Doctor Who 8x2

Directed by Barry Letts

Roger Delgado as The Master • Richard Franklin as Mike Yates • John Levene as Sergeant Benton • Michael Wisher as Rex Farrel • Harry Towb as McDermott

Attempting to find out where Jo encountered the Master, the Doctor heads to the circus where he falls foul of Rossini.

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1. "UNIT continues to hunt for the Master - who is ruthlessly destroying all who stand in his way.

2. "The Doctor follows a clue to the circus - and falls into the hands of his enemies."

3. This episode was first shown on 9 January 1971, and was seen by 8 million viewers.

4. The laboratory window is made of sugar glass.

5. The BBC's executives scented controversy when they discussed this episode five days after it was shown.

6. The previous week's ratings were in, and they showed "a very good start".

7. But there was a fly in the ointment: It was "almost too frightening", he told the meeting.

8. We'll find out what his colleagues said about that in a few minutes' time...

9. The script calls for the Doctor to examine Jo's eyes and take her pulse whilst talking.

10. "So people can shake themselves out of it," responds Benton in the script.

11. "Very rarely," says the Doctor.

12. The end of this scene was trimmed.

13. "Her mind's been subjected to tremendous strain," says the Doctor. "If I push her too hard, it might snap."

14. It was scripted as an unpleasant, liver-coloured piece of plastic.

15. He is already having the moulds changed, but has one last use for the old product.

16. Air is slowly pumped into the chair through an enormous low-pressure valve attached to a fire hose.

17. McDermott is played by Belfast actor Harry Towb (1925-2009).

18. A notable recent television role was as Judd the armourer in Callan (1970).

19. The Master was scripted to tell McDermott the name of the new plastic:

20. Polynestene.

21. Robert Holmes introduced the character of McDermott for one purpose and one purpose alone.

22. You are about to see what that purpose was...

23. This sequence was pre-recorded and played back in reverse using a videodisc machine.

24. Harry Towb is performing backward death throes

25. while the effects boys inflate the chair around him.

26. So this is how he started off. Press reverse to see it as first shot!

27. The effects budget wouldn't quite run to what the script describes:

28. The plastic changes shape, moulding itself onto McDermott's body to wrap him from the waist up,

29. Later on, it is clear that the police have been summoned to investigate the death,

30. but the Master tells Farrel not to worry: "I can handle them."

31. The script calls for Jo to be weeping here.

32. Now it's back to the executives' 13 January programme review meeting. Was this episode too frightening?

33. John Grist Said his family found it alright.

34. Desmond Wilcox Had been more frightened than his children.

35. This scene runs longer in the script.

36. After he's finished questioning Jo, the Doctor sends her to the sickbay to be given a sedative.

37. Then he has Yates arrange for a discreet check on all the factories Jo visited,

38. and explains that the ECT machine he used against the Nestenes last time will no longer be effective:

39. They are telepathic, so they will know what happened, and will have devised a defence.

40. ranging from Ernest the officious policeman to the grumpy Mr Grouser.

41. He ended his career in a newer medium, as a reader of audiobooks ranging from Thomas Hardy to Catherine Cookson.

42. This was Stephen Jack's unscripted contribution.

43. This is the car park at the front of the Thermo Plastics factory in Dunstable.

44. In the 1960s, the Danish company Dam Things exported thousands of troll dolls to Britain.

45. Robert Holmes disliked them, and this inspired what Farrel Senior is about to receive.

46. It is even more disgusting in the storyline: It has three eyes.

47. In the script, it's still in its box when the Master proffers it.

48. It was a six-part serial scheduled for broadcast from 2 May 1970.

49. Plans changed soon after Barry Letts took over as producer.

50. It was to be a seven-part serial shown between 2 January and 13 February 1971.

51. But after five months in post, he had rethought the series format.

52. First episodes usually pulled in viewers who then drifted away during the run of the serial,

53. On 28 April, Robert Holmes was briefed to write a storyline, which was due for delivery on 12 May.

54. It actually came in on 8 June, and four days later the production team commissioned the scripts.

55. He then went off for a week's seaside holiday in Broadstairs, telling Holmes,

56. "I shall solace myself with the thought of your unrelenting toil."

57. In the storyline, the Doctor has no objection to taking Jo with him,

58. but thinks "UNIT types" will be too conspicuous.

59. Captain Yates was created with a view to giving the series a stronger focus of romantic interest.

60. The plan is to circulate them as prizes given away at the fairground.

61. That's why Philips was sent to the fair: To distribute batches of the trolls to the sideshow owners.

62. This also gives UNIT a lead:

63. The fair leaves a trail of death in its wake as the trolls come to life and kill their lucky winners.

64. Doctor Who wasn't the only BBC series to receive help from Robert Brothers in September 1970.

65. The man the Doctor approaches is circus owner Bobby Roberts.

66. He and Pertwee already knew one another, and socialised in the evening after filming.

67. The interested strongman was scripted as a staring clown.

68. It was common practice for BBC sets to incorporate stock elements from the scenery store.

69. Here's the round window from the set of the pre-school series Play School.

70. Robert Brothers provided facilities to a lot of BBC programmes at this time because of a long-term company ambition.

71. Every year since 1947, a circus was part of the BBC's holiday output.

72. The contract was held by Billy Smart's Circus, a major rival of Robert Brothers.

73. Eventually Robert Brothers did indeed oust Billy Smart from the BBC, but not until 1978.

74. "Dr John Smith" is the regular alias used by the Doctor during his exile on Earth.

