Doctor Who 8x18

Directed by Michael E. Briant

Roger Delgado as The Master • Nicholas Pennell as Winton • John Ringham as Ashe • Roy Skelton as Norton • Helen Worth as Mary Ashe

The Doctor descends into the Primitive city to try and find Jo while the colonists receive a visit from the Adjudicator.

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1. "Jo is a prisoner in the underground city of the Primitives.

2. "While the Doctor goes to rescue her, the Adjudicator arrives on the planet -

3. "and proves to be an even greater source of danger."

4. This episode was first broadcast on Saturday 1 May 1971 and was watched by 8.1 million viewers.

5. That's 1.5 million people down on last week.

6. The city door was brought to location as a solid set piece, pre-hinged at one side.

7. It was carved out of the expanded polystyrene, jablite.

8. The price of the raw materials and the hours of sculpture into the rough door shape cost £140.

9. This episode was recorded between 7.30 and 10:30 p.m. On Saturday 20 March 1971 in Studio 3 at BBC Television Centre.

10. The studio scenes in this episode were mainly recorded on a set-by-set basis rather than in story order.

11. Work began with this single scene on the primitive dwelling set,

12. after which it remained "dark" for the rest of the recording.

13. The noise is described as "the sudden thunder of a space-ship in flight".

14. This and the IMC spaceship were props previously used in Gerry Anderson puppet shows.

15. This one hailed from Joe 90 (1968).

16. The exhaust blast is being directed from an off-camera air hose.

17. One wonders quite what legitimate purpose a jemmy would have on a future spaceship.

18. It's a heavy-duty torch with a bit stuck on the end.

19. "Caldwell is forced into backing up Dent's lie."

20. Yes, it's more film footage of the camera-shy gecko.

21. They had a lot of problems getting it to act on cue.

22. Camera 1 Is about to move quickly.

23. It now has five seconds to crab sideways

24. for this close-up.

25. The script notes that Mary is "obviously very impressed with the importance of the Adjudicator,

26. "and treats him with great respect."

27. If you think you recognise the Adjudicator's voice - you probably do!

28. He was a long-time radio voice, in a career dating from the early 1950s in the medium.

29. The actor was standing on another set, speaking his lines into Boom Microphone A.

30. Having followed Ashe in, Camera 1 now returns to the IMC set where recording continues.

31. These city scenes were recorded much later in the studio day.

32. "The priest receives their thoughts, and turns. He has a bestial, non-human face."

33. Handy that all the main IMC characters are lined up together.

34. to give the impression that injuries were inflicted by a wild animal.

35. John Tordoff, playing Alec Leeson, was a relative newcomer to television at the time.

36. He first made his name in The First Churchills (1969) With John Ringham and Norman Atkyns.

37. He later appeared in The Sweeney (1975), Citizen Smith (1979) And Without a Clue (1988).

38. Baker believes that the Silurian Monster is faked by "saboteurs's here the giant lizards really are.

39. The script calls it "a rocket pistol".

40. Another recording break.

41. This scene was filmed on 12 February, before the cliffhanger with Jo that ended Episode 3.

42. As with that sequence, six primitives were scheduled to appear, yet only four are seen.

43. Heavily covered against the rain were Terry Walsh, Dinny Powell,

44. Alf Joint, Val Mussetti, Les Clark, Mike Horsburgh.

45. Someone's got his loincloth skewiff.

46. The script indicates that the newcomer's identity was to be kept hidden until very late in the episode.

47. The main dome is now set up with table and chairs for a tribunal, says the script.

48. "There is a particularly big chair, obviously intended for the Adjudicator."

49. Malcolm Hulke didn't intend this reveal here.

50. And it's now time to cue some totally improvised in-character dialogue from Jo.

51. To one side is "some kind of clock, in which all the parts are visible".

52. The Doctor crosses to a piece of equipment referred to as a "time machine".

53. Off camera, a moveable section of scenery has just been swung aside

54. letting Camera 1 into position

55. to take this shot from behind the picture frieze.

56. Does the yellow one look like a Dalek to anyone?

57. "A series of highly stylised and symbolic drawings, depicting the life of the one-time civilization.

58. "None are shown realistically, only symbolically. As well as houses, machines seem to dominate them.

59. "The drawing shows the rough outline of a machine.

60. "Primitives with spears are forcing a tiny figure through a door-like hatch, beyond which are symbolic flames."

61. The five studio primitives this week are Les Clark, John McGrath, Derek Chafer,

62. Stewart Anderson and Alan Peters.

63. "The priest peers very, very close, as though short-sighted."

