‘We are equipped to survive. We are only interested in survival. Anything else is of no importance. Your deaths will not affect us.’
Once upon a time…
Let’s travel back to a time when there was only ‘once’ and ‘twice’ was a long way off in the future. When this story only existed as a Target book with a claret and blue cover – which reminded me of West Ham or Aston Villa team colours – and the Cybermen depicted in Chris Achilleos’ artwork looked very different than the ones I’d seen in ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’. It makes me think about how I perceived and experienced the show from a young age.
I mean, I sometimes feel like I have the whole of TV ‘Doctor Who’ running simultaneously through my head. There are only a handful of stories that I haven’t seen or at least heard fewer than 5 times, some many times more. But personally, I don’t see the show as one long marathon running from 1963 until today. I can’t, I didn’t experience it like that, not many people have – not for the first time at least, coming to the whole run completely fresh, knowing nothing – it doesn’t really work like that apart possibly from a select handful who are still around today that tuned in to watch ‘An Unearthly Child’ in November 1963.
We all have a starting point and then we work forwards and backwards, sometimes both at the same time and our views of the past and of the future are coloured by what the show was like when we fell in love with it, as much as they are by own personal preferences, likes and dislikes. Your first stories might not be your favourites, you may reappraise them, but you can’t get away from the fact that they were the ones that drew you to the show in the first place or at least piqued your interest. A template planted in your head as to what the show is and can be. The version of the show that I have in my head as default, is probably quite different to yours and rightly so, there is nothing wrong with that.
I started watching in 1972 and watched it, with a bit of a wobble in the mid 80’s, until the present day. I became aware of what seemed at the time like the show’s long history, really through the Target books and ‘The Making of Doctor Who’ (1976). Take a look at just how many stories there already there by that point – clue – it’s a lot! I did see ‘The Three Doctors’, but really my first experience of the First Doctor was through Target books, which meant for the most part, the three Frederick Mueller reprints from the 60’s – ‘An Exciting Adventure with the Daleks’, ‘The Zarbi’ and ‘The Crusaders’. My experience of reading them was later mirrored when watching the first Doctor in ‘The Five Faces of Doctor Who’ series in 1981, followed soon after by the first Dalek story at a convention in 1982 – it was a bit disorientating.
The thing is, it didn’t feel an awful lot like ‘Doctor Who’, at least not the show that I grew up with, in contrast with the Troughton era books and episodes that I’d seen, it felt odd and old fashioned, the Doctor barely a hero of any sort – ‘An Unearthly Child’ in particular. There were exceptions though – ‘Dalek Invasion of Earth’ for one, which was a see change in the depiction of the Doctor, an invasion story, moving him front and centre to fight the monsters and save the day – just like ‘My Doctor’ did. The other exception was the book and then VHS of ‘Tenth Planet’ – it started to feel more like the show that I knew and loved. And the thing is that I still do feel a bit like that, rather like having two entirely contradictory views on this era running in my head simultaneously. As much as I love the Hartnell era, it’s variety and ambition and I really do, these first stories devised by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, to fit Innes Lloyd’s vision of a more contemporary show, still feel like the start of the show proper, or at least as I knew it in the 1970’s. The Doctor vs the monsters, saving the Earth.
I really rather love ‘Tenth Planet’, I know not many people say that, but I just have! I love a ‘base under siege’ (there I’ve said it again!) and I’m a sucker for an international cast in that lovely 60’s still optimistic about the UN and the future of space exploration sort of way, before the cynicism kicks in. ‘Tenth Planet’ also features, what I think is a really under-rated companion team – Ben and Polly. And whatever else, it is impossible to ignore the fact that it is also obviously conferred a weight, by being the first Cybermen story and of course the last story of the First Doctor and start of the second. Antarctica is where the Doctor was re-born and without this, we simply wouldn’t be here. The show would be an interesting piece of 60’s archive TV ephemera – like ‘Adam Adamant Lives’ or ‘The Corridor People’.
