The Gentleman in the Blue Box, A Doctor Who Timeline

[DG Valdron]

DWAS Interview - Casting Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure

DWAS: Michael York became the new Doctor Who?

Subotsky: Yes.

DWAS: I remember that when Tom Baker stepped down, and announced he was retiring from the role, both the television series and the upcoming movie, there was quite a bit of a stir. There was a lot of buzz over who was going to be the next Doctor, perhaps playing in both, to unite the two franchises.

Subotsky: It wasn't all that voluntary on Baker's part.

DWAS: Oh?

Subotsky: That's all I've got to say on the matter.

DWAS: So you dropped him.

Subotsky: I didn't drop him. We had financing, financial backers, and let's just say that some of them were not particularly impressed with what was essentially a television actor. They wanted someone who could actually perform on the big screen. Someone who could act. Someone recognizable as a draw. Tom wasn't well known. That just wasn't Tom. There wasn't really a choice.

DWAS: I imagine that was difficult for Mr. Baker.

Subotsky: You'd have to discuss that with him. We worked it out. He certainly made out well. Ultimately, he was paid not to act, which I suppose describes his career.

DWAS: Turning to other matters. Was it difficult finding the next Doctor?

Subotsky: I would say the better term was urgent.

DWAS: I hear that Peter Davison was considered.

Subotsky: I don't think so.

DWAS: There was some talk of that. It could have worked out very well - Davison was available during your shooting schedule, he wouldn't have taken on the role of the television Doctor after.

Subotsky: I don't know where that story comes from. John Nathan-Turner probably. But no. Davison was never considered. He had the same issue as Tom, a television actor that no one across the ocean had ever heard of.

DWAS: Well, that's what we heard.

Subotsky: Well, that's wrong.

DWAS: Sorry.

Subotsky: No matter. Please continue.

DWAS: You said it was urgent to find the next Doctor. Can you tell us about the difficulties

Subotsky: Well, we were working to schedules. We had Shepperton studios booked. The distributors had their deadlines. We were looking at a release between four and two months before the Star Wars movie.

DWAS: Why the timing?

Subotsky: Well, after the Star Wars movie comes out, the thinking was that it would consume all the oxygen in the room, if you get my drift. People anticipating Star Wars, they would be excited to see our movie, it would be a warm up. Once Star Wars is in the theatre, no one is going to be seeing anything else. So that was our window to make money. That's what our distributors wanted. So we had to work backwards, the scoring, the post production, the effects, then finally the principal photography. We knew when that had to be completed, so we knew how many days we should set aside for it. Which meant that we knew the deadlines for the sets and costumes and everything. And that meant that we knew when the cast had to be signed.

DWAS: Not much time.
Subotsky: That often describes the film industry. Long periods of development without urgency, and then one day, everything has to happen at once.

DWAS: So what qualities attracted you in Michael York.

Subotsky: I'm sorry, I think you're looking at it in the wrong way. It wasn't a beauty contest. We weren't looking for someone who screamed "Doctor Who." We needed someone in the role, a warm body. Our American partners wanted someone that was somewhat recognizable to American audiences. They actually provided us with a list of candidates. A number of American actors actually. (pauses) Gods, can you imagine the complaints if we'd picked an American actor? (under breath) We'd never hear the end of it. (pauses) We had a number of English actors but most of them didn't make the grade.

DWAS: Can you give us some names? Of actors that were considered?

Subotsky: Oliver Reed. Malcolm McDowell. Cliff Richards, Ian Mcshane. A number of Americans. I remember David Hasselhoff.

DWAS: So there could have been an American Doctor Who?

Subotsky: Very nearly. If it if had shaken out the right way. We wouldn't have turned one down.

DWAS: What was the process like?

Subotsky: Wanting to hear how sausage is made, eh? We had lists of names, or a list. I'd suggest. Rank would suggest. Constantin would suggest. American distributors would suggest. It would pass back and forth, just names. And we'd take them off - not famous enough, too famous, Americans had to know them, too troublesome. At one point, we were looking at Klaus Kinski... and that was shut down quite rapidly. But names would come up that everyone was fine with. You follow?

DWAS: Yes.

Subotsky: We never really had a formal list, we sort of did and didn't. But for the handful of people we thought were acceptable, we'd get in touch with their agents or managers, and here was the big question - were they available for when we needed? Not just principal photography, we needed windows in front of and after that, post production, MOS...

DWAS: MOS?

Subotsky: MOS - non synched sound, dialogue recorded after for redubbing or voice over. We needed fittings. There were read throughs. We needed to reserve a lot of time. So the first step is whether they were available for the time frame - if they were committed somewhere else, a television show, another movie, stage, whatever, they were off the list.

DWAS: Even if they were interested?

Subotsky: Many were, at least on a preliminary basis. We even had inquiries as to how flexible our schedules were.

DWAS: Who?

Subotsky: I don't recall. The point is, we weren't flexible, and no use pretending.

DWAS: So it was availability?

Subotsky: That was the first step. If they were, then the question was were they available to come over - we're shooting in England. Some weren't able or willing to travel. Off the list. After that: Money. We had a budget, there was money set aside for the role. We'd inquire, if they asked for too much, off the list.

DWAS: It seems quite ruthless.

Subotsky: There were deadlines. We weren't there to waste time.

DWAS: So it was whoever was left?

Subotsky: We whittled it down to three or four. Our process was just to winnow it down. I wouldn't say that all we wanted was a warm body, but really, this wasn't a part written for a particular person. The selling point for audiences was that this was going to be an exciting space adventure, it was an action story, with lots of special effects. Let's say no one was going to be sitting in the theatre looking for a nuanced performance or a marvelous characterization. There was a man shaped hole in the story, we needed someone to fill the hole - there were a number of actors that could fill the slot, and it really didn't matter.

DWAS: Ruthless.

Subotsky: Unquestionably. It came down to Malcolm McDowell and Michael York. Michael York was cheaper.

DWAS: That's all? He was cheaper.

Subotsky: That's about it.

DWAS: Did his record, his movies, have any significance?

Subotsky: I knew him from the Three Musketeers. It seemed from that, that he could handle the role. I remember I'd seen him in Cabaret. I didn't like that.

DWAS: He was in Logan's Run.

Subotsky: If I'd seen that, we might not have hired him. I thought it was wretched.

DWAS: Once you had him, did you revise the script at all to fit the actor?

Subotsky: No. The script was the script. I'm sure that York had his suggestions and contributions. Everyone did. Everyone has something to say about your script, everyone has a little change, some improvement they want to make, they have notes, and so forth. . At some point, you have to put your foot down.

DWAS: I see.

Subotsky: He did ad lib a lot, I noticed. No end of problems. But he and Cushing, all the actors did it.

DWAS: How did he do?

Subotsky: Well enough.

DWAS: Do you think he brought a lot to the role. Did he inhabit the Doctor? Was he Doctorish?

Subotsky: The script called for a person of some characteristics, youth, athleticism, sex appeal to go places land do things. That was all that was needed. He did that. If you want to talk about his performance, ask him.

DWAS: I see. So I assume it was the same process for Leslie Ann Down, the female co-star?

Subotsky: More or less. She was the last addition to the cast. The American money chose her. She was popular in the America, flavour of the month. Quite expensive actually. I would have gone with someone cheaper.

DWAS: You had worked with her before though?

Subotsky: She had a small role in one of Amicus films, From Beyond the Grave, I believe, in 1974. That wasn't really a factor. A bigger one was her role in Upstairs Downstairs, she did that for several years and was quite well known.

DWAS: So she was popular on both sides of the Ocean.

Subotsky: I'm not sure how well known she was in Europe. She hadn't done any work there. Of course, if you're in American movies, you're everywhere. But Constantin had their own reasons.

DWAS: Which were?

Subotsky: Constantin was a European distributor, European attitudes towards sex or nudity were.... at odds with America. Ms Down had done a nude pictorial in one of the Men's magazines, I remember it was around the time we hired her. So that was actually a consideration, or so I heard.

DWAS: That she'd done nudes?

Subotsky: You should remember the situation was fluid. If Ms Down was ... flexible.... in certain matters, that might allow more latitude. You have to remember, a lot of these sorts of movies employed a certain amount of cheesecake. I was always against that sort of cheap exploitation myself. It has no place in family movies, I've always believed. You have to respect your actors, and you need to respect your audience.

****

Footnote #1: Michael York in real history actually did a film Riddle of the Sand, produced in 1978, released 1979, so it was a bit of a fluke that he ends up in Doctor Who. It's a matter of timing, that film came in just after he accepted Doctor Who. So history changes just slightly. But Riddle of the Sand failed, so nothing much was lost. Riddle was actually one of the last films that the Rank Organization funded. Instead, Rank is funding Subotsky's Doctor Who, a far more ambitious project, and hopefully they'll make money. So this may well prolong some of Rank's activities.

Malcolm McDowell, star of Clockwork Orange, is actually much better positioned to be Doctor Who. There's a fairly large gap in his film and television schedule around this time, but it looks like he was involved in some very long running projects, like Caligula.

For what it's worth, this is often how it happens. All too often. And for my own process, I did something similar - looking up a number of promising British and a few American actors, checking their IMDB track record, and seeing who would have been available at the right time. To be fair, it did come down strongly to York and McDowell, based on their track records. I ended up flipping a coin.

Footnote #2 : Leslie Ann Down. Down, born 1954, was a British Actress first appearing in 1969 in 'The Smashing Bird I Used to Know." Following this, she worked steadily in British films and television up until 1975-1976, when she moved to the United States. Notably, her British work included the hit television series, 'Upstairs Downstairs,' from 1973 to 1975, where she became extremely well known. Following her work on 'Upstairs Downstairs' she did a nude pictorial for Mayfair in 1975. Also, she appeared in one of the segments of the portmanteau film 'From Beyond the Grave' written by Milton Subotsky, so there's the Amicus connection. Between 1976 and 1980, in America, she featured in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, 1976; The Betsy, 1977; The First Great Train Robbery in 1978. She was a versatile performer, moving easily between drama and comedy, and capable of working easily with different styles.

She would have appeared early on Subotsky's list, simply for being relatively young at 25, having worked with her, and his being very familiar with her other work through television. Of course in 1979-1980 she's at or very near her career peak, and would co-star in films with Burt Reynolds and Harrison Ford, which might normally price her out of their market. But Constaninescu and Rank are putting. The key is that she's also well known in Hollywood, so American backers are likely to see her as part of the American/Hollywood community, literally one of their own, well known in North America, and they have the resources to afford her.

At least in terms of casting, with Cushing, Down, York and Falk, Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure is hitting well above the average of Star Wars clones.

 

[Unknown]

How about Susan George? She was an actress in that time period.

It's a shame this isn't the late 1960s, because I'd have recommended Diana Dors for the role...

 

[DG Valdron]

I found that last bit to be a fun write. The thing with characters and dialogue that many writers often miss out on is that characters are often relationships. You don't need exposition to describe a character. You can show them through their dialogue and actions. And more than that, you can reveal a lot about them and how they feel without saying it, simply through their relationship with another character, how the two interact.

