The Gentleman in the Blue Box, A Doctor Who Timeline

[DG Valdron]

DALEKS vs ROBOTS,

The story opens with a young man, Mike (Jack Wild), selling newspapers on the street.

[These scenes, in fact, were the only outdoor shooting done, on a streetscape at Shepperton Studios, most of the rest takes place on soundstages]

Immediately, a Dalek comes into view, threatening him and demanding that it take it to Doctor Who. Mike flees, the Dalek discharges a poison gas. Mike runs to the end of the street, but is suddenly confronted by two more Daleks, who tell him that he 'cannot escape the Daleks.' He runs down an alley between two shops. Seeing a blue police box, he runs inside to hide and call for help.

There, he finds Doctor Who (Peter Cushing) and Susan (Roberta Tovey) respectively. He looks out the door, utters the usual line about 'bigger on the inside than outside.' Susan warns him to shut the door. Mike says the Daleks are after him. This attracts the attention of Doctor Who, who turns on the viewscreen.

The viewscreen depicts a street scene quite different from the alley, with several Daleks moving about a city street. In the script, the Daleks are outside surrounding Tardis in the alley, and an exterior shot was called for.

[There was no time or money for the set up, and so a stock footage clip of Daleks filling a street from Invasion Earth 2150 was used.]

Doctor Who, looking at the viewscreen, says that the Daleks have found them, and that they must flee.

The interior of Tardis, once again is substantially different from the previous movies. As in the previous movie, it is a studio set, bordered with black curtains, and filled with science-looking=electronic equipment and lights. A couple of static generators can be seen in the background, as well as various pieces of living room furniture. Fortunately, the chemistry lab tablefrom the previous movie is nowhere to be seen. There are a few innovations from previous versions - Tardis is now equipped with a prominent steering wheel and shifting levers mounted in the floor.

[This was actually a design contribution from Peter Cushing, who noted that if he was piloting the time machine, he needed some sort of steering mechanism. The set and prop designers installed a chair and a steering wheel for him. At his request, the kept installing levers."According to the story, we were fleeing through time and space, so obviously, I had to be driving the thing. And since some of the drama would come from me operating it, I needed physical things to do, things that would appear on camera. So no foot pedals, just levers," Cushing told an interviewer.]

The other big innovation to the Tardis Interior was a dining table and kitchen area, complete, complete with chairs, cabinets and refigerator. This comes into play almost immediately, when Doctor Who, after launching Tardis and escaping the Daleks, invites Mike to sit down for a hearty breakfast of Sugar Puff Cereal. The box is placed prominently on the table, and Doctor Who and Susan express their delight to Mike over the tasty and nutritious cereal.

Breakfast is interrupted, however, by an alarm, which indicates that the Daleks have found them. Doctor Who returns to his chair and steering wheel, announcing that he will lose the Daleks by taking them across Earth=s worst battle fields.What follows is a series of scenes of Doctor Who pulling levers and turning the steering wheel left and right, with coloured lights shining in his face, while Susan with varying degrees of panic announces that the Daleks are following and right behind them.

[On the view screen, stock footage from movies about the American Civil War, WW I, WWII, Cowboys and Indians, the French Revolution, and a Roman gladiator movie plays. Interspersed with this, we see clips of Daleks moving across rear projection scenes of the various battles.These scenes have been roundly mocked in reviews, not least because of the obvious lack of coordination between the Daleks and the front projection material. At times, changes of scale and even scene are apparent. Careful observers will note occasions where the Daleks shadows can be seen on the screen. }

Finally, Doctor Who says that he will evade the Daleks by going all the way back to the beginning of time, to the Age of the Dinosaurs. On screen, a black and white image appears. Mike complains that it is all gray. Doctor Who responds that chlorophyl has not been invented yet. Mike, crying out that he does not want the Daleks to get him, runs out the door, despite the protests of Susan and Doctor Who that he will be killed immediately. There=s actually no good reason for Mike to do so. In fact, quite often, there=s no good reason for Mike to do anything, it=s just the demand of the plot. It turns out to be a bad idea. The camera cuts to Mike, in black and white, trying to make his way through an impenetrable sound stage jungle. There is a monstrous roar and he cowers. On Tardis, Doctor Who wants to take off again, but Susan begs him to rescue Mike. He tells Susan to wait for him and goes out. There are shots of Doctor Who making his way through the same soundstage. Doctor Who catches up with Mike, but a gigantic dinosaur appears.

[The Dinosaur is actually a baby alligator with a fin glued to its back from One Million BC. (1940). One Million BC featured optically enlarged shots of lizards on miniature sets passed off as dinosaurs. Since its release, shots and outtakes from the film, including dinosaurs, landslides and a volcanic eruption had been used as stock footage in literally dozens of films. Ironically, because of a scene where a baby alligator and a tegu lizard had actually been forced to fight to the death, the film had been heavily censored in England. Roughly five minutes of footage was integrated into the film hence the shift to black and white and the nonsense about 'chlorophyl.' The stock footage was intercut with black and white shots of Doctor Who and Mike on a poorly matched soundstage set of jungle plants and styrofoam boulders.]

The scenes alternate between shots from inside Tardis of Susan watching the events on the viewscreen and going "oh no!" and Doctor Who and Mike fleeing through the black and white jungle. Doctor Who announces that the monster is between them and Tardis. Just as it looks grim, another monster appears (more stock footage) and the two lizards battle. Doctor who adds dignity to the threadbare stock footage, with a monologue describing a battle of the Titans, never seen by human eyes.

[It's notable that at this time, in the close up shots, Doctor Who and Mike are now in colour, though of course the stock footage remains in black and white. Just another of those errors that make the film so interesting.]

Suddenly, Mike and Doctor Who (back to black and white) are surrounded by Daleks. But once again, a stock footage giant lizard appears, distracting the Daleks. Mike and Doctor Who flee. The Dinosaurs attack the Daleks, and we see giant dinosaur jaws claws reaching down and picking up proportionately tiny Daleks, or

[Here the stock footage is intercut with additional footage, close ups in black and white of 6.5 inch tall Marx Toy Daleks being savaged by dinosaur claws, or bitten in dinosaur jaws, as props men operate crudely sewn dinosaur hand puppets, intended to mesh with the stock footage. There are also close ups of full sized Daleks moving back and forth on the soundstage, waving their appendages, and letting off blasts of gas, while screaming exterminate.}

Doctor Who and Mike almost succeed in escaping, but are stopped by a Dalek. Before it can take them prisoner, it is swiped away by a mighty reptilian paw. Doctor Who looks up, and immediately identifies the giant reptile-man as a Great Garloo, ruler of the age of Dinosaurs. Doctor Who radios Susan in Tardis to communicate with the creature through Tardis loudspeakers. Both Susan with a microphone and Mike in the jungle shout for its aid (to reinforce the connection between the Garloo and children), and the creature nods and proceeds to attack the pursuing Daleks .

[Garloo is portayed by a stunt man in a costume/frame built by the Marx company modeled on the toy robot, shown only from the waist up (the lower half of the costume wasn't ready at the time of shooting). Marx was pleased with the scene. Terry Nation was incensed, he felt it trivialized his Daleks and reduced them to a joke.]

As Doctor Who and Mike make it back to Tardis, a (stock footage) volcano explodes, and sweeps the rest of the Marx Daleks away.

Back in Tardis, Doctor Who cautions that while they've won a victory, there are still more out there and will undoubtedly resume their pursuit. Doctor Who immediately flies Tardis into space. Cue more lights on his face, and Susan's excited description "past Mars! past Venus! past Jupiter and Saturn!" On the view screen, these planets appear and vanish. Finally, Tardis comes to a stop. "Where are we now?" Susan asks. Doctor Who replies, "I don't know, but it is somewhere that the Daleks will never find us."

The view screen shows a miniature of a large city. Outside of Tardis, a robot's head looms into view, and an ominous chord is struck.

Footnote: Well, here it is. The first act of Daleks vs Robots, the first of the totally and completely ATL Cushing Who movies. It's been a long time getting here. Hope you enjoyed the ride. I'm much happier with this attempt. And I have a reader or two. Let me know what you think as we go. Feedback is a wonderful thing.

 

[DG Valdron]

DALEKS VERSUS ROBOTS, ACT TWO

Inside Tardis, the Doctor is looking at the innards of some machine. He announces to Susan and Mike that the Tardis cannot travel much further.One of its mercury regulators has broken, as a result of the stress of travel such a vast distance in time and space. To go much further, they will need more mercury.

[This is a call back to the original Dalek serial, where the Doctor pretends a mercury fluid link is broken in order to justify exploring the distant city.]

The Doctor says it;s time for lunch, and they repair to the kitchen. The Doctor reassures the children with the remark that the Daleks will never find them. Discussing their problem, they resolve to go to the city and see if they can obtain some mercury from the locals. The trio exit and travel to the city. Arriving, they are almost immediately, captured by Robots.

[The Robots themselves are modeled on Marx lines of toy robots from the 60's. They are mechanical humanoids with heads, plates for faces, torsos and metal arms and legs. In addition to the mechanical humanoids, there are a variety of other robot forms, including a robot vehicle where the torso is built into the vehicle itself - although it still uses a steering wheel. Notable, is a robot dog, basically immobile and towed along by poorly concealed wires. These were based loosely on Marx toys, particularly the common, pressed tin, battery or wind up dime store variety, or even reproductions based on playsets.

[The quality of the robots varies dramatically. In the main, there are half a dozen main robots, fully detailed, with varying degrees of mobility.. Ironically, the robot bodies, like the toys themselves, were simply pressed tin - the basic approach was to use a sort of ‘robot dummy’, build wooden frames around it, bend and rivet tin plates around the frames, after that, paint it, add gadgets and highlights, and then hang it on a well padded stuntman. All the robots bodies were the same size, the stuntmen were not, so various adjustments had to be made.]

[In the background there are a dozen or more robots, less detailed. According to production notes, the Marx company constructed two 'standard robots' for use, which turned out to be almost immobile. The props department had to partially deconstruct or adapt those for movement, and constructed another four based roughly on the same design. In addition, they built a handful of robot bodies or partials for stunt men or extras to wear, or simply to be hung or manipulated in the background as props or puppets. Partial props used for close ups included robot heads, robot legs, arms and claws, chest guns, etc. They (or Marx) also constructed 1/2 and 1/4 size puppet robots, which, along with the actual toys, were used for some forced perspective and background shots.]

[The demands of mobility meant that for some shots, the stunt men were only partially in the robot costumes. For instance, only the top part would be worn to allow the stunt man to walk about freely, or a metal skirt instead of robot legs would be used. There’s one famous shot, for instance, where the camera inadvertently shows that the robots are wearing trousers. Only the foreground robots are fully detailed.]

[Background robots are much less detailed, according to legend some are visibly made of cardboard. In truth, in some scenes, a painted cardboard 'cutting mold' was used in the background.For long shots and composites, including shots with miniatures, actual Marx Robot toys are used to give the impression of literal armies of robots. In one scene, for instance, a couple of rows of them were nailed to boards which were slowly moved in jerking motions to give the impression of robots marching. To compensate for what were obviously toys, the production used a variety of tricks - quick cuts, intercuts with full sized robots, flashes of light, darkness, dry ice fog and even shaking the camera.]

Between cuts of the miniature of the Robot City, and the cast marching along on a largely barren soundstage, Doctor Who and his companions find that they are in a city of Robots, built by Robots, for Robots, a lifeless, mechanical metropolis. Or so Doctor Who reveals in a monologue.

They they are brought before Christopher Lee, the ‘Master’ of the City of Robots, who welcomes them to the planet Aridius.

[Aridius, of course, is the desert world that the Doctor and Companions are vacationing on at the beginning of the Chase.]

[The original script somewhat resembled the televised serial - at least to the point that Subotsky wanted to incorporate elements he thought would go over well with the audience. Lee was originally approached for the role of Dracula, or more accurately, a ‘haunted house’ robot version of Dracula. He was initially uninterested, but the part was initially brief, little more than a cameo, and he agreed at Cushing’s request. When Lee came on board, the part was revised, and the Dracula Robot was to be the creation of the Daleks, used to infiltrate the Tardis, but that didn’t make a lot of sense. By the third draft, the Dracula robot was simply the ruler of the robot city - at that stage Lee pointed out that it didn’t make a lot of sense to keep calling it Dracula. ‘Master] was a placeholder title, while variations of ‘Count’ and ‘Dracula’ - Drakon, Drakular, Drakolon, were tried out. The Master’s daughter’s name, ‘Drayan’ is a leftover of this].