Putting the base in ‘base under siege’
One of the changes devised by Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davies, that I think made sense for entirely practical reasons, was the idea of a central ‘hero’ set that the action could revolve around. Where money could be spent and put on screen and with only a limited number of other, more functional sets surrounding it. This became known as the ‘base under siege’ format. In reality it is mostly an attempt to improve production values within the constraints of a severely limited budget. This particularly makes sense a year or so later when the show moved from 405 to 625 lines – the equivalent of the move to HD and could no longer quite get away with lots of locations and sets, cleverly consisting of painted backdrops of Tenochtitlan or redressing the same set every week to depict a different location in the ‘Journey to Cathay’ or across Marinus. In retrospect some of the ambition of the early Hartnell’s is lost, but the workload on the designers must have been massive and the sort of stories that change location every week must have been a nightmare to work on. So, while some people seem to assume this change is an artistic decision, in reality it is at least in part a budgetary one, with the side effect of inducing a sort of claustrophobia and ratcheting up dramatic tension.
The location or ‘base’ if we have to have it (it encompasses military bases, airports, monasteries, space stations, country houses, lighthouses, whatever else you feel like adding to the list) is almost like another character in the story. The ‘base’ in this story is indeed a base – ‘Snowcap Polar Tracking Station’ in Antarctica. It is a minimalist version of Cape Canaveral Space Centre or Houston, relocated to Antarctica. An international base controlling manned space flights and also housing the ‘Z-Bomb’ the ultimate nuclear deterrent. It is rather nicely drawn – men trapped in a single location without any women – not that unrealistic for 1986, never mind 1966. We even see Private Tito, with his ‘girlie pics’ stuck to the wall above his bunk, relaxing reading a comic and their reaction to Polly turning up, well let’s just say it is quite realistic.
Another useful feature of these types of stories for the production team, is that they tend to have a larger, often international cast. This has the benefit of allowing some the burden on the regular cast to carry the action (particularly the Doctor) and the amount of effort around learning often technical dialogue on the lead can be lightened. This was an almost year-round production schedule and the pace and turnaround of production was just punishing especially for the leading man. Unfortunately, in his last story, Bill Hartnell fell ill again and episode three, most of his lines are split between Ben, Polly and Barclay – proving this a case in point. It is just amazing that Hartnell or Troughton for that matter, stood the pace of these productions at all – much as we would want a full set of appearances from the lead in his final story, let’s be honest he deserves the break and it just confirms that he couldn’t have carried on in this way. Never mind the Doctor, Hartnell’s body was wearing a bit thin. He was an old man at 58, people were back then.
So, to bolster the cast we have the civilized, thoughtful scientist Barclay (the excellent David Dodimead), the rather useless whinging Dyson and then we have the base commander, General Cutler. Robert Beatty specialized in these roles – a Canadian living in the UK, getting to play Americans all the time. He’s pretty believable to be honest, it is a nicely judged performance in a role that could have been a cliché. Whilst at the same time, he wouldn’t have been entirely out of place in Stanley Kubric’s masterpiece ‘Dr Strangelove: or How I learned to love the bomb’ (1964) in which another American base commander loses his senses and launches a nuclear attack.
The story is really split into – the setup with the Zeus Four space mission, the appearance of the travelers and the new planet which sets up the mystery. Then the arrival of the Cybermen and death of the crew of Zeus Four. The defeat of the first Cyberman invasion at snowcap, then the revelation that a second capsule has been sent up. The worldwide invasion by the Cybermen and Cutler’s attempts to use the Z-bomb. Then the final act – the destruction of Mondas and the impact it has had on the Doctor playing out. It has really a rather nice structure and flow to it, the threat escalating – it is never boring and the finale ensures that it really ends on a high and gives the piece significance.
The Cybermen – jerseys, top knots and sellotape
I’ve already discussed the creation of the Cybermen at some length, but maybe I’ve talked less about what they were originally conceived to look like. Kit Pedler conceived them as humans with bits added basically – human faces, a skull cap or metal plate, the chest unit, but with the idea that the human shape would be broken up by limbs from the midriff, which were changed after it became clear that this couldn’t be easily achieved. His description of them in the episode two script is as follows:
‘They are tall, slim with one-piece, close fitting silver mesh uniform, their faces and hands are normal but under the hair on the head is a long shining metal plate stretching from centre hair line front to occiput. (this could be disguised by a hat). Their faces are all rather alike, angular and by normal definitions good-looking. On the front of their trunks is a mechanical computer-like unit consisting of switches, two rows of lights and a short, moveable proboscis. They all carry exotic side arms. At the shoulder joints there are small, ram-like cylinders acting over the joints themselves. Instead of flesh there is a transparent, “arm-shaped” forearm covering containing shining rods and lights, but there is a normal hand at the end of it.’