The DWAS interviewer is definitely a fan. More than that, he's young, idealistic, romantic and steeped in the show. The interview is special to him.
Subotsky, it's clear, is just grumpy. The interviewer's idealism is almost grating, he's being as patient as he can be, but that patience runs a little short. He's older, more cynical, and a bit tired. He's a little more honest than he intends, and he's not shy, note his digs on Tom Baker.

Anyway, fun bit to write.

 

[DG Valdron]

Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure - The Movie - Alien Autopsy

Scene – Autopsy Room – A Large Crablike Organism is on it’s back on an examining table. It is badly battered with one claw and legs missing, and the shell cracked. It is half covered with seaweed. The room is crowded. York, Cushing, Fraser and a constable are crowded around it.

Constable – Corr Blimey, it stinks something fierce, I should say.

Cushing – the shell is cracked, it’s internal organs are compromised, that accounts for the smell.

York – Brachura Cancer Pagurus, I think. It’s the closest I can come up with. But the size is incredible. They should be no larger than my hand, normally, you can simply pick one up. But this…

Constable – I think you’d need pretty big hands to pick this one up, it’s a monster and a half. I’m glad it’s dead.

Down – Deep sea giantism, perhaps?

York – Maybe. There’s deep waters off the coast, perhaps one got caught up? Rose too high, perhaps that explains the ruptured shell.

Cushing – or an impact of some sorts.

With difficulty Cushing draws a bone saw along the underside of the lower plastron, the crab’s bottom carapace and begins to cut.

Cushing – the shell is soft, have you noticed? This is freshly molted. Probably why it was killed. Here, can you give me a hand?

Cushing passes the scalpel to York, who continues the cutting.

Constable – Just molted? Looks hard as rock. If that’s soft, I’d hate to see it firmed up. Probably bulletproof.

York – (grunting) No, he’s right, this is freshly molted, or we’d never get through without a mechanical saw. (works his way around the plastron). Almost done. Doctor… a little assistance.

Cushing joins York, struggling to lift away the under-shell.

Fraser – But this implies that we’re looking at a juvenile, an infant. The full size creature must be immense, the size of a cow, or maybe a car.

Cushing – here we go.

The two men lift together, with a wet slopping sound the plastron heaves off, and falls to the floor. All four of them gag from the apparent smell, retreating.

Cushing – approaches first, followed by York.

Cushing – Well, young man, what do you make of it?

Down – Gills … and lungs! And a sophisticated circulatory system. This is a very advanced creature.

York – I’ve never seen anything like this. This is not normal for any species I’m aware of.

Cushing – (pointing) notice anything?

York - The sex organs, they’re … undeveloped.

Down – We’ve already surmised it’s a juvenile.

Cushing – true, but this goes beyond that. They’re utterly vestigial. No matter how it grows, it could never reproduce.

York – But that’s impossible. Some sort of metabolic freak, a sport of nature.

Down – Or something else…

Cushing – Yes?

Down – I’ve heard of undeveloped sex organs in other species, ants and bees and termites, colonial insects. Just a single individual does all the breeding for the colony.
Cushing – precisely.

York – So we’re looking at some kind of colonial animal? Like a bee?

Constable – Well if that’s a bee, the Queen must be the size of a church, at least… or a battleship.

Cushing reaches into the other end, pulling up a forest of loose slippery tentacles hidden just below it’s mouth.

Cushing – Look here, what do you suppose these are? They’re very well developed. They must be important.

York – Well, if we accept that this is a hive creature, like an ant, then those might be communication organs, like an ant’s antenna, so that they can communicate with each other. But, that’s completely unknown to Brachyura, this creature is completely unknown to science.

Cushing – You know, I think you’re right. They probably use them to communicate and control each other, and perhaps other things.

Cushing picks up a massive severed claw.

Cushing – though not this one obviously. This one is clearly a warrior caste. I fancy it strictly takes orders.

Down – if it’s like an ant in this respect, then it might be like an ant in other ways.

York – What do you mean?

Down – I mean, whoever heard of just one ant?

York looks startled and then concerned. He turns to the Constable.

York – This is very important. Have there been any other sightings of creatures like this?

Constable – Nary a one, sir. I’d have heard tell of it, you can be sure.

York – Good. Good (pauses). What about disappearances, people or animals going missing? Particularly along the shore?

Constable – Well sir, now that you mention it, we’ve got a few calls as to people going missing, not showing up where they’re supposed to mainly. People keep to themselves though around here, so you can’t really tell. We got farmers complaining about sheep cattle going missing. Were’nt thinking too much of it, everything’s up in the tidal wave, there’s a lot of mending to do. And there was the car wreck.

Down and York exchange concerned looks.

Down – Car wreck?

Constable – It was the queerest thing. Someone reported a wrecked car, looks to have been in a real bad accident, all smashed up. But there was no one in it. It’s as if they just walked away.

Down – Or were taken.

York - (to Fraser) – You think we’re looking at an infestation?

Cushing – Or an invasion?

Down – Early stages perhaps, but yes.

York nods.

York – Constable, listen to me carefully. I think we’re all in grave danger. That thing on the table, we believe that there’s more of them, bigger and not so easily killed. I have a remit to call in the armed forces, and I think it’s time. But in the meantime, I need you to inform your men, and get everyone away from the water. No one should go near the beaches or harbours, not alone, and not at night.

Cushing – The car, Constable, where was it found.

Constable – Why, near potter’s inlet. Popular spot for picnics.

Down – No one should go there.

Cushing – and this monster? Where was it found.

Constable – in the fishermen’s nets.

Cushing – precisely where were the nets laid?

Constable – Why just beyond Black’s reefs.

Cushing – I see.

He goes to a map of the region showing offshore depths. He makes an X at the Inlet. Then a another at Black’s reef, and draws a line through both, extending out into the sea.

Cushing – There’s a deep trench here.

Constable – Yes, that’s well known. It’s Brad’s Pit, there’s good fishing around it.

York – That’s where they’re coming from, if there are more of them?

Cushing – A reasonable supposition.

Down – We have to go out there, it’s the only way to be sure.

Constable – Now hold on, if I read you right, you’re saying that there’s a whole pile of these monsters, and they’re coming straight out of the pit? Why would you go out there?

That’s daft.

York – No. She’s right. We’re only certain of one, and it could be a freak. If there’s more out there, we need to be sure. We can use sonar.

Constable – Seems risky.

Down – They don’t look like they’re made to swim, just crawl along the bottom. We’ll be safe enough, but we have to make sure. If they’re there, we can have the Navy come and drop depth charges, to sort them out.

The Constable looks warily from one to the other. He looks to Cushing.

Constable – What about you, Doctor… er… Who? You signing onto this.

Cushing – Indubitably. If my younger colleagues are correct, if there’s danger, we must investigate.

Constable – I’ll get you a boat…

***
Scene – the dockside. The trio are about to board a fishing trawler, when suddenly, something catch’s Cushings eye. He looks back and up at the sky, taking out a spyglass and staring. In the round view of the Spyglass, a fireball is streaking down across the sky. York comes up behind Cushing, and puts a hand on his shoulder.

York – What is it?

Cushing folds the spyglass, his expression grim and distracted.

Cushing – Trouble.

He turns back to the trawler, walking rapidly towards it.

Cushing – Come on you two, we’re already well behind schedule.

***

Scene – a farmer’s field. A Red Dalek is at the center of a large circle of burned grass. It’s metal hide is smoking. Mercilessly, the Dalek swivels its eye stalk. A tinted ‘dalek eye view’ inlaid with graphic displays shows its view.

Dalek – Translocation successful. Systems check, all systems functional.

Its eyestalk swings again, directly to the cameral.

Dalek – Proceed with mission! Seek, locate and exterminate Doctor Who!

The Dalek glides off.

 

[DG Valdron]

Well, this turned out to be longer and more detailed than I planned. But I'm happy with it.

I don't intend to write an entire script of Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure - apparently there already is one written by Milton Subotsky, an amended version of his original Night of the Crabs adaptation, and I suspect eventually we'll hear all the details, or get to read it, or read a novelization.

That's okay, mine is different. All I want to do is write a handful of key scenes, to give you a flavour of the thing, and introduce some bits and pieces that will allow me to write about backstage shenanigans.

I have some fun things to write about Terry Nation and his contribution, about various Daleks, fans, special effects and other shenanigans. And maybe some stuff about other aspects of special effects, both ridiculous and horrifying.

I notice that I've been vague about structuring. I've been sort of feeling my way along. Basically, Subotsky's funders are the British 'Ranke' organization, which was an active distributor and funder back in the day. I remember their visual logo was some guy striking a gong. They backed a lot of the Carry on Movies.

There's also Constantinescu, the German producer and financial backer, that Subotsky dealt with to get the shoestring budget 'Doctor Who and the Dinosaurs,' the nadir of the film series done. Subotsky has a relationship with them... well, if not a relationship, at least contacts, he knows who to phone up, and they know who he is. So they're on board.

I might go back and do a bit more research to see if I can get any interesting wrinkles. They might have input into casting (well, they certainly do - as we've seen with York) but they might actually be the source of an interesting pick for female lead, director, etc. Or they might have contributions or input into other aspects of the production that might be fun to write about.

I haven't decided about the American investor and the part they'll play. They're there, definitely, but who they are? Anyone from Roger Corman, or Corman level, to a major studio. And they'll have input and demands, because Americans in entertainment always have input and demands. But at this point, basically they're putting money in, and insisting on somewhat bankable stars.

Although, thinking out loud, I don't know - Dino De Laurentis picked Sam Jones and Melody Anderson for Flash Gordon, and they were basically unknown. But Starcrash featured Caroline Munro, David Hasselhoff, Marjoe Gortner, Slim Pickens, Christopher Plummer and Anthony Spinelli - none of them major but all well known in their time. The Humanoid featured Richard Kiel, famous as jaws, and Caroline Clery, who was well known in Europe. Battle Beyond the Stars, Starship Invasions, most everyone was headlining with someone with some kind of reputation. Buck Rogers' Gil Gerard was unknown, but Lorne Greene headed up Battlestar Galactica.

Cushing and York for their different reasons are solid picks for this project, Cushing especially. York has the right cachet. Might be interesting to explore Fraser (placeholder name) - definitely not A-list, but could be a B or C lister from Europe, Britain or America. Or other cast members. Or voice actors.

Still, I might kick around what other demands the financial contributors would place. I could see Constantinescu, who are looking to the European market, demanding nude scenes and perhaps a love scene, while American backers would be very much against that (resulting in some scenes being shot twice?).

Of course, there'll be constant pressure to make it more like Star Wars, which we've already seen. That's the bottom line - Star Wars was a phenomena, and everyone is chasing that giant pile of money. Subotsky couldn't sell his 'Night of the Crabs' creature feature to save his life, in this timeline or the real one, and in the real timeline, he was at it for a decade.

I'll think about it.

***

In terms of the scene itself, I had fun writing it.

Clearly, despite the clearly bolted on allusions and homages (lifts) to Star Wars and space opera for the opening scene, the fingerprints of 'Night of the Crabs' are all over it, and the autopsy is basically straight out of 1950s Creature Features. There would have been an earlier prior throwaway scene featuring the family in the Car trying to flee or terrified by unseen forces, and perhaps a brief shot of the wreckage, just to establish the lines of dialogue in this scene.