We are half way into the movie now, and the villain has finally shown up. The Master reveals that he is the creator and ruler of the city, and he and his daughter, Drayan, are the sole human inhabitants. They are the last survivors of their race, which had died off despite his scientific advances.

[This may be an allusion for Forbidden Planet, where the only inhabitants are Doctor Morbius and his Daughter. Forbidden Planet itself is inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest]

The Master pretends to be a friendly host, and invites his guests to dinner. Dinner, it turns out, are tiny pills on a plate. The Master tells them that science provides all the nutrition necessary. Mike is unimpressed and announces he wants real food like Sugar Puffs.

Looming in the background is Big Loo, the Master’s ‘bodyguard’ a menacing eight foot tall robot, clearly designed for war. The Master assures them that Big Loo is harmless.

[Big Lou was actually a 37 inch tall, hideously ugly, electronic robot. Modeled loosely on tin soldiers, Big Lou had a cone head, a gigantic toothy grin, and various moving parts and spring loaded armament, it had a viewfinder, thirteen pre-recorded phrases, could bend and move and fired projectiles from various parts of its body. It was one of Marx’s most ambitious toy robots, so they wanted it to appear prominently. Marx designers constructed a seven and a half foot tall version of Big Loo. Unfortunately, the prop was so cumbersome that the operator could barely move. It was garish, awkward and everyone hated it. Nevertheless, Big Loo appeared in several shots and was given a role to play in the story.]

The Master extolls the virtues of Big Loo as the ultimate war machine and perfect robot and bodyguard. Mike wonders why the Master needs a bodyguard or war machine on a planet of robots without war or enemies. Susan kicks him under the table.

Doctor Who innocently reveals that his Tardis is a ship that can travel through time and space, which immediately interests the Master. The Master pretty clearly telegraphs evil intent, but the Doctor Who just prattles on.

He tells the Master it cannot travel very far, because it is almost out of mercury. The Master says that there is none on the planet, but that the moon of Aridius contains an ample supply, and he has a craft which can get them to the moon.

Doctor Who and Master agree to take travel to the moon to recover mercury. The Master’s daughter, Drayan, and Mike and Susan will remain behind, guarded by Big Loo. The Master’s ship - looking very much like a conventional space module [another Marx toy design], travels to the Moon.

[Man's first landing on the moon was the Apollo 11 Eagle Mission, July 9, 1969, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent 21 hours on the moon. This was followed a few months on November 19, and the Intrepid lander, where Pete Contrad and Alan Bean spent 32 hours, including almost 8 hours on the lunar surface. These landings were the culmination of an international Space Race that began in 1955, when the US and USSR competed to reach space. The Soviets launched the first satellite, Sputnik in 1957, the first human in space in 1961. The US followed shortly thereafter, with the Mercury program, and then the two man Gemini program. Through the 1960s both sides put up orbital satellites, and sent probes to the moon, and fly-by space probes at Mars and Venus. The moon was the big prize. As a result, popular culture of the 60s, including but not confined to childrens toys, was saturated with space and astronautics, reaching an almost feverish pitch in 1969. Catering directly to the sentiment of the time, the script and the movie includes a completely gratuitous moon shot and moon exploration, achieved almost entirely with model work.]

The Master and Doctor Who leave the ship in bulky space suits [costume rentals] and in slow motion make their way across a cratered moonscape soundstage. They find a pool of mercury [water with coloured vegetable oils] and collect its contents. The camera pans across the cratered floor, to show a series of parallel tracks through the dirt.

[Most of the 'Moon scenes' were shot with a tabletop model and miniature vehicle. For close shots two stuntmen wore the space costumes, with Lee and Cushing voicing over them. There were only a couple of close ups of Lee and Cushing wearing space helmets which were intercut.]

On the planet, Drayan reveals to Mike and Susan that she is not the Master’s daughter, but his prisoner. That the Master took over a space ship and crashed it on this planet, so that he could build a robot army to take over the universe. The other passengers and crew of the space ship are kept as slaves down below.

She reveals that the Master intends to steal Tardis as part of his plan to conquer the Universe.

Back on the Moon, the Master pushes Doctor Who into the pool of mercury, to be trapped or drown in his space suit. As he’s pushed in, the Doctor grabs the navigator box. Doctor Who warns the Master that he will be unable to return without the navigator. The Master replies that he will simply follow his tracks back.

He takes the Lunar Car and drives off, following his tracks to return to his ship. The camera pans in, and dramatic musical cues, reveal that he is following the wrong set of tracks.

Footnote 1: Nothing much really. You'll notice that I'm inserting most of my comments into the narrative. I just thought it would fit better there.

Footnote 2: There is one call out I'd like to mention - The shots of an actor or stuntman wearing only the top half of the robot costume, and trousers and shoes below is actually based on a real life movie. Attack of the Eye Creatures, directed by Larry Buchanan, 1967. This was a low budget production, where the alien menace were humanoids with eyes all over their bodies. Unfortunately, only a couple of full body costumes were made, with a few upper body costumes to supplement them. I suppose the intention was to show the half costumes only from the waste up. Didn't work out that way - there are several shots of attacking Eye creatures wearing jeans and tennis shoes. I pride myself on the thought that the most ludicrous and ridiculous things I can come up with have actually happened somewhere in the history of bad movies.

 

[DG Valdron]

DALEKS VERSUS ROBOTS, ACT THREE

While Big Loo watches over Susan and Drayan, Mike sneaks off with a Robot Dog down to the slave quarters with a message from Drayan - to tell the slaves that they have a chance to escape now that the Master is off world.

Mike reaches the slaves, and meets Drayan’s lover, Ardar. Ardar reveals that he was an engineer who helped to build the robots, and further reveals that they are all controlled by a central power source. All except Big Loo, who has an independent power unit. They travel to the Central power unit, which is guarded by robots. Ardar distracts the robots while Mike shuts off the power.

All over the city, Robots freeze or fall over and the lights go out.

When the lights go out, Drayan springs into action, throwing a tablecloth over Big Loo. As the powerful robot flails, Susan and Drayvan stretch out a rope to trip the machine. Big Loo is overthrown, literally. Drayvan throws a switch in the back, deactivating it.

Ardar and Mike rush into the room, Ardar and Drayan embrace. That, by the way, was the romantic subplot. Blink and you will miss it. By the way, Jim Dale and Angela Thomas, in their late twenties and early thirties are clearly too old for their parts.

The liberated slaves enter the room, complaining that they are starving, but Susan has the answer - the scene cuts - and suddenly the slaves are happily eating Sugar Puffs, the boxes prominently displayed. One slave rejoices that it has been a long time since they have had real food. This is pretty much the only time a supporting actor outside a Dalek or Robot casing got a line. It’s pretty naked product placement.

Meanwhile, back on the Moon, the Master has noticed that the track is now a multitude of tracks and he can’t find his space capsule. He gets off the moon car examine the tracks. Following them around a large styrofoam rock, his arm is seized by a metal claw!

It’s a clawed Dalek. Several other Daleks appear. Doctor Who appears, helps the Master pull free, and they are chased back to the ship space capsule, where they blast off.

Back on the planet, the Dalek Spaceship appears.

[This is recycled special effects footage from Invasion Earth 2150 re-composited around the new miniatures. The footage is recycled and composited to different parts of the miniature, so it looks like scenes of a fleet arriving ships.]

Daleks then roll across the soundstage, knocking over immobile robot props, to show their invasion of the city.

As the Daleks roll through the city, the youths watch from a window. Susan says they must get back to the Tardis, but the Daleks are in the way. Drayan reveals that the Master has been building rockets as part of his plan to conquer the Universe, and that they can escape in that way. Drayan and Ardor lead the freed slaves to the ships, fleeing the Daleks, and preparing to take off. Mike and Susan decide to try to make their way to the Tardis. Susan points to the sky - the Doctor is returning in the Master's space module.

The Module lands in the city. The Master rushes to the power station to reactivate his robots. Susan and Mike rejoin Doctor Who and inform him of the Master’s evil. He already knows, the whole attempted murder in a pool of Mercury being a clue.

They race to Tardis. Across the city, the Master having restored their power, the Robots wake and begin to fight the Daleks. Given that there are only a small number of each, and given that each are almost completely immobile, it’s not that impressive. Still, they give it their best shot. There’s lots of Dalek noises, robot noises, smoke, flashing lights and close ups.

As the Daleks and Robots fight, the Master appears in front of Tardis just as Doctor Who and his companions reach it. The Master announces that he is taking Tardis and will be using it to conquer the universe, etc. He is interrupted by the robot dog which bumps into him.

Doctor Who and his companions, take advantage of the distraction to rush past him into Tardis and lock the door. Doctor Who tells Susan and Mike to pilot Tardis while he repairs it.

Outside, more scenes of Robots and Daleks fighting, and miniatures of the City. Coloured lights shine in Susan and Mike’s face as they pull on levers and work the steering wheel. They announce they are taking off.

The planet appears in the viewscreen and suddenly blows up. Doctor Who announces with satisfaction that that was the end of the Daleks. Their entire fleet was on the planet. The chase is over. For real this time. Susan hopes that Drayan and Ardar and the rest of the prisoners were able to escape in the rocket ship. Suddenly, the viewscreen in Tardis lights up, revealing a happy Drayan and Ardar waving and thanking them for their help. They sign off, just as they are about to kiss.

Doctor Who congratulates the two children on a terrific job of piloting. Mike asks where to next.

Doctor Who laughs and tells them that the next stop is breakfast.

The closing scene is of the three of them sitting down to bowls of Sugar Puffs, the camera’s final shot lingers on the cereal box - product placement got their moneys worth.

And there you have it.

Footnote! BONUS!!! DALEKS VS MECHONS, ACTUAL FAN MADE TRAILER

 

[TGW]

Doctor Who, after launching Tardis and escaping the Daleks, invites Mike to sit down for a hearty breakfast of Sugar Puff Cereal

Honestly this line alone convinced me that you'd captured the spirit of the Cushing films.

There=s actually no good reason for Mike to do so. In fact, quite often, there=s no good reason for Mike to do anything

This got a good laugh out of me.

Christopher Lee as 'The Master'? One could only dream! You definitely know your sixties sci-fi, this feels right out of this era for all it's pros and cons!

 

[DG Valdron]

Honestly this line alone convinced me that you'd captured the spirit of the Cushing films.

This got a good laugh out of me.

Christopher Lee as 'The Master'? One could only dream! You definitely know your sixties sci-fi, this feels right out of this era for all it's pros and cons!

Thank you. In working it out, I tried to put myself back in twelve year old shoes of that era and think about how it was to go uncritically 'gosh!' and 'wow!'

And at the same time, inhabit a relatively cynical thirty or forty year old man who is very deliberately targeting and trying to write a movie for that twelve year old. What do kids like? Dinosaurs! Robots! Astronauts! Moon Landings! And just throwing things in there.

A thirty or forty year old man who has decided he has something to prove, who has been embarrassed and feels abused by his partner, who has had a friendship with a writer become acrimonius. I saw him writing and producing basically a 'gee whiz!' 'Boy's own adventure.'

Finally, the usual - lack of money, resources, time - so lots of stock footage - dinosaurs, historical battles, planets going by - some of it simply inserted and covered over with some 'gee whiz' dialogue, back projection, table top miniatures, crude special effects and costumes, plus clunky dialogue with examples of exposition and 'show don't tell', technical errors including boom mikes in the shot, but all carried on at breathtaking place for an audience sufficiently enthralled and uncritical that they don't really notice the flaws.

Stay Tuned for the next exciting Doctor Who movie, starring Peter Cushing as Doctor Who and Roberta Tovey as Susan - Doctor Who and the Robots of Terror!

 

[TGW]

Yeah, this is absolutely a type of movie that flies by on visuals and charismatic actors, And of course, the write-up is (in-universe) being done by someone who is a lot more critical of the stuff than your average audience member would be. Though I'd admit I'd be that twelve year old who'd get snobby about how much better the Mechanoids were, so what do I know?

 

[DG Valdron]

Reviews and Aftermath

Daleks versus Robots did extremely well for AARU productions. Not nearly as well as Doctor Who and the Daleks, but significantly better than Dalek Invasion Earth 2150. But almost as importantly, it had cost significantly less than either movie. Financially, it was a success for AARU, and enough of a success that another movie was in the cards. Subotsky almost immediately, and somewhat prematurely announced the next movie, provisionally titled 'Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure.' This was followed by overtures towards Quaker Oats and Louis Marx, and invitations to participate in the next project.

The Daleks

The previous movies had relied on heavy promotion - Daleks had travelled to Cannes and to Australia. This time, promotional activities were less prominent, particularly with respect to the Daleks. Part of this was the overall lower budget. Part of this was certainly the matter of old news. Dalekmania was well past its peak by this time, of course. And this was the third or fourth Doctor Who movie. The first had been big news, the fourth.... ?