The compromise of the jersey mask and real hands, arms covered by a containment suit, rather than transparent as originally intended works fine and has some rather good unintended consequences. The first of which is a template for the blank mask of subsequent Cybermen – mouth slit and round eyeholes which would go on to become iconic. One aspect that shows up on the DVD release, but would have been lost at the time or on VHS was that the actors eyes show up behind the darkened eyeholes of the mask – which looks to my mind really very creepy and would be used again to good effect in ‘World Enough and Time’. Likewise, the ‘mouth’, it looks really odd and quite disconcerting to have that mouth ‘open’ and words to just spill out, as opposed to have the actors mouth the words. Again, it should look terrible and it is strange, but in a quite disturbing way – like an animated cadaver.
The DVD quality also unfortunately shows up the sellotape holding the head pieces together, so it isn’t all good!
This is their first story and so it really has to sell the concept of the Cybermen to a new audience. For most of us though, this isn’t the first Cyberman story we saw or read and so that is slightly lost – even in a marathon context – how many are experiencing the Cybermen or the Daleks for the first time in their original story? Anyone? Is that important, well probably not – my first was ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ and it tells you very little about them, neither did ‘Earthshock’ or ‘Attack’ or ‘Silver Nemesis’ – so it obviously isn’t vital.
In this, their first story, we learn about their nature in a series of rather well written exchanges, that never feel like info dumping, as the humans are finding out about the nature of the Cybermen at the same time as the audience. In the following scene, Polly and Barclay get to question them, while in return Krail also learns about human nature:
POLLY: But don’t you care?
KRAIL: Care? No, why should I care?
POLLY: Because they’re people and they’re going to die!
KRAIL: I do not understand you. There are people dying all over your world yet you do not care about them.
POLLY: Yes, but we could avoid their death
KRAIL: We are called Cybermen.
BARCLAY: Cybermen?
KRAIL: Yes, Cybermen. We were exactly like you once but our cybernetic scientists realised that our race was getting weak.
BARCLAY: Weak? How?
KRAIL: Our life span was getting shorter, so our scientists and doctors devised spare parts for our bodies until we could be almost completely replaced.
POLLY: But that means you’re not like us. You’re robots!
KRAIL: Our brains are just like yours except that certain weaknesses have been removed.
BARCLAY: Weaknesses? What weaknesses?
KRAIL: You call them emotions, do you not?
POLLY: But that’s terrible. You, you mean you wouldn’t care about someone in pain?
KRAIL: There would be no need. We do not feel pain.
POLLY: But we do.
There is another key scene though, when we realise that they have lost more than just their physical form. It is a pivotal point for the Cybermen, introducing us to both their nature and to cyber-conversion:
KRAIL: You must come and live with us.
POLLY: But we cannot live with you. You’ re, you’re different. You’ve got no feelings.
KRAIL: Feelings? I do not understand that word.
DOCTOR: Emotions. Love, pride, hate, fear. Have you no emotions, sir?
KRAIL: Come to Mondas and you will have no need of emotions. You will become like us.
POLLY: Like you?
KRAIL: We have freedom from disease, protection against heat and cold, true mastery. Do you prefer to die in misery?
That last line – ‘Do you prefer to die in misery’ is really odd. As opposed to what – ‘live in misery’ in a containment suit, experiencing nothing? They have forgotten what it is they have lost – everything really.
A very British alien
One of the aspects I love of this generation of the Cybermen is their use of language. They have to be one of the most well-mannered and considerate monsters in the series:
KRAIL: That was really most unfortunate. You should not have done that.
KRAIL: Name and occupation please
KRAIL: Yes. We are going to take you all back to Mondas. Your age please.
