Only episode one of The Web of Fear is held in the BBC Archives and has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. For the purposes of this marathon I viewed Loose Cannon’s reconstructions of episodes two through to six, links to which are provided below.
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 2 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 2 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 3 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 3 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 4 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 4 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 5 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 5 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 6 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Web of Fear,Episode 6 Part 2
Episode 1 of The Web of Fear is held in the BBC Archives and has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. The Web of Fear was originally broadcast in the UK between 3 February and 9 March 1968.
Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart began his television career in Doctor Whoas a Colonel in The Web of Fear and ended it, more than 40 years later, with a knighthood in the Sarah Jane Adventures serial Enemy of the Bane. In the interim the Brigadier, as he was most frequently and affectionately known, appeared in 103 TV episodes of Classic Series Doctor Who¸ the 1993 30th Anniversary Special Dimensions in Time, and two episodes of the Sarah Jane Adventures (2008). The character’s death was acknowledged in the Series 6 episode The Wedding of River Song (2011). The Brigadier also appeared as a character in countless audio dramas, books, cartoons and short stories right up until the actor Nicholas Courtney’s death in February 2011.
The Doctor first met Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart in less than perfect circumstances in The Web of Fear (1968)
Lethbridge-Stewart appeared alongside the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Doctors in serials and with the Sixth Doctor in Dimensions in Time. Nicholas Courtney, however, had the distinction of also appearing as Bret Vyon in the first four episodes of the First Doctor’s serial, The Daleks’ Master Plan. Interestingly, Courtney’s first and last appearances in Classic Series Doctor Who were alongside fellow actor Jean Marsh. Marsh had played Courtney’s sister, Sara Kingdom, in The Daleks’ Master Plan and was Morgaine in 1989’s Battlefield. To tangle the interweaving web of Doctor Who even further, Marsh had been married to Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor, between 1955 and 1960.
Brigadier Sir Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the Sarah Jane Adventures serial, Enemy of the Bane (2008)
Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was the longest running recurring human character in Doctor Who by a country mile. The only villainous characters of greater longevity have been the Daleks, who first appeared in 1963, the Cybermen (1966), The Ice Warriors (1967) and quite ironically for the purposes of this review, the Great Intelligence (1967). And to think that contract to appear as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart was only four weeks long!
The Eleventh Doctor learns of the Brigadier’s death in The Wedding of River Song
Aside from the creation of the iconic Lethbridge-Stewart, one would be hard pressed to find another Doctor Who story that had such a long term influence on the series than The Web of Fear. As a classic example of the “base under siege” genre, it was the first to be set in present day London. Transferring the previously Himalayan bound Yeti to the London Underground provided both a contemporary and identifiable point of reference for viewers. The sense of terror was greatly amplified when monsters were lurking in the tunnels and tube stations that most viewers knew so well. Incidentally, one of the actors in the Yeti suits was none other than John Levene, who would go on to portray another long time recurring character, UNIT’s Sergeant Benton.
Yeti in the tunnels of the London Underground
The Second Doctor’s co-operation with the military in The Web of Fear would resurface in Season Six’s The Invasion, in which both Lethbridge-Stewart and Benton were members of the newly established United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). The Invasion was the template for the Third Doctor’s earthbound exile in Seasons Seven and beyond. But more about that when I review The Invasion.
Jack Watling reprised his role of (an aged) Travers in The Web of Fear
The appearance of the Yeti in The Abominable Snowmen, and its sequel, The Web of Fear, propelled them to iconic status. As a consequence of the writers, Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman’s, falling out with the Doctor Who production team the Yeti would only appear again briefly in the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary Special, The Five Doctors. The Yeti’s short screen time had little effect on the creatures’ iconic status. Although never appearing alongside the Yeti on screen, Jon Pertwee is fondly remembered for his oft quoted phrase, “Yeti on the loo in Tooting Bec”. What Pertwee was referring to was the direction that Doctor Who had taken during the Third Doctor’s earthbound tenure. The Doctor was confronting the monsters, not on an alien planet, but in the viewers’ own backyards, or toilets, or under their city …. Akin to the expression, “Behind the Sofa”, “Yeti on the loo” quickly entered the Who vocabulary.
Reading a paper in the loo is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. But did the Third Doctor anticipate meeting a Yeti in the loo?
