Doctor Who 18x4

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With the saboteur and murderer revealed and arrested, peace should now be restored, but a new threat emerges - a war-monger who's both ready and eager to aggress upon other worlds with a newly manufactured warrior army.

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1. Writing his memoirs for "Doctor Who Magazine" in 1996, producer John Nathan-Turner recalled the making of the new title sequence:

2. "At this time I talked to Tom Baker about make-up. It seemed inevitable to me that we had to change the opening titles

3. "as Tom didn't look very much like his image in the opening credits any longer. Tom didn't wear make-up in those days,

4. "but though he wasn't at all keen, he finally agreed that the end results would be to his benefit.

5. "Many bemoan the loss of the 'time tunnel' effect, but I liked the offering that Sid subsequently storyboarded so much,

6. "and having always thought the 'camera shooting down a vacuum-cleaner hose' old hat, I agreed to the design instantly.

7. "Of course, we had to organise a photographic session for a new shot of Tom.

8. "I recall that the afternoon we did the session, Tom was in great form,

9. "entertaining all of us in the photo studio in the bowels of Television Centre."

10. Latex masks were made from face casts of John Collin and lan Talbot for their "unmasking" scenes.

11. The effect of the Human-Foamasi characters being revealed was achieved

12. by having a pre-cut version of the characters costume's filled with uninflated green weather balloons.

13. On cue, the balloon was inflated, giving the impression of the Foamasi bursting out of its disguised human form.

14. Four Foamasi costumes were made for this story by June Hudson.

15. The costumes were made in two layers. The bulk of the costume was made from an iridescent green material

16. imported from a firm called Zeta in Germany at great expense.

17. Over this was sewn a second layer of a dark green netting material.

18. The intention was to give the Foamasi's skin a genuine reptilian appearance,

19. but under the bright studio lights, the effect never worked properly.

20. The Foamasi's eyes were operated by the actor inside the costumes wearing a headband connected to the eyes.

21. Whenever they moved their heads, the creatures' eyes would move in a corresponding manner.

22. John Collin (Brock) also provides the voice of the Foamasi government official.

23. Interviewed for "Doctor Who Magazine" in 1992, director Lovett Bickford looked back at the costumes seen in this story:

24. "I didn't think the costumes were very good actually, and I think they were 'The Leisure Hive's biggest flaw.

25. "You can't, as maybe you would on a feature film, say, 'These costumes aren't working. Get rid of them and find something else.'

26. "We didn't have the time or the money and we were geared to a schedule.

27. "There is an argument, I think, for screen testing and doing things of that sort. We didn't have that room for manoeuvre."

28. The costumes for this story were all designed by June Hudson - she had previously worked on the stories "The Ribos Operation" (1978),

29. "Destiny Of The Daleks" (1979), "The Creature From The Pit" (1979) And "The Horns Of Nimon" (1980)

30. And would go on to work on "Meglos" (1980), "Warriors Gate" (1981) and "Logopolis" (1981).

31. One of the first jobs she had in preparation for this story was re-designing Tom Baker's costume,

32. which had evolved along similar lines over the previous six years, but had essentially always consisted of a hat, long coat and scarf.

33. She did briefly toy with the idea of changing the Doctor's costume completely, but elected to retain the basic silhouette.

34. The major change was the colour scheme - all the items were tailored in a deep red and burgundy colour scheme.

35. A new version of the Doctor's famous scarf was knitted in red and purple Chenille

36. by the stepmother of Hudson's assistant Roger Oldhampstead.

37. The Doctor's coat was based on a 1918 Russian army officer design and was made by costumiers Morris Angel.

38. Shoes and Argyll socks initially replaced boots for footwear (although later on in the season, boots would make a return),

39. and for the first time, question marks were added to the Doctor's shirt collar at the request of producer John Nathan-Turner.

40. For Romana, June Hudson came up with a costume based on a young boy's Edwardian sailor suit design.

41. The Argolin robes were made from a cheap polyester material that Hudson bought in bulk.

42. Many of them were later dyed and reused in the story "Logopolis" (1981).

43. Mena - as leader of her people - was given an extra quilted jacket, inlaid with silver lace.

44. The Foamasi were initially conceived as reptiles in business suits, but this idea was dropped.

45. In his "Doctor Who Magazine" interview, director Lovett Bickford recalled his approach to the story:

46. "John Nathan-Turner and I were striving to do something new and different.

47. "We were pushing the boundaries of a studio-based system that wasn't really geared for it, and that was difficult.

48. "The visual style had changed considerably from that of the previous producer (Graham Williams) And the whole style was different.

49. "It wasn't a matter of competing directly with "Star Wars", because you can't on television budgets."