I enjoyed the by-play, clearly the Constable is the dimmest bulb in the room, but to be fair, he's in the company of three PhDs.

Although hopefully it's not blatant, there's clear hints that Cushing's Doctor knows what's going on, and he knows more than he's telling. Although he's not spilling the beans, he's being careful to guide them to their conclusions and let them figure things out on their own. Or as much as they're ready for - dropping an extraterrestrial invasion on them is a bit much to take.

This is the second time he's referred to them being late, which they're not picking up on, but which clearly is going to be significant.

Both Fraser and York are played smart. That's a personal thing, I hate stupid characters in movies. And frankly, them being smart is necessary to the plot. The audience already knows the crabs (Dekapods) are arrived from outer space. So the characters are unwittingly filling in the details of them - that they're bulletproof. That they're colonial hive creatures, with a giant 'mother' doing the reproduction, and various castes including warriors, and that they have a hive mind, communicating and controlling each other through their mouth tentacles.

All of these attributes will become important later as the plot moves along and scenes develop. And without having to do it as some half-assed tedious block of exposition.

I'm also fleshing out the characters and their relationships. They not only figure all that out (and tell the audience) but they recognize the potential danger (and build stakes for the audience), so smart resolute characters, establishing that they are smart and resolute. York and Fraser are already building chemistry with each other, leave them alone for any length of time and they'll start finishing each other's sentences. And despite or perhaps because the strange circumstances, they've accepted Cushing into their triumvirate. They haven't quite picked up that he knows more than he he should (although the audience should be getting a sense of it), but they will.

The relative light comedy of the previous scenes of York, Fraser and Cushing has also been supplanted. Those scenes were critical to introduce the characters as likable and start the relationships. But now things are getting serious for the characters and the audience, so they're showing new dimensions - intelligence, purpose, conviction, and moving into building tension.

Meanwhile the appearance of the Dalek at the end throws the audience for a loop. The previous scene was pure 50s B-movie Creature Feature set up, that was where things seemed to clearly be going. But now we've introduced a killer Dalek, come to earth to mix things up, confusing the audience as to where things are going to go next and laying in a subplot.

The Dalek has literally been physically wedged in there by Terry Nation, but it's a welcome plot complication. Subotsky's scripts tended to be sparse. The extra running time for the Dalek subplot isn't going to hurt.

 

[DG Valdron]

Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure - The Movie - The Ship Attack!

Cushing, York and Down proceed on a fishing trawler out to Brad's Pit. Cushing seems almost befuddled, interested in every aspect of the ship. York for his part is focused on assembling the machinery they've brought on board - an advanced sonar scanner. As they work, Down speaks to the Captain and crew members who relate strange happenings on the seas since the mysterious tidal wave battered the shores.

As the ship anchors near the edge of the Pit, York drops his sonar beacon on a long line, and the trio examine the read out. Initially, there is nothing, but as the beacon descends, objects begin to show up - large objects with hard reflective surfaces. The objects proliferate on the screen, more and more of them homing in on the beacon.

Something truly immense appears on the screen, a large amorphous blip. York notes that its indistinct edges suggest it is remote, at the edges of the beacon's range, which means that it is probably deep in the pit, and rising up from the depths far below. To show as so large even from that distance means it must be truly immense! The size of a battleship perhaps.

Just then, Down looks off to the left and screams. A gigantic Dekapod claw seizes a sailor lifting him high into the air. Soon the air is filled with shouts, as the more Dekapods climb up the anchor chain, boarding the ship. York and the crew are soon fighting for their lives as invading monsters press them back. York dispatches one with a flare gun, and uses an axe to drive a monster away from Down, but inexorably the crew are pressed back.

Suddenly, the foghorn rings back, the tone dropping several registers. The monsters seem to twist in pain, and flee the ship. A desperate crewman releases the anchor chain, which rattles off the ship, leaving the Dekapods with no way to return.

Cushing explains that he surmised that undersea creatures would be vulnerable to low frequency vibrations, so it was a simple matter of adjusting the foghorn's harmonics to drive them off. Luckily, it caught his interest when they came on board.

York observes that at least this means that there is a defense against the creatures.

Cushing replies it is only a defense until they figure out a way to overcome it.

Down notes that he speaks as if the creatures are intelligent. She follows up by noting that Cushing seems to know far more about what's going on than he is letting on.

York agrees, and demands answers from Cushing. After all, they almost died out here.

Cushing responds that there will be time for answers later. But now they have the answers they sought, and they understand the danger. They must return as quickly as possible. Urgent matters are afoot.

****

Out on a dirt road in the country, a military convoy comes up to the red Dalek, parked in the middle of the road.

The Commander gets out to examine the obstruction, and is surprised that it can speak. It demands the location of Doctor Who. The conversation goes badly, a fight breaks out. The Dalek obliterates the military convoy and then proceeds down the road, leaving wreckage behind it.

 

[DG Valdron]

Yep. As you can see, I just got tired and wrote a description of the scene, rather than the whole scene itself. I might go back and redo it.

Again, the idea is to give a flavour or sense of the movie. Hence a high seas attack and desperate fight, again following the 50s Creature Feature pattern. The monsters make a full appearance and attack, but are driven off. Hints are laid out that there are bigger monsters and greater dangers on the way - this is a warm up confrontation. Our heroes, now aware of the danger, must rush to make preparations for the onslaught.

The Dalek bit is clearly an interpolation, added to the script. But in this case, it amounts to a B-plot, adding complexity and tension. Clearly it's on a collision course.

 

[DG Valdron]

Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure - Production Notes - The Ship Attack

The shipboard scenes were mostly shot on a sound stage at Shepperton studios late in the principal photography. Shots of the Doctors on the Dock and boarding the fishing trawler were taken earlier on location. But other exterior shots employed a miniature of the trawler in a tank by second unit.

As originally conceived in the script, a sudden squall or storm would blow up, giving the Dekapods cover of sudden darkness, rain, lightning and the tossing ship, to crawl up the anchor chain and attack the ship. The anarchy and upheaval of the ship in a storm would obscure the Dekapods, adding to a sense of menace and desperation.

But this proved difficult. The shipboard set was originally intended to tilt back and forth, but this was seen as expensive and dangerous to the actors, and the idea was abandoned. Instead the set was built elevated on the soundstage floor, but stationary. Camera tilts would simulate tossing seas. Still the 'storm' effects proved difficult, the erratic lighting was challenging and unsatisfactory. A number of hoses were installed above and around the set to simulate sea spray and rain, but allegedly, the effects were unsatisfactory.

Principal photography was already beginning to run behind schedule. After some preliminary tests and takes, the Director opted to abandon the weather effects and simply shoot the scenes in normal lighting, using close ups and quick cuts to obscure the Dekapods. Four Dekapod costumes worn by stuntmen were used. They were described as difficult and unwieldy to wear, and for certain shots, crew would wield claws separately. During the fight scene, there was a mishap resulting in one of the costumes being set alight. It was quickly put out and the stuntman was unharmed, but the costume was unusable thereafter. The scene of being set alight remained in the film.

In order to restore drama and tension, insert shots of sonar scope animation were used - a green screen with cross hatches, with the unseen Dekapods depicted as bright circles swarming in increasing numbers. Second unit 'fish tank' shots depicted actual crabs swarming around a miniature anchor and line, as well as shots of crabs climbing the anchor line.

***

The Dalek scenes were also shot late in principal photography at the insistence of Terry Nation who had decided that they needed an intermediate scene before the Dalek's rampage in the town and confrontation with the Doctors. As none of the principal cast were involved, and because the scenes were a late insert into the production, the scenes were shot and directed by second unit, while main unit continued its work on the sound stages. Because it was a very late addition to the script, it was difficult to budget for. Luckily, the British army was contacted and volunteered the use of three transport trucks, most of the extras in the scene were actual soldiers. The only actors were individuals playing the Captain, the Sargent and the Corporal. Nation wrote the scene, but a great deal of dialogue was improvised on the spot, particularly the discussion between the Dalek and the Captain.

One amusing element was that the Dalek operator found himself almost immobile on the dirt road. The problem was remedied by the soldiers themselves, who improvised smooth pathways for the Dalek by continually laying down sheets of plywood.

To portray the massacre, pyrotechnic effects were used. But due to short notice, these were inadequate, and so in post production, solarisation effects were added. Miniatures were constructed at 1/8 scale to show the after effects of the Dalek massacre, with wrecked burning vehicles and bodies lying everywhere.

Footnote 1- The point of this is to show how there's often a gulf between what goes out on the script and what actually gets made. Film and television production is inevitably about compromises. The script calls for Tarzan to come bounding out of a thick jungle. The realization is just rubbing up against a potted fern. The trouble is that it's hard to build an entire jungle on a studio set, or to go out to an actual jungle. Both of these take a lot of time and money to accomplish, and often you're short of one or the other or both.

Footnote 2 - About the Army volunteering actual trucks and soldiers. Stuff like that actually happened, a lot. The Television show actually had insane levels of access, at times shooting on or around army bases, research stations, and places where people are normally not allowed to go. The Tom Baker serial, The Hand of Fear, was actually shot inside an actual operating nuclear power plant, while it was operating - which boggles my mind. I can't imagine half of that stuff being allowed today. I'm just glad that the show never had a script involving playing around with nuclear weapons.

 

[DG Valdron]

STARBURST MAGAZINE, Doctor Who Movie - Special Issue

Terry Nation’s Army, part one, Interview with Terry Nation

After a long hiatus, Doctor Who’s greatest enemies, the scene stealing Daleks are back with a vengeance, not only appearing on television in Genesis of the Daleks, but also starring in the hit movie, Doctor Who’s Greatest Adventure, also featuring longtime movie Doctor Peter Cushing, and newcomer Michael York.

“The heart of the movie,” co-writer Terry Nation explains, “is that there’s a war between two deadly alien races, the Dekapods, who are essentially giant crabs, and the Daleks, with Earth being caught up in the middle. So of course, the Doctor has to come along and sort it out.”

Nation is well known, not just as the father of the Daleks, but also the creator of the hit television series Survivors and Blake’s 7. He now spends his time in Hollywood, in the film and television industry there.

“It’s a little like Star Wars,” Nation admits, as he discusses the upcoming movie – “we have spaceships zipping about, space battles, alien worlds, but by using contemporary earth as a setting, we’ll be much more accessible to the audience.”

As exciting as it is to see their return, the Daleks had been having a long quiet spell. They hadn’t been seen in the movies since Daleks vs Robots in 1971, or on television since Genesis of the Daleks in 1974, so after five years, they were due for a return.

Oddly enough, rumours were that the first drafts of the screenplay didn’t include Daleks at all. We asked Terry Nation.

“That’s quite true, the story had aliens, but the Daleks weren’t involved.”

How did they invade the production?

“Fans demanded it,” Nation explains. “Apparently, there was quite a lot of demand. Letter writing campaigns, letters to the editor, fan clubs demanded it. The Daleks have always been very popular. I think we all recognize that the last two Who movies had been quite modest, even shabby affairs. Now the talk was of a big budget movie, something on the level of Star Wars? People just couldn’t see it without the Daleks, they’re just too critical. It would be like Sherlock Holmes without Moriarty, Batman without Lex Lulthor, James Bond without Blofeld.”