This “Yeti on the loo” in-joke was most probably lost on a great many New Series viewers to part three of Pond Life, the prelude mini-adventures to Series Seven. The pun was much more than just the play on words of “Ood” and “loo”, and was most certainly a shout-out to Classic Series Who. Give a thought to the late Jon Pertwee as you watch Rory and Amy’s startled responses to the Ood in their bathroom.
Rory and Amy are confronted by an unexpected guest in Part 3 of Pond Life.
Before we leave the Yeti, The Web of Fear was the last serial to feature the sublime composition by British Composer, Martin Slavin, entitled Space Adventure. Ordinarily the Cybermen’s theme, it provided a superb backdrop for their first three stories, The Tenth Planet, The Moonbase and The Tomb of the Cybermen. In its last appearance in Who this composition accompanied the Yeti in Covent Garden.
Victoria, Jamie and the Doctor contemplate their options
The Web of Fear is not without its failings. There is an unfortunate negative Jewish stereotype in episode one in the form of Julius Silverstein, a wealthy artefact collector and business person who runs his own museum. Having acquired a deactivated Yeti from Edward Travers, he refused to return it after being advised that the Yeti’s control sphere had been reactivated and disappeared. The consequence of this belligerence was Silverstein’s own death at the hands of the reactivated Yeti. When Terrance Dicks novelized the serial as Doctor Who and the Web of Fear in 1976 the character’s name was changed to Emil Julius in an attempt to avoid the negative stereotype.
The unfortunate artefact owner, Julius Silverstein shortly before his death at the hands of a Yeti
As equally offensive, but rarely mentioned, example of racism is the characterization of Driver Evans, a Welsh officer of the British Army and a member of Lethbridge-Stewart’s team. Evans is portrayed as unintelligent and cowardly, and he clearly wants to dessert from the Army. Had there been more than one Welsh Army officer in the serial then this Cymrophobia (anti-Welsh sentiment) could have been averted by presenting the other character(s) as courageous. Evidently Terrance Dicks was also concerned by this Cymrophobia and had Lethbridge-Stewart state that ordinarily the Welsh are good soldiers.
The character of Driver Evans was evidence of Doctor Who’sCymrophobia.
The unfortunate stereotyping of the age aside, The Web of Fear is a tremendously suspenseful serial beautifully directed by Douglas Camfield. High up on many Who fans lists of “most wanted” missing serials, The Web of Fear’s influence on the future of Doctor Who could never have been imagined when its episodes were junked. Only episode one remains in the BBC Archives, which is one more than the next serial in my marathon, Fury From the Deep. Join me for my next review as I examine how Australian film censorship has given us a tantalizing glimpse of this long lost story.
A body at the entrance of the deserted Tube Station
Episode 1 of The Web of Fearis held in the BBC Archives and has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. The Web of Fear was originally broadcast in the UK between 3 February and 9 March 1968.
Only episode three of The Enemy of the Worldis held in the BBC Archives. It has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time.For the purposes of this marathon I viewed Loose Cannon’s masterful reconstructions of the remaining five episodes, links to which appear below.
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 1 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 1 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 2 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 2 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 4 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 4 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 5 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 5 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 6 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Enemy of the World,Episode 6 Part 2
Episode 3 of The Enemy of the World is held in the BBC Archives and has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. It was originally broadcast in the UK between 23 December 1967 and 27 January 1968.
Appearing exactly half way through Patrick Troughton’s tenure as the Second Doctor, The Enemy of the World is an oft forgotten gem hidden amidst the monster laden fare of Season Five. With only one of its six episodes held in the BBC Archives, The Enemy of the World is frequently overlooked because the single episode released on Lost in Time is so dissimilar to the other five. When I first watched episode three of Enemy I was knocked out by Reg Lye’s characterization of Griffin the chef. The forthright Australian with the phenomenal panache for black humour explodes from the screen with an eccentric disposition that, despite its quirks, is readily identifiable with. That being said, exactly what it meant and why it was included left me totally confused. Upon re-watching the episode during a viewing of Loose Cannon’s reconstructions, it quickly made sense. Griffin is the audience’s identification in a tale of multi-cultural, worldwide intrigue.
