Doctor Who 14x20

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

The Doctor and the surviving humans fight for their lives against Taren Capel and his growing army of deadly robots.

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1. "Robot rebellion. Can the Doctor stop the machines taking over?"

2. This episode was first shown on 19 February 1977.

3. It was seen by 12.6 million viewers.

4. During rehearsals, Russell Hunter was having difficulties with one of his scenes.

5. Tom Baker offered him a helpful hint: "Stop trying to act it. Just be it."

6. As written, we don't see Uvanov put the probe in.

7. This was to obviate a fiddly move for the actor. But Effects supplied a prop with a self-retracting needle.

8. The probe seen here was screwed into Robot Ranchev's head during a recording break.

9. (In contrast, there's no edit when we next see it penetrate a robot cranium, in sixteen minutes' time,

10. so the actor concerned has to hold it in place as he collapses to the floor.)

11. Note the blue cut-outs in SV7's eyes.

12. This was written as the cliffhanger ending to Episode 3,

13. and the scripted Episode 4 began here.

14. There were two small visitors to one of the studio recording sessions:

15. He impressed Hunter by treating them as equals, all the while staying in character as Doctor Who.

16. Three years into the role, Tom had perfected his relationship with children:

17. During his many public appearances, he had found himself rather bored by adult responses to him and his show,

18. but he relished the unspoiled engagement and peculiar world-views of the younger viewers he met.

19. In the script, Uvanov tells the Doctor to go on while he deals with SV7.

20. "Save the noble gestures for later," says the Doctor. "We'll probably need them."

21. Leela lost her knife to V5 in the last episode.

22. The script refers to not throwing "things". "Hands" was Gregory de Polnay's inspired idea.

23. He and Pamela Salem knew one another They had worked together in rep early in their careers.

24. He achieved the particular timbre of D84's voice by speaking into a plastic cup.

25. so the robot voices were separately recorded in two sessions, and dubbed on in post-production.

26. For the first two episodes, they were taped on 24 November, the day after the studio recording,

27. but for the second half, they were pre-recorded on 3 December.

28. The plan was to modulate the voices electronically so that they would periodically change pitch,

29. but the required equipment broke down and could not be repaired in time, so the voices ended up more of a monotone.

30. The miscellaneous robots were all played by young actors not long out of drama school.

31. V4 Was originally to have been William Marsh.

32. He had recently appeared as a footman in The Secret Garden (1975),

33. but he had to pull out at a late stage of pre-production, and his robots were recast.

34. "V4 is left derelict," says the script.

35. Replacing William Marsh as derelict V4 was former child actor Jeremy Ranchev,

36. and John Bleasdale, whose later roles included many policemen

37. A passage of exposition by Toos was cut from this scene.

38. "Robots recognise the authority of other robots by their voice patterns.

39. "We don't have special voice patterns to show what we are,

40. "so a voice print is put into the robot command programme for each crew member."

41. The deactivated robots are, of course, young actors keeping very still.

42. See if you can spot any involuntary movements...

43. Commander Uvanov gets his name from Bill Uvarov,

44. a minor character in Bob Shaw's short story, 'The Cosmic Cocktail Party' from Tomorrow Lies in Ambush (1975).

45. Poul was teamed with a robot because, unusually, it's not only the human crew of the mine who need watching.

46. An additional scripted reason: "He knew too much to be an ordinary crew member."

47. The Loyeed name for robophobia was Grimwol's syndrome,

48. but Tom Baker renamed it after Peter Grimwade, the serial's production assistant.

49. The scripted name just slipped Tom's mind on the take, so he plumped for the closest available approximation.

50. Uvanov was scripted to say that he himself nearly got killed trying to save the boy.

51. "He was one of those kids everybody liked," he adds.

52. Boucher's interest in body language, like everyone else's at the time,

53. was stimulated by the work of the popular anthropologist Desmond Morris.

54. Morris first described the non-verbal elements of human interaction in his book, The Naked Ape (1967).

55. At the time of the serial's production, he was about to publish a more extensive account of such phenomena:

56. Manwatching. ; A Field Guide to Human Behaviour (1977).

57. The director Michael E. Briant trained as a child actor at the Italia Conti Stage School.

58. He was a keen sailor, and had recently directed three episodes of Warship.

59. In 1978 he directed five episodes in the first series of Blake's 7,

60. and his other notable work included A Tale of Two Cities (1980), Blood Money (1981), and essler (1981)

61. In 1974, he adopted a middle initial to avoid confusion with the actor Michael Bryant.

62. They'd been getting one another's fan mail by mistake,

63. which fascinated director Briant - but actor Bryant found it rather tiresome.

