Doctor Who 14x15

1. "Leela and the Doctor break through the time barrier and find themselves threatened by a mad computer." (Radio Times)

2. This episode was first shown on 15 January 1977, and was seen by 11.3 million viewers.

3. This serial draws on the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, which had been shown on BBC-1 on 6 November 1974.

4. The film includes an invisible monster which leaves giant footprints and is deterred by a force-field.

5. The monster turns out to be a psychic projection from the id of a great scientist,

6. whose mental powers have been enhanced after he attempted to meld his mind with a super-computer.

7. The film was a recurrent influence on mid-1970s Doctor Who.

8. Some of the same elements were used, in a different way, in 'Planet of Evil',

9. and the eponymous villain of 'The Brain of Morbius' (1976) Took his name from the film's scientist anti-hero.

10. "Tomas cocks an eye at him," says the script.

11. As scripted, Tomas thinks of the Evil One as an "it", not a "he".

12. Pronouns are important in the script. When we meet the Tesh later this episode, see if you can hear the capital "H"

13. when they refer to Xoanon: "He" rather than "he".

14. It is a direct imitation of the way Christian printers used to capitalise the pronouns of God.

15. The script calls for a green light, not red.

16. Where's it gone? "About its duties," replies the Doctor in the script.

17. It's "a rather ugly, functionally plain rocket ship". (Or a model, if you prefer.)

18. Chris Boucher envisaged a closer shot: The script says the rocket "soars into the sky, dominating an arid landscape".

19. The 35cm model ship was built from kit parts.

20. It was fitted with low-voltage internal lights, which don't really show up on screen.

21. It was shot on videotape in the studio rather than, as was usual for modelwork, on film.

22. In the script, she makes the ritual gesture again.

23. A 3D image combined with what? The script supplies the other half of the effect:

24. "A psionic field which acts directly on the nervous system".

25. Or, if you prefer, a background inlaid using Colour Separation Overlay.

26. Although the ship's shadow only falls one way, Chris Boucher imagined the planet as having two suns.

27. This was scripted as "a strange, restless, and undefined chamber."

28. It contrasts with the warm twin-sun glow of the outside: "The cold light is muted.

29. "Unpatterned, subtle shifts in its intensity stir through the gloom, which seems to gather and move."

30. As well as candles, the script calls for joss sticks, garlanded display screens, and "elaborately decorated fabrics".

31. Philip Hinchcliffe originally wanted Leela to be future Royal Shakespeare Company actress Emily Richard (born 1948).

32. She had recently appeared in the prestigious serial, The Glittering Prizes, but turned out to be unavailable.

33. 26 actresses were considered for the role in a series of five auditions which ran from 10 to 25 August 1976.

34. Who were they?

35. Celia Foxe (born 1945), Colette Gleeson (born 1946), Elaine Donnelly (born 1948);

36. Gail Grainger, Belinda Sinclair, and Ann Pennington (all born 1950);

37. Sally Geeson (born 1950), who had just finished five years playing the cute daughter in the Sid James sitcom Bless This House;

38. Pamela Salem (born 1950), who got a Xoanon voice and a guest starring role in the next serial, 'The Robots of Death';

39. former Play School presenter Carol Leader (born 1951);

40. Heather Tobias (born 1953; later the voice of Melody Angel in the 2005 remake of Captain Scarlet);

41. Marilyn Galsworthy (born 1954), Katherine Fahey, Deborah Fairfax,

42. Irene Gorst, Kay Korda, Lois Hantz, Belinda Low, Gail Harrison (Agnes in the 1974-5 BBC David Copperfield),

43. Michelle Newell (who had just finished When the Boat Comes In, and later played Cleopatra in the 1983 mini-series, The Cleopatras),

44. Philippa Vaizey, the Welsh actress Sue Jones-Davies, who later became the Mayor of Aberystwyth (2008-9) - And five others.

45. "She resists every inch of the way," says the script.

