The Eighth Doctor only appeared twice on screen (besides some flashbacks, montages, and a brief sort-of-cameo in The Name of the Doctor, and The Day of the Doctor): for the 1996 TV Movie and The Night of the Doctor (2013).
But that never stopped Paul McGann’s brilliant incarnation of the Time Lord from facing down foes like the Daleks, Cybermen, Morbius, Spring-Heeled Jack, and the Zygons; befriending Charley, Destrii, Molly, C’rizz, Izzy, a Cyberman named Kroton, and an Ice Warrior named Ssard; and expanding his corner of the Who universe through novels, short stories, audios, comics, and, of course, fan fiction. A few of those companions were even name-checked in his regeneration scene, arguably making the audio adventures canon…
Despite McGann only having a couple of on-screen Doctor Who credits to his name, this Doctor is loved. And the reasons for this are more than evident in 2009’s Big Finish audio, Wirrn Dawn.

Stranger in a Strange Land

After their first appearance in the blindly-good Ark in Space, the Wirrn were an obvious choice for return.

But, discounting the dead one in The Stones of Blood and two not-quite-official BBV Productions, the parasitical aliens only cropped up once before Big Finish got their hands on them: in the BBC Book, Placebo Effect. The novel, written by Gary Russell, saw the Eighth Doctor with his Radio Times companions, Stacy Townsend and Ssard, arrive at the Intergalactic Olympic Games in the year 3999. A new drug offers athletes a greater skill set than ever before… and the Wirrn wait in the darkness.
Wirrn Dawn finds the Doctor and Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith, who debuted in Blood of the Daleks) in less hospitable circumstances: in the middle of an epic and bloody war between Wirrn and humankind on the planet Carista VII. The GalSec colonists are fighting against all odds (pleasingly, their inclusion wraps up some considerably questions raised in The Sontaran Experiment that have likely kept you awake for endless nights) and there are two main themes explored: survival of the fittest, and prejudice. Is that a recurring topic? Don’t judge a book by its cover? The idea was probably first raised in The Daleks (1963- 64), when we discover the pacifist Thals are capable of violence, but most notably in Galaxy 4 (1965), in which we learn the scary Rills aren’t the ones we should be worried about at all.
Obviously, those topics were also raised in 1975’s The Ark in Space, a story that Big Finish Executive Producer, Nick Briggs (best known for voicing the Daleks and Cybermen) watches regularly:

“In a way, Wirrn Dawn is a marrying of my old desire for slick action-adventure and the whole fantastic idea of the Wirrn coming together – because essentially what I’ve done is dropped the Doctor in the middle of Starship Troopers, really!”

Weird in the Extreme

Wirrn Dawn does indeed take a lot from Starship Troopers, a 1959 novel by Robert A. Heinlein and subsequent 1997 film which tells the story of a galactic war through the eyes of idealist, Johnny Rico, as he and his fellow infantryman hunt down alien insects that threaten the human race’s very existence. But then, the controversial book has influenced many notable works.

Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War and 1968 are both slight responses to the book, the former particularly accused of being reactionary with heavy anti-war messages. The latter even includes warped versions of reality in which a soldier battles alien insects. (Whilst Haldeman admits that Starship Troopers influenced him, the two books are really about his time fighting in Vietnam.)
More futuristic fights of which Heinlein’s novel is a forerunner include the anime, Mobile Suit Gundam, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game stories, and the popular Halo video game franchise.
Importantly, the 1986 film, Aliens, takes some inspiration from Heinlein’s story – some actors were even instructed to read the book before filming – and many fans see The Ark in Space as ‘Doctor Who does Alien before Alien.’
The insectoid aliens of Starship Troopers, Pseudo-Arachnids (or Bugs), do share traits with the Wirrn: they have a caste system, ruled over by Queens and have hive minds. Heinlein describes his alien life as “a madman’s conception of a giant, intelligent spider”; the Wirrn could be described similarly. And both fictional species pose credible threats to humanity.
The Wirrn next appear in 2012’s Wirrn Isle, opposite the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and Big Finish-created companion, Flip Jackson (Lisa Greenwood). Considering that both Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat hold The Ark in Space in high esteem, it’s a surprise they haven’t returned to our TV screens…

“Survival First; Questions Later.”

