Doctor Who 8x14

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 Jo escape from Axos but then the Doctor offers the Master a deal; if he helps him repair the TARDIS, they can flee Earth together.

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1. "The Doctor and the Master work together to defeat the Axons.

2. "Filer suspects their collaboration may have a more sinister purpose."

3. This episode was first shown on 3 April 1971,

4. and was seen by 7.8 million people - nearly a million and a half more than had watched the previous episode.

5. With one exception, the BBC's senior management enjoyed this serial.

6. she regretted what she called "a continuing tendency to adult or Doomwatch-type themes and sequences".

7. An early draft included a short film sequence showing the blast doors closing outside the laboratory.

8. A day's filming at Ealing Studios was scheduled,

9. but the scene's removal freed up a film day for location work.

10. "The corridor buckles and heaves underneath them," says the script,

11. as they avoid the Axons' "epileptic grabbings".

12. "Patterns of 'pain' and liquid light flash across the floors and walls."

13. This sequence mixes the output from all five studio cameras.

14. The script specifies that all the foliage around Axos is dead or dying:

15. the area looks like a "blasted heath" - a quotation from Shakespeare's Macbeth (1606).

16. The Brigadier's action here was added in rehearsal.

17. In the script, the Master returns to the Tardis.

18. But the situation is hopeless: all he can do is disconnect the Tardis and shut everything down.

19. "This is what you get for volunteering," he grumbles as he begins to switch off the controls.

20. In the script, Hardiman asks the Master to assist.

21. "I've no intention of becoming a martyr," he replies.

22. It's never a good sign when a character puts on a face-mask just before doing something dangerous.

23. Safety aside, it makes it easier to substitute a stuntman.

24. This is "an operation similar to defusing a bomb," says the script.

25. For the stunt, Hardiman is doubled by Jack Cooper.

26. The action coming up had to be revised to suit the layout of the set.

27. As scripted, the Doctor trips the Master, and Filer rugby-tackles him to the floor.

28. An earlier version of this scene starts with the Doctor chatting to the Master about their escape.

29. The Master describes the Tardis as "Incredible. Absolutely incredible," which the Doctor takes as a compliment.

30. Chinn, meanwhile, is "still taking cover", as Benton delicately puts it.

31. Have you been waiting to hear the word "spacedome"?

32. "Yeah," replies Filer. "Technically."

33. "So that's what you call justice?" fumes the Master.

34. This exchange was inserted to save having to use the mobile HQ set in the second block of studio recording.

35. The script suggests that at first we might mistake the camera for "some kind of gun".

36. The actors' performances slowed down in the cold, so that the film sequences ended up longer than anticipated.

37. Yates was scripted to say "Yankee to Bravo":

38. in other words, "Y to B" in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

39. Chinn is played by 58-year-old Peter Bathurst.

40. He began his film career in Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952 ),

41. and, on television, played an astronaut in The Quatermass Experiment (1952 ).

42. "The Mounties always get their man," says the proverb about the efficiency of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

43. This episode was very substantially cut before and during rehearsals.

44. The Doctor objects: "Axos feeds on energy.

45. "You can't kill a vulture by feeding it meat, can you?"

46. The Doctor builds a paper aeroplane as he explains what's going to happen:

47. "The Axonite will start feeding. First on direct energy sources, such as this Complex.

48. "Then it will grow and become mobile.

49. "Increasing its feeding range and its size, and finally returning home to roost.

50. "By then the surface of the Earth should look very much like that of the moon. Dead!"

51. When the Brigadier asks if he's come up with anything, he makes the paper plane loop the loop.

52. "You might say it's a matter of time," he says.

53. The moving shadow to the right of the Master is cast by a boom microphone.

54. In the script, the problem is that the Tardis is "underpowered", as the Master puts it.

55. To dematerialise, they'll need to draw power from the Nuton reactor,

56. The green Tardis console is a hangover from the days of black-and-white television.

57. The prop was supposed to look white (and, later in the colour era, it actually was),

58. but in monochrome, white objects appeared to flare, so the console was painted pale green.

59. The UNIT teleprinter chatters out "ZFB", the code for "fading badly", before breaking down altogether.

60. One early idea, later abandoned, was to show Axos surfacing by inflating a collapsible miniature.

61. A total of seven Axon costumes were made, though three of them were only used on location.

62. It was hoped to show the bullet-holes in the Axons closing up again.

63. This sequence was written for a sunken lane with high banks on either side,

64. so that the Land Rover couldn't easily drive round the fallen tree.

65. Benton was to steer up and down the banks in an effort to shake the Axon off the windscreen.

66. The Saturday before rehearsals started, the floor of Room 603 was marked up with tape to represent the studio sets.

67. The actors arrived the following Monday morning, and rehearsed

68. for two periods of nine days each (11 -21 January and 25 January to 4 February),

69. with two days of studio recording at the end of each block.

70. This isn't the same Land Rover as was used in previous shots.

71. Obviously they didn't want to use a good one!

72. partly to bond the cast, regulars and guests alike, into a comfortable ensemble,

73. In the script, the Doctor doesn't actually fire the laser gun.

74. The Doctor's parting remark about Jo was Jon Pertwee's unscripted contribution.

75. In the script, he throws Filer the laser gun as he leaves.

76. Filer points the gun at the Tardis and, despite Jo's protests, pulls the trigger.

77. Of course, nothing happens.

78. "Hell!" says Filer, and throws the gun at the Tardis.

