should have a moustache and a small beard.

125. At a late stage, the next scene was simplified from what Louis Marks originally wrote.

126. As scripted, Sarah isn't chained to the wall.

127. When the Brethren come for her, she is trying to force open a barred window and make her escape.

128. She struggles furiously as they carry her bodily away to meet her grisly fate.

129. A shot of the sacrificial knife was also cut.

130. Note the robe's hook-and-eye fastening visible by Sarah's neck.

131. This is anachronistic: Only laces and buttons were used in the fifteenth century.

132. The leather covers were added to hide the drumsticks' modern mallet-style heads.

133. This was for reasons of historical accuracy.

134. It was written as an English-style beheading, with axe and chopping-block.

135. But Renaissance continentals did it like this, with a sword and the victim kneeling upright.

136. Also seen in this episode were:

137. Michael Mulcaster

138. Maurice Quick

139. Non-speaking roles on location were played by:

140. Keith Ashley, Walter Henry, Christopher Holmes

141. Penny Lambirth, Clinton Morris, Keith Norrish

142. Dennis Plenty, Mary Rennie, Cy Town, Leslie Weekes

143. The studio courtiers and soldiers were:

144. Paul Barton, Cavin Janson, Roy Pearce, David Rolfe

145. Lionel Taylor, Ken Tracey, David Wilde, Lincoln Wright

146. Uncredited production contributors

147. John Hickman

148. Ann Rickard