64. This character brings to mind the Keeper, as seen in Star Trek's first pilot episode, 'The Cage':

65. A mute, though telepathic, alien with super-intelligence.

66. Although a male character, the Keeper was played by an actress named Meg Wyllie.

67. But there'll be a lady priest coming up in two minutes.

68. A recording pause followed, to reset camera positions and remove the picture frieze.

69. Hulke's script again indicates that we still do not see the Master's face.

70. "Either we look over his shoulder or we see the other characters though his P.O.V."

71. You may be wondering why the lead villain makes his first appearance in the middle of an episode,

72. rather than as a big surprise cliffhanger.

73. It's because actors were paid on a per-episode basis rather than by the number of scenes they did.

74. So if Roger Delgado only appeared for a few seconds at the end, he would still be paid for the full 25 minutes.

75. This acting performance required a costume change for Pat Gorman.

76. So far he'd been dressed as IMC guard Long, for pre-recording.

77. We'll see those scenes soon. And Pat Gorman will be looking a lot less green.

78. This simple slight-of-hand trick was performed live and uninterrupted.

79. Pertwee used distraction methods he learned in the music halls of the 1950s:

80. The eye only sees what he wanted,

81. and this coin was inside his mouth the whole time.

82. All the primitive city scenes were recorded together at the end of the studio day.

83. Hulke described this set as "A seemingly endless corridor with mouldering stone-flagged walls.

84. "There are junctions to other corridors here and there.

85. "Eerie light comes from glowing crystals set in the walls."

86. The priest is carrying "a huge knife".

87. The two additional priests were played by diminutive actors Stanley Mason and Antonia Moss.

88. Mason went on to play Bok the animated gargoyle in the next story, 'The Dæmons'.

89. Moss is the priestess we promised a couple of minutes ago.

90. She played a cave-child in Doctor Who's second ever episode, 'The Cave of Skulls', back in 1963.

91. The primitives have to run carefully because their bodysuits go over their shoes.

92. See if you can spot the zips up the back of their skins.

93. In chess, checkmate means that the king can't move in any direction.

94. There's another of those recording breaks next, for the actors to change sets.

95. Watch the boom shadow following the Doctor on the wall above his head.

96. "Another priest goes to a door-like hatch and opens it. A fierce white light emerges from the hatch."

97. Hulke described the figure: "The Guardian has an enormous head which is attached to a tiny vestigial body.

98. "The Guardian is the sole survivor of a highly evolved master race of the primitive city.

99. "The primitives and priests freeze in awe."

100. Norman Atkyns's voice was mostly pre-recorded on 17 March 1971.

101. He also performed some additional lines "live" at the same time he was operating the puppet.

102. The tiny hands are operated by metal rods,

103. while the head is the puppeteer's own, poking out through a hole in the chair backing.

104. He's wearing a mask, of course, and miming to his own pre-recorded voice.

105. The mask was designed by effects assistant lan Scoones and sculpted by his colleague John Friedlander.

106. They also collaborated on the primitive and priest masks.

107. This unreconstructed attitude to women later featured in Hulke's scripts for 'Frontier in Space' (1973),

108. in which it is a trait of the warrior race, the Draconians.

109. Hulke originally envisaged the Guardian as a spectral creature living inside a furnace.

110. Coming up is a vestigial trace of the idea:

111. A rippling heat-haze as the creature returns to the flames.

112. Here's a clear view of the two rock mounds at either side and the fake door section added to the middle.

113. This location sequence was filmed on 12 February 1971.

114. It was scheduled to be staged after the Doctor's arrival

115. And before Jo being forced inside (which we saw earlier still, at the end of the last episode).

116. So Katy Manning is escaping from a place that she hasn't actually been imprisoned in yet!

117. Some recorded material was cut from the start of this scene.

118. Dent makes his final statement, insisting that the planet is not suitable for colonization:

119. "Crops won't grow and the animal life is hostile."

120. He adds that Ashe has kept these facts from the Adjudicator.

121. Winton insists the animal attacks were faked, but the Master is not interested.

122. This is the point that Hulke had intended as the "reveal" of the Administrator's identity:

123. "The Master stops short.

124. "The Doctor looks at him, and now we see that the person in the 'Adjudicator's chair' is the Master."

125. The Master regularly impersonated others.

126. So far he had already posed as two telephone mechanics, the esteemed Swiss penologist Professor Emil Keller,

127. and a high-ranking but apparently diminutive army officer.