They are certainly better brought up and considerably more polite than the likes of Cutler! So much so that each time I watch this, I almost end up rooting for them. They behave quite differently than even ‘The Moonbase’ variety only a few stories later. Odd and slightly awkward. Again, this feels like something that fits perfectly with Marc Platt’s vision of Mondas as austerity, post-war Britain. They removed all emotions, but kept ‘please and thank you’ – in that respect they are a very British alien – much like the Doctor himself.
The Tenth Planet
The story also sets up Mondas as the home planet of the Cybermen:
KRAIL: You will be wondering what has happened. Your astronomers must have just discovered a new planet. Is that not so?
BARCLAY: Yes, that’s right.
KRAIL: That is where we come from. It is called Mondas.
BEN: Mondas?
BARCLAY: Mondas? But isn’t that one of the ancient names of Earth?
KRAIL: Yes. Aeons ago the planets were twins, then we drifted away from you on a journey to the edge of space. Now we have returned.
I’ve already written about Mondas in my ‘Spare Parts’ review and also the confusion – largely created by Gerry Davis in his Target novelisations as to whether their home is Mondas or Telos. We learn very little about it here – except that it is Earth’s twin and drifted away. In my mind though, it is the 50’s Britain of ‘Spare Parts’ and aped in ‘World Enough and Time’ – that world just feels like the right environment to create these very homespun, budget monsters, built from spare parts to survive. It isn’t clear quite how Mondas ended up back in the vicinity of Earth or how it remained unobserved, which is a weakness in the story, but you would assume that it hasn’t just slowly drifted back.
The effects of its return to its twin, are initially largely limited in the story to the impacts on the unfortunate crew of the two Zeus capsules. Later in the story though. the energy drain starts to impact the Earth and eventually the Doctor himself…
This old body is wearing a bit thin
I suspect that given the often haphazard nature of the show and in particular with regard to the shows leads after Verity Lambert and David Whittaker left – with companions joining and leaving often at random points in mid story, that it is a coincidence that the themes of this story are mirrored in the main event – the change in the lead actor. Both our lead and the main protagonists change their form to survive – their bodies wearing old and thin. The Doctor is ‘renewed’ and the Cybermen undergo conversion, augmenting their bodies with machine parts – immortality through cybernetic implants. Both lose and gain. The Cybermen survive and are physically stronger, but in the process lose their emotions, their organic bodies and ‘self’. The Doctor survives as a new man, but his old self is lost on the floor of his beloved TARDIS control room. A new, younger, more energetic man waltzes in and the worn-out old man, the one who loved the show so much and was beloved of a generation of children, wanders off into the wilderness or at least to a season in panto and then retirement.
The deterioration in the health of the show’s lead William Hartnell, is mirrored in the fictional journey of the character he played. He always had his ailments – as far back as his first season, for example in ‘Marco Polo’ when he discusses his ailments with Kublai Khan and suffers from ‘mountain sickness’, he was worn out by the climb in ‘Time Meddler’ or the effects of the Robotisation process in ‘Dalek Invasion of Earth’ or radiation sickness on Skaro. However, as the battle between John Wiles and Hartnell escalated there are a series of events, some minor, some major that impact on the character and were potential points where the actor could have been replaced. We have the effects of the invisibility in ‘The Celestial Toymaker’ – when Wiles wanted him to come back as another actor, the toothache of ‘The Gunfighters’ and so on. On a much larger scale the effects of the Time Destructor in ‘Dalek’s Master Plan’ and finally the draining of his life force and energy by Jano and the Elders in ‘The Savages’. Both of which surely must have impacted on the lifespan of the first Doctor. The line between the actor and character start to blur and the arteriosclerosis of Hartnell becomes fictionalized, culminating in episodes 3 and 4 of ‘Tenth Planet’, in which the energy drain from Mondas starts directly affecting the Doctor himself.