Reg Lye was phenomenal as the chef, Griffin
The Enemy of the World is Doctor Who’s first foray into James Bond action style conspiracies for world domination. As Barry Letts’ debut to the series as director, it foreshadows a style which will become quite familiar during Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the Third Doctor. With Letts as Who’s producer, action scenes such as those in the first half of episode one of Enemy of the World will become a great deal more common. The hovercraft and helicopter scenes in Enemy are but a prelude to the chase extravaganzas of 1970’s serials such as episode two of Planet of the Spiders. It’s such a shame that all we have left to gauge the success of these Enemy scenes are telesnaps and the audio.
One of the many chase scenes from the Third Doctor’s final serial, Planet of the Spiders
What differentiates The Enemy of the World mostfrom the other Season Five serials is that the only monster is a human. Patrick Troughton was afforded the opportunity to play two characters in the serial with the second being perhaps the most sinister of all Who villains, the dictator Salamander. A Mexican national, Salamander is perceived as a hero to a world confronted by the ravages of war and world famine. He invented the Suncatcher Mk VII, a device which collects and stores concentrated sun-rays. In a film clip showed to the Doctor by Giles Kent, an Australian whom the audience initially believes to be a principled opponent of Salamander, the impression Victoria receives is that the Mexican is indeed a generous public benefactor. Speaking of the successes of the Sun Conservation establishment at Kanowa, in the Australasian zone, Salamander states that his Sun Catcher has allowed the sun’s rays to be shone upon those areas most needing them. Wheat is growing on the Canadian plains and the Ukraine is the grain field of the planet. Corn is ripening on the Dnieper River where 10,000 robot harvesters are gathering fifty million tons of flour. The impression given is that Salamander is the world’s saviour from starvation.
Salamander is not the virtuous philanthropist that he claims to be. He is pictured here with Jamie
The philanthropic ventures of Salamander are, however, a veil behind which he hides his plans for world-domination. Unbeknownst to all but Giles, Salamander has kept a group of English scientists captive underground for five years. The scientists are under the mistaken belief that a nuclear holocaust has devastated the planet and that it is not yet safe to venture outside. Believing Salamander’s claims that the war is still ongoing, the scientists, by means unknown to the viewers, are creating a series of natural disasters with the intention of thwarting the “enemy”. These supposedly natural disasters, such as a volcano in Hungary, are in effect part of Salamander’s plan to wrest control of all of earth’s regions.
I have to admit that my immediate thought on learning about Salamander’s enslavement of the scientist was the 1993 Australian movie, Bad Boy Bubby. In that film a man is kept captive in a putrid flat by his incestuous mother for 35 years. She claims that the air outside is poisonous and whenever she leaves to collect supplies she dons a gas mask. I wonder if Bad Boy Bubby’s writer, Rolf de Heer, was watching Doctor Who in May 1968?
The 1993 Australian movie Bad Boy Bubby
The exact environmental message that the writer, David Whitaker, is intending to make is a little difficult to discern. Whilst concentrated solar power is perhaps seen as a favourable development, human intervention has devastating effects on the environment. Perhaps an analogy is being made between the deliberate human destruction wrought by the enslaved scientists, and the deterioration suffered by the environment from everyday human activity.
What’s less difficult to ascertain is the anti-corporate and anti-big government messages that Whitaker peddles in The Enemy of the World. In the 21st Century we are used to large scale corporations controlling large segments of the economy. A cursory perusal of the Forbes listing of the World’s Biggest Companies exhibits that six of the top 10 provide banking and financial services, three have oil and gas holdings and one is a conglomerate. Industry was much more local and small-scale in the 1960s, however the consequences of allowing the accumulation of much power into the hands of few was nonetheless appreciated by some.
Salamander with the short-lived Fedorin
Similarly, The Enemy of the World evidences a concern for the consequences of big government. In the serial the world is divided into a small number of zones which presumably contain previously independent countries. Zones named in the serial include the Central European, African and Australasian. Travel between zones is undertaken by rockets, with the journey between the Australasian and Central European zones taking only two hours. Transport costs are presumably reasonable and certainly within the means of government and corporation officials. Even without the internet, the world of the near future is much smaller. The dismantling of small nation states has made the possibility of multiple zones being controlled by one person or organization frightfully real. In the decades following the Second World War and Hitler’s conquest for European domination, such fears were well founded.
