1. "Can K9 be repaired?
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2. "What is the villainous Rorvik's plan
for Romana?
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3. "What is the secret of the Gateway?"
(Radio Times)
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4. This episode was first shown
on 10 January, 1981.
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5. It was seen by 6.7 million viewers.
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6. The readings don't make sense because
there is more to the
dimensionally transcendental TARDIS
than meets Lane's eye.
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7. Paul Joyce remembers writing Lane's
"coffin" quip.
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8. Effects cobwebs are generated
with a latex spray.
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9. The lion statues provide the first clue
as to whose banqueting hall
this once was.
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10. In a previous version, the Doctor finds
a small silver globe on the ground,
made of the same material as the mirror.
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11. This was an unexplained "fossil" from
the first draft,
which featured "time bombs"
containing fragments of time.
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12. Paul Joyce queried the globe and, since
the time bombs had been otherwise
removed, this final trace of them
went too.
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13. What the Doctor finds instead, as
you're about to see, is Biroc's manacle.
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14. In that original draft, you'll
remember, the first episode ended
with a Tharil approaching the Doctor.
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15. It keeps on advancing as the second
episode picks up the action -
and then walks straight through him.
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16. It's a ghostly image from another time,
quite unaware of his presence.
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17. This is unscripted business worked out
in rehearsal.
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18. In the script, we see the Gundan's axe
pass through the surface of the mirror.
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19. The idea was dropped after unsuccessful
attempts to create the effect using
Cocteau's technique from Orphée.
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20. The tests had to be pre-filmed for
safety reasons: The mirror was
represented by a large vat of mercury.
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21. A Gundan axe was mounted
on a rotating spindle
and sliced into the shiny mercury.
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22. They also tried the same effect with a
Tharil hand, but neither really worked.
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23. In the original plans for the 1980-81
series, the fifth serial in the running
order was not 'Warriors' Gate'
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24. but 'Sealed Orders', a script by
science fiction novelist
Christopher Priest
which was ultimately abandoned.
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25. It too dealt with the multiple
dimensions of time, generated when
the TARDIS lands inside itself.
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26. Several Doctors featured
in the resultant intrigue
and one of them was killed...
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27. In the script, she calls the Tharils
"leonine ectomorphs" -
in other words, they are shaped
like lions on the outside.
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28. Lalla Ward's performance
cheekily plays on Packard's deficiency
in the hair department.
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29. In the end, 'Sealed Orders'
was considered unworkable
as a television script.
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30. Fortunately, script editor Christopher
Bidmead had another serial in
development to replace it:
'The Dream Time'.
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31. The story began with the TARDIS and
another spaceship falling
into an alternative dream reality.
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32. This developed into 'Warriors' Gate':
The eponymous "dream time"
became the timeless, spaceless void
at Zero Point.
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33. Rorvik "doesn't like being out of his
depth", says the script.
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34. "Where?" is purely a philosophical
question when you're nowhere.
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35. Lane's explanation was a late,
unscripted addition.
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36. In quantum physics, "implicate theory"
is another term
for the holistic view of space-time
as a single, interconnected entity.
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37. In the script, Adric peeps out of the
TARDIS door, which is why Romana
gives the warning signal now.
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38. The idea was that the slavers would
think it natural
for Romana to have a stretch
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39. after a long journey cooped up inside a
cramped spaceship
such as the TARDIS seems to be.
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40. In the script, Rorvik takes a last look
back at the TARDIS,
and almost sees Adric emerge.
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41. The ensuing dialogue was cut.
"Time-sensitive!" says Adric,
who hasn't known Romana long. "Is she?"
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42. K9 can only repeat, "Wafers memory
compatible have may they".
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43. "Poor K9!" says Adric.
"You've got it all backwards."
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44. K9 quotes Lewis Carroll: "It's a poor
sort of memory that only works
backwards, the Queen remarked"
(Through the Looking-Glass, 1871).
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45. "Mistress fetches memory wafers.
Equation reversible."
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46. "Memory wafers fetching your mistress?"
Duffers Adric. "Correct," replies K9,
and elaborates:
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47. "Memory wafers assessed as inducement
or bait. Inferred time-sensitivity
of mistress prized by strangers."
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48. And that's how K9 worked out
she was in danger.
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49. The Gundan armour was made of heavy
Darvik plastic, three millimetres thick.
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50. The plastic was vacuum-formed
into the required shapes.
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51. In the script, the Doctor slips
underneath the banqueting table.
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52. That would have saved Tom Baker
from having a lightweight prop axe
fall on his back.
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53. In the script, the Doctor makes his
crack as he starts to inspect the
robots' workings with a pencil torch.
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54. Salford writer Steve Gallagher
(born 1954) was finishing five years at
Granada Television when he wrote
'Warriors' Gate'.
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55. He had already written a run of plays
for BBC Radio 4,
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56. and had just got a contract to write
his first novel, Chimera
(which came out in 1982).