Of course, the Wirrn aren’t the only familiar thing about Wirrn Dawn. The Sarah Jane Adventures’ Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer) plays the ‘filthy indig,’ Delong, and Dr. Moon actor, Colin Salmon (who appeared in 2008’s Silence in the Library/ Forest of the Dead) is the prejudice Trooper Salway. Nick Briggs also crops up briefly, and Beth Chalmers stars as the Wirrn Queen a few years before Big Finish picked her as the Seventh Doctor’s companion, Raine Creevy in The Lost Stories.
But aside from these stellar cast members, Wirrn Dawn is all about one of the best Doctor-companion teams: Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith at the height of their powers.
But then, when wasn’t that the case…?
Wirrn Dawn is available now from Big Finish, priced £10.99 on CD or £8.99 as a download.

(Adapted from an article originally published on Kasterborous in 2013.)

In 2005, Doctor Who entered a brave new world.
Rose, the first episode for NuWho, was watched by 10.81 million viewers, with an audience share of 43.2%. The press heralded it as a stunning revival; the fans loved it: Doctor Who was back. But the pressure was on. That debut story was so strong, could the production crew, headed by showrunner, Russell T. Davies, maintain such a high-standard?
The End of the World showed that Doctor Who will always have a future. It’s bright and clever and explosive, funny and sad and cheeky. Ironic then, that so close to transmission, it was revealed that one of the most successful elements of the revival would soon be a thing of the past…

“I’m the Doctor; This is Rose Tyler. She’s my Plus One”

Just three days after Rose was broadcasted, Jane Tranter, controller of commissioning at the BBC, who – alongside Lorraine Heggessey – recommissioned Doctor Who in 2003, ordered a Christmas special (which would be realised as The Christmas Invasion) and another full series of thirteen episodes. This was confirmed on 30^th March, giving hope to the ever-expanding fan-base that the BBC had faith in the show long-term. This was long before fandom automatically expected the show to be renewed each year.

Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler also proved such a hit that she was confirmed to be in both the Christmas special and the next series. Best-known as a pop star, Piper’s initial announcement came as a big shock – but when Rose aired, she was welcomed into the fold universally. Digital Spy’s Dek Hogan said of her:

“From the looks of this she’ll be capable of far more than being Head of Screaming and it was a nice touch in the opener that it’s her and not the Doctor that manages to overcome the alien invaders.”

The Daily Mail called her pairing with lead man, Christopher Eccleston “just what the Doctor ordered”, and the DWC’s own Christian Cawley said in his book, Ultimate Regeneration:

“Everything about Billie Piper’s performance in Rose tells me that she is perfect. She can act, she can move, she can look, she can express. Billie is Rose.”

But, just hours after it was announced that Doctor Who would continue, a statement was issued by the BBC, as a result of press enquiries, confirming that Eccleston would not return to the role after Series 1. With only his debut tale under his belt, the public learnt that the man who brought back the Time Lord would only be with them for 12 more episodes.
Christopher and the production team has hoped to keep this a secret, and Tranter had to apologise for the statement, which incorrectly identified harsh recording schedules and not wanting to be forever known as the Doctor as the reasons why the actor left. To this day, we don’t know exactly why he turned down a further series.
Bookmaker, Ladbrokes was already placing bets on who the Tenth Doctor would be, but William Hill refused to: as far as they were concerned, there was a lead runner already. And that man was a little known actor called David Tennant. He’d just appeared in Davies’ Casanova, and was a known Who fan, having worked for Big Finish.
Nonetheless, as The End of the World aired on 2^nd April 2005, the 7.97 million viewers knew that time for the dry-witted, leather jacket-wearing Ninth Doctor was running out.

“They Say Mankind Has Touched Every Star in the Sky”

The episode itself is a perfect metaphor for the news of that last week: it’s a great mix of hope and disaster. We are at the end of the world, waiting while the sun expands and engulfs the Earth, but there’s far more going on here, and much of it is so little and so petty. As Rose sadly notes, “No one saw it go. All those years, all that history… and no one was even looking.” The Earth is in its death throes, and those supposed to be there to pay their respects are, in fact, there ‘to be seen.’ Politics: that’s all it is, despite Jabe (Yasmin Bannerman) assuring the Doctor that they all feel a connection to this brilliant piece of rock.
That sounds so grim. But The End of the World is also about how we carry on. Humanity has spread across the stars, and isn’t that (to quote the Ninth Doctor) fantastic?!
We move on, and this is what Series 1 is all about: the Doctor trying to move on from the Time War. But not everyone moves on so gracefully. Some get themselves nipped and tucked and flattened until there’s nothing left. All the others mingled. Mongrels.
The Lady Cassandra O’Brien.Δ17 (Zoe Wanamaker) purports to be the last pure human, and is obviously an exaggerated parody of our obsession with plastic surgery. In 2006, Russell explained to The Sunday Mirror that celebrity culture was largely to blame:

“It was horrific, seeing those beautiful women reduced to sticks. Nicole Kidman struck me in particular. Nicole is one of the most beautiful women in the world. But she looks horrifying because she’s so thin. It’s like we’re killing these women in public. We watch while you die.”