But part of this was simply that they were running out of Daleks. No new Daleks had been constructed for this movie. The Dalek fleet consisted of eight leftovers warehoused after Dalek Invasion Earth 2150, two of which were in quite poor condition. That left six usable Daleks, plus a couple that could be deployed for certain stationary or special effects shots.

To supplement the numbers, Terry Nation was approached to rent his four Daleks to the production. But the relationship between Nation and Subotsky had remained tense. Initially, Nation was unwilling, but eventually the prospect of license fees for use, and appearance in another movie, persuaded him. Still, negotiations were difficult, usage was limited to three Daleks on specific shooting days, and Subotsky considered the fees exorbitant. Perhaps Nation knew what he was doing, as the limitations of production meant that several of the Daleks were handled very roughly.

By the end of the production, several of the AARU props had been destroyed, either through inadvertence or negligence, or as part of scripted special effects scenes. Daleks had been blown up, assaulted by violent robots, or wrecked by other catastrophes. Of the eight AARU Daleks, only two were left in good condition at the end of the shoot, although two others were compiled from intact sections - AARU was down to four Daleks for marketing and promotional purposes. The fate of these props was unclear. One was vandalized outside a supermarket in Birmingham. Two more were sold at auction. The final Dalek was retained by Milton Subotsky for a time, but in 1976 was gifted to a German distribution company.

But it was largely academic. Among the movie's critics was Terry Nation himself, who privately was upset at what he considered the mishandling of his creations, and the poor quality of the film himself, which he saw as below even the television standards. By that time, relations between Subotsky and Nation were already frosty, and Subotsky resolved that if there was to be another Doctor Who movie, Daleks would not be any part of it. Besides.... he had his robots now.

The Sponsors

Overall, Quaker Oats and Louis Marx toys were relatively happy with the final film and its reception among their target market. Quaker Oats, however, declined any further participation in the franchise - they'd had a failure, they had a success, and they were moving on.

Louis Marx toys also declined to participate in a follow up movie, although their 'no' was significantly less definitive.

The sense within the Louis Marx toy company was that the film had significantly boosted toy sales, particularly among science fiction themed items. Their analysis of audience response suggested that Big Loo as an eight foot monstrosity, had been a little too frightening for children and there'd been no significant uptick in sales. But Great Garloo had been greeted warmly and became a popular seller during that period. This was welcome, but it didn't necessarily lead to further commitments.

Many of the Louis Marx based props and costumes were simply discarded after the production, or were used as as prizes in promotional contests and giveaways. But seven full sized Robots had been constructed - the eight foot Big Loo, the Great Garloo, and five standard robots, patterned loosely on Marx designs. The five standard robots were a colourful bunch with mixtures of red and metallic blue or gray chassis, blinking lights on heads and chest pieces, and a variety of accessories - different heads, manipulators, chest plates that could be added or removed to give the impression of larger numbers.

Most of these were returned to Louis Marx toys, and used for in store appearances and displays for years. Great Garloo succumbed to wear and tear and was discarded in 1972. One of the standard robots was also damaged in shipping in 1973 and retired. Big Loo and two standard robots ended up on display in the Marx toy museum until the Museum was closed.

Subotsky retained two of the full sized standard robots. In this respect, Subotsky followed Nation's example and rented them out for publicity and promotional appearances. One of the full sized Robots was shipped to Spain for a monster movie in 1973. It was not returned and is considered lost. The other full sized robot was used as a background prop in the Amicus movie, Madhouse, in 1974, and appeared as one of the background 'monsters' in the one of Milton Subotsky's final productions 'Monster Club.'

Reception and Critical Response

It was a hit with its target audience. Children and younger teenagers loved it. There was a demand for merchandise, at one point, a short lived comic strip, which lasted until the BBC issued a cease and desist. It became a sore point with Subotsky that AARU was unable to benefit from merchandising.

There was some mild controversy about violence. But the only actual violence between humans was when the Master shoves Doctor Who into a pool of mercury. All other instances of violence were essentially monster on monster - with dinosaurs versus daleks, or robots versus daleks. Confrontations between humans and the monsters were rare - characters were often menaced but seldom physically engaged, the daleks waved their stalks around and shot bursts of smoke, the robots lumber towards humans, or restrain them, but on only one occasion does one of the cast, Jim Dale, actually wrestle briefly with a robot.

The romantic angle was similarly chaste - Jim Dale and Angela Douglas were portrayed as star crossed lovers, but the romantic subplot as small, they had relatively few scenes, and they spent more time with their younger co-stars than with each other. There were only two scenes where they embraced, and their final (and only) kiss was off camera.

In short, there was nothing at all to concern a parent about.

Mainstream reviews were not nearly so kind. The consensus of newspaper reviews at the time ranged from calling the movie a 'passable children's movie' to 'a dreary and aimless potboiler, floundering from one scene to the next with undeveloped characters and laughable action sequences.'

The harshest criticism would come a decade later, when Daleks versus Robots was included in the Medved Brothers 'Golden Turkey Award' and 'Fifty Worst Films of All Time.' They wrote: "Doctor Who is a believed classic television series, and represents some of the finest British SF. Robots vs Daleks is an abomination, a wandering, plotless toy commercial, filled with obnoxious children. Watch Peter Cushing act like a man in the early stages of dementia. Watch Christopher Lee cash a cheque. Thrill to cheap toys, photographed to make them look cheaper. Gag as Sugar Puffs are forced on victimized extras. There isn't any part of this movie that isn't cheap, shabby and ignorant."

The reputation of Daleks vs Robots, both on its own, and as part of the Cushing-Who legacy has waxed and waned over the years. This anniversary review by Patrick Morrison sums the ambiguous responses.:

"When I was twelve, I thought this was the greatest movie ever made. It had everything. It had Daleks fighting dinosaurs, Daleks on the Moon, Daleks fighting robots, Daleks and Romans, Daleks and Indians. It had Dalek Fleets, whole armies of Robots, it had jungles, and lost cities on alien worlds, and characters I identified with.

I remember watching it twenty years later with my friends with an acute sense of embarrassment. Now I notice the times that the Daleks cast shadows on the projection screen, or when the camera catches the robot's lower parts as pants, or how absolutely awkward and nonsensical so many of the robots are, the armies of Daleks and Robots are transparently toy miniatures, or the extent of the use of stock footage, particularly the appalling scenes of lizards passed off as dinosaurs from One Million B.C. Or the wooden acting. Or the absolutely threadbare quality of so many of the sets, how transparently they are furnished from whatever is in the props warehouse, and how poorly it matches up with the miniatures.

What was once to me a thrill ride of pure adventure now seems awkwardly structured and badly paced. The villain, Christopher Lee, doesn't show up until half way through the movie, and he barely has a handful of scenes. Jim Dale and Angela Douglas have the most perfunctory romance ever. The utter cheapness of the production shows through in practically every scene. The film didn't age well for us. It's the threadbare cheapness, however, that gave the film it's second lease on life.

It fit so well into the ironic retro era of bad movie appreciation, when we were all going to the theatre to see midnight showings of Plan Nine From Outer Space, or Mystery Science Theatre 3000 was must-see television. It was in vogue to sit back and notice the flaws and flops, to laugh at the dialogue and effects, and it was a lot of tun.

Now ten years on past that ironic stage, with children of my own, I find a new appreciation. It's a children's adventure, the kids are the heroes, and the entire movie is really about from their perspective and about their concerns. It's about two children and their kindly grandfather going on an outing. Mike and Susan are good hearted, resourceful, brave and clever, and their grandparent lets them run the show. The Doctor is there providing security and safety when its wanted, but never smothering. He's not the parent taking charge, he's the adult who enables the adventure, and in many ways, childlike himself, far too trusting of the Master when Mike and Susan can see through him.

What holds the movie together is genuine chemistry between Cushing and his younger co-stars. You get the impression that Peter Cushing had genuine affection for the younger actors, and that Tovey and Wild were fast friends and playmates in real life. You can imagine that between takes, the three of them hung out, playing some children's game together. There's no effort at nuance, or snark, there's none of the cynicism or worldliness that you find in modern children's fair. These kids don't talk like stand up comics with smart ass remarks, or act like jaded hipsters. They're just kids. There is a naive quality to the movie and performances, a call back to a far more innocent and trusting era.

Perhaps that's a good thing."

 

[DG Valdron]

Yeah, this is absolutely a type of movie that flies by on visuals and charismatic actors, And of course, the write-up is (in-universe) being done by someone who is a lot more critical of the stuff than your average audience member would be. Though I'd admit I'd be that twelve year old who'd get snobby about how much better the Mechanoids were, so what do I know?

You'd watch it in order to be critical. Yep, I've been there.

Anyway, going to take a short break, before working on Robots of Terror. And after that, we'll segue into Peter Cushing's Doctor Who radio adventures.

 

[Unknown]

The last post reminds me of my differing opinions about the movie The Blair Witch Project. When I first watched it back around late 1999, I was home alone, and, during a scary part of the movie, something got knocked down outside and I jumped--it was that unnerving. Then, I watched it with my uncle, who actually does live in woods similar to the setting of the movie (though in Pike County, Ohio, not Maryland), and he was criticizing them for not following water, etc. and commenting on how the woods were similar to the woods he lived in in Ohio, and I realized that the movie, while still OK, wasn't as good as I thought...

 

[DG Valdron]

The last post reminds me of my differing opinions about the movie The Blair Witch Project. When I first watched it back around late 1999, I was home alone, and, during a scary part of the movie, something got knocked down outside and I jumped--it was that unnerving. Then, I watched it with my uncle, who actually does live in woods similar to the setting of the movie (though in Pike County, Ohio, not Maryland), and he was criticizing them for not following water, etc. and commenting on how the woods were similar to the woods he lived in in Ohio, and I realized that the movie, while still OK, wasn't as good as I thought...

The first time you watch something, it always has more of an impact. You've never seen it before, you don't know what's coming next. It's fresh.

Second viewings? Tougher. You notice more.

And of course, some people automatically notice.

 

[DG Valdron]

Daleks vs Robots opened in the United States and Britain in November, 1969, with a theatrical run that extended into February, before it reached secondary markets. Back in those days, movies were actually on 35 mm film, and to show it in a theater, you needed to strike a print. To show it in two theatres simultaneously, you needed to strike two prints, and so forth. Each print had a cost of course, film was expensive.

So distributors were constantly balancing how many prints they needed to cover the largest available theatres in the largest markets, to maximize their box office. They might strike a hundred prints for two thousand theatres. As the prints played out their run, typically a week, in the largest markets and theatres, they'd be shifted to week long runs in the next largest, and then week long runs in the third largest markets, until finally, months later, they'd make their way to the small town theatres.

A sort of logic came into play - big movies, movies with a lot of advertising and promotion? Well everyone wanted to see those right away - you'd strike a thousand prints and saturate the country. If the movie turned out to be terrible, you made your money and got out while the getting was good. But if you had a genuinely great blockbuster, then you'd make a killing.

B-movies on the other side, didn't have a lot of advertising budget, they had posters, trailers. but that was it. Some B-movies had only a couple of prints struck, and counted on making their money back by simply playing nonstop, circulating around grindhouse theatres, drive ins, second run indy theatres, etc.

The point was, even with a relatively generous number of prints struck, and with Louis Marx company's toy oriented marketing strategy, a reasonable number of prints were struck to allow the movie to appear in all the major markets going into the Christmas season. But it would take a few months for the movie to make the rounds.

Louis Marx compensated for this by commissioning a movie trailer. Also on film, trailers were distributed throughout the market in advance of a film - advertising for the audience. In this case, Marx commissioned five times the usual number of trailers, which basically amounted to two minute two toy commercials, and literally blanketed the theatrical world. Doctor Who trailers were shown through the Christmas season in literally every theatre in the US and Canada.

Consequently, it wasn't until February or March, 1970, that Joe Vegoda and Milton Subotsky concluded that another Doctor Who film was actually viable.

Which is when they ran headfirst into John Pertwee.

Here was the problem: Jon Pertwee had premiered as the third Doctor on January 2, 1970. In itself, not a big deal. Pertwee was well known and well liked in the television industry and on good terms with Milton Subotsky, although they hadn't worked together.

In fact, Pertwee had come very close to actually playing Doctor Who in Daleks vs Robots. On the television series, Patrick Troughton had let it be known as early as 1968 that he was leaving the show. The search for the new Doctor began in early 1969, and by May 21, Jon Pertwee was cast as the third Doctor. Daleks and Robots was in pre-production, and while Peter Cushing had signed on to play the movie Doctor, there was nothing written in stone. For a brief period, Subotsky courted Pertwee for the role, hoping for a coup - the first appearance of the television 3rd Doctor would be in his movie, a couple of months before the series appearance on television. Presumably, Peter Cushing would have been paid out.

