With the merciless Melkur in control of The Source, the Doctor and his allies have only a slim chance of deposing him, which also puts the peace of the Traken Union in severe jeopardy.
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1. "Who is Melkur? How can three numbers help
to save Traken? What is the Doctor's one last
great mistake?" (Radio Times)
2. This episode was first shown on 21 February 1981.
3. It was seen by 6.1 million viewers.
4. Katura is played by Margot van der Burgh.
5. In the 1950s she had worked at the Bristol Old Vic
under Denis Carey's direction,
so in 'The Keeper of Traken'
6. she was amused by the sight of her former boss
in his aged Keeper make-up.
7. Her television work ranges
from Great Expectations (1959)
To Sense and Sensibility (1981)
To Dempsey and Makepeace (1985).
8. She also narrowly missed becoming
the Doctor's wife when she played
an amorous Aztec lady in
a 1964 Doctor Who serial.
9. In the first draft, Mogen attacks the Doctor
and friends as they try to get back
to the Tardis and safety.
10. The assault is both psychic and physical.
11. Pain sears in their minds, and the ground turns
to swamp mud beneath them.
12. The script envisaged Melkur
as a much less static being,
13. presumably to be played
by an actor in heavy make-up.
14. The script directs the statue to give
"a benign smile" here.
15. Later on it "slumps" exhausted
in the Keeper's chair.
16. Peter Logan initially thought of building it around
a shop window dummy, with only the head moving.
17. In the script, the Doctor "shrugs in good-humoured
resignation - strictly for the benefit of Katura
and the Keeper".
18. In the script, Adric goes on to say,
"No wonder we got similar energy profiles.
It could just be - a sort of Tardis."
19. Much of the detail of the sets is sculpted in Jablite
(the trade name for expanded polystyrene).
20. Most of the scenery was built from scratch, but one
door was re-used from a Jackanoryprogramme.
21. Tremas has been creating a diversion so that
the Doctor can move closer to the Keeper's chamber.
22. Now the Doctor joins in because he wants Melkur
to turn and face him.
23. Adric is uncertain because he remembers
how the Keeper got into the Tardis,
24. not to mention Biroc, another alien creature
in the previous serial, 'Warriors' Gate'.
25. In a cut scene, Katura blames
the Doctor for what has happened:
"There were five consuls before you came."
26. The Doctor retorts, "There soon won't be any,
the way he's carrying on."
27. Melkur interjects, "My purpose, Doctor,
is to help these people fulfil their destiny.
And together we shall achieve that aim."
28. "And what would that aim be?" asks the Doctor.
"Enslavement? Extermination? Conquest?"
29. "Their destiny, Doctor," says Melkur, menacingly.
"Not yours - which will be quite different."
30. The first three-day block of studio work was
on 5-7 November, in Studio 6 at Television Centre.
31. On the first and last days, the recording overran
its scheduled finishing time of 10 p.m.
32. On 5 November, the time spent watching paint dry
on the studio floor had a knock-on effect.
33. The courtyard set was due to be removed
overnight and the grove erected in its place,
34. so there was no option but to finish the required
scenes, and the day wrapped ten minutes late.
35. On 7 November, there was a fifteen-minute overrun
caused by microphone malfunction
and Tardis trouble.
36. This part of the episode was heavily cut.
37. "You still believe I am a traitor?"
Tremas asks Luvic as they go.
38. "Who knows what to think any more?" replies Luvic.
39. "Shouldn't worry about that, Consul,"
says the Doctor. "Melkur will soon be doing
your thinking for you."
40. The Fosters separate the two consuls from the two
prisoners, and Tremas whispers to the Doctor:
41. "There is always the Ultimate Sanction.
If we decide he is unfitted, we still have
the authority to cancel his existence."
42. "Now that sounds like a rather handy proposition,"
says the Doctor.