The second half of the story, the decline and fall of the Doctor, the Cybermen and Mondas, is basically a holding pattern as we wait for the destruction of Mondas and Ben, Polly and Barclay try to avert the use of the Z Bomb by Cutler or the Cybermen. I quite like that – the patience and wisdom of the Doctor pitched against the need for military action, against all scientific advice, of Cutler. Even then, the story intelligently gives Cutler a rationale for his acts – the danger to his son in the rescue capsule – his breakdown isn’t just that of a military lunatic. Also, in Hartnell’s absence, Ben and Polly get some good stuff – Polly standing up to the Cybermen and talking Barclay around and Ben taking the action and organizing the resistance. Ben even gets to show his regret at having to kill a Cyberman – a clear demarcation between him and Cutler. The main man himself though really is wearing a bit thin and disappears for most of his penultimate episode. It is still a lovely performance in this story and there are some great moments – particularly early on between him and Cutler, it is just that there isn’t as much as we’d like. As the Cybermen and their planet collapse, so does our hero, exhausted, stumbling back to the TARDIS across the snow, back to the sanctuary of the ship.
No great speech for this Doctor to mark his passing, his last words are very simple:
DOCTOR: What did you say, my boy? It’s all over. It’s all over. That’s what you said. No, but it isn’t all over. It’s far from being all over.
BEN: What are you taking about?
DOCTOR: I must get back to the Tardis immediately!
POLLY: All right, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yes, I must go now.
BEN: Aren’t we going to go back to say goodbye or anything?
DOCTOR: No. No, I must go at once.
BEN: Oh well, you better have this. We don’t want you catching your death of cold.
DOCTOR: Ah, yes. Thank you. It’s good. Keep warm.
The first time I saw the first ‘regeneration’ was on ‘Blue Peter’ – part of a clips package that also included presenter Peter Purves in ‘Daleks Master Plan’ and the death of Katerina. I thought that it looked great and I still do. It is a bit of a miracle really, that grainy, white out mix and the match up in the features of Hartnell and Troughton. More impressive than the abrupt Pertwee to Baker one and the Troughton to Pertwee one that we are cheated of. Apart from the technical achievement, It also feels significant – a piece of TV history.
I wonder how the children who had grown up with ‘Doctor Who’ by 1966 felt? I think I can imagine – much like I did when I lost my Doctor and the disorientating wildness of Tom Baker in his first story mirrors that of Pat Troughton in his. The difference being that I at least knew that the Doctor had changed before, for that generation there was only one Doctor and they were losing him. And nothing much in the subsequent episodes does anything to reassure them that things will be alright, it is quite brutal in that regard. One image of his face once more in the mirror in ‘Power of the Daleks’ Episode 1 and Hartnell is gone. Banished from his own show, I think at least until his face appears in the clips sequence in ‘Day of the Daleks’ and then his appearance walking through that garden in ‘The Three Doctors’. The show he loved moved on without him and went in a different direction, but we are still here talking about him 53 years after ‘Tenth Planet’ – he might not recognise the show as it is now, but I hope he would be proud of that achievement and the generations of children since 1963 that have loved the character he created.
Finally a few thoughts on Antartica and bases under the ice..
Antarctica Starts Here..
It is the first of May – time to break out ‘The Daemons’. However, instead of folk horror in nearby Wiltshire, I’m thinking about snowy wastes, tundra and sea ice. This is partially because I’m reviewing ‘The Tenth Planet’ and reading the Target book for research, but also, I’m thinking of the Norwegian Arctic – Svalbard and the coast of East Greenland where I’m heading in a few weeks (well hopefully, I was thinking the same thing this time last year before a last minute change of plan…). Instead of an English spring, I’m thinking of Polar Bears, Arctic Foxes, Walrus, Belugas, Reindeer and Musk Ox.
Thinking about it, there is something very British about wanting to lose yourself in the icy, white blankness of the far north and south. As a nation, we have our stories of Scott, Shackleton and the disappearance of Sir John Franklin. I don’t think that we are entirely unique in that, I think that Mawson inspires similar feelings in Australia for example and the Norwegians have their own heroes – Nansen and Amundsen. However, we are somewhat lacking in space and wilderness in England (maybe slightly less so in the other nations) and the open expanses of the Arctic and Antarctic inspire a sort of longing to be lost in the vast emptiness of ice, at least in some of us – I’ve experienced this first-hand.
