Doctor Who 8x12

Directed by Michael Ferguson

Roger Delgado as The Master • Richard Franklin as Mike Yates • John Levene as Sergeant Benton • Peter Bathurst as Chinn • Paul Grist as Filer

The Doctor and Winser begin to analyse axonite while Chinn plots to secure its use exclusively for Britain.

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1. "Chinn turns the tables on the Brigadier

2. The script calls for the monster literally to grow out of the wall.

3. with surfaces that are "uneven, veinous, glistening slightly, like a series of caverns,

4. "or the inside of an artery".

5. Axos owed its "organic" look initially to Terrance Dicks.

6. In earlier drafts, it appeared more like a conventional spaceship:

7. A manufactured environment with commonplace corridors and rooms.

8. which is why the Axos model Appears to have an exhaust system.

9. But Dicks, remembering that the ship was supposed to be part of an organism, asked the writers to make it

10. "rather like the inside of a warren": Instead of corridors, tunnels, and "spaces" rather than rooms.

11. Some of this scene's scripted exposition was cut during production.

12. They have no home planet of their own, he explains: They are "the scavengers of the universe".

13. Filer is played by Paul Grist, whose other roles in the 1970s

14. included a community leader in Survivors (1976)

15. And an offensive security man in Blake's 7 (1979).

16. He had played a naval lieutenant in the Napoleonic-era adventure serials Triton (1968) and Pegasus (1969).

17. The authors were asked to rewrite the conversation here, to give it

18. "more Power Game crackle, urgency, and wit".

19. on the way early 1970s Doctor Who dramatised power politics.

20. In other words, it's not good to be limited to science alone, like Winser.

21. Winser had failed to understand what the Doctor meant by "Beware of Greeks who come bearing gifts",

22. "He takes a deep breath to reinflate his sense of importance," says the script.

23. Rewrites added some wistful reminiscence from the Doctor, underlining the importance of the Trojan allusion:

24. Troy was a "pretty little place", he recalls.

25. He stayed in a villa by the sea's edge: "You could lie in bed and fish for breakfast."

26. The Axon eyepieces had tiny pinholes to enable the actors to see out.

27. World-wide distribution is "our normal trade practice", adds Chinn in the script.

28. He then tries to shake hands on the deal, but the Axon "pretends not to notice" his outstretched hand.

29. "We'll have a copy of the full agreement sent to you as soon as possible," Chinn promises.

30. In a moment, 23-year-old stuntwoman Sue Crosland takes over as the Axon woman.

31. The mask didn't fit her face: Her nose is underneath the mouth,

32. and the mask's nosepiece was sitting on the bridge of her nose.

33. This meant that the mask stuck to her face every time she breathed in.

34. The mask's poor fit also scuppered the effect that was originally intended:

35. Beginning with a normal Axon face, the mask was to be inflated, distorting the features,

36. then popped like a balloon to make the face suddenly collapse.

37. As it sucks energy from the earth around it, suggested Terrance Dicks,

38. Axos becomes the centre of a spreading blight:

39. The flora and fauna die off around it - including here, one of the trees.

40. This was scripted as a location scene outside Axos.

41. Tim Pigott-Smith Makes his first television appearance here, playing Captain Harker.

42. Hailing from Shakespeare's home town, Pigott-Smith later became a distinguished classical actor.

43. You may also have seen him play the discoverer of DNA,

44. In the script he wonders whether Axonite is "just beads and tinsel for fools and savages".

45. "The world must be allowed to develop at its own pace."

46. but the Doctor points out that it isn't scorched:

47. Like a sample of root he took in the area, it's "desiccated, dehydrated, burnt out from within".

48. Bob Baker and Dave Martin worked closely together as they wrote: Baker concentrated on the storyline,

49. while Martin dealt more with concepts, characters, and jokes.

50. Martin controlled the final version, in that he took responsibility for typing it up.

51. They were keen to give their scripts a strong theme beyond the adventure itself,

52. so Axonite served as a vehicle for satire on human cupidity and capitalism.