64. The next shot was scripted for only four robots,

65. but here are all six minor robot actors, plus SV7.

66. After a pause to reset the shot, here are five of them again.

67. They were scripted to hide behind a ventilation grille.

68. "The noise of scenic operations was louder than the artists," wrote the lighting supervisor.

69. "I was surprised that the director was prepared to work under these conditions."

70. "There's been too much - pain!' Says the "helplessly indecisive" Uvanov in the script.

71. The script specifies that he is also wearing part of a robot helmet. "He looks grotesque.

72. "He also looks quite mad."

73. The deactivated robot has no crew number because Vocs and Dums are given a different one for each tour.

74. Watch as Tom has difficulty getting the tape off his fingers.

75. Poul is especially prone to robophobia because he is a spy:

76. He is trained to observe suspects and be acutely sensitive to their body language,

77. so he is the one who is most severely affected by the absence of those subliminal signals in the robots.

78. The Doctor is looking for the brain modification in V2 because it was the first robot to be subverted.

79. The last line of the scene, from Toos, was cut:

80. "They're robots. They won't give up."

81. The original saying was Adolf Hitler's, in 1939: "Today Poland. Tomorrow the world."

82. One sarcastic early reviewer commented that the most disturbing thing about the robots

83. was their facial resemblance to Raymond Baxter (1922-2006).

84. The screen was scripted as another ventilator grille.

85. Unlike many television sets, this corridor has a ceiling.

86. This made it impossible to use overhead microphones to record dialogue in the set.

87. Instead, a directional microphone was positioned at the end of the set, near where the camera is now.

88. Poul's line was scripted as: "I'm sorry, please forgive me, etc. Etc."

89. In other words, the actor was to ad lib.

90. The bombs were made from plastic stands for model planes supplied with Airfix kits.

91. Several of the actors were uncomfortable in costumes they found rather flimsy and diaphanous.

92. Note the damage to the set at the top of the screen.

93. During camera rehearsals, David Bailie wore his SuperVoc tunic over his Dask costume.

94. He developed his performance as a downward progression through three distinct levels of the character.

95. The top layer is the persona of Dask, the man whose identity Capel stole in order to join the Sandminer crew.

96. Next is the person Capel believes himself to be, characterised by precision and control.

97. And finally there is the person he truly is: An unbalanced sadist.

98. "This gas is helium," he explains in the script. "Chub used it for his weather balloons."

99. Can you see Gregory de Polnay's ear?

100. "D84 is momentarily confused by Dask's hybrid appearance," says the script.

101. "The Doctor dives for the communicator, but V6 chops him down."

102. The wall picture was scripted as "a large alienscape".

103. At first, Russell Hunter inferred from Uvanov's name that he might have a Russian accent.

104. When that suggestion was declined, he wondered about making the character a Scotsman.

105. However, planning problems meant that Michael Briant was needed for a further three weeks after that.

106. It took forty hours and three videotape machines to edit the four episodes,

107. in five eight-hour sessions between 11 and 24 December.

108. The first two episodes were edited twice over.

109. The music recording sessions were postponed, and ended up taking place on 17 and 26 January.

110. Dudley Simpson conducted his own score, and six musicians played it.

111. The final sound dub was laid down in four long sessions between 22 January and 3 February.

112. So when Part 1 was shown on 29 January, the later episodes still weren't quite finished.

113. A BBC publicity document for the serial identified three selling points, the first of which was Leela.

114. And thirdly: "This serial features some of the most lavish sets and costumes ever seen on the programme."

115. Luckily for Mark Cooper, V6 is now played by a dummy.

116. This serial was later re-edited into two double-length episodes and repeated the following New Year.

117. The 31 December 1977 episode was seen by ten million viewers,

118. but only seven million tuned in on 1 January 1978 to watch the second half.

119. In the script, Capel begs on: "Keep back - please!"

120. Production wrapped on Tuesday 7 December, 45 minutes later than scheduled.

121. Russell Hunter then travelled north for his next job: Playing an ugly sister in Cinderella at Manchester Opera House.

122. On 22 December, after completing his filming commitments, Tom also headed north

123. to pay a pre-Christmas visit to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.

124. While in Scotland, he did Russell Hunter a favour and popped over to the equivalent hospital in Glasgow,

125. where Hunter usually did the Christmas toy distribution, when he wasn't unavoidably detained in Manchester.