Australian actor Bill Kerr played Giles Kent
Imagine for a moment, if you will, that The Enemy of the World was set in our current era. Substitute Bill Gates for Salamander and you may begin to understand the concerns raised. Having established one of the world’s largest corporations, Microsoft, which is currently number 41 in the Forbes listing, Gates is revered by many for his generous philanthropic works. Just imagine that there were some who believed that Gates had an ulterior motive, viz, to take control of the governments of the world. I’m not suggesting that Gates’ philanthropy is anything but wholly virtuous, however the scenario should be sufficient to contextualize Salamander’s motives within a 21st Century schema.
Mary Peach, a contender as Diana Rigg’s replacement in The Avengers, played Astrid
That the serial is set in the near future is only a presumption because nowhere in the script is it specifically stated. As Wood and Miles point out in About Time 2, this question could be easily resolved if episode five was recovered. A close up telesnap of a newspaper shows a masthead, however the photo is not clear enough to enable the date to be read. Given that the recovery of The Enemy of the World is mooted in the current missing episodes rumours, it’s somewhat possible that this question may be answered in the future.
Special Feature – Enemy of the World – Lost Serial
When Salamander was ultimately defeated at the serial’s end by the TARDIS, of all things, I was left somewhat concerned by the Doctor’s inaction. In the fifth Series episode, The Time of Angels, the Doctor saves River Song who, like Salamander (and Katarina before him), was swept out into the vortex. Clearly the Doctor is able to navigate the TARDIS with such precision as to be able to collect persons left floating around in space. Whilst acknowledging that David Whitaker was not Steven Moffat, and the whole concept of the TARDIS as a mid-space rescue vessel had not been dreamed up in 1967, it’s nonetheless disturbing that the Doctor’s stated aim of Salamander facing judicial justice was allowed to dissipate with the blast of air out of the TARDIS.
The Eleventh Doctor saves River Song in The Time of Angels.
May I conclude with a short discussion on casting. The Enemy of the World has the distinction of being the first Doctor Who serial to feature a black female in a speaking part. Carmen Munroe played the role of Fariah, Salamander’s official food taster, a position that reminded me of the First Doctor’s The Romans in which poisoning was perhaps the most common means of homicide. Fariah is one of many well rounded characters which also includes Giles Kent, which was played brilliantly by Australian Bill Kerr, Donald Bruce (Colin Douglas) and Benik, Salamander’s assistant (Milton Johns). Enemy was the first of three appearances by Johns in Doctor Who. Mary Peach, who played the Bond type girl, Astrid, was at the time of filming in the running to be Diana Rigg’s replacement in The Avengers. Finally, I would be remiss to forget Patrick Troughton in his role of the Doctor’s doppelgänger, Salamander.
Carmen Munroe as Salamander’s official food taster, Fariah
Episode 3 of The Enemy of the World is held in the BBC Archives and has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. It was originally broadcast in the UK between 23 December 1967 and 27 January 1968.
It is at this time in my chronological marathon of DoctorWhothat I should be posting my review of The Ice Warriors.For the first, and most probably last time in this marathon, I’m been unable to watch a serial in its correct order because it has yet to be released on DVD. As luck would have it, the six part serial The Ice Warriorswill be released in Australia and New Zealand on 28 August 2013. The Region 2 release is set for 26 August and the Region 1 for 17 September. Despite what I said in my Complete DVD Collection post, I’ve pre-ordered the DVD and anticipate receiving it by the end of next week. I’m not very good at practising what I preach 🙂 Please stay posted for my review.
Episodes two and three, which are missing from the BBC Archives, have been animated for this DVD release
Together with the four episodes held in the BBC Archives, The Ice Warriorswill include animations of the two lost episodes two and three. Together with a number of audio commentaries, the special features include Cold Fusion – Making the Ice Warriors(a making of documentary); Beneath The Ice(a featurette on the making of the animated episodes); VHS Links from the original VHS release; Blue Peter(Design-A-Monster segment); Doctor Who Stories – Frazer Hines (Part 2); and Animated reconstruction of the original The Ice Warriors trailer.
Whilst we wait for the release of The Ice WarriorsDVD please enjoy the Coming Soon to DVD Trailer and the BBC’s exclusive animation preview.