53. In the script, Jo thinks the Doctor has switched sides here.

54. The Doctor replies: "A matter of loyalties, my dear. Mine must be to science."

55. The Doctor's uncertain loyalties were the basis of a sub-plot which was toned down before recording.

56. It began earlier this episode, when the Doctor tries to charm Winser by taking an interest in his equipment:

57. "I gather you've reached a relativity factor of point eight 'G'?"

58. The key is to be able to control the reaction,

59. and Axonite, "which obviously has an existence in the fourth dimension", could be the way to do it.

60. Jo begins to suspect that the Doctor is helping Winser for his own underhanded reasons:

61. This shot mixes live action With a model keyed in by CSO.

62. The technique, often used in mid-1970s Doctor Who, was first developed for this serial,

63. to meet the script's request for the laboratory to be as large as possible.

64. The script indicates that they're looking at the "laser-triggered ion discharge tube assembly",

65. which "looks like the inside of a television camera".

66. The Doctor says it's a great achievement to have got the experiment authorised in a government controlled facility.

67. Winser explains that Hardiman is "terribly keen" on the project:

68. "He cut through all the red tape for me."

69. It was a design decision to make it dangle from the roof instead.

70. In an early version, Winser and the Doctor use the light accelerator to enlarge a laboratory rat,

71. repeating the Axons' trick from the last episode.

72. In the script, he suggests they might "swap a few ideas, perhaps even cannibalise a part or two."

73. David Savile, who plays Malcolm Winser, was later best known as a traditionalist naval officer in Warship (1973-7).

74. The interior of Axos was a collaboration between two BBC departments.

75. The set designer, Kenneth Sharp, conceived the overall look, drawing his inspiration

76. from the film Fantastic Voyage (1966), which is set inside a human body.

77. However, the moving parts of the set, such as the eponymous "claws"

78. were the work of the visual effects designer, John Horton.

79. When this episode was recorded, the serial wasn't called 'The Claws of Axos'.

80. It was still 'The Vampire from Space'.

81. Dicks had proposed that title on 9 October 1970 as a replacement for 'The Axons',

82. which he'd only assigned in the first place to avoid confusion with the previous working titles.

83. 'The Vampire from Space' had "the right melodramatic Doctor Who ring", he remarked.

84. So the first two episodes went into production under that title,

85. which still appears chalked on the countdown clock at the start of the master tapes.

86. Sections of the wall are made of jablite

87. The eye of Axos, described in the script as the creature's "soul"

88. is partly made of flexible corrugated tubing, then a new and rarely seen product.

89. The prop caused the crew much ribald merriment over the connotations of its shape.

90. Unfortunately, because these were mains-powered, they caused an industrial demarcation dispute.

91. In the heavily unionised BBC of the 1970s, every man had his own designated area of jurisdiction,

92. and many a walk-out was threatened when one group seemed to infringe on another's territory.

93. The studio electricians felt that only they should operate electrical equipment,

94. and there were heated discussions before the effects men were finally allowed to switch on their wall throbbers.

95. Smoke is released when the "petals" open

96. to conceal the fact that the "mouth" only goes back about ten feet.

97. The Axos exterior was made of foam rubber and latex, modelled on a chicken-wire base.

98. This made it rather flimsy.

99. The beach was landscaped with the assistance of Kent Plant Hire, and the Axos mouth buried.

100. But the prop wasn't sturdy enough to take the weight of the shingle,

101. so the scenery crew had to dig it up again in a hurry before it collapsed.

102. A hasty reinforcement job made it safe for the actors, and back in the ground it went.

103. It was clear that they still had a lot to learn, including how to handle a large regular cast of characters.

104. They also had to take on board a change of production method initiated by Barry Letts for the 1971 series:

105. Episodes would now be recorded in pairs, rather than on a week-by-week basis,

106. so each pair of episodes had to have more or less the same sets.

107. Terrance Dicks, perhaps recalling the similar help he got from Malcolm Hulke early in his career,

108. patiently guided Baker and Martin through the technical intricacies of the craft, proffering advice

109. on everything from story points to script layout.

110. Now you see him,

111. now you don't.

112. Roger Delgado's stunt double is Havoc member Jack Cooper,

113. also seen in this serial as a stunt Axon and a stunt UNIT soldier.