In 2005, plastic surgery was increasingly popular; 89% of all procedures were carried out on women, though men still had 2, 440 procedures. As The Cosmetic Surgery Consultants notes:

“It [was] no longer just for the rich and famous, as more and more everyday people opt for surgery to improve their lives.”

Since the series was commissioned in 2003, the number of those operations, according to The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, rose from c. 10,700 to c. 16,300 in 2004 and over 22,000 in 2005. And they continue to rise even today. Though between 2011 and 2012 there was an increase of only 0.2%, this still brings the figure for cosmetic procedures in 2012 to an astounding 43,174. Though there was a slight dip in 2014, 51,140 Brits underwent plastic surgery in 2015, a rise of 12.6%. And though the vast majority of procedures were carried out on women, the number of men undergoing such surgery almost doubled – from 2,440 in 2005, to 4,614 in 2015.

Davies had noticed a rising trade early on, and Cassandra was a perfect way of channelling this into the nation’s psyche. While humanity has a bright future, Cassandra’s wasn’t the shining example to follow.

“Welcome to the End of the World”

The End of the World expands on an idea started in 1966’s The Ark: that the sun will expand into a red giant and destroy the planet (while the notion of us escaping doomsday by hiding in an ark has been explored in The Ark in Space, The Beast Below, and, to a certain degree, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, with the Silurians fleeing Earth from what they thought was the apocalypse).
But what will really happen to our beloved Earth?
Mercury and Venus will almost certainly be engulfed by the Sun and the Earth will be uninhabitable as the oceans boil into nothingness and the hydrogen in our atmosphere will burn away. The Earth’s orbit, however, will increase dramatically – but according to research conducted by K.P Schroder and Robert Cannon Smith, this won’t help the planet’s chances of survival.
The intimate details of this vary wildly, depending on which scientific theory you take note of. That’s what we do: make educated guesses, because the future is unpredictable. The Sun is expected to reach its maximum density 7.6 billion years in the future, but the Earth won’t live that long. These notions started in 1924, envisioned by Sir James Jeans, a physicist and mathematician, and the outcome of Earth has been debated ever since.
The idea of the Sun expanding, seemingly conversely, also takes into consideration it losing much of its mass, thus allowing Earth’s orbit to extend. Some think this will mean Earth will escape its grisly fate; others say that this orbit will fall into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, which will drag the planet into the star.

To complicate things even further, the pull and orbits of all the other celestial bodies in our solar system (including asteroids) will affect Earth’s chances of survival.
And science fiction writers have speculated that the Earth could be saved by some outside force (see Trial of a Time Lord) or our own scientific mechanics. Maybe a TARDIS will drag us out of the way.
Nonetheless, mankind’s chances of survival on Earth are slim. However, Universe Today’s Fraser Cain notes that the Sun’s expansion will affect how inhabitable other planets in our solar system are:

“The new habitable zone will stretch… well into the Kuiper Belt. The formerly icy worlds will melt, and liquid water will be present beyond the orbit of Pluto. Perhaps Eris will be the new homeworld.”

“Bundle of Laughs, You Are”

It doesn’t matter: The End of the World’s message is clear. We will live on. It shows us a bright new future for both the human race and Doctor Who, encompassing bold new visions; clever scientific theory; aliens of all shapes and sizes; heroes and villains; and a bright blue box that travels in time and space.
Welcome to the year 5.5/apple/26, 5 billion years in your future. And this is the day the Doctor Who universe expands.

Time travel can’t be real. That’s the conclusion many have come to after pondering on the notion of playing with that tricky fourth dimension. And it’s this conclusion that Mawdryn Undead tackles, seeing fit to sneer at the problems of paradoxes and getting into fisticuffs with the argument over memory.
The 1983 serial explores one of Doctor Who’s remits beautifully as we meet a new companion and a very familiar maths teacher. Twice. But it wasn’t always this way…

Whatever Happened the Space Whale?