43. The problem is that it requires the consent
of all the consuls, and all five rings,
44. and, Tremas points out, "Kassia was collecting
them" - which means Melkur has them now.
45. It also requires the consent of the Keeper himself.
46. "Ah," says the Doctor.
"That rather knocks that idea on the head."
47. When all that was cut, this scene was moved on
to the next day. In the script,
it takes place immediately after Melkur's accession.
48. As scripted, the Fosters are in the room with them:
The Doctor can't get rid of them, so the conversation
has to continue in whispers.
49. The business with the door at the start
of the scene was developed in rehearsal.
50. Neman is played by Roland Oliver,
51. whose later roles often kept him in the field of law
enforcement, albeit on a more earthly plane.
52. He's been a stout policeman
in Monsignor Quixote (1987),
53. a genial police sergeant in The Bill,
54. a magistrate in Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1997),
55. and an idiotic prison warden in Bad Girls.
56. The second studio block was scheduled
for November in Studio 8 (originally Studio 3).
57. The first two days were devoted
to the scenes in the Sanctum.
58. On the first day,
work was suspended for ten minutes
59. while the crew tried to track down the source
of a persistent, disruptive banging noise.
60. It turned out to be a boom mike cable.
61. Some scheduled scenes were carried over
to the following day,
62. after which the Sanctum set was due
to be removed overnight.
63. It was a little too much, and the evening finished
two minutes late - which meant overtime all round
for the studio staff.
64. But the serial's real problems began
the day after that...
65. Neman is now wearing Tremas's consular ring.
66. In the script, a beam lances out
from Melkur's hands, not his eyes -
one of his new powers as Keeper.
67. The bolts were added to the picture
in a post-production video effects session
on 6 January 1981.
68. Video effects engineer Dave Chapman took care
to match their colour to the glow in Melkur's eyes.
69. The blueprint scroll is drawn on
A3-sized yellow tinted cartridge paper.
70. It's a model hand in the close-up.
71. The scroll was wrapped around
a cylindrical pyrotechnic charge,
with concealed wires connecting it
to the detonator.
72. This business was amended in rehearsal.
In the script, Tremas brains Neman
with an instrument.
73. The Doctor's line was
Tom Baker's unscripted contribution.
74. In the script, he remarks,
"Yes, I'm getting rather attached to this,"
as he retrieves Nyssa's ion bonder from Neman.
75. The globe prop had been used in Doctor Who before,
76. as Davros' data sphere
in 'Destiny of the Daleks' (1979).
77. It was later given away as a prize
on the 31 January edition
of The Multi-Coloured Swap-Shop,
78. so one lucky viewer watched this episode
with Adric's servo shut-off device
already in their possession!
79. That November,
the BBC and the technicians' union had
an industrial dispute about car parking
at Television Centre.
80. This came to a head
on the serial's last scheduled studio day.
81. The result was a one-day technicians' strike.
82. The sets were up, the actors were present
in costume and make-up,
83. but no technicians meant no recording.
84. The actors were released shortly after 4 p.m. When
it became clear that there was no hope
of a settlement that day.
85. Neman raises his hand to insert the consular ring
into the lock, only to find it's gone.
86. After the second studio block, Tom Baker,
Matthew Waterhouse,
and their new colleague Sarah Sutton
87. were due for a three-week break before
starting work on the next serial, 'Logopolis'.
88. Tom also had an engagement of his own to keep,
at Chelsea Register Office,
involving Lalla Ward and a ring.
89. But now things weren't so simple:
90. 'The Keeper of Traken' was still incomplete.
91. The abandoned studio day was to have
covered the scenes in the cell, the service vault,
92. and the crucial final confrontation
inside the Master's Tardis.
93. The production team swung into action
the next morning, trying to arrange a remount.
94. A studio had to be booked at short notice
and actors' availability checked.
95. That meant not only the speaking cast
but also, for continuity purposes, the extras.