“Well, the producers realized their mistake, and they were in a bind, so they called me up to license the properties and to help them with the script and here we are.”

“It feels very good to be writing them again,” Nation said.

And speaking of Moriarty and Blofeld, will we be seeing Davros and Nydar, the fathers of the Daleks, who appeared in their last television outing, Genesis of the Daleks.

“I’m afraid not. But we will be seeing a lot of the Daleks, and with modern special effects we’ll see them in ways we’ve never seen before – Daleks flying, Daleks fighting aliens, a Dalek against the British army, and even Dalek cities on a massive scale.”

“If you ask me,” Nation winks, “the Daleks are the real stars of the movie.”

Will we see them again?

“We’ll have to see how the movie does. I happen to think that the Daleks have many stories left in the Doctor Who universe, so if the movie does great and there are sequels, the Daleks will undoubtedly be back, perhaps even in larger roles.”

“In the meantime,” Nation confides, “and this is very much quiet, I've been talking to some parties across the ocean. There have been talks about spinning off the Daleks into their own television series. That almost happened in 1967, and apparently, it’s on again. So remember, second time’s the charm.”

Since Nation's already spearheading the hit series Blake's 7 on this side of the waters, it seems that Nation's career is looking very bright indeed.

***

Terry Nation’s Army, part two – a new generation of Daleks

Getting the Daleks back onto the silver screen proved no easy task. As it turns out, the build orders came late, when pre-production was already well under way.

“We actually had a lot of work commissioned,” Props and Effects Manager Stuard McClaine revealed. “Miniatures for the fishing village, miniatures for asteroids and moonscapes, the Tardis prop, the interior, all kinds of props, various Dekapods, including giant full sized ones.”

“The Daleks came in late, we practically didn’t even have script pages for them. We had to redo our budget just to accommodate them.”

The initial inspiration was to simply borrow them from the BBC, as the BBC maintained its own army of Dalek props, some of which dated back to the 60s.

“We asked, but unfortunately. The BBC said no. They were doing their own Dalek story. This left us in a bit of a bind. We didn’t even have blueprints – we had to outsource.”

Eventually, an order was placed with Shawcraft, the original manufacturer.

We only built four full sized Daleks for the shoot,” McClaine revealed. “And this included the ‘partially destroyed’ unit that we used in two different scenes. That was the most expensive unit. We used it for the fight with the robot, M-Tenter, it had a series of breakaway front sections.”

That still left a gap when plans were calling for literal armies of the robotic nemesis.

It was at this point, Terry Nation himself stepped in to fill the gap. Nation still had in his possession four Daleks which he’d used for photo opportunities, publicity appearances and charitable work, dating back from the original movies. Although by 1979, these units were in very poor shape and had considerable wear and tear, he sold them to the production and they were refurbished.

But more were still needed. Nation also reached out to collectors, and they were able to locate and rent a pair of Daleks built for the stage play, Seven Keys to Doomsday, just a few years before.

But still more were needed. The solution? To reach out to fandom. As part of the pre-production publicity, a casting call went out for anyone with a Dalek, and the result was a veritable invasion of the production offices.

“As it turns out, the blueprints for a Dalek had been published a few years before, and some fans had taken it upon themselves to build their own. We were lucky, that there have been a number of full sized Daleks built by enthusiastic fans who were happy to loan their products to us.”

Many of these amateur builds can be seen in the parts of the film where the Doctor is skulking through the Dalek city. Although the appearances are brief, their presence, and the differences in their appearances, adds to the sense of a Dalek world.”

With a virtual armada of full sized Daleks, the production turned to miniatures. Luckily, they were able to recruit a talented young man, Julian Vince, who had been building 1/5 scale Daleks for a film project of his own. Once the production had the chance to examine Mr. Vince’s work, he was brought on board as a model maker, and helped build more miniatures, as well as various miniature sets from the Dalek city and home world.

“For the long shots, we have some spectacular shots of Dalek armies, just rows upon rows of them, we actually used Louis Marx toys. They had a six inch pressed-tin Dalek that looks almost as good as the full sized ones. We put in an order for several hundred. We put them in rows and formations, and we had the camera take several passes, then we’d line them up somewhere else. Assemble it together, and it looks like armies of millions of Daleks.”

Dalek fans rejoice, the evil robots are in good hands.

Footnote #1: This is my tribute to a small group of fans calling themselves Dalek 63/88, who have chronicled the production history of almost every television and movie Dalek. Their work is encyclopedica, fascinating and beautiful. I highly recommend their website and youtube series. Some of the information in these footnotes is drawn from their research.

Footnote #2: Terry Nation’s Daleks – the creator of the Daleks actually did have his own little Dalek army, which remained in his possession until around 1980, when he relocated to the United States. According to the Dalek 63/88 group, the life sized props appear to have been built for the 1965 stage play, Curse of the Daleks, and were sold off to Nation afterwards, who appears to have intended to use them for his abortive television series, The Destroyers. They were almost immediately rented to AARU who used them to fill out the roster in Dalek Invasion Earth 2150. Thereafter, Nation seems to have used them as described - for promos and photo ops. One noticeable appearance was for publicity photos for Seven Keys to Doomsday in 1974. He appears to have had them until the late 1970s, the DWAS fanzine records one teenager, Mark Sinclair, playing with them during his parents visit with Nation, although by that time, they were likely getting pretty battered. I don’t think that there’s any record of what happened to them after Nation moved to England. But in this universe, he realized a small windfall, arm-twisting AARU into buying them off of him. They were in quite poor condition at that time, so Subotsky wasn’t terribly happy to receive them.

Footnote #3: In 1974, six Daleks were specially built for the stage play, Seven Keys to Doomsday. These weren’t quite the standard builds. I think that the bases were broader. The play failed, and presumably the Daleks and other props were sold off or simply binned. Sadly, they were most likely destroyed, they were rather too big and unwieldy, and oddly fairly delicate, to be a collectible. There’s no record of the fate of these props, but since we are only five years out from the Stage Play, I’ve decided quite arbitrarily that one or two were located and given a second shot at immortality. Who knows?

Footnote #4: The story of the home-made Daleks is an interesting one. Back in 1973, Radio Times Magazine published the blueprints for a ‘build your own Dalek’ and to prove the concept, they gave the plans to a group of high school students at Highbury Grove School. The resulting creation, dubbed ‘Fred,’ built for fifty pounds, eventually became the property of Marc Sinclair, who used it in his Super 8 mm Doctor Who epic, Ocean in the Sky, a near feature length fan film shown in 1979. Fred was a mild celebrity in his own right, being repainted a few times, appearing in amateur stage plays and short Super 8 films, and even on BBC Doctor Who parade floats before being stolen in 1981. Also appearing in Ocean in the Sky was another home-made Dalek named George, built and owned by Eddie Thomas. Ocean in the Sky also appears to feature an unsourced Dalek, provenance unknown, and an Emperor Dalek, so there were a few others floating around. In this alternate timeline, both Sinclair and George would have been around at the right time and place for their Daleks to appear in the movie. Consider it a small tribute. Nowadays, although the quality and fidelity has varied widely from the start, there are so many home-made Daleks in England, that they qualify as an ethnic group of their own. There have been conventions where over a hundred have appeared.

Footnote #5: Another amateur film, or fan film project of this era was Mission of Doom by Julian Vince and Paul Tams, between 1979 and 1984. This was planned as a sort of ‘third Cushing film’ with a plot involving an assassination of an Earth ambassador, froglike aliens called the Korven, and epic battles between Daleks and Mechanoids. The film never got made and was eventually abandoned, but there’s about five minutes of models and miniature footage by Julian Vince which appeared in the documentary, Dalekmania, and can be found on youtube if you poke around.. You can also find photographs of Vince's scale model Dalek army. While the production was in process, Vince built a veritable army of 1/5 scale Daleks. In this alternate universe, the AARU production recruits Vince and his miniature army into the production, pays him poorly, but he does go on to a career as a model builder in Hollywood.

Footnote #6: Louis Marx toy Daleks were actually used by both the television show and the movies in real life. Although hardly perfect up close, the toys were pretty good reproductions from a distance, or in a quick shot. They were used in Patrick Troughton's Evil of the Daleks for the miniature sets depicting the Dalek City of the far future. A few years later, Marx toys were used for shots of a Dalek army, in Death to the Daleks, or Planet of the Daleks, I forget which. Finally, in Dalek Invasion 2150, when a Dalek is hurled into a magnetic vortex, a Louis Marx toy is used for the effect.

Footnote #7: As we can see, Terry Nation's a bit of an unreliable narrator, and it's more than likely he ginned up the campaign to get the Daleks in the movie himself. There's actually a number of precedents for this kind of thing. The letter writing campaign spearheaded by Bjo Trimble that saved Star Trek in 1967-68, Original Series, was likely manipulated by Gene Roddenberry; the fan campaign that turned Doctor Who's cancellation into a hiatus in 1984-85 was covertly engineered by John Nathan-Turner, J.M. Straczynski used fan support and pushed fan support to get Babylon 5 on the air; the fan movement that persuaded Warner Brothers to spend fifty million dollars on the 'Snyder Cut' appears to have been astroturfed by Zacc Snyder himself.

 

[DG Valdron]

Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure - The Movie - A Dalek Comes to Town

Scene -The fishing trawler is heading into port at full speed. At the front of the boat, our trio stand, staring urgently forward.

Scene - Far behind, the waters near the reefs, a the water turns white and begins to boil. A bouy teeters in the water. Suddenly an immense claw rises out of the sea, seizing the bouy as if it was a toy, and waving it aloft.

Scene - the Dalek arrives in the fishing village gliding smoothly down the main street. It's turret swivels back and forth as the villagers gawk, but it does not attack. Only a few fishermen in heavy hoods and raincoats with odd humps concealed under the coat watch warily.

Children run up to the Dalek, daring each other to touch it and run away. It ignores them. Instead it demands that the villagers take it to the Doctor. The villagers try to be helpful, talking to it. They have no idea what it is looking for. After discussing the matter, they refer it to the local pub where the Doctor Horsely, the local veterinarian, who often shows up after his rounds to get soused. The Dalek proceeds to the Pub to wait, as curious villagers ask it questions.

More hunchbacked fishermen in heavy bulky raincoats watch carefully, gathering in the street outside the Pub.

Scene - the fishing trawler puts in. More heavy coated fishermen watch. York goes to the harbour master's office, but it is abandoned. He tries to use the phone to call out for the military, but the line is dead. Fraser enters the office to say that the pay phone is dead as well. York tries the radio, but it is non-responside. Cushing notes that the radio on the fishing trawler was out as well. The couple turns on Cushing, demanding that he tell them what he knows. Cushing is reluctant, claiming it is not time. He suggests that they retire to the pub to have a pint or a cup of tea, and he'll explain everything there. They reluctantly agree.

The trio approaches the Pub.

In the Pub, the scene is completely normal, with patrons coming and going, people drinking and gossiping. In the center of it all, against a back wall, the Dalek waits. A middle-aged man in a tweed suit enters the and goes up to the bar. Some of the patrons accost him and lead him to the Dalek, introducing him as the Doctor.