46. The script calls for Jabel to flinch when touched.

47. You'll have guessed that one of the five actresses short-listed for Leela is on the floor now.

48. The other four were: Lydia Lisle; Janet Edis (born 1956);

49. Susan Wooldridge (born 1952), who later played a rape victim in The Jewel in the Crown (1984), and turned down a role in 'Timelash';

50. and Carol Drinkwater (born 1948), later best known as a vet's wife in All Creatures Great and Small (1978-85).

51. This sequence betrays the plot's roots in Harry Harrison's Captive Universe.

52. The novel's hero leaves his village, penetrates the spaceship's infrastructure,

53. and meets a monastic order which is charged with watching over the two primitive tribes.

54. They do him honour as the "First Arriver", and he learns the fundamental secret behind his society,

55. including the reason why the two sets of villagers have always been forbidden to intermarry:

56. Because they are being developed as two separate gene pools for eventual combination when the ship arrives.

57. The process will weed out the regressive, artificially unintelligent primitive genes and produce a super-race.

58. The hero is the product of a bit of illicit inter-village romance, so he's already smarter than the average savage.

59. But his questioning nature soon causes him to fall out with the ship's ascetic guardians,

60. and he ends up fleeing from a charge of heresy.

61. And that's not at all unlike what is about to happen to the Doctor...

62. It's "a bare clinical room", says the script.

63. Above her is "an elaborate battery of what look like spotlights and fluorescent tubes",

64. and there's a flashing "Danger" sign on the wall.

65. We've just cut from Camera 3... to Camera 3! In editing, a high wide shot from Camera 2 was removed from in between.

66. Louise Jameson was one of the eight potential Leelas seen on the first day of auditions, 10 August.

67. Tom Baker was unavailable on the day: He was preparing for the first studio session on 'The Deadly Assassin',

68. and, since he was carrying the whole serial without a secondary lead, the rehearsals were more important than the auditions.

69. This meant that, when they did a scene, Pennant Roberts had to "read in" the Doctor's lines to cue the actresses.

70. Roberts was especially impressed with the way Louise's performance forced him to act too:

71. He felt obliged to respond to what she was doing, rather than simply feeding her the next line.

72. The remaining actresses auditioned on 17, 18, and 20 August, and the short-list callbacks were on the 25th.

73. Louise's agent, Carole James, phoned her a few days later, with a sympathetic "never mind" tone.

74. She was only teasing: Louise had won herself a television lead at last!

75. "Lackbrain" was Tom's word - it's "dum dum" in the script.

76. "The Tesh and the Sevateem are being manipulated by what was a computer - a machine," the Doctor was scripted to say.

77. "The Doctor goes down as if pole-axed," says the script.

78. The day after she heard she'd got the part, Louise Jameson went to the Orange Tree pub theatre in Richmond,

79. to attend one of its regular lunchtime readings of new plays.

80. Elisabeth Sladen was also there that day, passing the time before starting rehearsals at Liverpool Playhouse,

81. so Louise went up and introduced herself to her distinguished predecessor.

82. Elisabeth had one piece of advice to offer: If you're going to be a Doctor Who girl,

83. it helps if you have a taste for bondage.

84. Note the foam rubber padding in the manacles.

85. The first production decision about 'The Face of Evil' was made on 26 February 1976,

86. when Pennant Roberts (1940-2010) Was hired to direct the serial.

87. His previous work had included episodes of Doomwatch (1972), Softly Softly Task Force (1972), and The Regiment (1973).

88. In 1975-6, he was one of the principal directors for the first two series of Survivors.

89. He went on to direct another five Doctor Who serials, including the untransmitted 'Shada'.

90. Soon after that, he served for twenty years as Chair of the Directors' and Producers' Rights Society, an offshoot of the Directors' Guild.

91. This is from Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads (1892).

92. In the script, the Doctor gives the correct attribution,

93. but Tom Baker found it objectionable for the Doctor to be quoting Mr Kipling's exceedingly imperialist poetry,

94. so instead he named the American lesbian poet Gertrude Stein (1874-1946).

95. "Pre-pre-production" for this serial included the routine task of booking the rehearsal rooms on 20 July 1976.

