Doctor Who 14x19

Directed by Michael E. Briant

Russell Hunter as Uvanov • Pamela Salem as Toos • David Bailie as Dask • David Collings as Poul • Gregory de Polnay as D.84

One of the crew is the insane Taren Capel, who is using robots to carry out the murders. The Doctor discovers that there are also others who aren't what they appear to be either.

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1. "Sabotage aboard the Sandminer... and the killer robot strikes again." (Radio Times)

2. This episode was first shown on 12 February 1977.

3. It was seen by 13.1 million viewers, the serial's largest audience.

4. "I'll do it," says Dask in the script. "I am responsible." And he takes his own pair of cutters from his belt.

5. Chris Boucher's intention was that, by this point, the Doctor already knows whodunnit.

6. "The tortured whine of the motors dies away," says the script.

7. This line was written for Toos.

8. This sequence may draw on Arthur C. Clarke's 1961 novel, A Fall of Moondust,

9. which centres on the plight of a vessel that sinks beneath the dust of an alien desert.

10. For Dask's benefit: The "unsinkable" RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage in 1912.

11. The serial was cast in October 1976.

12. Uvanov and Dask were considered the star parts, followed by Poul and then Zilda.

13. The most significant decision taken at this stage was to increase the number of actors engaged to play the generic robots:

14. The original plan had been to use just three, but Michael Briant doubled them up to six.

15. The injury is more serious in the script: A broken arm.

16. In the script, Poul is "rather battered", and has to be helped in by the Doctor.

17. The make-up line around the eyes and nose mimics the design of the robots' faces.

18. The design inspiration for this detail was the face of the robot Maria in Metropolis.

19. "A cover-up?" was Toos's scripted line.

20. As well as Metropolis, Kenneth Sharp's set designs drew on the art deco rooms of the 1930s Cunard liner, the Queen Mary.

21. This influenced the horizontal wall panelling effect, the columnar uprights in the corridors,

22. and the warm orange colour scheme here in the crew room.

23. The model stage was around twenty feet square, which was large by BBC standards.

24. There were four days of model filming on Stage 2 at Ealing Studios: 1-2 and 4-5 November.

25. Along with the live-action shoot on 3 November, it produced 201 feet of 16mm film.

26. So the specially shot footage comprised less than half the total film content of the four episodes (699 feet).

27. Preparing for the studio recording, Michael Briant asked for either Jim Stevens or Joan Duncan as vision mixer (and got Joan Duncan).

28. He initially asked for Derek Slee as senior cameraman and Peter Winn on sound (but got neither).

29. The business with the additive was unscripted, worked out in rehearsal.

30. Dune also emphasises the need, in a desert environment, to conserve and recycle every drop of moisture.

31. Chris Boucher imagined that the planet's centres of population were in the polar regions,

32. so the climate is evidently rather unlike that of Earth.

33. Chris Boucher imagined something more like a mortuary cold store, with horizontal trays set into a wall.

34. The unnumbered, damaged robot is V2, identified in a later cut line as the first of the killer robots.

35. This scene contains a vital clue which should leave the observant viewer in no further doubt about whodunnit.

36. Think about how the two characters react to the damaged robot - and particularly its left hand...

37. David Bailie chose to underplay Dask in the early episodes, to avoid giving any games away too soon.

38. One especial problem in casting the serial concerned the robots.

39. Most of them could go to fairly junior performers, but the two robot principals, SV7 and D84, needed strong actors.

40. This was a problem because, professionally speaking, they were unattractive parts:

41. The actors' faces would never appear on screen.

42. SV7 is played by Miles Fothergill.

43. He had previously been Judas in the early '70s stage musical, Godspell.

44. Michael Briant later cast him as a spooky genetic experimenter in Blake's 7 (1978) And a policeman in Breakaway (1980).

45. In 1982, he became the first newsreader and presenter to appear on a British satellite television channel.

46. He later gave up acting to work in public relations.

47. The blazing eyes of the "possessed" robots were an unscripted embellishment, and were achieved using CSO.

48. For such shots, blue card "eye" shapes were fitted into the robot mask's eyepieces and used to key in the red haze.

49. The masks, though technically a costume item, were designed by Kenneth Sharp.

50. He was best placed to model the prototype head because he had taken sculpture at art school.

51. The hair on the prototype was simulated using strips of plasticine.

52. The prototype was turned into a finished design by the award-winning sculptress Rose Garrard.

53. Sharp's brief to her was to make the robots classically beautiful, but sinister when seen close up.

54. She modelled the head and breastplate in plasticine, then cast them in plaster.

55. She then paid some young London sculptors to make resin and fibreglass casts from the plaster moulds.

56. One of these freelance robot makers was Richard Wilson (born 1953), later of the Royal Academy,

57. who became famous for his "architectural" sculptures.

58. Rose Garrard then spent weeks finishing and painting the masks, and fitting them to the actors.

59. The scene's last scripted line was cut.

60. "You have no programmed inhibitions," the Doctor tells D84. "You see, I know what you are.