The Ice Warriors– Coming Soon to DVD Trailer
The Ice Warriors– BBC’s Exclusive Animation Preview
Beware of the Yeti! In September last year the UK newspaper the Mirror released 10 recently recovered photographs taken during the filming of The Abominable Snowmen and its sequel, The Web of Fear. Three photos were taken during the shooting of The Abominable Snowmen in Snowdonia, Wales in September 1967. The other seven photos are from the filming of The Web […]
Only one of the six episodes of The Abominable Snowmen is held in the BBC Archives and has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time.The remaining five episodes can be viewed as reconstructions by Loose Cannon Productions.
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 1 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 1 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 3 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 3 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 4 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 4 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 5 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 5 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 6 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The AbominableSnowmen,Episode 6 Part 2
Episode 2 of The Abominable Snowmen is held in the BBC Archives and has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. The Abominable Snowmen was originally broadcast in the UK between 30 September and 4 November 1967.
The 1960s saw the dawning of Western interest in Eastern religions. Perhaps premier among the spiritualities investigated was Buddhism. It was in 1967 that a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemane, Thomas Merton, published his collection of essays, Mystics and Zen Masters. More than 40 years later, two of the top five Google search results on “Merton and Buddhism” return a conservative Catholic article entitled, “Can You Trust Thomas Merton?” Yes, there are still many orthodox Catholics who would prefer to imagine that the Second Vatican Council never occurred, and fear that enlightened spiritual writers such as the late Fr Merton are a threat to the very fabric of Christendom.
Thomas Merton with the Dalai Lama
It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Doctor Who should enter into this stream of consciousness with its Tibetan tale of Buddhist Monks and Yeti, The Abominable Snowmen. Five of the six episodes of this serial are among the 106 currently missing from the BBC Archives. Thankfully the good people at Loose Cannon Productions have come to our rescue, yet again, with their masterful reconstructions. Episode two is available on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. An excellent precise of the serial was provided by David J Howe and Stephen James Walker in their 2003 publication, The Television Companion. The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who. Rather than reinventing the wheel I’ll let them summarise the plot for you:
Songsten, Khrisong and a fellow monk
“The TARDIS arrives in Tibet in 1935 and the Doctor visits the remote Detsen (sic) monastery in order to return a sacred bell, the ghanta, given to him for safe keeping on a previous visit. There he meets and Englishman, Travers, on an expedition to track down the legendary Abominable Snowmen or Yeti. It transpires that the Yeti roaming the area are actually disguised robots, which scare away or kill anyone who approaches. The High Lama Padmasambhava, whom the Doctor met hundreds of years earlier on his previous visit, had been taken over by a nebulous alien being, the Great Intelligence, which has artificially prolonged his life and is now using him to control the Yeti by way of models on a chessboard-like map. The Intelligence’s aim is to create a material form for itself and take over the Earth. The Doctor banishes it back to the astral plane, allowing Padmasambhava finally to die in peace”.
David J Howe & Stephen James Walker’s The Television Companion was published in 2003 by Telos Publishing
The Abominable Snowmen’s writers, Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, sought to authenticate the serial by utilizing some real life names from the history of Tibetan Buddhism. The Master of the monastery was Padmasambhava, so named after the eighth century Buddhist Master who is said to have brought Vajrayana (tantric) Buddhism to Tibet. History names Padmasambhava as the author of Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State (Bardo Thodol) which is known colloquially in the Western world as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Given that the Bardo Thodol is in effect a treaty on how to ensure an absolute death and escape from the cycle of reincarnations, it is profoundly ironic that Padmasambhava of The Abominable Snowmen should be caught in a state of suspended life for hundreds of years. His death at the conclusion of the serial is more in accord with Buddhist philosophy as Padmasambhava at last finds peace in absolute death.
An image of Padmasambhava
The name of monastery’s Abbot, Songsten, is taken from seventh Century Tibetan Empire founder, Songtsän Gampo, whilst the young monk Thonmi is so named after Thonmi Sambhota, the person traditionally credited for the invention of the Tibetan script. When the script was novelized by Terrance Dicks in 1974 as Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen, it was on the suggestion of Doctor Who’s then producer, Barry Letts, that these names should be changed. As a Buddhist Letts considered the appropriation of the names inappropriate and accordingly they were slightly amended to Padmasambvha, Songtsen, and Thomni . At face value it appears that perhaps the Abbot’s name would best have remained as Songsten, as that is further from the real spelling of Songtsän than Songtsen.