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57. He has since become a respected
novelist in the literary science fiction
and horror genres,
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58. with notable publications including
Valley of Lights (1987), Oktober (1988),
and White Bizango (2002).
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59. When he joined Doctor Who early in
1980, Christopher Bidmead
was keen to give the series
a new direction with new writers.
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60. He was interested in a playscript sent
to the Doctor Who office
by radio producer Martin Jenkins.
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61. It was Steve Gallagher's 1979 play,
An Alternative to Suicide,
which Jenkins himself had directed.
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62. Gallagher was asked to submit some
story ideas, from which Bidmead chose
the one he liked best: 'The Dream Time'.
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63. On 17 March, 1980, Gallagher
was commissioned to develop
it into a storyline,
which he submitted ten days later.
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64. In the script, one of the crew is
building a house of cards,
which is knocked over by a draught
as the door opens.
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65. Gallagher envisaged the characters
as bored, cynical
and uninterested in their jobs,
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66. which producer John Nathan-Turner took
as a reflection of his feelings
about working at Granada.
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67. In the first draft, the slavers plan to
use the Doctor as their navigator,
not Romana.
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68. The storyline featured only a generic
"assistant" of indeterminate abilities
and gender,
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69. because Gallagher didn't know what
Doctor Who's character line-up would be
by the time the serial
was actually made.
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70. When it became clear that he would be
writing for Romana,
a Time Lord like the Doctor,
this strand of the plot fell into place.
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71. As scripted, Adric and K9
have gone round in a circle
and are back at the TARDIS.
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72. "You do it with your ears,"
Adric was scripted to say.
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73. K9's fuller scripted answer was:
"Articulated sensors
on this unit are removable".
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74. "Good deduction, K9," says Adric.
"Parts of you
are still working very well."
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75. "Recommend triangulation base be
increased to 80 metres," says K9.
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76. K9 "turns quickly round in a state of
high excitement" now that once again
he can see where he's going.
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77. 'The Dream Time' was not custom-written
for Doctor Who. ;
it was an existing idea
which Gallagher adapted to suit.
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78. The germ of it had no Doctor, no
Romana, no TARDIS nor Adric nor K9.
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79. It simply featured
the void and the Gateway.
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80. Gallagher thought of the "dream time"
void in 1978 when talking to an
Australian he'd met at Granada.
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81. In earlier versions, there was
a larger cast of characters
crewing the privateer.
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82. They were progressively slimmed down as
an economy measure, and their lines
divided among the others.
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83. Jos and Dulles were the first to go,
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84. but Helmsman Nestor remained until a
relatively late stage,
when Packard took over his job,
and some of his dialogue.
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85. For similar reasons, the broadcast
version of 'Warriors' Gate'
has only one speaking Gundan.
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86. In the script, the Doctor has the two
Gundans propped back-to-back,
"like a pair of bookends".
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87. Steve Gallagher's scripts were
commissioned on 14 April with a
target delivery date of 7 June,
just under eight weeks later.
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88. His aim was to write a strongly
horror-based serial, since he disliked
the "softer" approach to Doctor Who
of recent years.
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89. He approached the task with the
assumption that he was writing for three
different audience constituencies:
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90. Action and monsters for the children,
mystery and imagination
for the teenagers,
and intellectual drama for the adults.
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91. After he had started work, an
additional requirement came through:
He was asked to write out Romana and K9
at the end.
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92. The draft scripts arrived just four
days late on 11 June, and were accepted,
subject to rewrites, on 30 June.
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93. There certainly needed to be rewrites.
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94. Gallagher had been encouraged to let
his imagination run free, and what he'd
written just couldn't be realised.
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95. He produced a second draft in less than
four weeks, after which
Bidmead and Joyce began
another intensive rewrite on 28 July.
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96. In the first draft, the Gundan robots
were called Shoguns.
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97. "The design is plain and unfussy," says
the script, "like a space-age
simplification of Samurai armour".
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98. The earliest design drawing shows a
graceful, balletic Gundan
with a close-fitting costume.
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99. Earlier versions of the script featured
the Gundan more heavily.
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100. They appeared in their pristine state,
back in the past, preparing to do
the job they were built for.
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101. Tom Baker pretends he's hurt his hand
on the "metal" helmet.
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102. Look carefully at K9 in the next shot.
Adric took out one of his ears,
remember. But now...
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103. Paul Joyce came to the attention of the
Doctor Who production office
through eep Smiling,
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104. a drama about paranoia which he'd
written and directed for the BBC's
Play for Today strand.
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105. David Rose, a senior drama producer at
BBC Birmingham, sent John Nathan-Turner
a tape of the play.
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106. Joyce was invited to discuss the
possibility of directing
a Doctor Who serial,
and told what was in the pipeline.
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107. He chose 'The Dream Time'.
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108. He was an admirer of the French film
director Alain Resnais (born 1922)
Whose work dealt with
the subjectivity of time.