96. More routine followed three days into pre-production, on 5 August,

97. when Doctor Who's regular composer Dudley Simpson was commissioned to score the serial.

98. But as August continued, the Design Department began to agitate for a change to the usual routine.

99. The work of erecting and lighting the sets for 'The Deadly Assassin' had been exceptionally heavy,

100. which rattled this serial's designer, Austin Ruddy, into asking for an extra studio day before recording to take care of this.

101. In the script, the Doctor and Leela take cover behind a heat exchanger when a single armed acolyte hurries past.

102. The name Xoanon comes from the Greek for a carved idol.

103. More immediately, however, Chris Boucher found the name in Bob Shaw's short story 'Pilot Plant',

104. in which Xoanon is a stranded alien astronaut who telepathically manipulates a human industrialist

105. so that his factory will produce the spare parts Xoanon needs to repair his spaceship.

106. The story was first published in the magazine New Worlds (issue 163, May 1966).

107. It was reprinted in the collection Tomorrow Lies in Ambush (1973), where Boucher read it.

108. The book was evidently lying around in the Doctor Who production office during 1976:

109. Another of the stories features a computer which stores the minds of the dead in an illusory dreamscape,

110. which inspired the Matrix in 'The Deadly Assassin'.

111. The script calls for a dilating "eye sensor".

112. The "crystal ball" is overlaid with a shot of a monitor (on Camera 3) Showing the Doctor through Camera 1's fish-eye lens.

113. "The sounds of battle fill the air" in the script: "crashes and screams, the bellowing of the monsters".

114. The disrupter guns were built by effects assistant and electrical specialist Charlie Lumm.

115. The alternating lights were a rare instance of a prop's electronics making a visual impact.

116. At this time Tom Baker was obsessed with an acting problem he had set himself:

117. Finding visually interesting ways to come through a door.

118. The shots on the monitor screen are played in from a videotape recording from the previous studio session.

119. The eleven monitors in the various sets could also be tuned to any of the five camera channels,

120. to channels from the other studios in Television Centre, or to live BBC transmissions.

121. At one point during a break, the crew used one of them to watch motor racing.

122. Note that the transceiver matches the one we saw among Neeva's relics.

123. In the script, he starts to identify himself as "the Doc...", then realises and breaks off.

124. A cut to the last episode forced a change to the Doctor's message to Calib.

125. It was scripted as:

126. "Have a chocolate."

127. The speaking acolyte in this scene was not originally Gentek, who was scripted to appear only in Part 4.

128. The lines were instead assigned to a nameless "Acolyte No.1", who now doesn't appear in this episode.

129. Peter Baldock, who plays that generic Acolyte, was one of the last two actors to be cast. The other was Xoanon voice Rob Edwards.

130. "This is Level 37 if I've counted right," says the Doctor at the top of the scripted scene,

131. but, as you've just seen, the set design rendered the line supererogatory.

132. In the script, it is Leela's idea to use the hat, not the Doctor's.

133. She puts it on, lies on her side, peers round the corner so that the Acolyte can see her,

134. then withdraws her head, leaving behind the unoccupied hat as a decoy.

135. The business was simplified in rehearsal.

136. This stunt Tesh is Stuart Fell,

137. formerly a Jester, Morbius Monster, Kraal, Wirrn, Tramp, Hermaphrodite Hexapod, Sea Devil, and Jo Grant Impersonator.

138. And now he's about to have an even nastier experience.

139. Louise did a real throw instead of faking it, and Stuart fell on his head.

140. But never mind about Stuart - watch where the disrupter gun fell.

141. It seems to have strange psychokinetic properties,

142. because it's now back beside the fallen Stuart.

143. In the script, Leela doesn't pick up the gun herself: The Doctor hands it to her.

144. Cut here was an exterior shot of Calib clambering up over the idol's chin and into its mouth.

145. Designer Austin Ruddy had previously contributed sets to a range of BBC series,

146. including Adam Adamant Lives! (1966), Steptoe and Son (1970), and Colditz (1972-4).