An image of Songtsan Gampo
An image of Thonmi Sambhota
Whereas The Tomb of the Cybermen was resplendent with crazed archaeologists, The Abominable Snowmen instead has a “mad anthropologist”. This at least is how the fictional press of the serial refer to the explorer Travers as. Incidentally Travers is played by Jack Watling, the father of companion Deborah Watling. Watling reprised his role of Travers three serials later in the sequel, The Web of Fear. Watling, the elder, did a fine job in the serial, as did Deborah who was quite mesmerizing in the scene where she speaks the same phrase automatically whilst under Padmasambhava’s trance.
Jamie, Victoria and the “mad anthropologist”, Travers. Jack Watling, the father of Deborah Watling, played Travis
Victoria emerges from the TARDIS and is shocked by what she sees
The necessity for compassion is perhaps the integral moral of this story. Although the monk-warrior Khrisong is murdered by the Abbot, Songsten, he is forgiven of his crime by both the victim on his death bed, and by his fellow monks thereafter. As the young monk Thonmi rightly concludes, Songsten had been put under a trance by the Master, Padmasambhava. He was but a puppet, as was Padmasambhava whom the Doctor identified as also being controlled. The entity that was the source of this control was the Great Intelligence. This theme of forgiveness is not restricted only to Buddhism, but also to Christianity. Khrisong’s final words are reflective of one of Jesus Christ’s seven final sayings, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). Judeo-Christian links in this story can also be gleaned from Padmasambhava’s use of the words “I am” on several occasions when describing himself. Padmasambhava at one point states, “But our brother must not be allowed to depart in the knowledge that I am other than what I am”. “I am that I am” is the common English translation of God’s response to Moses when asked for his name (Exodus 3:14).
Khrisong is unforgiving to the Doctor as he is put out as Yeti bait. In death, however, Khrisong forgives his murderer, Songsten
The Doctor and the young monk, Thonmi
The Great Intelligence returned, like Travers, in The Web of Fear, but the character would not be reprised for a third time for over 44 years, the longest period in abeyance of any monster, alien or foe in Who’s history. Manifesting itself as snow in the 2012 Christmas Special, The Snowmen, the Great Intelligence planned to invade the earth with Snowmen in lieu of Yeti. The Great Intelligence eventually gained control of Walter Simeon’s body and would appear again as the Doctor’s main protagonist in the 2013 episodes The Bells of Saint John and The Name of the Doctor. A brief history of the Great Intelligence from The Abominable Snowmen to The Name of the Doctor is set out in the video below.
The Great Intelligence Through the Ages 1967 -2013
The character’s long dormancy was most probably a consequence of the rift between its creators, Haisman and Lincoln, and the producers of Doctor Whofollowing the pair’s ill-fated third Who script, The Dominators. Interestingly, no acknowledgement appears for Haisman and Lincoln as the creators of the Great Intelligence in the final credits of the Series 7 episodes in which the entity appears. Monsters created by other freelance writers, such as Terry Nation’s Daleks, are still credited to their originators to this day.
Haisman and Lincoln’s creations, The Yeti, taking a stroll
A final fascinating note on the Great Intelligence is that its appearance in The Snowmen predates chronologically its presence in The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear. With the Abominable Snowmen set in around 1935 and The Web of Fear in the UNIT era, which is probably sometime in the 1970s, the Victorian tale of The Snowmen well predates the Troughton era stories. John Hussey in his article on the history of the Great Intelligence published in Doctor Who TV, posits that the Doctor’s battles with the Great Intelligence in The Snowmen could have actually been the inspiration for the two earlier stories. As evidence Hussey directs the reader’s attention to the London Underground map which the Eleventh Doctor showed the Great Intelligence. In outlining to the Intelligence the weaknesses in the system the Doctor may in fact have been responsible for Intelligence’s subsequent (but shown on TV, earlier) attack utilizing the London Underground in The Web of Fear.
The Eleventh Doctor shows the Great Intelligence a map of the London Underground in The Snowmen
A snowman from 2012’s The Snowmen
Being so critical of racism in the last serial, The Tomb of the Cybermen, I would be remiss not to point out that the Tibetan characters in The Abominable Snowmen are all played by Caucasian males. Unlike other Who serials such as the Third Doctor’s Planet of the Spiders and the Fourth Doctor’s The Talons of Weng-Chiang , the characters’ facial make up isn’t overtly reminiscent of Asian identity. This early example of the Doctor Who production team erring in its moral duty to employ a more multi-cultural cast could perhaps, in this instance only, be overlooked if the viewer chooses to regard all the monks as Western converts to Buddhism.
