Written by David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke
Doctor Who Series four serial seven
Episode 1 transmitted BBC1 8 April 1967
Episode 2 transmitted BBC1 15 April 1967**
Episode 3 transmitted BBC1 22 April 1967
Episode 4 transmitted BBC1 29 April 1967**
Episode 5 transmitted BBC1 6 May 1967**
Episode 6 transmitted BBC1 13 May 1967**
**Episodes no longer exists, animation used for source Blu-Ray. The
TARDIS crew lands on a runway at Gatwick Airport in July 1966, the same month the
First Doctor met Polly and Ben. Running from an approaching landing airplane and the police. Polly hides in the hangar of Chameleon Tours, where she discovers the dead body. It soon becomes apparent that Chameleon Tours is up to no good, especially when they meet Liverpool lass Samantha Briggs, who's investigating the disappearance of her brother in Rome, and Inspector Crossland investigating the disappearance of his colleague, whose photo confirms it was the dead man.
Only episodes 1 and 3 survive, the resat are animated. As I have the Blu-ray (from which I can't take vidsnaps) I've taken vidsnaps from the two surviving episodes from the
Lost In Time DVD. Fortunately the B&W animation keeps the correct 4:3 aspect ratio, only the colour animations are in 16:9 widescreen. The Blu-Ray set also contains the two available episodes and photosnap reconstructions of the missing four. The animation is good, but oddly while it's very accurate in portraying the men (especially Kay and Gordon), it' s less accurate and more generic with the women, especially Collins (profile is completely wrong, and face-on too thin) and Ventham. Both are distinctive actresses, so it's a shame that they couldn't be as accurate as with the men, especially the beauty of Ventham. The outer space sequences are superb, apparently better than the original model shots (there were contemporary complaints).
This was the first script accepted by
Malcolm Hulke, and his collaborator
David Ellis. Hulke would go on to have a good working relationship with
Third Doctor producer
Barry Letts, and would write five serials for him, plus uncredited rewrites on another. He would also help
Terrance Dicks on
The War Games, the last serial of the
Second Doctor, the 60s, and the B&W era.
The use of Gatwick Airport (used as it was cheaper than Heathrow), an airport, for a story about someone who travels in time and space, is very clever, nicely done, and quite contemporary and modern for when it was shown. Indeed, one could almost see Steed and Mrs Peel investigating. Sadly, the first four episodes are marked by padding, a common problem with six parters, especially as the plot, though fiendishly clever and well realised, is in effect quite simple. There's far too many scenes where people search the Chameleon Tours hangar. In fact, there's a repeated motif of Ben or Polly investigating, finding a dead body, disappearing, the
Doctor searches, finds a body, Jamie then investigates and finds a body, plus at least two
Doctor finds body, tells Commandant, they investigate, find no body, Doctor arrested, then escapes, then returns to hangar, finds body etc.
There are also one too may ingenious plots by the Chameleons to kill the
Doctor, and here falls into the
James Bond trap. They come up with an ingenious scheme to kill the
Doctor which then come unstuck. Instead of simply killing him there and then, they hatch another ingenious scheme. There's a poison freezing gas chamber, and
then a laser weapon used. It is also not credible that with the same evidence (lack of a body found) the
Doctor is disbelieved by the Commandant, but later believed by Inspector Crossland. Obviously, they have six episodes to fill, so they can neither have the bodies discovered too early, thus alerting the authorities to Chameleon Tours, nor can they have the Doctor arrested too early and carted off to jail. Only with the last two do we get some real forward momentum with the plot.
The acting is good, especially
Colin Gordon,
Bernard Kay, and
Donald Pickering. Gordon is excellent as the increasingly frustrated and infuriated Commandant, trying to run an airport with constant interruptions by the
Doctor, but who's capable of decisive action when the Chameleon plot is unearthed. Kay has a dual role, avuncular and curious as the Inspector, cold-hearted as The Director, and Pickering gives his usual great value as the chillingly smarmy Blade. Ventham looks gorgeous (doesn't she always) and is convincing in a rather underwritten role whilst Collins is all post-
Beatles Scouse piss and vinegar as Samantha, not content to be fobbed off in her attempts to find her brother. She was also offered the new companion role to replace Polly and Ben (whose last story this is), but declined.
As said, this is Ben and Polly's last story, and they seem to have been written out of much of this serial (they don't appear for half the episodes), and the serial suffers for that. They deserved a better farewell, and they both seem to know it's the end and are curiously muted. There is a lovely touch at the end when they say
"but it Is our World", to which the
Doctor replies
"Yes, you're lucky, I never got back to mine".
ANIMATION rating: 3/5
Credits
Doctor Who ........................................................... PATRICK TROUGHTON
Jamie McCrimmon ................................................ FRAZER HINES
Polly ...................................................................... ANNEKE WILLS
Ben Jackson .......................................................... MICHAEL CRAZE
Commandant ......................................................... COLIN GORDON
Blade ..................................................................... DONALD PICKERING
Jean Rock ............................................................. WANDA VENTHAM
Samantha Briggs .................................................. PAULINE COLLINS
Inspector Crossland .............................................. BERNARD KAY
Meadows ............................................................... GEORGE SELWAY
Ann Davidson ........................................................ GILLY FRASER
Spencer ................................................................ VICTOR WINDING
Jenkins .................................................................. CHRISTPHER TRANCHELL
Heslington ............................................................. BARRY WILSHER
Nurse Pinto ........................................................... MADALENA NICOL
Supt. Reynolds ..................................................... LEONARD TROLLEY
Title Music By ......... RON GRAINER and realised by DELIA DERBYSHIRE
Incidental Music .................................................... None (Stock music)
Special Sound ........ BRIAN HODGSON and the BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP
Designer ................................................................ GEOFF KIRKLAND
Story Editor ............................................................ GERRY DAVIS
Producer ............................................................... INNES LLOYD
Associate Producer (eps 1-3) ............................... PETER BRYANT
Directed by ............................................................ GERRY MILL
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