128. Everyone needs a hobby.

129. In Hulke's script, his credentials are "impeccable", not immaculate.

130. The Master uses similar misdemeanour charges against the Doctor in 'Frontier in Space'.

131. In this scene, Camera 1 provides the close-up of the Doctor and Camera 3 this two-shot of the Doctor and Master.

132. After the close-up here, Camera 1 will have to nip swiftly sideways to the main dome set.

133. It's on the move now. Stay tuned to see what for...

134. The Master avoids splitting an infinitive!

135. Here's what Camera 1 had to move position to shoot.

136. After this, there was a recording pause for the cast and Camera 2 to move to the IMC ship set.

137. More blackcurrant!

138. Roger Delgado was 53 on 1 March 1971.

139. Bernard Kay had his 43rd birthday on 23 February, shortly after the pre-filming.

140. Morris Perry turned 46 on 25 March, five days after this episode was recorded.

141. John Ringham also turned 43 a couple of weeks before Bernard Kay, on 12 February.

142. Wearing facial hair as Colonists this week are:

143. Charles Pickess, Ken Halliwell, John Ceasar, Bob Blaine and lan Elliott.

144. The BBC-1 Saturday Western later that evening was Manhunt (1958),

145. in which a peace-loving cowboy goes on the run, pursued by his enemies.

146. Pity that wasn't shown last week, when it would have better echoed events on Uxarieus!

147. As scripted, seeking assistance, "Ashe looks round, but the faces are all unsympathetic and hostile."

148. There was yet another recording pause at the end of this scene.

149. This time, it was to allow Boom Microphone B to swing round to the IMC set.

150. You might just spot Pat Gorman above Dent's head. This scene was recorded before he went primitive.

151. The script notes that this voice is to be heard with very heavy distortion.

152. In his time off since completing 'The Claws of Axos' on 6 February,

153. Roger Delgado's voice had been otherwise engaged recording some radio productions.

154. He read a Morning Story on 8 February ('Chance is a Fine Thing', transmitted on 16 February),

155. and did the first of five episodes of Master Spy on 1 March, with the others on 4, 18 and 25 April and 2 May.

156. When the shot changes during this subtitle, all camera positions were reset in another recording break.

157. Katy drops the earpiece, then looks off camera to see if they want her to keep going.

158. Also during that recording break, they recorded the title sequences for Episodes 3 and 4.

159. What's more, Roger Delgado changed from his Adjudicator's robes into his regular Master costume.

160. There must be easier ways of listening to Roger Delgado - such as tuning in to BBC radio...

161. Has he found Jon Pertwee's big red This is Your Life book?

162. It's not made explicit, but it's likely that the mountain in the distance is where the primitive city is located.

163. Those metal stairs don't appear to lead anywhere.

164. How odd, he's got a Star Trek communicator.

165. In the upcoming fight, notes the script, one of them steps on the communicator.

166. Looks more like it was just dropped in the struggle.

167. Another recording pause followed, for Norton to get to the main area.

168. The two sets were not connected.

169. And cue the extra waiting outside...

170. There's a handy number of dry-goods packing cases around. But not just for cover during a Western-style gun battle.

171. The supplies are stored in the dome, the safe and neutral place from where they can be distributed.

172. The picture distortion you're seeing is called microphony.

173. It happens when the picture tubes in the camera are shaken by the sound of nearby gunfire.

174. The Doctor is planning to leave Jo in the radio room, right next to the open entrance area.

175. Couldn't she have stayed in the room they just came out of?

176. She'd be way out of range of any stray bullets...

177. That was the end of the episode, but not the end of the studio recording session:

178. This settlement is to be ratified in the presence of all parties.

179. Very well, Adjudicator.

180. Do you think you fooled them?

181. Well, we shall soon find out.

182. And anyway, Earth is crying out for minerals.

183. Then you think an appeal would fail?

184. I do.

185. Unless, of course, there were some special circumstances.

186. Such as?

187. Well, a claim to unusual historical interests, for instance.

188. Well, this is a very old planet.

189. We know there was once a very great civilisation here.

190. Indeed? Tell me, did they leave any traces?

191. There's a ruined city not far from here.

192. That's very interesting. Tell me more about it.

193. You two men, up there on the gantry.

194. You two had better get down there behind the steps.

195. - Now, where's Norton? - No idea.

196. The Doctor said we should keep an eye on him.

197. I'll go and look for him.

198. Right, is everybody ready?

199. They'll be here in a few minutes.

200. Norton to IMC spaceship.

201. Norton! Winton wants you in the main area.

202. That's an IMC rad...

203. What the devil are you up to?

204. - Where's Alec? - I don't know.

205. All right, Norton, get up there.

206. Look out! It's a trap!

207. Take cover!

208. You stay here, I've got to try and stop this senseless killing.

209. It won't do any good, Doctor, they won't listen to you.

210. It's always the innocent bystander who suffers eventually.

211. What's that supposed to mean?

212. I'm afraid you are both about to become the victims of stray bullets.