The Abominable Snowmen’sPadmasambhava
An unfortunate example of racism in the Third Doctor’s Planet of the Spiders
White men were still being cast as Asian males in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, a Fourth Doctor Adventure
I couldn’t fail to conclude this review without saying a word or two on the most loveable of Doctor Who monsters, the Yeti. By the writers’ making these mythical Himalayan creatures robots, the designers were given the most perfect excuse for their creation of a less than realistic monster. If the Yeti looked pair shaped and cuddly, rather than mammoth and scary, the designers could always claim that realism was not their intention. Perhaps they could retrospectively claim that the Monoids of The Ark were really robots! All told, The Abominable Snowmenis a cracking good yarn and comes highly recommended. By me at least!
The Yeti were so cute as to attract children during the filming of The Abominable Snowmen in Wales
Perhaps The Ark’s Monoids should have been robots. It would help explain their appalling design!
Episode 2 of The Abominable Snowmen is held in the BBC Archives and has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time.The Abominable Snowmen was originally broadcast in the UK between 30 September and 4 November 1967.
I first watched The Tomb of the Cybermen in the wake of Matt Smith’s much publicized disclosure that Tomb was his favourite Doctor Who serial. It’s often said that Smith is channelling Patrick Troughton. I was somewhat bemused, therefore, when I walked away with a rather flat feeling at the serial’s end. It was okay, I thought, but nothing spectacular. My second view, for this marathon, was somewhat more enjoyable, perhaps only because of the elation felt in watching the earliest and first complete Second Doctor serial in the BBC Archives. Nine incomplete serials in a row is a somewhat daunting undertaking so my relief is perhaps entirely understandable.
The men are amazed to see the Cybermen emerge from their frozen tombs
The second viewing, however, did nothing to soften my discontent with the unnecessary and detrimentally racist stereotypes. For the second serial in a row there is a huge and mute black strongman. In The Evil of the Daleks the character of Kemel was meant to be a Turkish Wrester. The actor who played him, Sonny Caldinez, however was black. In Tomb of the Cybermen we have an equally large black strongman, this time named Toberman, and the “manservant” to the equally mysterious, and racially ambiguous, Kaftan. Early drafts of the script had Toberman (played by Roy Stewart) wearing a hearing aid, however this was written out of the final script.
Roy Stewart played the mute strongman and “man servant” of Kaftan, Toberman
Shirley Cooklin was the wife of Story Editor, Peter Bryant, and the role of Kaftan was written specifically for her. In the Special Feature, The Lost Giants, which is included the Special Edition of The Tomb of the Cybermen DVD, Cooklin describes the difficulties she faced as an actress. As someone who was not blond haired and blue eyed, she was constantly cast as characters such as French maids. What Cooklin failed to mention in the video, however, was that she was made up to have much darker skin than she ordinarily had. An unspecified accent was used throughout the serial and her very dark complexion was less than subtle in hinting that Kaftan was a mysterious and potentially dangerous outsider. So successful were the make-up artists in disguising Cooklin that Frazer Hines, a known ladies man, tried unsuccessfully to pick her up!
The “blacked up” Shirley Cooklin as Kaftan
The third member of our trio of crooks was the increasingly manic Klieg, played by George Pastell. Pastell was a Greek Cypriot actor famous for playing swarthy villains. The instigator of a totally crazy plan for world domination in which the Cybermen were to be conscripted as willing assistants, Klieg considered himself the most intelligent and logical person in the world. Clearly he was neither and his arrogance was his downfall.
George Pastell played the swarthy villain, Klieg
In between my first and second viewings of The Tomb of the Cyberman I had the misfortune of watching the Series Seven episode, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. My choice of the word “misfortune” is quite deliberate because throughout that 2013 episode I experienced the same niggling concerns about racism as I had watching Tomb. The Doctor and Clara find themselves, and the TARDIS, on board an intergalactic salvage ship. The ship is crewed by the brothers Gregor and Bram Van Baalen , together with a humanoid looking android, Tricky. If this was 1967 it would not have surprised me that the characters being “baddies” would also be “black”. This is 2013 however, and I just shook my head in disbelief as the first black characters in Doctor Who for a long time were also villains. Unfortunately most criticism directed to this episode related to allegedly poor acting on the part of Ashley Walters, Mark Oliver and Jahvel Hall. What is more important is that the actors were given little to work with and subjected to negatively stereotypical characterizations.