2010’s The Beast Below introduces the Star Whale, possibly the last of its kind, but plans were afoot to have a similar aquatic beastie pulsing through space nearly 30 years earlier.

Though it was initially pitched as a Fourth Doctor tale, Space Whale was adapted into a Fifth Doctor story, written by Pat Mills and John Wagner (who soon left the project), and also introduced new companion, Vislor Turlough. While Turlough’s inclusion was added to Mawdryn Undead, much of Mills’ story, renamed Song of the Space Whale, was lost. The serial would’ve revolved around the Doctor encountering a group of working-class people living in said Space Whale and attempting to stop the creature from being slaughtered by a factory ship. Yes, it sounds a bit like a mash-up of The Beast Below and Torchwood: Meat.
(Mills and script editor, Eric Saward, disagreed on many points, however, and the story was held back in development for far too long – until finally Saward confirmed it had been dropped. But in 2010, Big Finish revived it as part of their Lost Stories audio range, this time featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri, as The Song of the Megaptera.)
Nonetheless, Song of the Space Whale is filed under ‘stories that never were,’ a massive catalogue consisting of tantalising titles like First Doctor story, The Hidden Planet by Malcolm Hulke; Second Doctor tale, The Return of the Neanderthal; the Fourth Doctor’s The Sea of Fear and The Lost Legion; and Tenth Doctor stories like A Midwinter’s Tale and Tom MacRae’s Century House.

While Mawdryn Undead is perfectly understandable to relative newcomers (as long as you know the Doctor’s a bloke who traverses the universe with friends and can regenerate – a particularly notable narrative point – you should be fine), fans of the Third Doctor era will take particular pleasure in watching the Brigadier being reunited with the universe’s favourite Time Lord.
But considering the plot examines the idea of bodily renewal perhaps more closely than any previous tale, it’s strange to note that the production team initially considered bringing back a character who had absolutely no experience of regeneration when he was part of the show. In fact, it hadn’t even been dreamt up. And that character is Ian Chesterton.

Friends Old and New

Played by William Russell from the series’ premiere in 1963 to 1965’s The Chase, Ian was due to return, after his fellow star, Jacqueline Hill – companion, Barbara Wright – had briefly returned to the series in Meglos (1980), albeit playing a different character.
It’s recently been revealed that fellow 1960s ‘companion,’ Susan, was also set to return, but actress, Carole Ann Ford, turned it down after being told by producer, John Nathan-Turner, he didn’t want Susan to call the Doctor ‘Grandfather.’

Ian was a science teacher, so Mawdryn Undead‘s public school setting was perfect. Unfortunately, Russell turned out to be unavailable for the tight dates set aside for filming due to theatre commitments – and Ian has never returned to the series (though Russell appeared as Harry, the Security Guard at BBC Television Centre, in the celebratory biopic, An Adventure in Space and Time… and fans are hoping he’ll be in Class too, as he’s listed as Coal Hill’s Chairman of the Governors). Perhaps this is better though: it leaves Ian as a blissful 1960s memory, settling down with Barbara maybe and reminiscing about the time he led the Thals to usurp the Daleks and that time she was a Goddess to the Aztecs.
However, this did leave a sizeable gap in the story. Harry Sullivan, played wonderfully by Ian Marter, was briefly considered for return (he last appeared in Who in 1975’s The Android Invasion), but then John Nathan-Turner remembered the farewell party for Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker…
Nicholas Courtney, who played Colonel and then Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from 1968’s The Web of Fear, had told the Doctor Who producer that he’d definitely be up for returning to the role – and the Brigadier was a perfect fit for Mawdryn Undead.
In fact, Season 20 celebrates Doctor Who, bringing back elements from previous serials, including Omega (in Arc of Infinity), the Mara (in Snakedance), and the Master (The King’s Demons), leading up to the 20^th anniversary celebration, The Five Doctors. But that doesn’t mean that the entire season was solely about looking back.

Mawdryn Undead bravely introduced a shocking new companion. In Vislor Turlough, the audience are presented with a character nearly as mysterious as the Doctor himself; one that threatens to kill the Time Lord. It was a bold move, and actor, Mark Strickson, was seemingly up against all odds to create someone millions of people would like and care about – despite potentially being a murderer.
Whilst the plot linking Turlough to the Black Guardian continued over Terminus and concluded in Enlightenment, his relationship with the Doctor evolves throughout his 33-episode tenure; however, his full backstory isn’t revealed until his final story, Planet of Fire (1984).
And though Strickson faced a tough role, Turlough remains a memorable and well-loved companion to the similarly-brilliant Fifth Doctor. In fact, they’re about as perfect a Doctor-companion team as you could hope for.