The Dalek announces that this is not the Doctor and immediately incinerates him. For a moment, the Pub patrons are shocked and horrified, and then the Dalek starts to slaughter everyone in the room. One of the hunchbacked fishermen produces a strangely organic weapon, hard shelled and spiny and fires at the Dalek, but it incinerates him. There's a an instant when his body is solarized, the bones silhouetted and we can see that something unnatural is wrapped around him.

Outside the Pub, York halts his companions, as screams and flashing lights emerge from within. More of the hunchbacked fishermen are rushing forward, producing their strange organic weapons. Cushing tells them to take cover, scrambling to the left, while York and Down bolt right. The wall of the Pub collapses, and the Dalek comes rampaging out, destroying everything in its path. The hunchbacked fishermen engage, firing their strange weapons, scorching the Daleks exterior, but it mows them down.

From cover, seeing a weapon rolling from the grip of a murdered hunchback, York tries to retrieve it, scrambling out to grab it up. No sooner does he put hands on it, than the Dalek is before him. York freezes.

The Dalek announces that is it is scanning him. He has been identified. He is Doctor Who, and he is marked for extermination.

"No!" Cushing comes forward, advancing, and announces he is Doctor Who. The Daleks scans him and confirms that he is Doctor Who. It's paralyzed by confusion. It announces a temporal anomaly in progress. Two Doctor Who's occupying same time and place. It screams in alien anguish at the paradox.

York, takes advantage of its confusion and paralysis to fire the strange weapon at point blank range, a massive explosion blows it's shell open, apparently killing it.

There's a moment of silence as Down joins York. They look around at the remains of a war zone, smashed cars, fires are breaking out, bodies are everywhere, from the broken wall of the Pub shell shocked survivors crawl. One of the survivors cautiously approaches the smoking ruin of the Dalek.

Cushing shouts for the man not to get too close.

But too late, a whirling nest of tentacles reaches out from the Dalek shell, grabbing the screaming man, and lifting him into the air.

York and Down back away, horrified, as more hunchbacked fishermen converge with their weapons, incinerating the now defenseless Dalek, now that its protective shell is breached.

As they're doing this, Cushing approaches that stunned couple, whispering that they need to flee while the others are distracted. York demands to know what is going on. In answer, Cushing bulls away the rain poncho of one of the dead fisherman. Underneath the poncho, we see that the hunchback is actually a large crab, it's chelae inserted into the brain of its victim, and its segmented armoured limbs wrapped around the body.

Down screams, and hugs York.

Cushing warns them not to turn around, the hunchbacked fishermen are slowly turning to focus on the trio. Cushing tells them that this is another caste of the creatures - controllers. They are not bright and slow to react. They can still get away, if they do it carefully. As long as they don't move quickly and excite them....

One of the Controllers lets its poncho slide off, and fires at the trio. York fires back with the weapon, taking it down. The rest of the Controllers shed their guises and begin to attack, firing as the trio flees, running and dodging down the street. Up ahead, more of the Controllers appear, villagers scream at the creatures exposed in their mists. Escape cut off, they flee down an alley, only to find a dead end.

The three of them stare out at the mouth of the alley, waiting for the enemy to come. Down and York hold each other waiting for the end.

There's a whistle.

They turn.

Cushing is at the back of the alley, half out of a police box which wasn't there before, beckoning to them.

"Our ride is here," he tells them. "Come quickly."

Footnote #1: Okay, in a movie that was about giant crabs, where do the Controllers come from? The answer is simple. Costumes are a lot easier, cheaper and faster to do than giant monster effects.

There are only a limited number of ways you can do Giant Crabs. You can shoot live crabs and blow them up, but they're not particularly good actors for complicated scenes. Or you can do stop motion animation which is extremely time consuming and expensive. Or you can build elaborate crab puppets, either full sized to interact directly with actors, or scaled down with appropriately miniature sets, or both, including pieces of puppets like claws and jaws and do a lot of very complicated shooting to ensure that it doesn't look as tosh as it is. Or god help you, you can try to do a convincing monster costume, which is an uphill battle for crabs, will torture your stuntman, will require miniature zed sets, lots of careful shooting and will look like hell.

Or you can stick a crab shell on a stuntman's back, festoon his costume with lots of crusty crab limbs, and pretend he's a human being operated by a giant ugly mind controlling parasite crab. It even works in a body horror kind of way. That's way cheap.

Controllers were not originally part of any version of Subotsky's earlier scripts. They don't appear in the novel or the pre-doctor who script, or the first versions of the doctor who script. They weren't needed.

The novel did provide for a super-sized mother crab under the waters, a giant monster conceit that Subotsky kept in the script. The small crabs were simply regular monsters. There was no particular suggestion of any intelligence or guidance. This changed slightly when it became a Doctor Who scripts, the crabs were revised to be extra-terrestrial, which implied that they had some intelligence and coordination, with the giant mother supplying an element of control or dominance - from there it was an easy conceptual jump to seeing them as equivalent to colonial insects like ants or termites. The small giant crabs were soldiers in service to the queen. It wasn't spelled out, and it didn't need to be.

Introducing the Daleks created a problem. Nation insisted on a new scene where a Dalek rampages through the village. He wanted at least one scene that showcased his Daleks. Otherwise, they were just glorified extras in the two major space/alien planet scenes. Nation's 'village scene' was basically a condition of the license for the Daleks.

In the original versions of the scene, the Dalek is eventually destroyed by the heroes, together with the constabulary or the army. No crabs involved at all.

Subotsky wasn't satisfied with that scene as written, it derailed the movie's narrative thread completely, and it undermined his mutant crabs. He provided a revised version of the scene featuring a confrontation between his mutant crabs and the Dalek. Nation agreed.

The Effects Director and Effects crew disagreed vehemently. Staging an action scene around the Dalek would be bad enough. But trying to add giant mutant crabs, either full sized puppets, puppet parts, or costumes, and trying to shoot sufficient close ups and partial shots and angles that the monsters wouldn't look like crap was a nightmare. It went back and forth, various ideas were played with.

Eventually, the proposal was for Controllers - inert costumes that stuntment would wear that would require minimal active puppetry. With that sorted, the scene could proceed as originally planned, trading in ray guns for regular firearms. Subotsky could conceptualize the Controllers as another caste or life stage, aside from the soldiers, and inserted a line of dialogue into the autopsy scene to suggest it was s true colonial animal with potentially multiple castes.

The Controllers were essentially a cheap way to solve an intractable problem. But without the introduction of the Daleks, it's not clear whether they would ever have been invented.

Footnote #2: I might actually go back and write this out as a full script scene, with dialogue and directions and everything. We'll see how lazy I am.

 

[DG Valdron]

Interview with Enzo G. Casteliari, 1985, Director of Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure

.... I did not enjoy directing. Too complicated, too many cooks arguing over the soup.

I had seen Star Wars of course, everyone had seen it. I sat there in the theatre and Rome, and I thought to myself, 'movies are over now. It is finished.' What is there to do? Where is there to go? The movies we made, the movies we loved, they were finished and now there was this new thing. I saw it, and I knew it changed everything, and I did not understand it at all.

After that, everyone wanted to make Star Wars. That was the future. Everyone had their own movies. That hack imbecile, Luigi Cozzi, he was making a Star Wars movie.

I just finished Inglorious Bastards when they approached me. They had a Director already, Gordon Flemyng, but Constantin turned him down, they wanted someone bigger. Then Freddie Francis, he would have been good. The Americans wanted Yates, but he was busy with James Bond. So Constantin put me forward. I read the script. I said what is this? It was a mess. I didn't want to do it. I gave it back to Flemyng, but they wanted me. Eventually, I said 'all right.' In spite of myself, I was interested. Flemyng came on as my assistant, but he was good about it.

Mostly, when I make movies, I make them for myself. I write, I might produce. Even when I don't write, it's a script that means something to me.

This? I was hired to do a job of work. That's all. The script didn't mean anything to me. It didn't mean anything to anyone, I guess. The man, Subotsky, he was the author, but everyone had a hand in. Usually, as a Director, I choose my actors, its a relationship, like lovers - its important to have the right actor. I work with Franco Nero a lot, he's like a partner, we trust each other. But here, the actors are already chosen for me. I pick nothing

Terry Nation kept trying to push his toys in. Rank, Constantin, the Americans, everyone had their notes, do this scene, do this. Do it that way, not this way. It wasn't just the script. Everyone had their hand in. Every decision. Do we shoot this at night? In the day?

I will give you an example. That scene with the Dalek on the road, and it meets the British army? I didn't shoot that. I didn't even know it was in the movie until it was done. If I had known, I would have fought tooth and nail to keep it out, get rid of it.

I will explain. The robot... the Dalek, it comes into town. It's comic at first. It's a Star Wars kind of thing rolling down the street. People don't know what to make of it. It's funny, they laugh, they talk to it. They take it to the Pub. There's a mood, you see? And on the ship, the trawler, there the heroes are coming in, they're scared, there's tension. Lightness and Darkness, you see. The audience doesn't know what to make the Dalek? is it good? It seems friendly. But is it? Then it starts killing, Suddenly, everything goes to haywire. The comic scene becomes a battle scene. It works.

Putting the Dalek on the road, having it kill all those soldiers, it ruins it all. Now we know what the Dalek is, what it does. There's no lightness when it comes into town, the audience knows what to expect.

That was Terry Nation, trying to get his Daleks in the movie. They weren't in it much at the start, just some at the beginning, right at the start, and then later when they go to the planet. That was going to be it. But Nation, he kept pushing.

Or maybe it was the producers one of them, they wanted another action scene. They didn't care whether it made sense. They didn't understand a movie needs to breathe, it can't all be bang bang bang, you need some slow moments, you need some lightness.

My Dalek fight, that was a fight by itself. I wanted it shot at night, early evening. The light, the shadows, it would have given it so much. They wanted it shot in daylight? Like it was a picnic. I said, at least let me have rain and wind, storm effects like King Lear. No? I ask why am I even directing? Am I even directing? But they are paying me, it is a big movie, you do what they want. That's how it is sometimes.

This man, Subotsky, he was supposed to be in charge, but be was weak. Everyone pushed in.

***

Rowland? That was a name I had used for my early films, for the American market. They said to me - this is a British film, we want Americans to see it, can we have your name as E.G. Rowland. I said sure, it was just one more thing.

Footnote: Enzo Castellani is an Italian film director and scriptwriter, the son of a film director, who studied architecture and was a boxer in his youth. He followed his father's footsteps into film, and began writing and directing in 1966. Through the 1960's he mostly did spaghetti westerns. Around 1969 he started to branch out, doing war films and drifting towards police thrillers, he also experimented with comedy. In 1977 he directed Inglorious Bastards, a loose remake of the Dirty Dozen which likely put him on the radar for Constantin. In the 1980s, he directed Bronx Warriors, Escape from the Bronx, and some Shark movies, following in the wake of Spielberg's Jaws and Carpenter's Escape From New York City. His movies were typically low budget, B-movie fare, but as a director he has an energetic trashy style that made them stand out.