79. The central column of the Tardis console was manually operated from beneath.

80. That's why it looks a bit wobbly as the uncomfortable stage hand pushes it up and down!

81. In the script, we see a blast wall on concrete rollers pulled across the laboratory door.

82. One soldier is trapped outside: we hear him hammering on the barrier,

83. then shots, a crackle of energy, and an agonised scream as the Axons get him.

84. The first day's work concentrated mainly on the scenes set at UNIT HQ,

85. while the Axos and laboratory sets occupied the second day.

86. Studio days were long and tiring: the cast had to be on set, in costume and make-up,

87. at 10.30 in the morning, and they didn't leave until 10.30 at night.

88. Only the last three hours were spent actually recording the programme.

89. The bulk of the day's work was six-and-a-half hours of camera rehearsal, morning and afternoon,

90. with the actors running through their performances as the cameramen practised their moves.

91. The Master's Tardis was first envisaged as "a round, organic-looking object",

92. and in later drafts it became a "plain white dome".

93. This was changed for budgetary a large, curved object was too costly to make.

94. The "blast door" was made of jablite,

95. and was melted with a spray of the solvent acetone.

96. The electrical discharge from a spark generator is overlaid on the picture.

97. In the script, we also see the Axon tendrils starting to cover the outside of the Tardis.

98. The second studio day didn't go entirely to schedule:

99. the sequences inside Axos proved so complex that they didn't get round to recording all the laboratory scenes,

100. so these were carried over to the next session.

101. This took place on 5 and 6 February in Studio 4 at Television Centre, and was even more pressurised.

102. The final day's recording overran, finishing only at three minutes to eleven, 27 minutes late.

103. This was partly owing to a slow change of recording tape,

104. but mainly because of the complex effects shots,

105. which took a lot longer to line up than anyone had bargained for.

106. The Axon costumes were all-in-one body-suits,

107. with detachable "heads", "hands", and "feet".

108. The cast found them unusually revolting,

109. because they looked as if all their internal organs were on the outside.

110. Hence their nickname on set: "the inside-out men".

111. One abandoned early idea was to animate the Axon tentacles by reversing the videotape,

112. so that a tentacle being pulled off an actor would appear to lash out and wrap itself around him.

113. The three-foot model was cast in fibreglass, with inflatable bladders in the side to make it "breathe".

114. The Axons here are shot against a blue CSO screen, with the other actors keyed in.

115. By mixing from the composite CSO shot to the background shot, the Axons appear to vanish.

116. "The effect is rather like an aeroplane in a spin."

117. Then the tendrils drag him away from the console...

118. The surface of the Axos model was textured with condoms stuck on with latex.

119. It had been hoped to include a model shot of the Tardis emerging out of the belly of Axos.

120. This is one of the sequences filmed at the Dungeness nuclear power station.

121. The filming was periodically disrupted by unexpected blasts from the power station's siren.

122. During their breaks, the cast and crew enjoyed the hospitality of the station canteen,

123. but found a few of the power workers, arriving for their shift, somewhat less welcoming -

124. at least until the Havoc stuntmen showed they could give as good as they got.

125. The falling wreckage is, of course, a lightweight mock-up.

126. Post-production on the serial began almost immediately after the second studio session.

127. The episodes were edited on four days between 8 and 16 February,

128. and a timecoded viewing copy of the final cut was prepared for Dudley Simpson,

129. who composed just over 40 minutes of electronic music.

130. The music - fourteen minutes of it for this episode alone -

131. The last job of all was dubbing, to lay down the completed soundtrack, music, effects, and all.

132. By then, the transmission dates were very close.

133. this final episode was dubbed on 22 March, just thirteen days ahead of its transmission.

134. In the script, they climb to the top of a pile of rubble that was once the lab.

135. Chinn twists his ankle, and the others walk off in disgust without helping him up.

136. Several of the regular cast got a break after completing 'The Claws of Axos',

137. but Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning only had three days off

138. In the script, the Doctor uses the paper aeroplane he made earlier to help him explain.

139. Bob Baker and Dave Martin continued their writing partnership until an amicable split in 1979.

140. They collaborated on seven more Doctor Who serials, and several memorable children's fantasies for HTV,

141. notably Sky (1975) and ing of the Castle (1977).

142. and co-wrote several of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films (1993-2010).

143. The word "galactic" was Jon Pertwee's unscripted contribution.

144. Also seen in this episode were:

145. Pierce McAvoy, Michael Stainer

146. Peter Holmes, Clinton Morris, Steve Smart

147. Bob Blaine, Brian Gilmar

148. Emmett Hennessy, Brian Justice

149. Marc Boyle, Steve Emerson, Stuart Fell

150. Reg Harding, Nick Hobbs, Derek Martin

151. Uncredited production contributors included:

152. Sue Stapely

153. Sybil Cave

154. Jennie Betts

155. Production text commentary by Martin Wiggins.