As mad as this is, it was feasible. Peter Cushing had already been replaced by Robert Hutton in the third Doctor Who movie. There was nothing ironclad to suggest he was the inevitable candidate to play the Doctor in the fourth. Indeed, Rosenberg had suggested that the role go to Hutton again instead. The Doctor of Daleks vs Robots could easily have been Jon Pertwee.

In the end, Pertwee declined, citing discomfort with usurping Cushing's role, and the heavy upcoming pace of and commitments of the television series. But relations with Amicus were Amicable, and Pertwee, following the filming for his first season as the Doctor went on to appear in The House that Dripped Blood, an Amicus portmanteau film released in February, 1971 that starred Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Jon Pertwee... among others.

But Pertwee represented a real problem. Doctor Who was going to colour.

Through the 60s, television and movies had represented two very very different viewing experiences. Television was black and white, seen on very small screens. The average screen size was 18 inches. The image, broadcast and plucked from the ether was often poor with relatively low resolution. There were additional technical limitations, including primitive but massive and bulky video cameras, and confined sets. In contrast, movies were in full, glorious, saturated colour, and were shown in high resolution on huge screens which could show sweeping panoramas and large scenes.

But in the 70s, colour came in widely. In fact, the BBC began broadcasting in colour in November, 1969. Jon Pertwee's Doctor who was broadcast in full colour. There was more to it. In the 70s, the average screen size increased to 23 inches. Colour and larger screens allowed increasingly cinematic compositions. For the first time, in the 70s, television was becoming a serious visual challenge to movies.

Now, it's true that when the BBC went to colour, the vast majority of television sets were still black and white. So for many, the viewing experience didn't change immediately. But the reality was that the change had been going on all along, and would keep going. Television screens in 1969 were much more advanced, larger, with better resolutions and sounds than the ones in 1960. And the televisions of 1979 were equally more advanced and sophisticated than those of 1970.

But 1970 was the great tipping point.

So with Jon Pertwee's Doctor who appearing in full colour in 1970, with sweeping expansive stories like Spearhead From Space, shot on film and with cinematic technique, film Distributors like British Lion had a serious question.

Doctor Who was a television series. The movie adaptations worked and sold because the movies had been able to deliver something television couldn't - Full, glorious colour. Well, now that the television show was in colour, and people were getting it for free, why did anyone need a movie that was just a remake of a television serial?

Colour was the big selling point for the movies. Now the television was colour. So why?

That turned out to be a very hard question to answer, at least in 1970. Daleks vs Robots had made quite a bit of money, so Distributors were receptive, but not ready to sign on right away. They wanted to wait a year or so to assess the impact of colour television on the movie industry before deciding whether to support a Doctor Who movie.

Louis Marx toys was also firmly in the 'maybe' category. They were happy with the experiment, and receptive to a proposal, but not prepared to firmly commit. They weren't as troubled by the transition to colour, if anything they saw advertising and commercial opportunities. But they were toy salesmen, and they wanted to see how the toy sales went. Getting involved with a film had been a leap, they might do it again, but were in no rush.

Also in 1970, Milton Subotsky took note of the resemblances between Doctor Who and the Menace from Space, and Spearhead From Space, and was very much of a mind that this was not a coincidental resemblance. Actually, it was entirely coincidental. But Subotsky would spend the rest of his life believing otherwise. This lead to a simmering low key dispute between Subotsky and the BBC through 1970 and 1971. Subotsky was smart enough not to provoke an outright confrontation, but at various points, he sought a story credit on Spearhead (academic since the serial had finished its run), compensation for story, as an alternative to compensation and credit some collateral form of compensation, proposed renaming re-releasing Doctor Who and the Menace From Space as Doctor Who and the Spearhead From Space, or Doctor Who and the Arrowhead From Space. In 1971, Subotsky claimed credit for the character of The Master, arguing that Gough's Master of the Moon, and Lee's Master of the Robot City, were clear forerunners. The BBC's response that characters named Master had already appeared three times in Doctor Who. The dispute was civil, with Subotsky writing letters and proposals, the parties meeting occasionally, and the BBC politely rebuffing. Nothing official came of any of it.

In the end, the project floated on ice through 1970, a sort of Schrodinger's film, not quite alive, not quite dead. Indeed, the entire film company seemed to be on ice, with only the House that Dripped Blood in production in 1970. Amicus only 1970 release was a surreal horror conspiracy, Scream and Scream Again, shot in 1969.

But this was only a pause, other projects were in development which would see release in 1971 and 1972.

Footnote 1: 35 mm movie reels are these big monstrous things, as wide as a car hubcap and about an inch and a half thick. They're pretty substantial. And they run about twenty minutes. A full length movie is between four and six reels. They came in these steel octagonal cannisters.

When I was young, my father had a garage and a drive in theater. I used to sleep at the garage. For movies, we dealt with a regional distributor, they had a catalogue of movies, they had posters, they had the little advertising plates for newspapers. We'd get the posters and the plates through the mail. But the films? They had some guy in a truck whose job was to drive all around the province, back and forth, to all the little independent theatres and drive ins, dropping off movies and picking them up. I'd get up at 5 am to meet him, give him the old movies, pick up the new ones. We'd chat. I remember the last time he came by.

That's how it worked. So all that stuff about striking prints, and distribution - that's all real. That's stuff I grew up with. Nowadays, a lot of it is digital. Movie theatres don't necessarily even use film. It's just downloaded and projected. But back then, it was all manual. Movies had whole systems of economics based on the kind of movie it was, how many prints were struck, and where those prints went. One week was standard for a first run movie theatre. For our drive in, two or three movies a week.

Footnote 2: The stuff about the transition from black and white to colour, and the impact on television production and viewing is accurate as well. In real life, it obviously wasn't that clear cut. Televisions got better and bigger each year, they got more sophisticated. They graduated from tubes in the 60s to transistors for example. And it wasn't like people were buying new televisions every year, a television set would last a family a few years. So there was a lag.

But when colour broadcasting came in, there was a huge boom an impetus to buy colour televisions to take advantage of it. When Spearhead from Space premiered, most sets were black and white, but that made sense - people weren't out buying colour televisions to watch black and white programs in anticipation that maybe someday there would be colour. But once colour was out, it really pushed the market. It took a little time, but it was that revolutionary. It changed television fundamentally, it changed what was produced, and how it was watched. A lot of what confined to action movies started being done on television, and television broadcast a lot of movies. Colour really blurred the lines between movies and television. With Doctor Who, it really was a clear transition - Troughton ended in Black and White and Pertwee began in colour. It was just that profound.

Later by the mid-seventies, cable television came in. It was the beginning of channel proliferation, and it was the death knell of many of the little indy theatres and movie houses.

1978 or 1979 was the last season of our drive in. I started going to university. But for years, decades after, whenever I returned home, I'd go back to the drive in, walking around the place I'd spent so much of my youth. It was like time lapse. I watched the giant movie screen fifty feet tall, slowly succumb to the elements. The big plywood panels falling off one by one, then the poles going.

Dad still ran the garage, and he started using the drive in as a place to park junked cars. It was almost a ghost theatre, dead cars at a dead drive in, lined up to watch nonexistent movies on a decaying screen. We used poles and wired speakers, and they'd all be lined up, all the derelict cars, each one parked next to a pole.

I remember going in to the darkened building, checking out the seven foot carbon arc projectors, the concession stand, the piles of old speakers. Slowly the building collapsed, the roof falling in, the floor decaying so that the big projectors fell further. The poles went missing one year. I don't know why - maybe for wires and scrap metal. The ticket booth. Trees claimed the edges, the place was returning to nature. The driveway into the drive in got flooded by beavers for a while. I'd worked every part of it, everywhere I looked was a kind of bittersweet nostalgia. So many memories, and everything just fading, collapsing, breaking down, returning to nothing.

 

[DG Valdron]

There was another complication that undermined the next Doctor Who movie. Peter Cushing had married his wife, Helen Beck in April 10, 1943. For almost three decades, they lived happily. Helen contracted emphysema. In 1970 her condition began to progress and she was deteriorating steadily.

During this time, Cushing continued to work, but cut back considerably. He starred in a segment of the Portmanteau film, House that Dripped Blood, shot during the summer. He took brief supporting roles in Scream and Scream Again and the Vampire Lovers, he took an uncredited role as Baron Frankenstein in the Sammy Davis Jo and Peter Lawford vehicle One More Time. But these were small roles.

As the year wore on, it was clear he was spending most of his time looking after his wife. He'd shot only one day's film for Blood From the Mummy's Tomb when she was diagnosed, and he immediately dropped out, to be replaced by Andrew Keir. He dropped out of Lust for a Vampire and The Abominable Dr. Phibes, in order to care for his ailing wife.

Cushing simply wasn't available for another Doctor Who film in 1970. That was largely an academic matter - Subotsky and Vegoda weren't able to get a Who movie going that year at all.

On January 14, 1971, Helen Beck passed away. Cushing was utterly devastated. While he did make film appearances in 1971, most of these were shot later in that year.
He was expressly unwilling to consider taking on the burden of carrying a starring role a Doctor Who film, through 1970 or the first half of 1971.

Helen Beck's illness, and Cushing's decision to avoid roles to care for her, and then his subsequent mourning, posed a challenge for AARU. Initially, the gravity of the situation wasn't fully understood. Cushing was taking time to look after his wife, so presumably, he'd be available again in a couple of weeks or months when things settled down. But months turned into more months. Convalescence turned into funeral, turned into mourning, and the production kept dragging its feet waiting for him.

There was some consideration to recasting. But the window to replace Cushing had literally passed. He could have been replaced for Daleks versus Robots, after all Hutton had replaced him for the third film. At this point, he'd appeared in three Doctor Who movies, and had at least a cameo in the fourth. And he had appeared in two seasons of Radio serials as the Doctor, and even if these had not officially been broadcast in England, some fo the audio recordings had managed to circulate. He had become indelibly identified with the Doctor Who movies.

If Cushing wasn't engaged, was there a credible Doctor Who movie? This was a question for Subotsky, but also for British Lion and Marx Toys. One that it was preferable to wait another month or another couple of months before deciding. The question came up, and it always got kicked further down the road.

Cushing could be replaced, he was just an actor after all. But by this time he was so identified with the part, that there was a reluctance to do so. Broccoli had replaced Connery with Lazenby. That hadn't worked out well. Replacing the lead in a series was a crapshoot. To be done reluctantly and only if necessary. Was it necessary?

So AARU was on tenterhooks, trying to get Cushing's commitment, but looking at options. Eventually, in the later half of 1971, Cushing tentatively agreed... with conditions, but there was a commitment. By that time, it was too late to make a November 1971 release date, as demanded by Marx toys.

Even then, he proved difficult, withholding final agreement until he had seen a script or at least a synopsis. In addition, for sentimental reasons, he demanded the return of his young co-star, Roberta Tovey.

This wasn't the first time he'd made such a demand. The two had gotten along very well during Doctor Who and the Daleks, and he'd asked for her return for Dalek Invasion Earth 2150, and welcomed her return in Daleks versus Robots. The two had become close friends, almost a father-daughter relationship, and in the wake of his wife's death, this had become crucial. He desperately needed emotional support in his life, reminders of better things. He would only do it if Tovey returned as Susan.

The problem was that in 1965, Roberta Tovey had been 12 years old. By 1972, she'd be eighteen. Naturally small and petite she could still play much younger than her age, but she'd clearly aged out of her character. This was a critical issue, since Subotsky wanted a children's movie - he needed protagonists who could clearly pass as children. 1969, Tovey had barely been able to pass. 1972? Not at all.

Initially, Tovey was not considered for a role, and Subotsky decided to cast a younger actress. Cushing protested this. In response, Tovey was re-cast for the role of Susan, and then re-cast to play the Doctor's niece with the role of Susan going to a child actress. Then she was re-cast as a grown up Susan with another child actress to be a new character. Tovey became disenchanted with the proceedings, which reflected on Cushing's own attitude, and the arguments delayed the project considerably.

Ultimately, it was agreed that Tovey would play Susan one last time, the Doctor's co-pilot in Tardis, and that two new characters -a twelve year old Vicky, and her mother, Clare, would be written in. Like Mike in Daleks vs Robots, they'd stumble into danger, and the Doctor and Susan would help them. Vicky would be the central anchor for the young audience. And Clare would... be her mother. Tovey wouldn't actually have much of a role, but she'd be there.