Italy in the 70s and 80s was a hotbed of movie making, churning out spaghetti westerns, giallo thrillers, and eventually zombie movies. If there was a hot American movie, Italians could be counted on to jump on board, adding a frantic off the wall spin. Castellani's mix of spaghetti western, comedy, war and cop thrillers pulls him out of the crowd.

There are some politics involved - Constantin, the film distribution company based in Germany needed to leave an imprint. This was a British production, Subotsky was the Executive Producer and writer (along with Nation), the cast were British, but vetted and approved by the American market. Constantin was putting money in, and they wanted to show something for it, some input into the production.

They also had reservations about Subotsky's initial choices. Gordon Flemyng had directed the first two Doctor Who movies, but his career was relatively undistinguished. He was mainly a television Director. Another early choice was Kevin Connor, who had directed the Doug Mclure/Buroughs quartet at the end of Amicus reign. The best of the lot was Freddie Francis, who had directed a number of films for Amicus and was a brilliant cinematographer.

The trouble was that Star Wars was such a unique achievement, no one was sure how to duplicate it. It required something else - so Constantin had cold feet over handing the project over to a run of the mill Director. What was called for was not restraint but extravagance, and a unique kind of extravagance that didn't really have a clear genre. Hence Castellani's grab bag career.

The preffered choice would have been someone like Lewis Gilbert or Gordon Hamilton, men who had directed the Bond films. Gilbert would direct Moonraker in 1979, the one where Richard Kiel plays Jaws, and James Bond goes up into Space... yeah, that one.

Luigi Cozzi, by the way, was a rival Italian Director who is responsible or partly responsible for Star Wars rip-offs Starcrash and The Humanoid, the Alien clone Alien Contamination and a very very strange version of 1954's Godzilla. He's also responsible for the Lou Ferrigno Hercules movies. A little bit of a maniac cinematically.

 

[DG Valdron]

Stay tuned for more adventures as we meet the fourth member of the cast, Peter Cushing explains the plot, Michael York receives an unwelcome revelation, Lesley Ann Down is forgotten by the script and our intrepid adventurers go to a planet that is not Skaro to retrieve an essential object that is not a McGuffin. Along the way, more unflattering opinions on Terry Nation, and delving into the the Challenges of Dekapod FX. All this and working towards a shocking finale that will knock your socks off.

One thing - you don't think the last person to express an opinion is the right one, do you? I'm going full Rashomon. All narrators are a little bit unreliable, no one has the full truth, everyone has an agenda and flies a little blind.

I think this final section is taking up a surprising amount of time and effort. But then again, in many ways, this is kind of a timeline about how sausages are made. And this last section is a very deep dive into the sausage factory indeed.

Actually, I find that interesting.

I mean, people have this idea that there's something simple and streamlined about the movie or television process. And sometimes, yes it is that simple and streamlined. Someone has an idea, a script, a story, money lines up, a director has a vision, actors and crew are hired, and it all goes smoothly until a product churns out at the end.

And quite often, the product is as uninteresting as the story behind it.

No actually, I'm just being mean. I don't think that there's any kind of relationship between smoothness/chaos and resulting outcome.
But for me personally, I think that the creative process necessarily involves choices, and that these choices are never neutral but that they are made in a fractious environment full of influences and handicaps, some doors open, some doors close, things go wrong and you have to adapt, smart decisions get made for stupid reasons, and vice versa.

I suppose that's all my Doctor Who timelines - dissections or explorations of the creative process as it meets the challenges of production, or vice versa.

So what's this one, when you drill down? Franchises. We're following a film franchise - no different than the Hangover Trilogy, or the Halloween movies, or the Friday the 13th movies, or the Bond movies, or the Hellraiser series. They all just kind of stumble along, trying to figure out what comes next, driven not by art, but by the notion that if we make a movie, someone will come to see it, but no hard or clear ideas beyond that.

Amicus original two movie franchise was like that - the two movies so wildly different it was like whiplash. I just kept playing with that.

Anyway, hope you're enjoying.

 

[DG Valdron]

Hmm. What I should be doing today is revealing who is piloting the Tardis, what Peter Cushing's Doctor Who is really up to, what York and Down find inside Tardis, what their deadly secret is, and what the hell is going on in this movie.

Of course, if I had readers, and they were sufficiently clever, they'd have figured all of it out by now. I haven't exactly been subtle. And I'd have to ask them not to post guesses which would consitute spoilers. But I'm a lucky guy.

Anyway, I think I'll ramble on about Daleks.

 

[DG Valdron]

Gordon Flemyng on the Daleks, Off the Record Discussion

Terry Goddamned Nation! That guy! What a pain in the arse. The guy bullied his way into the production, and once he wormed his way in, he kept being a total prick. It’s a mystery why Milton ever let him get involved. I wouldn’t have let him near anything.

No, scratch that. It’s not a mystery. It was the goddamned British fans that did it to us. Once word got out that the movie was on, all sorts of people were interested. Nation’s not the only one that tried to climb aboard. That pratt Tom Baker was one. A couple of the writers, Brian Hayles, Robert Holmes, Bob Baker called up, trying to offer their services or their creations.

You get that in any production. You got something running hot, everyone comes out of the woodwork to offer to help out. Truth was, we didn’t need anyone.

But then Doctor Who Appreciation Society sends us a letter, a frigging letter mind you, on letterhead and everything, signed by the Board of Directors and everything, politely advising that they hoped to see the Daleks In the upcoming movie. Well, we weren’t sure what to make of it, but no big deal.

That was the last polite letter. Next thing we knew, we were getting letters from all over, even from the US. Fanzines were writing about it. It was in the Daily Mirror. Journalists were calling and asking about it, like it was some kind of scoop. We were actually picketed by Daleks, a couple of rubbishy ones, home made jobs owned by kids, Mark Sinclair and Eddy Thomas I think. Picketed. The guardian covered it. They got the address wrong, but we were reading it in the papers.

Milton, he allowed himself to be stampeded. He decided we needed to at least show them. Make an appearance, that’s all. But that prick Nation, he owned the rights, so we couldn’t have that unless he got to write for them. Have you ever heard the like? But apparently he was like that, the Daleks were his, and he had approval over anything they did.

Nation was like a damned tick sucking blood, once he got on the production. He meddled with the script. He actually went to arbitration for Co-Credit on the script, can you believe the gall. As it was, he got ‘additional scenes and dialogue by…’

The Daleks are in four scenes, count them, four scenes in the whole movie. And of the four, that pratt only wrote two of them. That’s it, that’s all. Two. The other two scenes were pre-written, and we just adapted them to have Daleks in them.

He made sure he got paid though. He got paid for his ‘script writing’, he got paid for the rights to use the Daleks, and get this, he sold us actual Daleks – six of them. He had these Daleks leftovers from one of the early movies, he used to make money off them, supermarket appearances, what have you. Well, after fifteen years, they were basically falling apart, but he sold them to us, I’d be ashamed to tell you what we paid for that junk.

Two of them weren’t even his! No, they were leftovers from some stage play with John Pertwee a few years back. He tracked down the guys who owned them, bought them for half nothing, turned around and sold them to us for a high mark up. The man was a snake.

We had some home-made Daleks made by kids, fans I guess. Three was some kind of promotional contest the production company was running. Got some good press. They were pretty rubbish. But I’m surprised he didn’t try to sell us those.

I tell you, I hated the sight of him. Every time Terry Nation showed his face, I knew it was going to cost us. If it wasn’t him with his hand out, it was some daft idea that was going to cost us more money.

 

[DG Valdron]

Dave Francis on the Terry Nation Controversy

Terry Nation and the Daleks? Crazy having him on? Milton was crazy like a fox. What have you heard? Forget it. It’s bullshit. Here’s the real story.

What you got to understand, is it was all about Star Wars. Here’s a little known fact – no one in the studios was expecting Star Wars to be as big as it was, so when they were negotiating, they didn’t much care. Lucas was willing to take a little less money in exchange for the toy and merchandising rights? Done deal. The studios were probably laughing all the way home.

But they stopped laughing when the movie was a hit, and Lucas was making wheelbarrows full of money off of those merchandising rights they just gave away thinking they were squeezing a few dollars out of him.

Merchandising, that’s what it was really about. Back in the 60s when Daleks were big, there were something like 150 Dalek merchandise products, hell, Nation lived for years off the toy and merchandising rights. You want to talk other Doctor Who monsters, none of them came within a light year of the Daleks. Hell, even Doctor Who itself did a fraction of the merchandising.

All those products, the toys, the toy sets, the product designs, Dalek Shampoo bottles, lamps, whatever, they were just sitting right there, all set to go. Now, all that merchandising in the sixties, that had been a pretty chunk of change, but it was all England nowhere else. This movie, they were hoping it would be big in the US, big enough for merchandising all over there. Even a fraction of the money that Lucas made off merchandising for Star Wars, you'd be set for life.

Why bring Terry Nation and the Daleks in? Because Milton wanted a piece of that Dalek merchandising.

Simple as that.

Seriously, what did Milton have for merchandising? The Doctor, the Tardis, that was owned by the BBC. He might have had the copyright and licensing for his version of the Tardis interior, but that was it. There was that robot, but he shared that with Louis Marx toys. I don't think he actually had all that good a deal with Marx, not for stuff like this. What was he going to merchandise that he owned outright? His crabs? Be serious. So really, it came down to Daleks.

Milton didn’t give a shit about Daleks. No one did, not even Nation. It was actually all about Dalek merchandising. That’s what this was all about.

Milton and Terry, they were like two scorpions in a bottle trying to sting each other.

Now here’s the thing. Terry needed the Daleks in the movie too. Sure, Daleks had been big in the sixties. But that was what? Ten years ago. They hadn’t been in the movies since, they hadn’t been on telly for a good five years. Now, no matter what, they were going to keep on selling. And even if they weren’t in the movie, just the fact that Doctor Who was going to play big internationally, that would be good for him. But getting into the movie, that took things up to the next level.

So if Milton wanted the Daleks in the movie, Terry wanted to give them to him for the movie, and the real fight was about Milton getting a piece of the licensing.

For God’s sakes, the Daleks are what? Fifteen minutes in the movie? Not even twenty I’ll warrant. But you got hoverabouts, you got Dalek saucers, ground vehicles, heavy weapons, control rooms, two or three different kind of play sets, you have Dalek attachments, a whole bunch of different kinds and colours of Daleks? Think about it, man.

So it came down to trade offs. They both wanted the Daleks in the movie. Milton wanted a piece of the Daleks. What else could he give Terry? Money up front. That’s all the trade offs were. You never know how its going to turn out, the movie could flop, the Daleks might not sell. It’s a risk. So it came to money up front.

And the thing with the money, is that Milton didn’t just have it in his pockets. Milton had investors. Milton had to justify everything to investors. He couldn't just hand Terry a pot full of money. He had to justify it.

So Terry comes on as script writer, there was an arbitration over that, but the credit didn’t really matter – what mattered was Terry got full script writer payment. I’d be shocked if he even wrote a word. Let’s be honest, the man was already writing two telly series, Blake's 7 and Tom Baker's Doctor Who and trying to get a leg over in Hollywood..

Terry sold his Daleks to the production, Christ, they were what, fifteen years old. The old wrecks were falling apart, but we bought them for more than it cost to build new ones. They were in such bad shape we had to commission new ones.