Knowing How Many Beans Make Five

Mawdryn Undead, despite being tasked with introducing a new companion and mixing in classic elements, isn’t just a box-ticking exercise. It’s a solid, clever, and thought-provoking story that challenges some of the show’s main ideas. The Brigadier and Turlough aren’t just shoe-horned in either. But how did this notion of a never-dying crew and a time twisting adventure first come about…?
Due to The Song of the Space Whale falling through, Enlightenment was meant to replace its slot – thankfully, it remained the final story in the so-called ‘Black Guardian Trilogy,’ which nicely wrapped up Turlough being blackmailed into killing the Doctor – but writer, Peter Grimwade, instead pitched an idea based on the story of the Flying Dutchman.

The myth of the Flying Dutchman is thought to have originated in 17^th Century folklore: a ghostly ship with a crew doomed to sail the sea forever, and similar to legends like the Loch Ness Monster, it’s a great source to mine for Doctor Who. Particularly as seeing the Flying Dutchman is said to be a portent of doom…
The ship was first written about in George Barrington’s A Voyage to Botany Bay (1795), in which it was described:

“In the night watch some of the people saw, or imagined they saw, a vessel standing for them under a press of sail, as though she would run them down: one in particular affirmed it was the ship that had foundered in the former gale, and that it must certainly be her, or the apparition of her; but on its clearing up, the object, a dark thick cloud, disappeared. Nothing could do away the idea of this phenomenon on the minds of the sailors; and, on their relating the circumstances when they arrived in port, the story spread like wild-fire, and the supposed phantom was called the Flying Dutchman.”

Since then, the phantom ship has been featured in many pieces of literature… and some real-life accounts, including that of King George V! The King’s former tutor (who took the Monarch and his brother, Prince Albert Victor of Wales, on a voyage) regaled the story:

“At 4 a.m. the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows. A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the masts, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up on the port bow, where also the officer of the watch from the bridge clearly saw her, as did the quarterdeck midshipman, who was sent forward at once to the forecastle; but on arriving there was no vestige nor any sign whatever of any material ship was to be seen either near or right away to the horizon, the night being clear and the sea calm. Thirteen persons altogether saw her…”

Obviously, Doctor Who isn’t the only show to use the fabled ship as inspiration, as it also cropped up in Spongebob Squarepants, the 1960’s Spider-Man cartoon, and 1976’s Land of the Lost, as well as films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006).

“Life Without End or Form: Changing; Changing”

And the notion of a never-dying, cursed crew contrasts nicely with the ‘care-free’ Doctor… Or does it? The serial examines the possibility of living forever and sticks in the mind of the audience, making us question whether the Doctor’s long life is a blessing or a curse.
It’s a theme that raises its head with regularity, in tales like Pyramids of Mars, School Reunion, and The Time of the Doctor, but however moody the Doctor gets over his own immortality, he clings to life, troubled by the thought that helping out Mawdryn and his crew would be his own end…
Mawdryn Undead is quintessential Doctor Who: riffing off legends; playing with expectations; looking to the past whilst promising an intriguing future.

(Adapted from an article originally published on Kasterborous in April 2013.)

Doctor Who has a history with the occult. Look at all those clans, summoning strange forces and worshipping something far from their understanding. It’s laced throughout classics like The Masque of Mandragora, The Curse of Fenric, and The Brain of Morbius, while Gods and devils have manifested themselves in tales including Pyramids of Mars, The Impossible Planet/ The Satan Pit, and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. It seems that anything the occult touches is bound to be a classic.
And The Dæmons is certainly evidence of this.