Meanwhile, another issue was becoming apparent to Subotsky and Vegoda. His wife's illness and death had taken a tremendous toll on Cushing, he'd lost a great deal of weight and visibly aged. He was now quite frail and gaunt. He simply physically wasn't the man he'd been wrestling Vampires, playing Holmes or building monsters through the 60s. He wasn't the man from Doctor Who and the Daleks or even Daleks versus Robots, and he couldn't carry off action scenes. Indeed, there was some concern as to how much he was physically up for. It might be a good idea for scenes to have him sitting down, or otherwise avoiding anything strenuous.

This had been something of an issue in the earlier movies, resulting in the casting of Roy Castle and Bernard Cribbens, both as comic relief and to do any required heavy lifting, but that had been an option. Now it was a vital necessity. To balance Cushing's frailness the script needed a strong male character to do any required heavy lifting. There was some consideration to bringing back Mike, but Jack Wild wasn't available, and in any case, Subotsky didn't want a teen movie. One teen character in Roberta Tovey, was enough.

But the supporting male character couldn't just be there for heavy lifting. He'd have to support, but not overshadow the star, which meant comic relief, and therefore a comedian's skills. And he'd need to be relatively mature, which would create an opportunity to pair him with Clare, and have a minor romantic subplot. Bernard Cribbins fit the bill. One opportunity from the casting was that Cribbins could be brought back as his old character.

It didn't hurt that not only had Cribbins previously worked on a Dalek Invasion Earth 2150, but he'd also worked with Cushing on She in 1965, the two men, if not close, were at least familiar - something that carried a lot of weight given Cushing's condition.

There was the casting of the villain. Cushing suggested his close friend, Christopher Lee. Lee, wasn't particularly enamored of either the Doctor Who series or the movies, he'd felt his part was a waste in Daleks versus Robots. But he was intent on supporting his friend, Cushing, and so he agreed to return. Subotsky wisely took advantage of this and Lee was given top billing with Cushing. In short, a significant portion of the cast was present, not just to play their roles in the movie, but to provide emotional support to a vulnerable Peter Cushing.

Then there was the matter of the monsters. Daleks would not be part of the movie, that bridge was burned on both sides as far as Subotsky was concerned. Through 1970 and 1971, Subotsky unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate for the rights to various Doctor Who monsters, particularly the Cybermen, but also the Ice Warriors and the Yeti. None of these negotiations came to anything, either he disliked the price, the property owners declined, or he ultimately couldn't find a proper use for for them.

But Subotsky was the proud owner of two full sized, Louis Marx Robot costumes left over from the previous movie and in good, usable condition. Even if Marx declined to participate or license, the all he needed to do was some cosmetic modifications to obscure their origins and the robots would be usable at literally no cost. As it turned out, Marx, seeing what would amount to another 90 minute commercial for their toys was prepared to participate.

With the cast and the monsters provisionally in place, Milton Subotsky delivered a script treatment by September or October of 1971, which seemed satisfactory to all parties. A provisional shooting window was reserved for May through July, 1972, with an anticipated release of November, 1972. All Subotsky needed was the money, and that would come.

He got to work on the script.

Footnote: Yep. Most of this is obviously made up. But Helen, Peter Cushing's wife, really was diagnosed with emphysema in 1970, deteriorated rapidly through her illness, and passed away on January 14, 1971. Cushing really did minimize his work schedule that year, to a few small roles, and he blew off three movies to look after her.

Following her death, he was devastated, and never really recovered. On the set of Horror Express in 1973 he was almost unable to function because of depression, and it took his friend Christopher Lee to help him get through it. There were a number of reports that he just wasn't the same man, and watching his movies before and after, you can see his physical deterioration following her death.

He really was close close friends with Christopher Lee, they worked together something like 24 times in movies, and often spent time together. At one point, they got thrown out of a movie theatre together for laughing too loudly at cartoons. There were numerous attestations to close friendships. As to the close relationship with Roberta Tovey, Cushing was childless but seemed to like children. Tovey in the Dalekmania documentary remembers him warmly as a grandfatherly figure, and says that he insisted on her return in the second movie.

When you're writing a timeline like this, there is a certain amount of interactivity with the historical record. You have things you want to do, events you want to take place. You have an agenda, goals, strategies, end points.

But there's also the realities of how things actually happened, and the reasons they happened in that way.

Initially, I was thinking of Robots of Terror as a quick opportunistic follow up, appearing within a year of Daleks vs Robots, say likely 1970. But then, researching Dalekmania, I realized that each of the four key Dalek serials - Daleks, Dalek Invasion, Dalek Masterplan and Power of the Daleks had run around the Christmas season, November and December, in 1963, 64 and 65 and 66.

I realized, that's the toy buying season for children. That probably made a huge contribution to Dalekmania, and the obsessiveness to children. The key Doctor Who Dalek serials were literally six to ten weeks of half hour advertisements for Daleks, running right up to the Christmas season. The Daleks were incredibly toyetic, and they were appearing around the time that children had free time on the holidays for television watching and play, and for their parents to be buying toys.

I don't know if it was deliberate - probably an accident of scheduling. The first Daleks story was just to fill a hole. Power of the Daleks was there to establish Troughton by putting him up against a well known enemy. The Chase and Evil are outliers, as are the appearances in Mission to the Unknown and the Space Museum. So I don't think there's anything deliberate by the BBC. But the timing and proximity to the holiday season does seem significant, and likely had an impact.

Get a toy company involved - it makes total sense that they'd notice and that they'd want to deliberately target a Christmas buying season release date. So either November, 1968 or November 1969 for Daleks vs Robots, and a November after that for Robots of Terror.

So for Daleks vs Robots, I had to work out the timeline - 1968 or 1969? The first movie was 1965, and immediately greenlit the second in 1966. The Hutton movie under either title was 1967 - I thought about butterflying/dispensing it entirely, but it's such a ringer for Spearhead from Space, I kept it in.

If the Hutton movie was 1967, that meant Daleks vs Robot couldn't be any earlier than November 68 or maybe November 69. I chose 1969 - Terry Nation was screwing around with Daleks and being difficult, Subotsky was trying to find financing and dealing with toy companies, I figured all these complications would take time. Unlike the Hutton movie, which was just a re-titling of an already going project, or the second Daleks movie which was driven by success of the first, this would be Subotsky coming back to the project and starting over from scratch. I assumed a year's delay, both in deciding to go forward, lining everything up, dealing with various complications - November 1969.

So Robots of Terror couldn't be any earlier than November, 1970. And that was when colour television came in. I thought, 'wow' that's such a sea change. I should explore that a little bit. One of the major selling points of the movies over television, apart from much much bigger screen and higher picture and sound quality, was colour. Suddenly, television was in colour - a little bit of a game changer, particularly for movies that were remakes of television. That would probably make it harder for them to sell, wouldn't it? Putting together financing would take longer and be more difficult because investors and distributors would be more skeptical.

Of course, it wouldn't happen overnight. Just because the BBC was now broadcasting in colour didn't mean everyone in England rushed out to get a colour TV, or that all the programming changed over. But it would accumulate. Available in 1970, a bigger and bigger deal in 1971 and even bigger in 1972. How would they overcome this handicap - use colour more vibrantly, more graphically? Continue or accelerate the trend of aiming the series towards children as a less discriminating but more enthusiastic audience?

But the big problem with November 1970, is Helen Cushing's emphysema and decline. That takes Cushing right off the Board. He's simply not going to commit to a full shooting schedule or feature role in 1970 - a cameo or a little part, that's one thing - a whole movie? He'd turned three of them down in real life. I looked at different ways to rig it, maybe opting for an early shoot, or pushing the timeline backwards all over the place. I thought perhaps it would kill the movie altogether. In my first stab at this timeline, I just wrote it off - said the movie was never made, died on the operating table because of Cushing's grief and disability.

Then I thought, "Hey, this is a really transformative event." What would the effect of Helen's death be on trying to make a Doctor Who movie? It definitely couldn't happen in 1970. Slim chance of happening in 1971. Myabe 1972. But more than that - what would an emotionally devastated grieving Cushing be like and how would that affect the movie.

He's physically deteriorated, you'd compensate for that in casting. He's distraught, depressed, perhaps a little unreliable. He'd be physically incapable of some action, and unconvincing if he tried. So you want a brawny younger man to help out. Bonus points if it was someone he got along with. Like Cribbins.

He'd want people who reassured him around for the movie - Tovey and Lee. But hey, Tovey has aged, so you'd have to adjust for that. You'd need to change Tovey's role, she'd have to become someone like the older grand-daughter or niece in the earlier movies. That meant for a children's movie, you'd get another kid in, and perhaps an adult to accompany the kid.

Research, research research.... and think about the research, explore the ideas.

 

[DG Valdron]

The Robots of Terror, Act One (Annotated)

London in the evening, a mother, Clare, and daughter, Vicky, (approximately ten years old) are out for a stroll, when they are menaced by a massive looming figure in a trench coat and hat, its features not visible. Mother and daughter turn to flee. But there is another similar figure behind them. It grabs the mother. She struggles, knocking its hat off and seeing its true face. She screams, telling her daughter to flee. The little girl flees.

[The beginning is almost identical to Daleks vs Robots, where a third party is directly attacked by the menace, and very similar to Dalek Invasion 2150 where the opening scenes do not involve Doctor Who at all.]

Vicky runs into a Constable, who rushes back to the scene with her. But they find nothing but a strange footprint. Half disbelieving the girl's story, he takes her to the nearest police box to phone in a report. The Police Box is actually Tardis, the Doctor and Susan await.

[Roberta Tovey, as we can see, had been brought back to reprise her role as a grown-up Susan. She was 18 years old by the time of filming, but still playing a younger character. The 'child star' role, had been reassigned to the character of 'Vicky.' Tovey would play a big sister and once again, Cushing would be a grandfatherly figure.]*

Constable Tom Campbell goes "Oh not you too again!"

[Bernard Cribbins had been optioned late in the production=s development, as a result of Cushing's difficulties with his wife's death. Cribbins had been brought in to take some of the weight off of Cushing, picking up lines, doing physical action, etc. He was also a fairly gifted comic presence, so he could be counted on to lighten the script. Cribbins character in the script has multiple tasks, cowardly comic relief in some scenes, action hero in others, romantic male lead to the mother Clare, and occasionally impulsive and childish in some scenes. Cribbin's character is often impulsive and slightly immature. It's clear that his role is designed as an idealized older version of the young boys who constituted the audience.]

It's explained who Doctor Who and Tardis is. It turns out that Invasion Earth 2150 was not good for Tom Campbell's career as a police officer. His tales of Time Travel and Earth's dire future nearly got him institutionalized, and left him pounding a beat. As he narrates briefly, flashback scenes appear of robots, flying saucers and robomen, Campbell relates that he and Doctor Who travelled to the future to defeat robots from space who came to conquer Earth.

[The scene is mostly designed to show of Cribbin's comic skills. But it also references backstory and foreshadows the coming story, with the talk of robots, and use of stock footage to establish the menace.]

[Most of the flashback stock footage is taken from Daleks vs Robots, and are scenes of the Robots of Aridus. There are some shots from Invasion Earth spliced in, including ruined buildings, flying saucers and robomen. Daleks are not mentioned by name or shown at all. ]

Constable Campbell, establishing he wants nothing to do with time travellers, proceeds to walk out of Tardis. He opens the door and a huge robot is looming. The Robot chases Campbell into the Tardis and around furniture, until Susan and Doctor Who cover it with a handy sheet and push over the blinded machine. Doctor Who removes the power unit.

Doctor Who turns on the viewscreen to reveal that the street is filled with Robots. Vicky reveals that the Robot is the same thing that kidnapped her mother.

[This is a deliberate repeat of the opening scenes of Daleks vs Robots, where the viewscreen reveals a street filled with Daleks. Subotsky had four functional robot costumes - two he had retained from the previous movie, and two more borrowed back from Marx Toys. All of the lesser robot probs had long been discarded Since there were only four functional robot costumes, the multitude of robots was simply an optical effect.]

A figure appears on the screen announces that he is the Master of Time and Space and demands to know who is challenging him. Doctor Who responds. The two seem to recognize each other. Vicky demands her mother back. There's a brief argument, as the Master holds forth on his plan to conquer the Universe. The Doctor announces his intention to stop him.