50. As Mena ages throughout the story, Adrienne Corri had to endure more and more complicated make-up procedures.

51. Like Tom Baker, her face was treated with liquid latex, which quickly dries and gives the impression of wrinkles.

52. This was then covered with the green skin texture make-up of the Argolin.

53. Corri's wig was treated with duller matt colourings as Mena aged.

54. A few newspapers of the time ran articles about how unhappy Corri was about being made to look older than she actually was,

55. although she was quick to point out that she forgave the production team completely as they made her look so young at the end of the story!

56. The making of this story was covered in the book "A Day With A TV Producer" by Graham Rickard.

57. Published in 1980 by Wayland Books, the book is now out of print.

58. The Doctor fitted his TARDIS with the randomiser at the end of "The Armageddon Factor" (1979)

59. In order to prevent the Black Guardian (who he'd just defeated) from tracking him and Romana down again.

60. The idea was to make the TARDIS always land in a random location,

61. although the Doctor had managed to successfully steer the ship in a number of stories prior to "The Leisure Hive".

62. The Black Guardian would eventually catch up with the Doctor in "Mawdryn Undead" (1983).

63. Harriet Reynolds (Tannoy Voice) has appeared in such TV programmes as "Agony" (1980),

64. "Ever Decreasing Circles" (1984), "Sorry!" (1986) and "Lovejoy" (1991).

65. She died in June 1992.

66. For the explosion of the shuttle, a white flare is keyed over the model shot, which bleaches out the whole screen.

67. The shots of the multiple Pangols inside the Generator globe screen were achieved using the Quantel 5000 image processor.

68. A single image of David Haig was captured and then added to the picture many times over.

69. Nigel Lambert (Hardin) has appeared in such TV programmes as "Out Of The Unknown" (1965),

70. "The Avengers" (1967), "UFO" (1971), "Blake's 7" (1978), "Bergerac" (1987) and "Boon" (1989).

71. In his "Doctor Who Magazine" interview, director Lovett Bickford recalled the look of the Foamasi in this story:

72. "What I actually wanted for the Foamasi were completely opaque insects.

73. "I wanted the audience just to see their vertebrae and white bones, although light would shine right through their bodies.

74. "Of course, we couldn't do that as it would have been too difficult.

75. "The big mistake was that the costumes for the Foamasi should have been made by the special effects department, not the costume department.

76. "I think the costume department did pretty well but, and this was nothing to do with the lighting, they looked like pantomime costumes.

77. "They should perhaps have been made of latex rubber - designed by the costume department and made by special effects.

78. "The Foamasi were, I think, the single thing which blew all sense of real fear from the production.

79. "I really think they were the biggest let-down. They should have been frightening and they weren't.

80. "They became costume characters. They weren't real. They looked too much like people in costumes."

81. Lovett Bickford first worked on Doctor Who as assistant floor manager on the stories "The War Machines" (1966) And "The Moonbase"(1967).

82. He had worked alongside John Nathan-Turner as production assistant on "The Pallisers" and "All Creatures Great And Small",

83. He moved into directing in the late 1970s

84. and one of his first jobs was working on the Barry Letts-produced BBC adaptation of "The History Of Mr Polly",

85. As a BBC staff director, he also worked on such programmes as "Angels" and "Z Cars",

86. Bickford resigned from the BBC to become a freelance director

87. and almost immediately was offered the chance to direct "The Leisure Hive" - his first freelance commission.

88. He was appointed as director of this story in February 1980

89. and set to work on getting geared up for the initial filming on Brighton beach in the middle of March.

90. This is the one and only story directed by Lovett Bickford. He wouldn't return to Doctor Who again.

91. However, he did team up with producer John Nathan-Turner

92. to direct the 1982 pantomime production of "Cinderella" in Tunbridge Wells, which starred Peter Davison and Anthony Ainley.

93. At the time that this story was broadcast, the waxworks Madame Tussauds in London opened a Doctor Who display.

94. Tom Baker was depicted in his new burgundy costume, along with a Foamasi and Argolin plus other monsters from the series.

95. The explosion of the screen is achieved with an electronic white overlay added to the picture.

96. There was no actual pyrotechnical effect in the studio.

97. The baby Pangol was played by four-month-old Alys Dyer, the daughter of production unit manager Angela Smith.

98. Most of the dialogue after Mena hands the baby over to Harding was added to the script at a late stage and wasn't written by David Fisher.

99. The final word goes to director Lovett Bickford, who recalled in "Doctor Who Magazine",

100. "Well, would I have done it differently, I suppose is the question. I think probably not.

101. "I think it could have been better in so many ways, and it could have been really exciting.

102. "However, within its limitations, I suppose I was relatively happy."

103. This episode was screened on BBC1 on Saturday 20th September 1980, from 6.15 - 6.40pm.

104. It achieved ratings of 4.5 million.

105. Production Text Commentary researched and written by Richard Molesworth.

106. All quotes are reproduced with kind permission and are (c) the respective sources.

107. With thanks to Clayton Hickman and "Doctor Who Magazine", Richard Bignell, Marcus Hearne and Andrew Pixley.