Mastering the Devil

An old burial mound is being excavated near the village of Devil’s End and evil is brewing. And the local vicar, Mr. Magister, looks suspiciously like the Master…

It’s such an iconic image, deeply ingrained into Doctor Who fans: Roger Delgado’s Master as a vicar, holier than thou. So it’s not a great surprise when he turns up midway through episode one of the five-part story. But imagine what it must’ve been like for the 9.2 million viewers who watched its first transmission in 1971: the big reveal! The Master is back! Shock, shock, horror, horror!
Or not. Doctor Who Season 8 features the Master very heavily, actually. He originally turned up in the Robert Holmes-penned Terror of the Autons, but the Doctor’s ‘rival’ Time Lord then cropped up in the three following stories – The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos, and Colony in Space – before The Dæmons. The Master, wonderfully portrayed by Roger Delgado, appeared in every single storyline of Season 8, before the production team realised it was overkill… and sent him to prison!
The Master received a well-deserved break from the series for two serials, Day of the Daleks and The Curse of Peladon, before returning in The Sea Devils, taking over the jail using his hypnotic skills.
And it’s arguably the Master who shines above all in The Dæmons. In a previous issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Gary Gillatt mentioned that “the Doctor has a chip on his shoulder throughout.” Jo, arguably, is well characterised, but doesn’t play much of a part in events until the last episode. UNIT, including the Brigadier at the top of his game, are sidelined for quite some time, providing a fun bit of padding as they try to get through a heat barrier.
The Master, meanwhile, is… well, masterly.

Who’s that Guy?

But all the guest characters are fleshed out beautifully. Miss Hawthorne may be a stereotypical white witch, but she’s played with gusto by Damaris Hayman. Alistair Fergus, the BBC3 reporter, is wonderful as he locks horns with archaeologist, Professor Horner, while trying to create a sense of melodrama for his viewers. Even Jim, the man we see walking his collie at the beginning, is pitched well as he strolls through the graveyard and comes face-to-face with something terrifying. We never do find out what happened to his dog…
Aside from the sterling performances, credit must go to the writer, Guy Leopold, with The Dæmons as his sole Doctor Who work. Sort of.
Guy Leopold, of course, doesn’t exist; he is, in fact, a pseudonym for Barry Letts and Robert Sloman, slotting into a long line of fake names associated with the show. The Master was always being credited as someone else; Terry Molloy was credited as Roy Tromelly in Remembrance of the Daleks; while, more recently, companions have auditioned for roles under codenames: Karen Gillan, for instance, was originally up for a role in Panic Moon (the anagram addicts amongst you will quickly work out that it means ‘companion’), and Pearl Mackie’s was Mean Town. Andy Pryor, casting director, revealed:

“It’s an anagram of ‘Ten Woman’. Series 10, and also the tenth companion of the modern series… These anagrams are becoming harder to think of but they’re always fun. It’s really so that nobody reads an email over someone’s shoulder and the name pings out at them.”

My favourite, however, is The Brain of Morbuis writer, Robin Bland, a creation of Robert Holmes after Terrance Dicks was unhappy with re-writes and requested it be aired under a ‘bland pseudonym.’ Personally, whenever I hear ‘Guy Leopold,’ I recall The Simpsons (“Homer? Who is Homer? My name is Guy Incognito”).
Sloman was approached by Letts in 1972, 10 years after the former’s play, The Tinker, was turned into a movie, The Wild and the Willing. The two were friends, and The Dæmons was the first they wrote for Doctor Who. The pair continued to write together (with Letts remaining uncredited), collaborating on The Time Monster, The Green Death (writing out Katy Manning’s Jo Grant), and Planet of the Spiders, which of course brought the Third Doctor’a era to a close.
Barry Letts was producer of the Third Doctor’s era (1970- 74), then the Fourth Doctor’s introductory tale, Robot, before returning for a final time on Logopolis, alongside John Nathan-Turner. He also directed six serials, including The Enemy of the World – which was recovered for the show’s 50th anniversary – Carnival of Monsters, and The Android Invasion. Though he died in 2009, Letts’ influence is still felt today.

A Matter of Perspective

The Dæmons makes many horror allusions, most obviously a horned beast and a worship of the occult. An unearthly wind echoes through the village and they are all trapped in an idyllic (yet somehow sinister) location. A few, including the Time Team crew in the latest issue of the Doctor Who Magazine – commented that 2010’s The Hungry Earth/ Cold Blood felt like it came straight from the Jon Pertwee era. Overlooking the obvious link – the Silurians, Eocenes, or Homo Reptilia, whatever you want to call them – Cwmtaff is sealed off, much like Devil’s End.
(The current Doctor, Peter Capaldi, has often been called akin to the Third Doctor, but beyond his red-lined jacket, is there substance in this? In the Forest of the Night had environmental issues at its heart, and The Zygon Invasion/ The Zygon Inversion was very political, but there’s no further substantial links between these eras just yet. Maybe Series 10…? Hmm. Maybe that Osgood is named after )
Of course, much of this revolves around the idea of magic as alien technology; not wizardry, but something beyond human understanding. The notion is revisited in Image of the Fendahl, Battlefield, and The Shakespeare Code. Turlough got locked up for ‘conjuring demons’ in King John of England’s court in The King’s Demons; indeed, the supposed King was a little obsessed with calling the Doctor and co. demons.
In The Dæmons, the Doctor is accused of using magic too, leading him to be tied to a maypole, and sentenced to death, mimicking the practice of burning witches. The Sycorax also accused the Doctor of witchcraft after he regenerated his hand in The Christmas Invasion, to which he replies: “Time Lord.” This denial is quite different to the Doctor’s initial reaction in The Dæmons, calling himself “the Great Wizard Quiquaeqoud.” (The in-joke here? ‘Qui,’ ‘quae,’ and ‘quod’ are, respectively, the masculine, feminine and gender-neutral forms of ‘who’ in Latin.)