[Avoiding a mistake in Daleks vs Robots, Christopher Lee is here introduced right out the starting gate. The description of Lee in the script has him seated, the lower half of him covered by a metal carriage - handwritten script note indicates that this should be a dalek lower casing, scavenged from one of the surviving props. However, by that time, the Dalek props had been discarded. The carriage bears some resemblance to a lower casing, but is heavily accessorized. The implication intended by Subotsky was that the Master had been seriously injured and crippled, but had learned the secret of travelling through time and space from the Daleks captured in the previous movie. The production was unable to use Daleks or refer to them directly, but Subotsky was not above working in oblique references.]

[Although there are clear implications that the Master is the same character from Daleks versus Robots, there's no direct reference to events on Aridus, and no reference to how he survived or how he was injured. Although it's vaguely alluded that the Master and Doctor know each other, the character is largely stand alone. This is in contrast to Cribbens Constable Campbell, whose history is very clearly defined.]

{It should be noted that in later years, Subotsky claimed that the Master in Robots of Terror was the forerunner of Davros from Genesis of the Daleks, and that Nation had taken inspiration directly from him. So in addition to inventing the Master, Subotsky in the same character had invented Davros. This was disputed strongly by both Terry Nation and the BBC. As noted, this is not the first or the last time that Subotsky claimed to originate elements that later ended up in the television series. He would eventually claim that the character of K9 created by Baker and Martin had been inspired by a helpful robot dog in Daleks versus Robots. None of these claims have been accepted.]

The viewscreen goes blank and Tardis begins to rock back and forth as the Robots attack, and the foursome are flung back and forth. Sparks and smoke appears inside Tardis. The viewscreen fills with images from different eras of the past. Doctor Who announces that the Robots are attempting to hurtle Tardis out of the very fabric of time and space itself. There's an exterior shot of the robots pushing Tardis back and forth, superimposed on scenes from various time periods, with calendar dates rushing past.

[Historical Stock footage - our old standby from Daleks and Robots makes an early comeback.]*

Doctor Who returns to the drivers seat of Tardis, twisting the steering wheel and pulling levers to regain control. Psychedic colours flash and scenes from different time periods appear. Susan, Vicky and Tom all cry out. The Doctor tells them to hold on. And then it is over. Doctor Who tells them that they have shaken the robots off and are at the far beginning of time.*

Doctor Who reveals that they are in danger at the beginning of time. All of them are growing younger, reverting to their time of birth. This is to be shown by the actors wearing oversized version of their clothes and being shown with oversized props and sets to show their reduction. At some point, Cushing and Cribbens are replaced by younger actors. They must activate Tardis to escape while they are able to. Working together, the Doctor and Susan activate the shields, freezing time.

But there is a new crisis. Freezing time means that they will no longer de-age. But time is congealing around them into a solid block. Soon they will be frozen like flies in amber. The effect takes place against the oldest first, and the Doctor becomes a statue. Next Tom. Only Susan and Vicky are left. As Susan begins to freeze, she instructs Vicky to activate the Tardis so they can escape before they are frozen forever.

[This was actually a schizophrenic moment from the script. These are two different ideas for a crisis at the beginning of time which appeared in different early drafts of the script. Apparently, during production, they were unable to choose between the two and did both in succession. Note the second scenario, where ten year old Vicky and fourteen year old Susan end up saving the day - again oriented towards the children's market.]

The Tardis escapes, and everyone returns to normal. Doctor Who thanks Vicky for saving them all. Now they can proceed to save her mother.

 

[DG Valdron]

Doctor Who and the Robots of Terror, Act Two (Annotated)

The crew of Tardis, now safe, have lunch and debate how to find The Master and rescue Vicky's mother.

Constable Campbell fills his face with crackers and then drops some plates, while trying to reassure Vicky.

Susan opens up the chest of the robot, finding its memory tape. She plays the tape in Tardis machines to find the robot's origin. On a viewscreen, they see the robots abducting humans from different time periods, and dumping them into a futuristic bin which vanishes with a glow. Constable Campbell asks if they have been disintegrated. Doctor Who says that it is a transport device and they are being teleported elsewhere, in a manner not dissimilar to the operation of Tardis. Doctor Who states that the Master is clearly able to move through time and space, although the Doctor's own time machine is immeasurably superior.

Susan then reprograms the tape to make the Robot their servant. When she reinstalls, she does not notice but the camera shows a second, smaller tape already running. The robot reactivates, ostensibly under their control. There are some bits where Constable Campbell is suspicious and attempts to bully the robot, but it professes its loyalty. Using the Robots memories, they travel back to England, and the hidden base of the Master.

Doctor Who and Constable Campbell leave Tardis to reconnoitre. They find two robots directing a group of humans wearing costumes with metal chest plates containing blinking lights. These people have been reduced to Robo-zombies.

[There was significantly less money for this production's special effects. The avalanche of robot and dinosaur props and exotic sets was largely bypassed. The production made use of the four robot suits which cost nothing, and used Shepperton's sound stages and streetscape. The Robo-zombies were basically humans in gray-greasepaint to indicate wounds and decay, with blinking light chest-plates and various metal appliances. ]

They are working on some sort of machine. Doctor Who deduces it is a moon communicator, and that the Master's base is on the moon. All of the Kidnappings have taken place when the Moon has been clearly seen in the sky. That is where the kidnapped people are being sent.

Although the robots are alert, the Robo-Zombies are oblivious. Looking to disguise themselves, the two men wait for an opportunity to ambush some Robo-Zombies when the robots aren't looking. Constable Campbell knocks two of them out. But when they examine the men, they find that they have been dead for a long time. They are corpsed reanimated by the Master's electronics as zombie drones. Constable Campbell worries that Vicky's mother may already be dead. They decide to return to Tardis.

[With only a few robot suits to work with, this was the solution to bolster the Master's forces with henchmen and explain his kidnappings. This is highly reminiscent of the Robomen from the original Dalek Invasion Earth serial and Invasion Earth 2150 movie. There's also a conceptual resemblance to the Cybermen. Production notes indicate that Subotsky wanted to be careful to avoid physical resemblance to any of them. Finally, alert viewers will note the similarity to Doctor Who and the Menace From Beyond in which alien intelligences reanimate human corpses to assist them in building their moon base. ]*

On Tardis the Master appears on the viewscreen. He takes command of his Robot again. It captures Susan and takes control of Tardis while Vicky hides within.

Outside, Doctor Who and Constable Campbell race towards Tardis, which vanishes before their eyes. Doctor Who says that Susan would not leave without him, and surmises that Tardis has been stolen.

Constable Campbell asks what can they do now? Doctor Who says follow them. Returning to the Robots base, Doctor Who and Constable Campbell locate the Robo-Zombies they deactivated, and after disguising themselves, sneak into the Master's Moon teleport bin, managing to activate it.

They arrive on the moon and Constable Campbell is immediately seized by a robot. Campbell manages to fight it off, and the Doctor deactivates its power unit. Campbell remarks that this robot was a lot weaker than the one in Tardis, but Doctor Who explains that due to lower gravity of the moon, Tom is actually six times stronger. Just then, an army of Robo-Zombies converge on them. The two escape, fleeing down a hall, and ducking into a side room.

In the room, they find that they are on the Moon at a processing station with bodies laid out in orderly rows. Doctor Who examines the bodies laid out for processing and makes a discovery - all of the women have been drained of their blood. Blood draining apparatus hangs down from the ceiling, and the Doctor examines it.

[This was considered the most controverial scene in the movie - the room full of dead women laid out on tables. The dead women are clearly all covered by sheets, but there is a persistent rumour, repeated in some reviews and texts, that the room is full of naked dead bodies. An example of the mind playing tricks, and a disturbing scene magnified by memory, or perhaps conflation with a scene from another movie.]

[It should be noted that there is a subtle gender divide - apparently, all captured men are killed and turned into Robo-Zombies, but the women are kept alive separately to be drained of their blood. It's not clear what was to be done with the bodies of the dead women, but there are no female Robo-Zombies.]

Surmising that the Robo-Zombies must be locally controlled, the Doctor goes into the power source and attempts to shut them down. Initially, this causes them to become wild and randomly violent. But then the Doctor figures out the program, and they all collapse inert them down. Examining the station, they learn that the Master's main base is some distance away. It must be reached by travelling across the surface of the moon. Luckily, there are space suits, which they put on, and a vehicle the use to traverse the moon.

[The space suit rentals from Daleks and Robots are re-used, as are some of the tabletop stock footage models. But there is additional new footage of the Doctor and the Constable putting on suits, wearing them, walking on the moon and riding a vehicle. There is also additional tabletop moonscapes.]*

Elsewhere on the Moon, Tardis lands and Susan is brought before the Master in the clutches of the Robot. The Master explains that to extend his life, he must harvest her blood, and have it mixed with his, through the machine he sits in.

[He is literally Dracula in a wheel chair.]

He gloats over his capture of Tardis and says that nothing can stop him from conquering Earth now. He has Susan taken to the womens chamber to await her exanguination. However, Vicky sneaks out of Tardis to eavesdrop and has tagged along unseen.

Susan is roughtly shoved by the robot into a room with women in the clothing from all time eras. The women explain that they have been abducted and are in danger. Susan rouses them. She says that she understands the Masters machines and could defeat him, if only she could get out of the room.

The door opens - it is Vicky.

Vicky spots her mother Clare and the pair are reunited. Lead by Susan, the women manage an escape, tricking and overpowering the Zombies. However, as they flee, they are pursued by Robots, and several are killed by the Robots death rays. Eventually, only Susan, Vicky and Clare are left.

[Note - according to the script, they are only stunned, not killed. To be fair, several are scene moving when collected by the Robots, or in later scenes.]

Turning a corner, Susan, Vicky and Clare find themselves facing two menacing space suited figures. The figures take off their helmets and are Doctor Who and Constable Campbell.

Suddenly, pairs of robots appear in every doorway. They are trapped, and have no choice but to surrender. Again, Vicky sneaks away unnoticed. The Master appears on a viewscreen and advises that for leading rebellion, they will be taken to the Moon's underground volcano(?) and cast into the pit, all except for Doctor Who, who is to be taken to the Master.

 

[DG Valdron]

The Robots of Terror, Act Three (Annotated)

Doctor Who meets the Master in the center of his factory. The Master takes the Doctor on a tour, showing him his operations. The Master talks about the superiority of his Zombie army and Robots over living men and women and tells him about his plans to conquer the universe and create a perfect system of order, a universe of unliving perfection, where everything that exists is dedicated to a single purpose.

Doctor Who asks what of books and literature, poetry and music, what about fun. The Master replies that this is imperfection and can be dispensed. The Master tells Doctor Who that he has a brilliant mind and must see the beauty and inevitability of the Master's plans, he invites Doctor Who to join him. Doctor Who asks what happens if he refuses? The Master shows him the Volcano.

[Stock footage from One Million BC, 1940. Also stock footage of an actual volcanic eruption.]

The Master reveals that the moon volcano contains dangerous lava monsters, but it supplies the immense power required for the Master's time travel device. The Doctor Warns him of tampering with the power within.

[Lava monsters are represented as humanoid figures in heavy shapeless orange suits cavorting in a pool, heavily solarized with red filters. This is intercut with filtered stock volcano footage. The Lava Monsters were a last minute addition to the script after it was decided that an exploding volcano was too impersonal. They were inserted into the script to create tangible malevolent 'personifications' of the volcano and add a level of drama.]

Meanwhile, down at the volcano, represented by solarized red light, rumbling and the roaring sounds of lava beasts, the Susan and the Constable are awaiting their fate in the custody of two robots. Susan tells Constable Campbell that if they can escape and find the control room, she can shut the place down. Constable Campbell whispers to Susan that he will try and create a distraction so she can escape. Constable Campbell walks up to the Robot, blustering aggressively.

The Robot tells him to get back in place. Constable Campbell announces that he is six times stronger than on earth, winds up and throws a mighty haymaker. An instant later, he's bouncing around and whimpering, holding his injured hand. Behind him, the robot wobbles, raises its weapon and then falls over.

Astonished, Constable Campbell looks at his fist. Vicky comes forward, holding the Robot's power battery, which she stole while the Robot was distracted by the Constable.

[There were two robots, but only one is disabled. Where did the other one go? It just seems to have dropped out of the movie.]

Susan and Campbell hug Vicky. Campbell says he spotted a transport, and will use it to get the women to earth. But there is still an army of Robots in the way advancing upon them. They lock and bar the door, but on the other side, the Robots are steadily hammering it down, breaking the glass.

Constable Campbell tells Vicky that the Doctor has found that the Robo-Zombies are all centrally controlled. If only they can escape find the control, they can turn the Robo-Zombies wild. They will begin attacking everything, including the Master and his robots.

Campbell protests that means that the Robo-Zombies will attack them as well. Susan says that she can reprogram the disabled robot to be good. Campbell protests that didn't work so well last time. But Susan says she knows what went wrong. She reactivates it. The robot announces that it is her friend, and will help her. She gets it to lead them to the control room.