147. He and Pennant Roberts had worked together on two episodes of Survivors (1975).

148. He later designed for Secret Army (1977-8), Penmarric (1979), and Miss Marple (1984).

149. He is also an exhibited artist, specialising in watercolour paintings of the Yorkshire countryside.

150. 'The Face of Evil' was his only Doctor Who and his only design for an alien planet.

151. His starting-point for the design concept was the absolute difference between the Sevateem and Tesh environments.

152. "Murmuring, echoing, whispering sounds ebb and flow continuously," says the script.

153. "Around him the sound seems to coalesce until it becomes a question whispered by hundreds of voices around and within him."

154. "Do you think they wanted to know something?" Quipped Tom at the camera rehearsal.

155. And this line became: "I am the Doctor - I am on contract!"

156. At first, it looked as if the usual Doctor Who stunt arranger, Terry Walsh, would not be available for this serial,

157. so on 5 August Pennant Roberts approached an alternative: Frank Maher (1929-2007),

158. who had, in the 1960s, been Roger Moore's stunt double on The Saint and Patrick McGoohan's on The Prisoner.

159. Maher came in twice to discuss the prospect, on 6 and 10 August (the latter the day of the first Leela auditions).

160. Philip Hinchcliffe had reservations because Maher was more used to film work than studio television, but agreed to give him a try.

161. Roberts warned Maher to wait for formal confirmation before giving it any more thought: "Do not carry on working in limbo".

162. A few days later, Terry Walsh became available and it was decided to hire him instead.

163. Roberts contacted Maher on 18 August to explain in person,

164. only to find that Maher, though still "in limbo", had already planned the stunts for the film shoot.

165. Equity, the actors' union, intervened on Maher's behalf the next day, and the dispute was eventually settled in November.

166. Louise Jameson was surprised and delighted to discover that part of the rehearsal process for Doctor Who

167. entailed rushing around playing at gun-battles with imaginary weapons.

168. The script calls for a "blinding" spotlight.

169. It's another overlay effect using a caption card, like the light that shone on Neeva in the last episode.

170. The script calls for three Xoanon voices, respectively "Doctor", "Female", and "Youth".

171. A fourth voice, Rob Edwards, was added at the last minute.

172. The female voice, Pamela Salem's, reflects Carl Jung's theory that every male personality has a female element: An anima.

173. The other male voices belong to Tom Baker (obviously) And Roy Herrick (died 1988).

174. Herrick had previously worked with Pennant Roberts on The Regiment (1973) and Survivors (1976).

175. The light patterns on the wall were achieved using a combination of lighting and electronic effects.

176. Back-lighting turned the three wall panels blue, effectively making them into a CSO screen.

177. The animated light patterns were then electronically inlaid from the output of Camera 1.

178. Leela's loincloth only had a flap at the front, until Louise asked for some coverage for her rear end.

179. The gun rays were inlaid live in studio, so the actors had to hold the muzzles in exactly the right place.

180. The Acolytes were scripted to shoot as they advance: Unlike the helpless Leela, their firepower is unimpaired...

181. The script calls for "total inky blackness and silence".

182. On this episode's main recording day, Sunday 24 October, the studio had a young visitor:

183. A seven-year-old Australian boy, resident in London, who had won a Doctor Who competition.

184. You'll be hearing his voice in a moment or two.

185. The face on the screens is "contorted with terror" in the script.

186. "The tremendous force and power of the projection and the wild storm of madness envelop him."

187. The child's voice belongs to prizewinner Anthony Frieze, later elected as a Tory Member of Parliament in 2010.

188. Also seen in this episode were:

189. Tim Craven (Spacesuit Tesh)

190. Ernie Goodyear, Robert Hastings (Acolytes)

191. Tom Knox, David Ludwig, Tom McCabe (Acolytes)

192. Uncredited production contributors included:

193. Linda Graeme, Richard Leyland (Assistant Floor Managers)

194. Colin Reed (Senior Cameraman)

195. James Gould (Vision Mixer)