Oh, Bok

It’s these effective horror clichés that make The Dæmons such a memorable classic. And as Captain Yates says: “All we’ve got to deal with is something which is either too small to see or 30 feet tall, can incinerate you or freeze you to death, turn stone images into homicidal monsters, and looks like the devil.” Yes, Mike – exactly. Easy.
It’s just a shame no one knows how to pronounce the story’s title…

(Adapted from an article originally published on Kasterborous in April 2012.)

Welcome to Varos. There’s plenty of the rare mineral, Zeiton-7 (at the right price); there’s food rationing; a distrustful atmosphere where your own partner could land you in a whole heap of trouble; torture and death as entertainment; and Jason Connery.
Welcome to Varos. Forgive me if I don’t join you.

“When did they last show something worth watching…?”

Producer and script editor team, John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward, were looking for something different. Some of the bravest episodes of Doctor Who have also been some of the best: just look at The Ark in Space, The Time Meddler and Snakedance (or more recently, Midnight, Flatline, and Vincent and the Doctor). So when Saward was approached by writer, Philip Martin, with a script riffing off ‘video nasties,’ it seemed perfect. Its dark and gritty tone certainly clashes with the Sixth Doctor’s tastelessly-colourful jacket, anyway!
‘Video nasties,’ generally low-budget films distributed on video tapes to avoid censorship, were causing much debate – particularly from Mary Whitehouse, who had previously attacked Doctor Who for its violence in tales like The Seeds of Doom and The Deadly Assassin. Martin’s script coupled this idea with the rising trend of reality shows; something which had begun as early as the 1940s (though, on the whole, unrecognisable from today’s crop of ‘reality’), but was still finding its feet in the early 1980s. In fact, the first ‘reality’ show had just concluded in America prior to the broadcast of Vengeance on Varos, and Real People – a show about people with weird occupations and hobbies, which debuted in 1979 – spawned a few imitators.
Most notable of these was That’s Incredible!, which ran from 1980 to 1984, and showcased a dangerous array of stunts. Some of these acts were so risky, the show coined the phrase ‘Do Not Try This Yourself,’ which has, of course, developed into ‘Do Not Try This At Home,’ particularly used in the 1990s (and yes, I’m thinking of that 1998- 2001 show hosted by Davina McCall). It’s Incredible! was even voted the ‘most sadistic’ show on television by Time Magazine; while items included a man trying to catch a bullet in his teeth, another who could swallow swords, and, uhm, a dentist who tattoos teeth, some of the stunts were revealed to be exaggerations or, let’s say, untruths.
Vengeance on Varos is perhaps more topical today than it was upon its initial broadcast in 1985, with reality television now commonplace. In fact, it even rivals Doctor Who in the ratings war, as millions tune in to watch the tuneless on The X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. Fortunately, modern reality TV is far removed from the fictions of It’s Incredible!…
A story about torture might not seem a good fit for a show originally commissioned as ‘for children,’ but as Eric Saward explains in the documentary, Nice or Nasty?:

“It was just following in the long line where I think it has always been made as an adult’s programme.”

In a season bookended by the decidedly violent and grim Attack of the Cybermen and Revelation of the Daleks, Vengeance on Varos suits perfectly!