Susan finds a control panel and begins activating systems. The Robo-Zombies turn on the Robots everywhere battling them all over the moon. Campbell, Vicky and Clare find the room where the women are imprisoned, and lead them to the transport station, where they start to go through one at a time, with Campbell at the controls.

Doctor Who's confrontation with the Master is interrupted by a Moonquake. Robo Zombies burst into the chamber wrestling with the robots. Taking advantage of the distraction Doctor Who smashes or seizes the Master's control unit, leaving him trapped in his carriage. As the Master protests, the Doctor announces that he is releasing the lava beasts. The Master shouts that they will destroy the complex.

The Doctor runs off, as the Master futilely shouts orders to the battling Robots and Zombies.

Shots of the exploding volcano, lava flowing, interiors of the Masters base, zombies working and robots marching oblivious to the moonquakes, fires breaking out, and styrofoam debris falling on them. Lava beasts emerge from the volcano, sweeping away tiny robots.

[A half dozen modified Marx toy robots, partially concealed by dry ice and intense red filters. Marx had in fact provided a brace of robot 'soldiers' modeled on some of its toy designs, but these were mostly not used by the Director, and appear in only a few shots.]

As Constable Campbell finishes operating the transport, it blows up in a shower of sparks, leaving him with Vicky and Clare.

As Susan and the Robot flees the exploding control room, with showers of sparks, and smoke every a lava monster appears. The Robot declares it will protect her, telling her to flee as it wrestles with the lava monster.

[Louis Marx Toys insisted that at least one of its Robots had to be 'good.' Some consideration was given to having the robot survive the battle with the lava monster and go off with the Doctor and Susan in the Tardis at the end. Those scenes were actually shot. In the end, the decision was made that a heroic sacrifice was more effective.]

Susan arrives at the teleport station. They tell her that there is no escape. She tells them that it won't be much longer. Constable Campbell tells her that it was good to know her. They hold hands, watching the lava flow.

Behind them, Tardis materializes and Doctor Who steps out, waving. Campbell, Vicky and Clare all rush into Tardis. It disappears as the Lava Monsters erupt.

Final shot of the Master trapped in his carriage, shouting hysterically as his drones go about their business and his base explodes in fire.

[The Robo-Zombies have docilely returned to work without explanation. The original script contained closing scenes where the Master regains control of the Robo-Zombies, returns them to work and struggles desperately to regain control of the volcano. The intent was to raise tension for the Master, showing that he might somehow win, or that he refuses to ever accept defeat. In addition, it was to illustrate the zombified nature of the Robo-Zombies, showing that they were not truly alive and more like automatons, uncaring whether they were destroyed. Because they were unalive, they were indifferent to the Master's fate, and thus his ironic end, screaming for help while his servants go about their business... incapable of responding because he has robbed their humanity. During editing, it was deemed too cumbersome and awkward and these scenes were cut, leaving no explanation for the changed behaviour.]

The whole thing ends in an explosion. Tardis materializes on Earth. Doctor Who, Susan, Vicky, Clare and Constable Campbell exit. Doctor Who states that the adventure has ended happily and everyone is back where they belong.

Constable Campbell asks if Doctor Who will be staying, because it would help him a lot down at the station where they think he is crazy.

Doctor Who says that he and Susan have more adventures, but that he knows Tom will be all right. He and Susan return to Tardis and it fades away.

Constable Campbell turns to Vicky and Clare and tells them it was great to know them, he supposes that Clare will be getting back to her husband. Clare reveals that she is a widow. She smiles at Campbell. He is surprised, but then he smiles back and takes her hand.

Last shot is Vicky looking crossly at the camera, as if to say "Oh those silly grown ups!"

The End

 

[DG Valdron]

Reviews and Aftermath

The Financials

Doctor Who and the Robots of terror was primarily financed through the Distributor, British Lion, with limited financial participation by Louis Marx Toys, and minimal production participation. Quaker Oats, of course, did not participate.

Marx provided two of its full sized robot costumes, and a slate of smaller custom made robot figures, although the smaller robots were only used in a few scenes, primarily depicting the robot armies, or in the attack of the lava monsters. Marx did have editorial impact into the movie, insisting that upon a storyline involving a "good robot" - which was rendered in the two sequences where a robot is reprogrammed and interacts positively with the protagonists. Marx also insisted on a minimum proportion of screen time devoted to the robots.

Despite limited financial and production participation, Marx did fund the production and distribution of movie trailers, again basically two minute theatrical toy advertisements, to a large number of theaters, and built an advertising and marketing campaign around the robot toys and moonscape play stations.

Internally, Marx was less than pleased with some of the horrific aspects, notably the concept of Robo-Zombies and scenes of a room full of dead women drained of blood. This ended its experiment with marketing through film production.

This was the lowest budgeted of the Doctor Who films to date, with a production budget of somewhere between 85,000 and 95,000 pounds. It was financially successful, but not as successful as Daleks vs Robots. The consensus of professional shared by AARU and British Lion was that fears of the impact of colour television on 'remake movies' were justified, and that they had been lucky to make their money back. The Doctor Who franchise had run its course, and there was no desire to make another one.

Reviews

Although it went over very well with its target audiences and performed strongly, reviews were often savage. Only a few contemporary reviews were positive, citing it as a positive children's movie.

Generally, however, the film was roundly condemned on just about every side. Parents associations and reviewers complained about the Robo-Zombies, deeming the idea of roboticized undead to be too frightening for children. Also singled out as unacceptable for the age group was the scene with the room full of dead women, the murder of escaping women by the pursuing robots (most of whom are later shown alive), the vampiric chair of Christopher Lee's Master, and even the fascistic scenes of legions of killer robots. Mary Whitehouse denounced the movie as completely unacceptable for children.

A number of reviews compared it critically to Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who television series, now in colour for two seasons, and with an arsenal of classic serials. Robots of Terror suffered in comparison in almost every respect, including effects, performances and a story described as superficial and puerile. This tended to overlook that the movie was aimed at a significantly younger target audience - children, rather than the family fare of the Television series. And it overlooked that the television operated on a serial format - seven episode serials, which allowed far more time for complex stories and characterization.

Interestingly, Jon Pertwee was one of the few defenders of the movie, pronouncing it charming and fast moving.

The sour comparison to the television series became the dominant assessment in popular culture with the rise of organized fandom in the mid-seventies. The consensus of the fans community was that the Cushing movies were cheap inferior retreads of the television series. This would last well into the 1990s, and was the frequent basis for criticism of efforts to privatize the show or launch a further movie.

Another harsh line of criticism, and perhaps a more accurate one, was that Robots of Terror was in many ways, an inferior remake of Daleks vs Robots. Several shots were simply recreations of the prior movie - an opening scene where Tardis viewscreen shows a street filled with Daleks, is repeated with a street filled with Robots, for instance. In many ways, Robots of Terror is simply a reshuffling of elements from Daleks vs Robots. There is Christopher Lee as the Master, with his plot to conquer the Universe with an army of robots. There is the gratuitous moon walk and tabletop moon scenes and astronaut suits. Scenes of Daleks battling Robots are replaced with shots of Robots versus Robo-Zombies. Dinosaurs are replaced by Lava Monsters. The use of stock footage from previous movies, the recycling of Bernard Cribbins Constable Campbell, all go, fairly or unfairly, towards the argument that the franchise had run out of steam, that the series was cannibalizing itself, and that Robots of Terror was simply an inferior remake of Daleks vs Robots, with the Robots now moved up to star billing.

In a sense, it was impossible to win. Robots of Terror was criticized for being both too different from Daleks versus Robots, and for being not different at all. It was condemned for being too dark and scary, but also to immature and childish. It was disliked for being too much like the television series, not enough like the television series, and inferior to the television series. Ultimately, it was seen as an inferior echo of Daleks vs Robots, a kind of cheap, rushed merchandising sequel, comparable to King Kong and Son of Kong. Generally, it has been the overlooked film, an unloved tag end onto AARU's Dalek trilogy. "The Dalek movie without Daleks."

Dissenting voices emerged in the late 80s, notably Paul Cornell who pointed out that it was a more coherent narrative than Daleks versus Robots and addressed structural problems from that movie. He pointed out more effective and diverse characterizations and a genuine ensemble cast, a tighter more fast moving plot, and a genuine sense of tension. Since then, opinion has steadily shifted, and while the consensus is that it is the inferior member of the Robot duo, there is a strong dissenting minority. It is generally better regarded than it was in the 70s, and some even go so far as to call it a hidden gem.

Market History

Through the 1970s, this was the poorest performing of the Doctor Who movies to date, seen as an inferior copy of Daleks versus Robots, it had the lowest rate of single rentals. Generally for double bills, the preferred combination was Doctor Who and the Daleks together with Daleks versus Robots. It was the lowest rental as a double bill combination, but typically appeared mostly with Daleks vs Robots, sometimes with Doctor Who and the Daleks, and never with Dalek Invasion Earth. It was sometimes released on double bills with other, primarily Amicus movies.

The movie experienced a renaissance of sorts in sales, if not critical reputation, in the 1980s and 1990s with the rise of video stores. Priced at the lowest cost of all the AARU films, it experienced widespread distribution. As part of the AARU line, it has received special DVD and Blu Ray releases.


Footnote 1: Mary Whitehouse was a moralizing media scold in the 1970s and 1980s who garnered a lot of publicity and some income by complaining about violence in movies and television. She was able to expand the powers of censors.

Footnote 2: Everyone remembers and knows about King Kong, but most people don't realize Son of Kong was a thing as well. When King Kong was a hit, RKO wanted to capitalize on it, and rushed a sequel into the theatres in eight months (eight months!). The character of Carl Denham from the first movie, played by the same island, is fleeing from lawsuits. He goes back to Skull Island and finds a gigantic (but smaller than Kong) white gorilla which he bonds with. The son of kong fights a few monsters, does some comic relief scenes. Then a volcano blows up and skull island sinks. Not much plot. Willis O'Brien animated it, but had much less time to work. Generally, it's overlooked as an inferior cash grab sequel. Put it this way - more people will name King Kong vs Godzilla as the second Kong movie.

Footnote 3: Since the Medveds and their Golden Turkeys, starting in the 90s there's been a steady re-evaluation of B-movies, with magazines like the Pyschotronic Encyclopedia, critics like John Bloom, Cult movies books looking at things in a new light. At the same time, these B-movies through VHS, then DVD, Blu Ray and streaming services have become more accessible than ever before. Since then, there have been a variety of audience approaches from nostalgia, mst3k, to actual engagement.

 

[DG Valdron]

And that's it - Peter Cushing's next foray into Doctor Who movies will be Doctor Who and the Dinosaurs from 1975. A movie that exists because of cable television and international distribution. Then of course, there's 1979's Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure, the final Cushing Who.

But before we do that, I'm going to switch gears, back up and spend some time exploring Peter Cushing's Audio-Doctor Who legacy. And of course, there's going to be a lot of OTL posts, because it turns out that Peter Cushing actually did do a couple of Doctor Who radio plays, and that there was almost a Doctor Who radio series, starring either Peter Cushing or Boris Karloff. From those components, I will build you an internationally distributed Doctor Who Radio Adventures series, with two seasons of Peter Cushing, one of Patrick Troughton, and an alternative Pseudo-Cushing revival season. You won't get the insane level of detail of the stories. But you might learn a little about radio drama.

As always, feedback welcome.... from anyone.

 

[DG Valdron]

In OTL, in addition to starring in the two Doctor Who movies, Peter Cushing played the Doctor in two radio dramas.

One was a half hour adaptation of Dalek Invasion Earth 2150, edited down from the movie. The other was Journey into Time, the pilot episode for a proposed Doctor Who radio series, written by Malcolm Hulke. The images above are both taken from promotional material released at the time. Journey into time begins much like the original series, but instead of going to the caveman era they end up in the American revolution.

The Peter Cushing Doctor therefore holds two distinctions - he was the first Doctor to do audio adventures, and since both audio tapes were lost early on, he has the first 'lost episodes.'

In case you're interested, the script for the pilot episode was eventually found in BBC archives by Richard Bignell and published in Nothing at the End of the Lane. A group of fans have made an audio re-creation of the lost episode.

So for the next phase, we'll explore the real OTL people and events that lead to the two Cushing radio stories. So lots of crunchy real life goodness, a deep dive into obscure bits of history. Which we will eventually tweak, the pilot will succeed, and the Radio series will have a long life of its own.

 

[DG Valdron]

The history of the Peter Cushing Doctor Who radio series goes back almost as far as the movies themselves, and Boris Karloff very nearly ended up being the Doctor, instead of Peter Cushing.