114. In an earlier version, the fake Filer is brought in by the Regular Army soldiers.

115. He was wandering around, apparently dazed,

116. and is suspected of having killed the guard outside Axos

117. He's lucid about one thing: He will only speak to the Doctor.

118. But the soldiers simply imprison him along with the Brigadier and Jo.

119. The second Filer here is played by Derek Ware, whom you saw as Pigbin Josh in the last episode.

120. In the earlier version, this sequence is part of the end-of-episode cliffhanger.

121. "Filer" remains locked up until the Doctor starts his Axonite experiment.

122. The Axonite "zizzes", Axos convulses, and "Filer" too has a violent reaction.

123. In frenzy, he attacks the Regular Army sentry.

124. The UNIT party is free: The Brigadier's priority is to contact the United Nations,

125. but he sends one of his men to take "Filer" to the Doctor.

126. The authors were asked to play up the Doctor's uncertainty over which of the Filers survived,

127. until "Filer reassures him with some colloquial Filer type line".

128. So they wrote an exchange Over whether the Doctor is irritated or relieved to hear himself called "Doc".

129. In the script, the Doctor and Filer have trouble getting past the corporal guarding the Brigadier:

130. "I know he's incommunicado," says the Doctor. "Good heavens, man, I'm incommunicado myself!"

131. Filer shows his CIA identification and lies that Chinn has sent him to interrogate "these guys".

132. Just before rehearsals began, this scene was rewritten to establish that the room is bugged,

133. making Captain Harker's interruption less arbitrary.

134. In rehearsal, however, the director and actors worried whether this was clear enough,

135. and toyed with an unscripted, explanatory line from Harker:

136. "An elementary bugging device"

137. But in the end the close-up you've just seen, again unscripted, did the job instead.

138. "Greyhound" is the Brigadier, "Trap 1" is UNIT HQ.

139. At this time, the production team was trying to build up a consistent system of radio call-signs for UNIT,

140. with designations mostly drawn from greyhound racing.

141. Pre-production on this serial started, in a sense, long before anyone knew what serial it would be.

142. All the production team knew for certain was that there would be a third serial in the 1971 series,

143. and it was on that basis that the rehearsal room was booked on 4 September 1970.

144. That was a week before the first script was commissioned

145. and at that stage, as the commissioning paperwork noted,

146. "Subsequent episodes 2-4 may or may not be written."

147. In other words, there was still an option to write off the script if it wasn't up to scratch.

148. In the script, the Doctor says more about the objective of his "necessary and urgent" experiment.

149. The draft script for Episode 1 came in on 25 September.

150. At this point, the serial became known as 'The Axons',

151. a title which lasted all of eight days before being replaced.

152. The script specifies that we see the first Axon clutching his face:

153. "A quick glimpse of a streaming, boiling glob streak, running down through his fingers".

154. The door to Hardiman's office was the subject of a minor flap three days before the first studio session.

155. It was realised that the UNIT personnel are imprisoned there - but the door didn't have a working lock.

156. Arrangements were hastily made to add one,

157. even though the design budget was already spent.

158. "Quack" was a rehearsal improvement on the scripted line

159. Coming up is another censored "collapsing face" shot.

160. The authors later described the Axons as individual neurons within a single brain - that is, Axos itself.

161. The name Axon derives from a term used in the science of neurophysiology:

162. An axon is part of a nerve, a long filament which carries outgoing impulses.

163. In the last shot, the glob's movement was slowed down in editing using a videodisc machine.

164. "See next week's thrill-packed, spine-tingling, knee-knocking episode," says the script.

165. Also seen in this episode were:

166. Nick Hobbs

167. Bill Barnsley, Peter Holmes, Paul Phillips

168. Geoff Brighty, Roger Minnis

169. Eden Fox, Stuart Myers

170. Douglas Roe, Clinton Morris

171. George Howse, Pierce McAvoy, Steve Smart

172. Uncredited production contributors

173. Peter Granger

174. Geoff Higgs

175. Mike Catherwood

176. Judy Kaine, Vicky Thomas

177. Bernard Fox

178. Marion McDougall

179. Ray Warwick

180. Sarah Newman