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109. So he was attracted to the
similar themes explored
in Gallagher's upcoming serial.
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110. "The work is routine," says the script.
"They do it without finesse, or -
perhaps - understanding".
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111. For a summer week, Joyce and Bidmead
revised solidly in the latter's flat,
surrounded by clacking
daisywheel printers.
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112. On 5 August, they had a working dinner
with Gallagher, who was none too pleased
with what they'd done to his script.
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113. But at least there was a script -
though Romana's final scenes were still
being amended in late August.
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114. Casting and pre-production could begin
on schedule.
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115. The script calls for us to see
"sympathetic pain" in Romana's face -
an important precursor
of later developments.
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116. At this point, the script lays the
emphasis on the workmen, as they hide
the evidence of their bungling
and back discreetly out.
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117. In the script, the Doctor has wired the
two Gundans' heads together.
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118. There were some key personnel changes
during pre-production.
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119. Make-up was originally to have been
handled by the award-winning
Suzan Broad.
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120. Dave Chapman was slated to provide
electronic effects, and the
sound supervisor was to have been
Clive Gifford.
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121. The final allocations remained
uncertain for so long that it delayed
the graphics slides
for the closing credits.
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122. Steve Gallagher first envisaged
a slightly different Gateway:
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123. "Two decayed pillars supporting a
partly collapsed lintel,
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124. "a ruined statue to one side, an empty
plinth with a heap of rubble
around it on the other".
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125. The archway was to be built in white
and grey stone which would blend
seamlessly into the surrounding void.
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126. While he was writing the scripts, Steve
Gallagher came to London for a long
weekend of discussions on 16-19 May.
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127. He met Tom Baker, who was rehearsing
'State Of Decay' at the time, and was
wearing a viciously checked yellow suit.
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128. In support of his view that acting was
the central resource, Tom showed the
writer how to perform
with an inanimate object.
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129. Pulling out a cheese sandwich, he
proceeded to make it the most evil,
menacing cheese sandwich in the world.
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130. It wasn't what the cheese sandwich did,
but how the actor responded to it.
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131. To prove this wasn't a fluke, he then
played a love scene with the
cheese sandwich...
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132. 'Warriors' Gate' has a non-linear
narrative structure, owing something to
Cocteau's technique
in Testament d'Orphée. ;
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133. events are presented out of their
expected chronological sequence.
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134. The Gundan tells half the plot in this
scene, for instance.
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135. When he saw the revised scripts
in early September,
Barry Letts was worried.
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136. He found the overall concept unclear.
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137. Beyond a few local rewrites, however,
there wasn't much to be done
by that stage.
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138. The production was going into
rehearsal and Bidmead wasn't free
to do yet another rewrite.
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139. The next script crisis had already hit
Doctor Who,
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140. and the script editor was holed up in
his flat again, writing an
all-new replacement for a serial
which had fallen through.
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141. This was Tom Baker's swansong,
'Logopolis'.
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142. A scripted fight scene was cut here.
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143. Rorvik does indeed try
to stop the Gundan,
but is hurled against the mirror,
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144. establishing its solidity
before the robot passes through.
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145. There was one last, unexpected script
change to 'Warriors' Gate', made when
the production reached the studio.
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146. It concerned a comic scene
featuring Packard talking
to one of the two handymen.
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147. Aldo (or is it Waldo?) is working
in an inspection hatch
behind Packard's console.
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148. Every time Rorvik looks over at
Packard, the handyman bobs down into
the hatch to check something.
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149. Rorvik thinks Packard
is talking to himself!
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150. When they got into the studio, however,
the bridge with Packard's desk
was on the upper level.
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151. There was no inspection hatch and no
way of playing the scene!
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152. In the script, the Doctor trips over
K9, tries to steady himself against
the mirror with his injured hand,
and falls through.
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153. His scarf falls empty to the floor.
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154. Here the script describes K9's
"eyes blinking in bafflement".
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155. That last shot was originally planned
to finish the episode,
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156. but later it was decided that
Romana in terror would make
a stronger cliff-hanger.
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157. The script calls for cutaway shots of
Romana struggling to get free throughout
the later privateer scenes,
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158. leaving her helpless and exhausted now.
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159. As originally envisaged, the apparatus
covered most of Romana's face.
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160. The final design gave Lalla Ward more
opportunity for a strong facial
performance in this scene.
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161. After each episode of 'Warriors' Gate'
was first broadcast,
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162. the BBC continuity announcer publicised
the "Doctor Who Experience"
waxwork display at Madam Tussauds,
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163. and also the recently released BBC
record of the series'
new theme music.
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164. Uncredited production contributors
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165. Cathy Burczac, Penny Ferguson,
Caroline Gibbs (Make-Up Assistants)
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166. Jonathan McLeish (Contracts Assistant)
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167. Roger Oldhamstead (Gundan Maker)
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168. Harry Randall (Show Working Supervisor)
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169. Katy Marshall (Floor Assistant)
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