Neither of them cared, it was just to make sure Terry got his money up front, and Milton got his back end, that’s how it was.

 

[DG Valdron]

Chris Boucher on the Terry nation Controversy

You hear a lot of stories about ... well... everything. The film and television industry isn't based celluloid or videotape, it's not about stars or money. The whole thing runs on gossip. I wasn't involved with the Doctor Who film, but I did work closely with Terry Nation on Blake's 7 which was shooting at the time. I'd written for Doctor Who with Tom Baker. I knew all the parties involved, it's just a small community.

So let me dispell some rumours. Terry didn't blackmail Milton into taking on the Daleks. Milton was interested right from the start, how could he not be, and all the pushing and shoving came down to money and the contractual terms. Pretending you're not interested is an occupational default. No one is ever interested in anything, until we get our hands on it.

And Terry certainly didn't assemble an arsenal of fans to write letters. He predicted it, as anyone with half a brain could have predicted it. But he didn't arrange it. And it wasn't unwelcome to Milton. How could it be? It was free publicity, at exactly the same time he was trying to corral investors. Now I can't say, maybe he had them in hand, or maybe they were still just talking, but either way, when the those boys, Sinclair and Thomas went picketing with their Daleks, and the pictures ran in the Daily Mail, he had publicity and something he could show. The only reason I don't half suspect Milton arranged it himself is because they got the address wrong.

If it was really so unwelcome and onerous, how come Sinclair and Thomas got to have their Daleks appear in the movie? Wouldn't Milton have preferred to be shut of them? And that silly contest for home-made Daleks they ran? If Milton really was persecuted and bullied by fans and letter writing and pressure, do you think he'd have allowed that?

I'm not saying Milton started it. Like I said, anyone with a brain could have predicted it. But I think that when it started at some point, Milton realized he could take advantage of it, and he did. Hell, maybe he arranged the picket, who knows. Might have been convenient to him for them to get the address wrong. We'll never know, unless one of them comes clean.

Some of the stuff you hear is just silly - Terry making a killing selling off his Daleks. Well, that part is true. But fact of the matter, it took a lot of time and money to build them from scratch, the price Terry took wasn't as high as the cost of making them, and they were available dead away. You hear complaints, but at the time, at the place, it was a good deal for everyone, and no one was complaining.

The fighting over the script? Well, there's something to that. But it wasn't as bad as made out to be. Let's be honest, Milton wanted his Daleks, but he wasn't going to put them in the script until he knew he had the rights. Daft to be writing in Daleks if the deal's not signed. So he just wrote the script with places where the Daleks would go. No trouble to write them in once the deal is made.

As for Terry, it's true, he kept control over his creations. He either wrote them, or he demanded script approval over their use. They were his bread and butter, his income, it's only natural. But Milton and Terry had worked together three times already, none of this was a surprise to either of them. Milton did the story, when the rights were sorted, Terry went in and wrote or approved what was done with the Daleks. I'm sure they had their rows that's typical at the best of times, but it just wasn't the fights everyone gossips about.

That Italian Director, he'd never seen a Dalek in his life. What's he complaining about?

It's the business, you see. There's all sorts of stories, some of them are true, most of them aren't, but you'll never know which is which.

 

[DG Valdron]

Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure - The Movie - Journey into Tardis

Scene – Exterior – York and Down stare astonished as Cushing beckons to them, and then disappears within the police box.

Down – Where the devil did that come from? I’m sure it wasn’t here before.

York – It’s not much of a hiding place, three of us will barely fit. And I don’t think it will be much protection.

The Controllers/Crab Men appear in the alley and fire their weapons. York fires back, as he and Down retreat.

York – but it’s better than nothing. They flee towards the police box.

Scene - York and Down pass through the doors, go a few steps, and stop dead, staring at a huge white cathedral like space reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Behind them, a door slams, they turn, and an immense fearsome robot looms before them. Down screams as the robot plucks the alien weapon from York’s hands.

York – Run, Polly run.

York lunges at the robot, and for a second, they grapple until it pins him against a wall. As he struggles with the robot, Down slams a piece of chair against it. She tries to strike again, and the robot catches the furniture.

M-10-TR – Oh hello, Professor Fraser, wonderful to see you again? Are you joining the Doctor for tea?

It turns its head back to York.

M-10-TR – Doctor, you’re looking quite well. I take it the fresh air agrees with you. Did you bring back the item?

York – Excuse me?

M-10-TR – Oh dear, I take it we haven’t met yet? This isn’t the first time is it? Oh it must be! How awkward.

It steps back, releasing York.

M-10-TR – Please excuse me. How do you do? I’m M-10-TR, I accompany Doctor Who… the other one, on his travels.

It turns its head towards Down.

M-10-TR - Professor Fraser, did you want to sit down? That’s not how chairs work, I can diagram the process of sitting in chairs. It took me a while to get the hang of it.

York – What is this? Where are we?

M-10-TR – You are in Tardis, of course. A pan-dimensional vehicle that travels through time and space. You are quite safe, by the way, for the time being. The Controllers weapons cannot harm us here, and they cannot gain entry.

Down – It looked like a police box from the outside.

M-10-TR – Yes, you are not the first to notice.

York is desperately trying to get his bearings, looking around wildly. He takes a few steps in one direction, then another.

York – Where is Doctor Who?

M-10-TR – That’s you.

York – The other Doctor Who?

M-10-TR – Oh right. He’s probably piloting Tardis. Apparently it’s a little sticky out there. Would you like to go and there?

York – I think we really need to go.

Down – It’s time for answers.

Scene – Cushing sits in a high chair in a crystal, science fiction room with panels depicting scenes from space and history everywhere. Cushing, York and M-10-TR enter the room.

M-10-TR – Hello Doctor, I was just showing your friends around Tardis, I was wondering if you were up for a spot of tea.

Cushing (visibly distracted by piloting) – How many pots of tea do you have brewing.

M-10-TR – Not many, only 13, but some very good brands.

York – You drink tea?

M-10-TR – No! I’m a robot! Didn’t I mention that? I can’t drink tea! I just like making it. The smell of it, getting the perfect temperature, the cups and saucers—

Cushing – We’ll have tea in here, M-10.

M-10-TR – The arboretum is much nicer this time of year.

Cushing – Here.

Cushing descends from the high chair.

Cushing – There, the course is set. I suppose it’s time for an explanation.

York – About time.

Cushing – I take it that you’ve gathered that Tardis, among other things is a time machine.

York – It seems incredible.

Down – But yes, the robot did mention it.

Cushing – M-10, he doesn’t like to be called a robot. Says it makes him feel lifeless and mechanical. But yes, anyway.

Cushing goes to a control panel and fiddles with it. Images burst onto screens, spacescapes, spaceships, giant dekapods and daleks.

Cushing – Unfortunately, we are not the only time travellers, and this is what we are dealing with, an invasion from beyond time. From the far, far future, long past the extinction of humanity, when even Earth’s sun is fading, an age so remote that the very universe is dying.

Down – You mean those crab-things?

Cushing – Yes. Dekapods. And the Dalek. That creature that was riding in the armoured vehicle. There are two races left out there, fighting over the ashes of the universe, in the far future of the as the stars slowly go cold. Even in a young universe, there would not be room enough for both – they struggle to be alone at the end of time.
Accompanying images – stars going red and going out, stars winking out, barren worlds, and monsters battling on land and in space.

York – They’ve come here.

Cushing – Yes. They both strive to escape the fate of the Universe by plundering the past. I tried to shut the door on them, but a few slipped through. Only a single Dalek it seems. The Dekapods are the real threat.

M-10-TR returns, pushing a tea cart.

M-10-TR – Oh by the way Doctor, I’ve put your weapon up somewhere it will be comfortable and made sure it was fed. The poor thing was starving. You should have taken better care of it.

York – Wait? That ray gun was alive?

Cushing - All of the Dekapods technology is alive.

York – Are … you… from this future?

Cushing – Not from that far in the future, not the end of the Universe, but yes. From the future, although I’ve travelled so much through time, I’m hardly sure where I belong.

Down – You’re him, aren’t you.

She points at York. Cushing pauses and watches warily.

Down – He’s you, and you’re him. I’m right aren’t I.

York – What are you saying?

Down (to York) – Don’t you see. He’s you, the older version of you, from your future. You’re the same person, from two different times in their lives.

Cushing – Very clever, Professor Fraser. As clever as I remember.

York – You mean…

Cushing – Yes.

York - So you’ve lived this before, that’s how you knew everything, because I lived through it and I’m you.

Cushing – Yes. You’re making it complicated.

York – So that metal monster…

M-10-TR – Excuse me?

Cushing – The Dalek. Yes. That’s why it became confused, seeing two of us in the same time. Its circuits froze, that’s why you could kill it.

York: You’re me? Then do you know? Who am I? Where do I come from? Why can’t I remember my past?

Cushing: You’ll learn these things at the proper time.

York: If you know, then you can tell me now.

Cushing: I’m afraid it’s not the time. Right now, we have to save the Earth from deadly danger. A Dekapod Queen has escaped from the future, and if we don’t stop her, the Universe is doomed.

M-10-TR - Tea and cakes anyone.

Well, that went on longer than I expected. It covers the critical bases, the dialogue is mostly okay, and it contains the beats and revelations I need. But it's not quite there, and could stand to be fine tuned and punched up a little bit, maybe edited, paced and focussed a little. Probably won't get around to it.

Looking at over, I think I needed to make M-10's dialogue snappier and quirkier.

Also, if I was doing for real, I'd put more buttons/dramatic beats on some stuff. The revelation that the stolen ray-gun/rifle is a living creature for instance - there should have been a 'gosh wow' punch to that. It's kind of throwaway - nothing stands on it.

And of course the revelation that old Doctor Who and young Doctor Who are the same person. I think that was kind of sort of obvious, but again, it needed a 'gosh wow' punch. I think it would work for a lay audience not entirely familiar with the show - there might be a default assumption that the payoff would be that they're father and son.

And perhaps a poignant denouement as we find that the York Doctor Who has no idea who he really is, where he came from, who his parents were etc. There would be more attention to that in the parts of the script I'm not going to write, either before or after or both - some mysterious evasiveness about his past when flirting with Fraser, perhaps a confession later of amnesia, and at some point, a poignant revelation that he just ended up at an orphanage or something as an apparent teen with extraordinary intelligence and knowledge but no past.

But the big sci fi mind-blowing concept is made - this isn't just a space invasion, it's an invasion from literally the far end of time. The Daleks and the Dekapods are the last civilizations in a dying universe, at war with each other, and desperate to escape into the past where they can run amuk.

Just to trace out the evolution - in the novel, and Subotsky's original script, the Dekapods are just giant ass crabs, about the size of a cow and bulletproof. Radiation or chemicals in the water or something. I'd have to read the novel. When Subotsky switched the story up to a Doctor Who adventure, he added a couple of pages to the front end of the script to establish that the crabs were from outer space. And then later, in a borrowed bit of inspiration, he made them from the far future, just to pick up on the time travel element.

Originally, it was just crabs - which he unimaginatively renamed Dekapods (10 legs) to make them more 'space-y' and 'alien-y.' There was no space war. When the Daleks came in, Subotsky simply adjusted the space and alien world scenes to include Daleks, and threw in some space war stuff. The opening scene was almost identical to Subotsky's first version, just more crowded.