75. Jon Pertwee adds an unscripted joke.

76. Tony the strongman is played by Jamaican actor Roy Stewart (1925-2008).

77. But he did need to beef up, so in 1954 he founded his own gymnasium in Kensington.

78. "Roy Stewart's Gym", as it was known, was notable for its multi-racial membership policy.

79. He later played the boatman Quarrel Junior, James Bond's ally, in Live and Let Die (1973).

80. Rossini is played by John Baskcomb (1916-2000).

81. He was best known as a Forsyte uncle in The Forsyte Saga (1967).

82. He had recently played Cardinal Wolsey in The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970).

83. His next role was the Mayor of Walmington-on-Sea in the 1971 film version of Dad's Army.

84. The view through the phone box windows is an electronic effect.

85. A blue screen is "keyed out" of the picture and replaced with a still photograph.

86. Other parts of the sets are also not as they might seem.

87. The "parquet" floor here is actually artist-painted.

88. Doctor Who even got an unfavourable mention in the House of Lords on 3 February.

89. "because many children must have gone to bed and had nightmares after seeing the recent episodes."

90. In the script, they're in a jeep, along with "as many UNIT soldiers as there's room for".

91. tried to think of a gimmick or "hook" that would attract attention.

92. A two-day creative process followed, developing the concept of a "lapsed Time Lord".

93. Dicks proposed that he should be called the Master, partly for the overtones of paranoia and domination,

94. but partly also because an academic master's degree is lower than a doctorate.

95. Even so, the original character outline suggested that the Master's Time Lord rank might be higher than the Doctor's.

96. The red vase is made of wax.

97. Christopher Burgess Often worked with Barry Letts.

98. Letts cast him in two other Doctor Whos, and in David Copperfield (1986).

99. In the storyline, it's a detonation capsule from the planet Kastritis.

100. The Master explains to Farrel that he has no further use for Philips, now that he has made the Autons.

101. In the script, the key's in the dead man's pocket, not his hand.

102. A shot was cut from here, with Yates in the car watching the commotion through field glasses.

103. The effects team was briefed to create a "wire micro-circuit" for this scene.

104. It wasn't really made of wire: It was plastic.

105. "Hand them over to the cops, the dirty murderers," Rossini was scripted to say.

106. It's more obvious in the script that the Doctor's main concern

107. is the safety of the dematerialisation circuit he took from the Master's Tardis.

108. Meanwhile, Jo is worried that they may be under arrest: The policemen don't seem very friendly.

109. Much of the police public relations effort at this time sought to encourage children

110. to look on their local bobby as someone they could trust.

111. The upcoming cliffhanger resulted in a letter of protest that Doctor Who was undermining their efforts!

112. The rubber mask was cast to resemble stuntman Terry Walsh, who plays the Auton policeman.

113. The circus folk were:

114. Mike Austin, Duke Dupree, Brian Gough,

115. Gordon Howes, Mario, Jack Murray, Mac Russell,

116. Steve Sullivan, E. Turner, Edward Vaughan t murder.

117. I must. He said I must!

118. Now, wait.

119. You just listen. The Master is controlling your mind.

120. You must resist him. You can resist him.

121. You are Professor George Philips of the Radio Telescope Research Centre.

122. You must resist him! You must resist him!

123. Down, Jo!

124. JO: What happened?

125. He tried to get rid of it.

126. Poor chap.

127. What are you doing?

128. Shan't be a moment.

129. All right! Spread out! They can't have gone far!

130. Hurry, Doctor!

131. - Well, that didn't take long, did it? - Long enough, I'm afraid.

132. Now, wait a minute, listen to me. Now, listen to me, all of you!

133. Tried to rob my caravan and killed one of the men with a bomb! Get 'em!

134. Let me go!

135. Here, wait!

136. They're in the back, sir. The Doctor and Jo.

137. Better go and bail them out.

138. Are you all right, Doctor? Doctor!

139. Thank heavens. Nothing damaged.

140. Speak for yourself. I'm bruised all over.

141. It's a good thing you chaps turned up when you did,

142. otherwise we might have been lynched.

143. Lethbridge Stewart must have sent them.

144. Well, it's nice to know he can use his head once in a while.

145. Yes, sir. I've checked with County Headquarters. You were right.

146. Then it's not a police car at all.

147. No, sir. Definitely not.

148. - Doctor! - Careful.

149. Where are they taking us?

150. - Well, it certainly isn't Tarminster. - It's some sort of a quarry.

151. Excuse me, officer, could I see your warrant card?