As I look across the room, my photographs remind me of that longing. They show King Penguins, Leopard Seals, Polar bears, Narwhal, Belugas and vast icebergs. I’m really lucky – I’ve travelled down from the Falklands, South Georgia, the South Shetlands and down the Antarctic peninsula and also up from Baffin Island deep into the Northwest Passage and the Canadian High Artic. I’ve seen landscapes and animals that I never dreamed I could possibly see as a youngster. Fifteen years ago, I made a vow to myself that I would see as much as I could of the polar regions while they are still there and since then, the pace of change has visibly intensified, such that I’m not sure what sort of state these regions will be in by the end of my life. All of which makes me incredibly sad – to think of a world without such incredible creatures as the Narwhal and Polar Bears of the Arctic and the vast Penguin colonies and whales and seabirds feeding on huge Krill blooms of Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. All of which makes me all the more aware of the impacts that my own travels have had.
I can’t say that I have experienced the polar regions in any way close to the way that those early explorers did – I really haven’t, we are talking about ice strengthened expedition ships, not luxury, but even so it’s not hardship. However, I have seen the places where they lived and died, the graves of some of the Franklin’s expedition on Beachey Island, the location on Elephant Island where the crew of the Endurance overwintered and Shackleton’s grave and memorial cairn at Gritviken, raising a glass of Irish to the memory of the great man. In some ways it is surprising that, outside of the DWM strip, that Doctor hasn’t met Scott or Shackleton or that fate of the Franklin expedition hasn’t been revealed to be due to alien intervention. These events are embedded so deep in the national psyche – or at least were, I’ve no idea whether young people are still inspired by these expeditions in the way that I was – that surely budget can only be the reason for this?
Despite this, Antarctica does have a key part in a number of very significant stories – it is where the First Doctor died and the Second Doctor was born, where the Doctor first met the Cybermen and where the Twelfth learned to let go and regenerate. It was also the location used for the first two episodes of ‘Seeds of Doom’ – the base under siege in those episodes is a largely realistic version, at least going by the British and Polish Antarctic bases that I have visited. The scientific team in that story also feels quite realistic to me – similar to the ex-British Antarctic Survey members I’ve met. The Arctic also features as the location (largely unseen) for ‘Cold War’. Why is this? Perhaps, using the snowy wastes in Science Fiction is ingrained in us since Victor Frankenstein’s final encounter with his creation played out in the North Pole? In some ways it is where the genre was born. This is something that was strengthened by the use of a polar base as the location for Howard Hawks’ 1951 sci-fi horror file ‘The Thing from Another World’ (which was appropriated for ‘Seeds of Doom’) and its later remake ‘The Thing’.
‘Tenth Planet’ features the Snowcap Tracking Station as its prime location. The base is part civilian, part military – run by a general, with army personnel, but staffed by scientists. The base itself also has a dual civilian and military purpose – tracking and controlling the Zeus space programme and also housing functioning missiles and the Z-Bomb – the ultimate nuclear deterrent. Even in 1966 (never mind 1986) this would not have been allowed. The activities that signatory nations are allowed to undertake in Antarctica are defined under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty (1961):
Article I
- Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only. There shall be prohibited, inter alia, any measures of a military nature, such as the establishment of military bases and fortifications, the carrying out of military manoeuvres, as well as the testing of any type of weapons.
- The present treaty shall not prevent the use of military personnel or equipment for scientific research or for any other peaceful purposes.
So, the base and the military personnel would be allowed under article 1.2, but the stationing of the Z-Bomb and missiles certainly would not be under 1.1. The base has a nuclear reactor, which would have been allowed. Indeed in 1961, the US installed a nuclear reactor at their McMurdo base on Ross Island. It was eventually de-commissioned after issues in 1972. I’m not sure where the underground design of the base comes from, I’m not aware of any bases built under the ice in Antarctica – most of them are designed to be moveable, for example in the event of a shift in the ice shelf. And I’m not sure practically how this would be achieved. It is closest to the missile base (‘Project Iceworm’) that the US built in 1961 under the Greenland Ice sheet (again with a nuclear reactor). The base only lasted until 1966 – the glacier was moving far more quickly than the designers had originally thought, the integrity of the base was threatened and the idea for a network of similar bases was abandoned. Denmark and Greenland are facing having to deal with this when the radioactive and other waste from the test base eventually surfaces through climate change.
A Journal of Impossible Things 