State of the Media

Philip Martin was held in high-regard in the industry – his first work being Z Cars in 1970-72 before moving on to write episodes of Thirty-Minute Theatre, Play For Today, and Shoestring – but he’d never really considered writing for Doctor Who before. Then an idea about a dystopian world where torture was entertainment and the public lived in fear popped into his head.
He was filming his best-known 1970s TV series, Gangsters in Pakistan (Martin himself appeared in a number of roles over its two seasons), just after a revolution had taken place. In 1977, a military coup had overthrown Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the country’s ninth Prime Minister, fourth President, and founder of the Pakistan People’s Party (since voted into power five times). General Zia-ul-Haq, chief of the army, promised general elections within three months of the takeover… but things turned decidedly nasty. Martin notes:

“Always, in any of these revolutions, they always go to control the media.”

General Zia imposed martial law, and, despite being widely disputed, charged Bhutto with the murder of a fellow politician and lawyer, Sahibzada Ahmed Raza Khan Qasuri.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in April 1979.
General Zia, meanwhile, acted as Pakistan’s sixth President until his death in 1988, and was a very controversial figure. Though he eventually lifted martial law in the year Vengeance on Varos was broadcast (and a new Prime Minister was elected), there was a large amount of smoke-and-mirrors, as he obtained even greater power by enforcing the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, thereby changing the politics of the country to a semi-presidential system.
On the other hand, Zia ushered in economic prosperity for the country, and prevented a potential soviet attack.
(And if the name, Bhutto, is familiar, it is because Zulfikar Ali’s daughter, Benazir, became Pakistan’s eleventh Prime Minister in the late 1980s and 1990s.)
It’s easy to see how the idea of a state-controlled media and oppressed peoples filtered into Varos’ voting system and political system, where even the Governor isn’t in control.

Deaf with Pleasure

Vengeance, too, is a bit of a double-edged sword.
Despite its negativity, many consider it as one of Colin Baker’s best stories as the Sixth Doctor, and around 7 million people tuned in. It remains one of the finest examples of Doctor Who from that era, and has much to say about politics and human nature. It stars a fine cast, including Who-regular, Martin Jarvis (The Web Planet; Invasion of the Dinosaurs), Jason Connery (son of Sean, the very first James Bond, of course!), and Sheila Reid, now best-known for appearing in Benidorm, but she also plays Clara’s Grandma in The Time of the Doctor (2013) and Dark Water (2014).
Then there’s Sil.
Wonderfully played by Nabil Shaban, the slug-like creatures was created merely to fill the role of ‘monster of the week,’ but was so successful, he returned in the four-part segment in Trial of a Time Lord (1986), titled Mindwarp. A similar monster was also introduced in the latter tale, Kiv, a fellow Mentor, played by Christopher Ryan (now a familiar face/voice as various Sontarans, including in Big Finish’s Classic Doctors, New Monsters: Volume One).
Sil is perhaps one of the most memorable creations in Doctor Who, partly due to Philip Martin’s witty and layered script, but certainly because Shaban is delightfully vile and sly. His translation circuits are faulty, so he slurs words and mispronounces. His vain arrogance is startlingly ironic, as is his dismissal of humanoids (particularly Peri) as ‘ugly.’ Oh, and his laugh is one of the creepiest things you’ll hear.
Sil was to return once again in Mission to Magnus (also to be written by Philip Martin), but this promised third appearance never materialised on television as Doctor Who was forced into a hiatus. Why? Because it was too violent.
There are arguments as to what was at the top of the evidence list, but definitely battling for place are Revelation of the Daleks, Vengeance on Varos, and Attack of the Cybermen. Martin maintains that the latter was the prime example, but the unrelentingly grim tone of Vengeance can’t be underestimated.
There is, of course, the massively controversial scene that caused as big a stir as the conclusion of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (2012)! Yes, it’s the acid bath scene, in which many think the Doctor pushes two guards to their doom. What actually happens is that one falls in by accident, then drags the other in behind him. But the Doctor’s almost-gleeful remark – “forgive me if I don’t join you” – sticks in the back of the throat.

“I Have Never Said I was Perfect!”

Violence, however, is laced throughout Doctor Who – just look at the Doctor attempting to bash someone’s head in with a rock in An Unearthly Child – and the themes of Vengeance on Varos reverberate in both the minds of viewers… and in the show itself. Bad Wolf/ The Parting of the Ways (2005) particularly shares its viewpoint, and its tone is similar to 2011’s The Rebel Flesh/ The Almost People.
Doctor Who has always upturned expectations and freed the citizens of the universe – but rarely does the Doctor come across such an ingenious and gritty problem as he does on the former prison planet, rich in Zeiton-7: Varos.
(Adapted from an article originally published on Kasterborous in February 2013.)