126. This line was a last-minute improvisation by Tom Baker.

127. In the script he says nothing to Leela, but the line they rehearsed was a bland, "Ah, there you are - are you alright?"

128. "You don't think I'd have used that stuff if it made me sound ridiculous, do you?" he says in the script.

129. "Two hearts, three lungs, and a larynx that will stand up to anything."

130. Tom Baker added the reference to the Doctor's respiratory bypass system,

131. which had saved him before in 'Pyramids of Mars' (1975).

132. Uncredited production contributors

133. Tony vanden Ende

134. R. Partridge, Adrian Bishop-Laggett

135. Chris Dixon, L. Goodson, B. Hiles

136. - Get down, Toos! - That is the order.

137. You have to die. All of you.

138. That is the order.

139. Here. Do you know what I think, Toos?

140. I think it's high time we went on the offensive.

141. We may not be so lucky a second time.

142. The Doctor is going to need some help.

143. Come on.

144. V5 is no longer registering, Controller.

145. - What? - There is no operational signal.

146. 5 has been deactivated.

147. How could mere humans destroy a robot?

148. They're unarmed. Weak creatures of flesh and blood.

149. SV7: What are your orders, Controller?

150. Destroy them, 7! Kill all the humans!

151. V6, come with me.

152. I will release more of our brothers from bondage.

153. We will be irresistible.

154. Come on.

155. Hold this, D84, and don't press anything.

156. What is your intention?

157. To make life a little difficult for our crazy friend.

158. He's bound to come back here to convert more robots, and when he does...

159. Do you think you could fit in there, Leela?

160. - Why? What's it for? - Come on, try it for size.

161. Never mind.

162. - Comfortable? - No.

163. Now, this is a cylinder of gas.

164. When Dask comes in,

165. - I want you to turn the valve, so. - So?

166. No, when Dask comes in.

167. - What will it do? - Hmm?

168. I said, what will it do?

169. Change his voice.

170. When a mixture of air and helium is breathed,

171. it alters the resonance in the larynx.

172. Didn't they teach you that in the jungle?

173. So the robots won't recognise Dask's voice. They won't obey him.

174. That's it. Come on, D84.

175. Where are you going? - Shh! Robot hunting.

176. D84!

177. Do not kill him. Not yet. Bring him to the bench.

178. Oh, we're lucky they've no eye for art.

179. Or much imagination. Come on.

180. - Where are we going? - We're going to follow it.

181. We might get a chance to use one of these.

182. Hello, Dask, nee Taren Capel.

183. I'm glad you have recovered, Doctor.

184. Oh? Why?

185. You came close to ruining my plans.

186. It's fitting I should make you suffer for that.

187. I see.

188. You're one of those boring maniacs who's going to gloat, hmm?

189. Are you going to tell me your plan for running the universe?

190. Oh, no, Doctor. I'm going to burn out your brain.

191. Very, very slowly.

192. Dask. Dask!

193. You look ridiculous in that outfit.

194. Not half the robot your father was.

195. You insolent animal!

196. Losing your calm, Dask, hmm?

197. That's not the robot way.

198. It was your verbal and physical precision that made me spot you.

199. - Robot upbringing? Yes, Doctor.

200. I was brought up a superior being.

201. Brought up to realise that my brothers should live as free beings

202. and not as slaves to human dross.

203. Robots would have no existence without humans.

204. - Don't you see that, Dask? - No! I shall free them.

205. I shall programme them with the ambition to rule the world

206. and then...

207. D84: Goodbye, my friend.

208. SV7: ill the humans.

209. Help me, 7! - Ill the humans.

210. I'll the humans.

211. Not me, you fool. Him!

212. I'm your master, Taren Capel.

213. What are you doing?

214. I'll the humans.

215. I'll the humans.

216. - Ill the humans.

217. I'll the humans.

218. - Ill the humans. Ill the... - You'll be all right, Toos.

219. I'll the... ill the... ill the...

220. ill the... ill the...

221. ill the... ill the...

222. ill the humans.

223. Well, all good things come to an end.

224. Will somebody let me out?

225. Ah! A mouse in the wainscoting.

226. Well squeaked, mouse.

227. Shouldn't we stay and see that Uvanov and Toos are all right?

228. No, no, there's a rescue ship on the way and it's time we were on ours.

229. Doctor, why didn't the helium make your voice go squeaky?

230. Because I'm a Time Lord. I've been around, you know.

231. Two hearts, respiratory bypass system.

232. I haven't lived 750 years without learning something.

233. After you. Little mouse.