96. This was the kind of situation
in which John Nathan-Turner,
a wizard at manipulating BBC systems, excelled.
97. But even he couldn't get what he wanted,
a remount sometime in the next fortnight.
98. The studio recording would have to be finished
on the Wednesday
99. of the week that had been allocated
to pre-filming for 'Logopolis'.
100. 'Logopolis' duly had its filming day displaced
to the following Monday.
101. So the final recording day was set for
17 December, back in Television Centre's Studio 6
102. where the first block of scenes had been made
the month before.
103. And because of the lapse of time,
it was also necessary to give the actors
another day's rehearsal.
104. Organising that was where the fun really started...
105. An establishing shot was cut, showing Nyssa
and Adric carrying the equipment through the grove.
106. The lights inside the Source were created
with hired Kaleidosphere discs.
107. "I think so," replies Adric in the script.
108. The statue gives "a tolerant smile" in the script.
109. Safety regulations restricted the use of glass
in studio sets,
110. so the doors to the Keeper's chamber
were made of the PVC material Cobex.
111. In the script, "The door to the Sanctum flies open
with a terrific crash."
112. After 'The Keeper of Traken', Geoffrey Beevers
went straight on to a part
in the Thames Television drama, The Brack Report.
113. As ill luck would have it, he was required
114. in the Thames studios at Teddington
on 17 December, the day of the remount.
115. The production team arranged for him
to be released early so that he could play
the Master that afternoon.
116. His limited availability also dictated the rehearsal
It had to be his only day off,
Sunday 14 December.
117. And that's why, the day after his wedding,
Tom Baker had to get up early and go to work.
118. The script calls for a stronger sense of Tremas's
struggle to resist Melkur's domination here.
119. After shooting Neman,
he raises the gun and tries to aim it at Melkur.
120. Thames Television were unusually helpful
to Doctor Who over Geoffrey Beevers.
121. He wasn't due to leave Teddington until 1 p.m.
122. But he turned up at Television Centre,
nine miles away, at a quarter to twelve.
123. He then proceeded to work non-stop
until 9.30 that evening with nary a meal break.
124. Recording finished on time, and the entire serial
was in the can. But there was a price to pay.
125. Doctor Who was made on a very tight schedule
relative to its transmission dates,
126. especially near the end of a series.
127. The first episode of 'The Keeper of Traken' was due
to air on 17 January 1981,
128. exactly a month after the final recording.
129. There simply wasn't time
for all the post-production work.
130. The video effects (such as rays from guns)
Had to be put in.
131. The separate scenes had to be edited together
to make complete episodes.
132. Roger Limb had to compose and record
nearly 28 minutes of music.
133. So Doctor Who took an unplanned two-week break
in transmission that Christmas,
to get itself back on schedule.
134. In the script, the Doctor starts to back away
but Melkur smiles, "There is nowhere left
to hide now, Doctor."
135. In the first version of the serial,
Mogen is an outcast from an extinct super-race.
136. He later became an evil genius from Traken's
sister planet, Serenity, who first created the Source.
137. It was John Nathan-Turner who suggested
that he should turn out to be
the Doctor's old enemy, the Master.
138. The cloak was the same one used
for the Master's previous appearance
in 'The Deadly Assassin' (1976).
139. Geoffrey Beevers was offered the mask
and prosthetic eyes that went with the costume,
140. but he expressed a preference not to be constricted:
141. He wanted to act with his own face
and especially his eyes.
142. In the script, the Doctor flickers in and out of vision
as the Keeper's chamber pulses
with violent energy.
143. Instead of a mask, then, the Master's
decayed face was created with make-up
144. applied directly onto the actor's own face
(including the teeth on his lips).
145. The production team rationalised the change
by suggesting
146. that the Master's body had deteriorated
even further since his last appearance.