61. "What I need to know is why you're here."

62. The table has two apertures underneath the robot's elbows; an actor underneath reaches up and wriggles his hands.

63. Note the manufacturer's "marigold" logo on the robot's left-hand glove.

64. Boucher imagined a sound effect similar to a dentist's drill.

65. The idea of a robot detective is drawn from Isaac Asimov's novels, The Caves of Steel (1953) And The Naked Sun (1956).

66. In both books, Olivaw the robot 'tec works with a human partner, Elijah Baley, like D84 with Poul.

67. The narrative of The Naked Sun turns on a method of reprogramming a robot

68. so that it can commit murder without breaking the First Law of Robotics (the one which should stop it harming human beings).

69. Boucher gave Taren Capel two names, whereas all the other characters have only one,

70. in order to make Capel seem slightly more mysterious and threatening.

71. The name was arrived at by shuffling the syllables of Karel Capek (1890-1938),

72. the Czech dramatist whose 1921 play R. U. R. introduced the concept of a robot, and also the word itself.

73. The Naked Sun is set on the planet Solaria, where human beings shun personal contact with one another,

74. but are surrounded by their positronic robots, just like young Taren Capel.

75. D84 is played by Gregory de Polnay.

76. He was best known for his regular role as a detective in the later years of Dixon of Dock Green (1974-5).

77. In later years, he specialised in voice training, and taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,

78. where his productions of rare Jacobean plays were justly renowned.

79. In rehearsal, the actors developed the simple scripted dialogue here to give this moment a much fuller emotional impact.

80. As he developed the storyline, Chris Boucher became fascinated by the concept of artificial intelligence.

81. In particular, he was drawn to the idea that, as it develops, machine intelligence takes on more and more human traits,

82. so that eventually there is little meaningful difference between machine and human intelligence.

83. Hence the characterisation of D84.

84. The "robot's eye view" was shot with a hand-held camera.

85. Rehearsals took place in Room 203 in the Television Rehearsal Rooms at Acton, from 11 November to 4 December.

86. As always, work began with a full script read-through on the first day.

87. They rehearsed six days a week for nine days before each of the two studio sessions.

88. Michael Briant encouraged the actors to adopt a slightly "send-up" style of acting, rather than aiming for realism.

89. The first studio session (for Parts 1 and 2) took place on 22-3 November 1976 in Studio 8 at Television Centre.

90. The second session (Parts 3 and 4) Followed on 5-7 December, this time in Studio 1, the BBC's largest.

91. As was standard practice, most of each studio day was devoted to camera rehearsals, with recording in the evening.

92. For the first session, only two hours' recording time was allocated each day.

93. For the second session, an extra half-hour per day was allowed.

94. It was an especially pressurised There were more scenes than usual to tape

95. because so little had been filmed beforehand.

96. In the event, things didn't go according to plan, and there was a 45-minute overrun on the last day.

97. One contributing factor was the fact that the sets weren't ready on schedule, so they couldn't begin to light them.

98. Moreover, several sets had been damaged in storage since the last studio session, and needed running repairs.

99. You can see signs of the scenic painter's recent ministrations on the column at the centre of the screen.

100. In the script, the Doctor tells the robot, "Now is not the time to start developing an imagination, officer."

101. The multiple repetition which replaces that line was business developed by the actors in rehearsal.

102. Tom Baker took a shine to Gregory de Polnay early in the production, thanks to some ancient Hindu scriptures.

103. Tom enjoyed exercising his mental muscles on the Times crossword at rehearsals,

104. and Russell Hunter was in the habit of arriving early to do it with him.

105. One day the combined brains of the two stars were stuck for an answer.

106. "Upanishads," piped up Greg involuntarily - and, to Tom's glee, he was right.

107. But being a creative artiste, Tom didn't always get on with everyone in the cast.

108. David Bailie (Dask) Felt he'd been cut dead throughout the production,

109. and Tom didn't want a regular co-star, so he wasn't as welcoming to Louise Jameson as he might have been.

110. "The door finally frees and slides fully open," says the script. "A figure blocks the light. It is V5."

111. "Dark, isn't it?" Leela was scripted to say.

112. In her early serials, Leela's knife had a sharp blade.

113. In the camera rehearsal, Louise's aim was off, and the knife nearly hit a cameraman.

114. Not long afterwards, the prop was replaced with a dull-bladed knife...

115. Gregory de Polnay was not told that Chris Boucher intended D84 to be a SuperVoc in disguise.

116. His performance began with the assumption that D84 was a Dum who had been programmed to speak,

117. so he worked on the analogy of someone who has learned English as a foreign language:

118. Immensely articulate, but with an unstudied vocal precision that reflects how unfamiliar the words are to him.

119. He was especially impressed by this line's poetic use of language, so he decided to develop

120. a delicate, ethereal voice, moving around the octaves to avoid sounding altogether human.

121. In the script, the Doctor examines the control board dials, which register a residual charge in the probe.

122. This was Greg de Polnay's unscripted contribution.

123. "Police issue?" asks the Doctor in the script.