The single Dalek landing and subsequent confrontation with the army, and the later Dalek in the village, at the pub, tearing up the place scenes were actually specifically added to allow for Daleks to be included in the movie. So either written by Terry Nation specially, or interpolated with his assistance.

The Daleks and Dekapods could have been working together, or one could have been the slave or agent of the other. Nation actually proposed that the Dekapods would be the agents/slaves of the Daleks, they could be introduced, build up menace, and then the Daleks would come in as the controllers and 'Big Bad.'

But this was Subotsky's script and he wasn't about to have his own monsters play second bananas. Also, Nation's plan would have required a much bigger rewrite of the script and its beats than Subotsky was willing to allow. It wasn't just an ego/turf thing, he had investors for one version of a script. A radical change up might scare them off.

Besides having them in conflict allowed for 'star wars.' By that time the special effects budget had expanded to allow for more 'pew pew' 'whoosh whoosh.'

Some wags have suggested that the conflict and struggle between the Dekapods and the Daleks reflected the conflict and struggle between Subotsky and Nation over the script. Draw your own conclusions.

 

[DG Valdron]

M-10 The Robot, Starburst Insert

M-10 -TR is the Cushing Doctor’s longtime companion, in Doctor Who’s Greatest Adventure. A robot with a cheerfully flippant attitude.

But only dedicated fans know that the Robot has been a star in his own right.

M-10-TR’s breakthrough role came in Daleks vs Robots, 1969, the third Doctor Who movie, loosely based on the television serial, The Chase. In it, Doctor Who and his companions find themselves pursued by Daleks and ending up on a planet of robots, ruled by the Evil Master.

Altlhough the original serial featured a planet of robots, called Mechons, the movie was heavily financed by Louis Marx Toy Company, and it featured many robots modeled after Louis Marx toys as a promotional gimmick. Among the robot suits built for movie, were a pair of combat robots loosely modeled on Marx’ Rock em Sock em Robot Boxers.

When the movie production was over, Milton Subotskky kept the two full sized robot costumes, and they (and other leftover props) went on to star in Doctor Who and the Robots of Terror in 1972. For this movie, the robot suit was slightly modified, adding running tape decks to the chest panel, and a power unit in the back. M-10-TR, although he wasn’t named, manages to invade the Tardis, where after a brief chase, the Doctor disables him by pulling his power unit. After that, Susan reprograms his tape deck, turning him temporarily good. He reverts to form in the end, and is presumably destroyed.

In between Doctor Who movies, M-10, or at least the Robot Suit appears in Amicus Productions ‘Madhouse’ in 1974, and Robot Revolt, a Spanish-Italian co-production in 1976.

Although apparently destroyed in Robots of Terror, M-10-TR reappears, tape decks and all, in Doctor Who’s Greatest Adventure, where we finally learn his name. M-10 is a play on the television Doctor’s robot dog – K-9, but also clearly named in the tradition of R2D2 and C3PO. In fact, he was originally M-10 and is so called by all the characters in the film. But the producers wanted the name to resemble Star Wars robots a little more, so in the dialogue dubbed for the robot, the TR is added in the dubbing. The full name is never actually spoken by any other character in the movie.

According to publicity for Doctor Who’s Greatest Adventure, M-10's costume is the same robot suit that appeared in the previous movies. But this is only half true. The suit was substantially rebuilt to facilitate motion by the suit actor – the robot could turn his head, lift and nod, swivel on his hips, and move arms and legs more freely – but the original visual design and parts of the original costume were interpreted.

The robot was played with a great deal of expression by Bernard Bresslaw (uncredited), 6 foot, 7 inches tall, and best known for his Carry On movies, and voiced by American Actor, Peter Falk.

Falk was extremely well known at the time, having just come off seven seasons of the American network show Colombo in 1978, and was appearing steadily in movies, a capable dramatic actor, he also had a gift for comedy and comic timing. He was approached by the American investors, who felt his gravelly drawl would fit well with a battered old robot. Falk took the part as a gesture towards his two teenage daughters, Catherine and Jacky, feeling that they would enjoy him in a Star Wars-themed movie.

Falk recorded all his dialogue in a studio in LA. He never worked directly with the rest of the cast. Instead, he would watch rushes shipped over, and say the lines. Initially, M-10-TR had relatively few lines, but Falk ad-libbed considerably, not talking the work seriously, and these lines became popular and were incorporated into the movie with the robot’s role expanding, and additional scenes shot.

Through Falk’s deadpan ad-libs, we learned that M-10-TR used the tape deck on his chest to listen to music, that he owned a dog he was very fond of and that he enjoyed making tea, even if he couldn’t drink it. But Falk also gave the character a serious side, emphasizing his decency, loyalty and the long and deep friendship with Cushing’s Doctor.

 

[DG Valdron]

Looking forward to finishing.

 

[DG Valdron]

Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure - The Movie - The Dekapods Attack!

Scene - A seaside beach on Earth. A family is having a picnic by the seaside. Everything is calm and pleasant. Then as the children play, running towards the waves, something emerges. Several Giant Dekapods, Soldiers the size of cattle, emerge marching on the family. As the family screams in terror and try to flee, the monsters run them down. Only the children make it to the car, as the creatures loom menacingly around it.

Scene - inside Tardis. Tea is interrupted when an alarm goes off inside Tardis. Cushing urgently rushes to the controls, and checks scanners, muttering things are happening far too quickly this time. Everything is wrong. He announces that the Dekapods are attacking all along the coasts, and that they must return to stop them.

Down protests that since this is a time machine, does it really matter? They could wait a year, or twenty years, and go back to the same moment.

Cushing explains (or fails to actually explain) that time travel does not work that way, that there are resonances and critical moments, and that it is urgent that they return to earth immediately, or humanity is lost.

Scene - Cut aways to Giant Dekapods emerging from the water all along the coast, crowds fleeing, the creatures crawling over buildings and automobiles. The army pounds away uselessly, forced to withdraw or ending up overrun. There are shots of the creatures assaulting national landmarks, including stonehenge and big ben.

A news announcer in frenzied tones screams about the invasion of unstoppable monsters, urging people to flee.

Scene - Materializes in a quiet corner of near the ruins of the Pub. The village has been completely taken over by Soldiers and Controllers. Wreckage and bodies are everywhere. Groups of villagers are marched past, herded by Controllers. Soldiers also prowl the city, climbing over buildings, overturning cars, searching relentlessly. As our heroes creep out of Tardis into concealment, a shot rings out from a clock tower, a lone defender striking back. The Soldiers quickly swarm and bring the construction down. Close up on the man's face screaming as the giant claws seize him. The danger past, the the Controllers resume marching their prisoners.

Down asks where they're going. Cushing replies a fate far worse than death.

York asks why they have returned to such a risky location. Cushing answers that this is the epicenter of the invasion. They must be stopped here, or there is no hope. Cushing advises that he was building a device to jam the creatures nervous systems. If he can complete it, they have a chance. But how do they get there.

The bodies of dead controllers, in their ponchos and capes, remnants of the battle with the Dalek, lie everywhere. York has an idea.

Scene - York and M-10-TR wearing ponchos and hoods, and pretending to be controllers, make their way across the town, with Cushing and Down pretending to be prisoners. They pass by giant soldier Dekapods, some of them extremely close. A soldier inspects them, it's stalked eyes waving, but loses interest. They're later challenged by a pair of Controllers, who demands to know where they are going with the hatchling fodder. York tries to talk his way past, but eventually gives up and starts shooting the alien weapon. They flee, taking additional weapons from fallen Controllers. The Controllers and Soldiers give chase and a running battle ensues.

Scene - They make it to the electronics shop where Cushing's half assembled disruptor awaits. Cushing pronounces it excellent, all he has to do is finish putting it together. York grouses that he should have built it before they came here, he does, after all, have Tardis. Cushing says time does not work that way. Now they must buy him time, so that he can assemble the weapon.

Scene - From the waters an immense Dekabod rises, dwarfing even the huge soldiers. It begins to advance.

Scene - Soldiers and Controllers surround the electronics store, firing into it. Cushing works on his device. Down, York and M-10-TR have fortified the premises and are firing back. Down and York joke about an exciting first date, and in quiet moments, have a romantic interlude. York notes that they seem to avoid the smoke from fires, their lungs must be vulnerable, considering that they are sea creatures. He comes up with a plan to flank and drive the controllers off, using a firebreak from the nearby gas station, In a desperate heroic gambit he succeeds, the thick smoke drives the creatures off. Finally, safe the defenders celebrate. York and Down embrace and kiss.

Scene - Then the monstrous Dekapod, the size of a house, comes looming out of the smoke. The defenders flea back to the shop, desperately trying to stave it off. But it's far too large. It rips away a wall. M-10-TR is seized up in a giant claw.

Scene - Cushing, at the last possible minute, desperately finishes is projector and turns it on. The electronic device sends out a wave that causes Dekapods all over the town to vibrate and collapse, flipping on their backs, stumbling. The massive giant waves the captured robot in its claw and tears its way into the shop. Cushing turns his device towards the creature - in a strobing effect, it's shell ruptures and it dies, collapsing.

Scene - It appears that the heroes have won. Down is startled to see from their vantage point, unnoticed, that the waters of the bay of the fishing village have turned bright yellow. Cushing turns pale and rushes to examine the body of the King Dekapod. They are all in deadly danger, he announces. The creatures genital sacks are depleted.

York observes that this means that it must have fertilized a female's eggs.

Yes, Cushing replies. A million eggs out there in the bay, a nesting ground, waiting to hatch and obliterate the human race. A few dozen of the monsters have fought the army to a standstill, what will a million do? The yellow water means that the eggs are discharging their yolk, the creatures are almost ready to hatch, and the Queen is preparing to rise up from the deeps.

Can Cushing's device stop them, York asks. The Queen is far too powerful, nothing on Earth can stop her.

Cushing announces their only chance is to split up. M-10-TR and York must travel through time in the Tardis to retrieve the one weapon that can destroy the queen and end the threat. Cushing and Down will stay here in the present to stop the eggs from hatching.

Footnote - That opening scene of the family being attacked by Crab Monsters at the picnic was actually shot and intended to be placed much earlier in the movie - it was to be the teaser for the opening of the movie in Subotsky's original script. It's actually referred to much earlier in the movie, when the Constable talks about the wrecked car with no bodies found in a picnic area. It ended up being taken out, and reinserted here for dramatic effect. The inspiration for this is C.H.U.D. where a scene of the monsters attacking a diner was moved to a denouement, but was actually placed, and had characters referring to it, in the middle of the movie. Just being a nerd.

Footnote - Just for the record, I have no intention of actually writing or describing an entire Doctor Who movie script. That feels a little bit above and beyond. While it's fun to actually write out a handful of key scenes, I don't want to do 90 pages worth of them. Even describing the rest is a bit much. You can take it for granted that there would be a lot of extra scenes in the movie, bits of conversation and business, character moments for the protagonists, development of the York/Down Romance, moments for supporting characters, etc. I just want to do the critical stuff for the narrative. You can assume the rest.