147. Geoffrey Beevers based his performance on the idea
that this is what the Master is really like inside:
148. Beneath the usually suave and charming exterior,
he's an ugly, repellent creature,
149. with a cringing sense of his own personal
inadequacy shorn of his acceptable public face.
150. "He approaches the Doctor," says the script,
"looking him up and down
as one might assess a suit hanging on a rack."
151. Beevers was not told of the Master's
previous appearance in 'The Deadly Assassin',
152. so he did not know that the character is living
in constant pain with all-over third-degree burns.
153. In the script, his hands stick to the control panel,
and "enormous power starts
to surge through his body".
154. The Master's Tardis was scripted as
"a simply furnished but somehow opulent room".
155. The screen is made of sugar glass.
156. The sound effect of a shattering pane was added
in post-production.
157. For this sequence,
it was planned to overlay on the picture
158. a tornado cone of energy
from the out-of-control Source,
159. which flattens the characters as it whirls around.
160. This was to have been produced
using a liquid vortex generator.
161. The effect was abandoned after the equipment
broke down during the studio day.
162. Matthew Waterhouse was spared having to
wear a harness in these shots.
163. The original plan was for Adric
to be whipped bodily away by the wind,
just before he finishes keying in the sequence.
164. The harness was ready for him in the studio,
165. but it was decided at the last moment
that strapping him up would take too long,
166. so the effect had to rely
on Matthew's performance alone.
167. Each episode of 'The Keeper of Traken' was
mastered during the week before transmission.
168. The dubbing session for this final episode
took place on Tuesday 17 February.
169. Sarah Sutton came in on the day to re-record
a line of dialogue - and so the long, fraught
production finally wrapped.
170. In the script, the Doctor says they're
only going to Gallifrey "in a loose sort of way".
171. There's an out-of-vision crew member
operating the time column by hand.
172. It was supposed to be motor-driven,
but the equipment failed in the studio,
173. much to the irritation of the producer, who had
recently paid to have the console refurbished.
174. Tom Baker amends the scripted line
("Not really my forte") to add a pun
on the Doctor's particular make of Tardis.
175. Christopher Bidmead added
the Doctor's wish to overhaul the Tardis,
as a link forward to the plot of 'Logopolis'.
176. Tremas, you'll remember, was originally called
Hellas until Christopher Bidmead renamed him.
177. We're about to see why.
178. "Tremas" is an anagram of "Master".
179. John Nathan-Turner wanted to
reintroduce the Master as a continuing character,
180. but also wanted him to be a full physical presence
rather than a primarily vocal performance.
181. The Master could not carry on as a rotting corpse
who had run out of regenerations,
182. so he needed to take over someone else's body.
183. The sequence was recorded in seven stages,
with a make-up call for Anthony Ainley
in between stages six and seven.
184. The scripted line was:
"And now my new life begins..."
185. The script specifies that he moves "stiffly",
186. as if getting used to the cadaver.
187. The episode ends on
"the distant echo of a triumphant chuckle".
188. Also seen in this episode were:
189. Michael Gordon-Browne, Pat Judge (Fosters)
190. Barney Lawrence, Mark Midler,
Colin Thomas (Fosters)
191. Uncredited production contributors included:
192. George Kinross, Dave Murphy (Studio Engineers)
193. John Relph (Grams Operator)
194. Lan Hewitt (Graphics)
195. Production text commentary by Martin Wiggins
—> 00:22:25,959
Well, it involves an awful lot of re-calculation,
and this type's not really my forte.
196. Well, you did work out the code
for the Source Manipulator.
197. Oh, guesswork mostly.
198. - But it did work.
- Yes, it did, didn't it?
199. Adric, wouldn't it be nice
to be right about everything? Eh?
200. - Well, Tremas.
- Mmm.
201. - The new Keeper has been inaugurated.
- Perhaps we shall have peace again.
202. Come on, Father.
You'll be needed to put everything together again.
203. Starting with my quarters.
204. I'll join you in a minute.
There's something I want to look into.