124. Toos is played by Pamela Salem (born 1950).

125. She had auditioned for the role of Leela in August (and didn't get it, obviously),

126. though her agent cunningly put it about that, as Toos, she was a "new Doctor Who girl", as if she was going to be a series regular.

127. Her most significant and best remembered work still lay ahead.

128. She graduated from playing hookers in The Professionals (1978) And Strangers (1982),

129. to the villainous witch Belor in Into the Labyrinth (1981-2),

130. to Miss Moneypenny in the "alternative franchise" James Bond film, Never Say Never Again (1983),

131. and then became the scientific advisor to a anti-alien military taskforce in Doctor Who ('Remembrance of the Daleks', 1988).

132. After relocating to Los Angeles, she appeared as the British Prime Minister in The West Wing (2005)

133. And co-founded the theatre company Salem K, which had its inaugural season in 2008.

134. The whole arm comes off in the script.

135. The scripted scene, which was abbreviated in production, drew on the Doctor's behaviour in 'The Ark in Space' (1975).

136. He tries to get the sobbing, incoherent Toos to pull herself together, and finally snaps, harshly:

137. "Stop snivelling, woman!"

138. After a moment, the reply comes back: "Stop snivelling, commander, if you don't mind."

139. "Better," smiles the Doctor.

140. The Doctor had benevolently bullied Sarah Jane in much the same way in the 1975 serial.

141. "Why would anyone do this?" She asks the Doctor, but gets no answer.

142. The wall of the storage area, explains the script, "is part of the outer curved shell of the mine itself".

143. Boucher imagined Poul hiding in the gap between the storage bank and the inward curve of the wall.

144. Leela hides in one of the upper "mortuary" bays, above floor level, with the small door closed.

145. When V5 has gone, she peers out, then drops to the floor.

146. The script calls for the traumatised Poul to be curled up in a foetal position.

147. On the day this episode was shown, Louise Jameson was a guest on The Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.

148. She'd been due to appear on the BBC's Saturday morning children's series two weeks earlier,

149. but she had glandular fever and could only phone in her apologies live on air.

150. A truckload of "Get Well Soon" cards later, she finally made it to the Swap Shop studio,

151. where she got an early Valentine from "Eric", the out-of-vision prop man who lived in the rafters.

152. Eric's globe would regularly descend containing letters with the answers to the previous week's competition.

153. This week it came down festooned with roses, to the tune of 'Isn't She Lovely'.

154. Always professional, Louise made a point of mentioning how much she was enjoying working with the inventive Tom Baker.

155. In the script, the concussed Uvanov bursts in waving a gun and shoots at the Doctor, but his aim is off.

156. "That's close enough," says the Doctor, picking up a probe. "Unless you want to be a pioneer in the field of long-range lobotomy."

157. He has two objections to Uvanov's death threat, he says: (1) he's innocent, and (2) it's pompous. ou to do.

158. Get to the Command deck.

159. Take Leela, Dask, Poul, everyone, and get them to the Command deck.

160. Get the robots out of there and secure the doors. Is that clear?

161. No, it isn't. It's impossible that the...

162. Just... Just do it, Toos.

163. All right.

164. Attend to your duties.

165. Get away!

166. Please go away!

167. Get out!

168. Doctor. Doctor!

169. Doctor!

170. - Doctor! - What is it, Toos?

171. Help me, please. It's outside.

172. - What's outside? - It's a robot.

173. It wants to kill me.

174. D84: Please let me go.

175. I am faster and stronger.

176. - Are you sure? - I think so.

177. - Good. Doctor, are you there?

178. (SOBBING) Please help me. Help me, please.

179. Help is on the way.

180. - It had better hurry. - It is hurrying.

181. V5: The door is not a barrier, Commander Toos.

182. - (ELECTRONIC BLEEP) - What do you want?

183. To kill you. I must obey my orders.

184. It is forbidden for robots to harm humans.

185. My command programme has been restructured.

186. All humans are to die.

187. Poul.

188. No. Please, no.

189. - Are you hurt? - Please, go away.

190. They know I talk to you. They watch me all the time.

191. They hate me!

192. They did what I told them,

193. but only because that gave them the power, you see.

194. Do you mean the robots?

195. Not robots, walking dead.

196. They pretend we control them, but really... but really...

197. Poul, you can't stay here.

198. No! They don't mind me being here. It's you they want, not me.

199. - Poul, you need help. - No!

200. - Come on, now. - No, please!

201. Help! Help! She's in here. Help!

202. (SOFTLY) You can stay here but you mustn't make another sound,

203. do you understand?

204. What are you doing here?

205. Why? Does it upset you?

206. The penalty for what you have done is death.

207. That's far enough. What are you doing here?

208. - I followed you. - Ah.

209. I'd come over here, if I were you. Slowly.

210. What?

211. Now, either it followed you or else it homed in on this.

212. It depends which of us is going to be killed first.

213. That is, you or me.

214. V4: ill the Doctor.

215. I'll the Doctor.

216. I'll the Doctor.