More to come....

 

[DG Valdron]

Richard Bates, the man who almost launched Doctor Who

The story of the Doctor Who Radio series is actually woven into the deepest roots of Doctor Who himself. Richard Bates was working as a Script Editor on the second series of the Avengers, when Sidney Newman called him up and asked him to be producer on this new show he was working on - Doctor Who. Bates, feeling the job was too much for him, and he was already pretty securely employed begged off. So Newman went with his second choice, Verity Lambert....

Yes, that Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who.

Mind boggling when you think of it. If Yates had said yes, he would have been the show runner. What would his stamp have been on it. Would the Daleks have ever existed? Would Hartnell have been cast? What stories would have fallen by the wayside, and where might the show have gone.

In addition to the Avengers with John Steed and Honor Blackman, which everyone knows, he also did script editing work for Armchair Theatre an anthology series, Redcap about military police and Public Eye, a detective series (none of which I'm familiar with). If he got cold feet on Doctor Who, he soon settled into the role and according to the IMDB remained a very active television producer into the 1990s, including 1984's Tripods. It's interesting to think of the first years of Doctor Who with a bit of Avengers style - Patrick Mcnee as the Doctor?

Now, it turns out, that Bates had a father, H.E. Bates, who was apparently a very successful novelist for his day. Richard Bates got the idea of producing his father's novels as a radio drama. So he partnered with Doug Stanley, and created Watermill productions, and they did that and a number of projects, including a 65 episode spy series, Bruce Courage.


Doug Stanley, Radio Pirate

Doug Stanley was an interesting guy himself. A Canadian shipped overseas for military service, he stuck around and got into radio working as a disk jockey. He was one of the first Radio Pirates, or a Pirate Radio DJ.

That's not quites as weird and awesome as it sounds. Or maybe it was. Y'see, back in those days, Radio was the BBC. But some enterprising fellows realized that there was money, advertising money, to be made broadcasting radio to the British audience. So they set up Radio transmitters outside of Britain with transmitters powerful enough to reach the British Isles - perhaps these transmitters were in France, or Belgium, or in a ship just off the coast. It was mysterious. In a sense, they were real pirates, pirating the airwaves, living outside the law, broadcasting hot tunes and heavy news completely unregulated, and making a business out of it.

Because pirate radio was a freewheeling thing, he got into production, producing commercials, radio and television programs. He started his own company, Stanmark Productions, specializing in oversees radio drama. We'll come back to that.


Culture and Production

Britain, and particularly London, in the 1960s was a cultural mecca. Actors, Directors, Writers, Artists, Producers all flocked there, there was a lively and vibrant film and television industry, a music industry, busting out all over. This was the era of the Carry On Films, Hammer and Amicus Productions, as well as upscale productions by auteurs like Stanley Kubrick on a Hollywood scale for a fraction of the cost, It produced its own line up of stars from Michael Caine, to Michael York, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and more... men and women who had international stature. This was the era of Monty Python. It was also the era of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and the British Invasion. The Empire was gone, but London still lay at the center of a worldwide english language web of former colonies, dominions and allies for distribution.

Now, let me go off on a tangent - Radio Drama. Radio Drama was dead in Britain in the 1960s. Well, not quite dead - BBC Radio, unconcerned with commercial constraints or market competitiveness stuck with Radio Drama for quite a long time, and Radio Comedy even longer. Arguably, they're still doing it. But the reality was that outside the sheltered conclaves of the BBC, it was dead. Other stations, commercial stations, no longer bothered. Everyone played music and read news, and that was that.

Radio Drama had been a huge thing once upon a time. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Radio Drama had been a cultural staple, broadcast into homes. People gathered around the radio to listen to the latest stories and tales, punctuated with auditory special effects and musical scoring. It was Radio that invented the soap opera. The Lone Ranger and the Shadow were born in Radio, before jumping to television and pulps respectively. Radio was where Superman learned to fly. Radio Drama wasn't just art, it was the popular culture of its time. Radio Drama was commercial.

Until television came along and killed it. Because suddenly, you had television, doing everything that radio could do, but with pictures. So it was in the US, where Radio Drama rapidly withered away and fell apart. So it was in Britain. Television was in, radio was out.

But here was where Doug Stanley caught his inspiration. Television was in and Radio was out in England and America... but what about the rest of the world? Television production was expensive, you required studios, cameras, broadcast facilities. You needed a lot of infrastructure and know how. And television sets weren't cheap. Television was definitely the coming thing, and eventually it would be everywhere. But in a lot of the world, it wasn't there yet.

What Doug Stanley realized was that even if Radio Drama was on its last legs in England, there were still a lot of places in the world where it was a live thing, where you could sell it... if you had a good product. Eventually, television would get there, and radio would have to change and adapt to the new environment and Radio Drama would fall by the wayside. But until then you could produce quite a lot of stuff, and you could make some money. There was a possible business model there.

Of course, that begged the question - why didn't the locals just produce their own? In Nigeria or New Zealand or Australia? Why not just do their own - radio was cheap, sound effects were cheap, everyone's got a voice. The thing was though, that in England, you had access to top line actors and writers, state of the art production facilities, and marketing. So produce Radio series in Britain, cheaply by American standards, but to extremely high quality with big names and top talent, for international export. That was a business model.


Dalekmania Strikes Again

Dalekmania hit like a tidal wave. We've talked about that. And the thing was, that it wasn't just Dalekmania, the Daleks dragged Doctor Who along with it. Business took notice, and there were multitudes of marketing proposals and pitches. Imaginative entrepreneurs were trying to find ways to make a buck by stamping a Dalek or Doctor Who or some recognizable element on some product. Believe it or not, there was actually a pitch for shampoo bottles shaped like the Tardis. Why not? In 1964 and 65 it was crazy, and anything goes. The Vegoda and Subotsky showed for the license for the Doctor Who and the Daleks movie.

In June, 1965, Richard Bates at Watermill started contacting the BBC about licensing a possible Doctor Who radio drama, for possibly international distribution. The BBC didn't say no. They satisfied themselves that their radio arm, wasn't going to be producing a radio version of the show. So there was no basis to automatically reject the project. Mostly, the question going around was whether Watermill could produce a drama that would reflect well on the BBC and on the show. Martin Esselin, head of Radio Drama was concerned that Doctor Who was mainly visual. But despite his objections, a six month development contract or option agreement was signed on January, 1966.

The timing of the negotiations and the development contract is interesting. The deal for the movie had been signed in December, 1964, six months before the Radio approach. While the Radio negotiations were going on, the movie was in production and hit the theatres in August, 1965. A few months later, December, 1965, the second movie was announced. Did the movie develop help or hinder the progress of the radio concept. It might have helped as an example of successful licensing, it may have hurt by reinforcing Esslin's argument that Doctor Who was visual. But it's clear that the radio proposal was following in the path blazed by AARU.


The Radio Doctor

Ironically, in January, 1966, the choice for the Doctor was Boris Karloff. Unfortunately, after several months, Karloff proved unavailable. Ill health kept him in Hollywood. Finally, around may or June, they gave up on Karloff. The second choice was Robert Coote, obscure today, but an award winning stage and television actor in his day, and known in the US. That didn't go anywhere.

Finally, they turned to Peter Cushing, who had starred in the first Doctor Who movie and had just wrapped up shooting on the second in March of 1966. It feels odd, I would have imagined he would have been the first choice, given that he was playing the part. But so it goes. Cushing signed on in July, 1966.


Hulking Out

During these months, Malcolm Hulke came on board. A card carrying communist, Hulke had actually worked with Bates, writing episodes of the Agengers. Oddly, he'd also worked with and wrote for Sidney Newman, for his Pathfinder Sci Fi series. During this time, Hulke was actually pitching stories for Doctor Who as well. In fact, either Newman had invited or put him forward to submit stories as early as July, 1963, months before the series even premiered in November, 1963. During the era of the first Doctor, he submitted scripts for the Hidden Planet, Britain 408 AD, and The People Who couldn't remember. None of them were picked up.

He would finally break through in 1967 with a second Doctor script - The Faceless Ones, and then later co-wrote The War Games in 1969.On the show, Hulke hit his stride during the Pertwee era, starting with Doctor Who and the Silurians, and then proceeding through Ambassadors of Death, Colony in Space, the Sea Devils, Frontier in Space and Invasion of the Dinosaurs, between 1970 and 1974. In total, eight serials and 47 episodes. He also wrote seven novelizations, six of his own scripts, and the Green Death.

Hulke wrote a 21 minute pilot, Journey into time, produced in July, 1966. The reception of the BBC was positive, and they were looking at a contract for a 52 episode series, to be distributed internationally worldwide, everywhere except the United Kingdom, or any market or broadcaster that reached it (no Pirate Radio please.) Through August, 1966, Doug Stanley started putting together brochures, pitches and promotional material.

In August, the BBC started to have second thoughts. There were a flurry of objections - quibbles from the Drama department that objected to the chords, an American licensor was concerned that his interests in BBC production was being usurped. It is possible that the poor critical and commercial showing of Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 had an effect. Esslin remained unsympathetic.

But by November, 1966, the BBC had signed a contract for 52 episodes.

Footnote 1: Yes, this is exactly OTL, all of this happened, pretty much exactly the way I wrote it. The BBC actually, really did sign a contract for a 52 episode Doctor Who radio drama series starring Peter Cushing.

Footnote 2: I am incredibly indebted to fan Trevor Wells, who in 1967, made inquiries when he saw advertisements for Doctor Who, the radio show. And to David J. Howe for his research into the subject in the 90s. And particularly, to researcher Richard Bignell, who managed to track the whole story down, and discover the history and the lost pilot script, and reported on it in Nothing at the End of the Lane. Really, it's brilliant, go look it up.

Footnote 3: OTL, according to Richard Bignell, and reading between the lines, Stanmark/Watermill found the contract too restrictive. Stanley pushed to amend the contract to allow the Radio series to be sold to Radio Luxembourg, the leading pirate pirate radio station, and one where he had a deep background. There was some agitation and discussion of allowing or providing for the show to be aired in Britain, even by the BBC. These went nowhere. Radio Luxembourg was a complete non-starter. These discussions carried into 1967, before finally coming to an end in May, unsuccessfully. And then, Stanmark/Watermill seemed to disappear off the face of the Earth. The BBC heard nothing, payments were not made on schedule. Finally, around April / May 1968, BBC officials started inquiring, and couldn't find them. Stanmark/Watermill seemed to have vanished. Stanmark formally dissolved in 1972, but by then the project was long dead.

Footnote 4: What happened? It's hard to say. The silence is total. It's possible that Bates and Stanley had a major falling out, and that ruptured the project. During the negotiations and production, it eventually shifted from being a Watermill project to a Stanmark project, for reasons obscure. Richard Bates went on to a long career in television production. Doug Stanley also seemed to have a long career. It's possible though, that one or the other had some kind of intense personal crisis or health issue that derailed everything, it wouldn't be the first time.

Footnote 5: If you want my guess, I think it was economics. Although they had a contract for worldwide distribution everywhere but England and England accessible, it's significant to me that they spend six months, from November 1966 to May 1967 trying to change that contract to sell to the British market, either BBC or Radio Luxembourg. I think that they found that their economic package, their business model wouldn't work without it. And when they couldn't make it work financially, they eventually dropped it. The British market was essential, when they couldn't get it, it wouldn't work.

Footnote 6: There may have been other finance/economic factors. Maybe they couldn't sell it. The big market was America, but radio drama was absolutely dead there. The big targeted markets identified in Stanmark's sales material were Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Likely, they would have had other international sales - Gibralter, Hong Kong, the Falkland Islands, Malaysia, expatriate English language radio stations in Latin America, former British colonies, etc. But that was small fry, pocket change. It would add up, and maybe be very significant. But generally, you spent a lot of money and effort chasing the small markets and they didn't pay very well, so the margins were smaller. What you needed was an anchor, preferably a couple of anchors - big revenue producing markets that you could get into or sell to relatively cheaply and which would pay. Once you've got that, then the small fry almost takes care of itself. But the thing was, Canada in the 60s was almost as well covered by television as Britain. That would be the biggest, easiest anchor, and it might not have been buying. Australia wasn't too far behind Canada. It may have simply been that Stanmark was unable to sell, or perhaps not very effective at selling internationally. Doug Stanley was very well connected to Radio Luxembourg. I don't know how well he was connected overseas. So market not there? Or maybe not good at reaching the market? Hard to say. Perhaps it was simply a matter of needing better sales skills or contacts internationally. For all we know, it may have been very close - perhaps one major sale could have made the difference.