Incredibly, the only photos I could find online of the Van Baalen brothers, and Tricky, were either from behind or as monsters. Racism was again evident in 2013’s Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
I am not alone in my concerns about racism and Doctor Who. Philip Sandifer in his blog, and now books, Tardis Eruditorum, is unashamedly critical and has published an excellent essay in the second volume of Tardis Eruditorum, entitled “What do we Make of All These Black Mute Strongmen?”. He describes the decision by writers Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis to characterize Toberman as a black mute strongman not as a conscious act of malice, but rather an example of “unconscious failures to even notice that there’s a problem. More often than not, discrimination is just a particular flavour of stupidity”. In other words, these racist stereotypes are so ingrained that the writers didn’t even realize that they were being inherently racist. Such racism, I would posit, was inherent in the Stephen Thompson penned 2013 story, Journey.
Philip Sandifer is critical of racism in Doctor Who
Published in July 2013, the Lindy Orthia edited book, Doctor Who and Race, is a collection of 23 essays on the issue. In May this year there was widespread controversy when Orthia was reported as describing Doctor Who as “thunderingly racist”. The BBC issued a statement which stated as follows:-
“Doctor Who has a strong track record of diverse casting among both regular and guest cast. Freema Agyeman became the first black companion and Noel Clarke starred in a major role for five years [Mickey Smith]. Reflecting the diversity of the UK is a duty of the BBC, and casting on Doctor Who, is colour-blind. It is always about the best actors for the roles”.
Doctor Who and Race, edited by Lindy Orthia, was released in July 2013
I’m still waiting for Doctor Who and Race to be released on Kindle. Once it is I will undoubtedly post a review of it on this blog.
The Tomb of the Cybermen does, however, have its positives. The emergence of the Cybermen from their frozen tombs in episode two is brilliantly done and undeniably iconic. You can even excuse them for using cling wrap as it was as “new” and “exciting” as bubble wrap was to the 1970s Doctor Who designers.
The Cybermen emerge from their icy tombs
The Doctor’s discussion with the new companion, Victoria, in episode three is as close to tear-jerking as you’ll get. In discussing the death of Victoria’s father (in The Evil of the Daleks), the Doctor gently tells her of his own family recollections – “I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they … sleep in my mind and I forget. As so will you”. The Doctor also discloses for the first time his age and we learn that in earth terms he is roughly 450 years old.
The Doctor and Victoria’s episode three discussion.
Finally, the scene in which the Doctor and Jamie accidently hold hands as they enter the tomb is just fabulous. Both intending to hold Victoria’s hand, they quickly disengage when the manliness of the other hand becomes apparent. In the Special Features Frazer Hines describes how he and Patrick Troughton didn’t officially rehearse the scene. Fearing that their unscripted gag would be cut out, they left its unveiling to the actual filming knowing that cuts were expensive and rarely made.
Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling discussing the making of The Tomb of the Cybermen.
The Tomb of the Cyberman is unfortunately the only complete serial featuring Deborah Watling as Victoria. It’s back to reconstructions and only one complete episode, when I continue my marathon with The Abominable Snowmen.
The Tomb of the Cybermen was originally broadcast in the UK between 2 September and 23 September 1967
Only one episode of the seven part serial, The Evil of theDaleks,is held in the BBC Archives. Episode 2 has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. For the purposes of this marathon I watched Loose Cannon’s reconstructions of Episodes one, three, four, five, six and seven.
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 1 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 1 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 3 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 3 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 4 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 4 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 5 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 5 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 6 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 6 Part 2
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 7 Part 1
Loose Cannon’s The Evil of the Daleks,Episode 7 Part 2
The Evil of the Daleks was originally broadcast in the UK between 20 May and 1 July 1967. Episode 2 is available on the triple DVD set Lost in Time
Only episode one of The Web of Fear is held in the BBC Archives and has been released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. For the purposes of this marathon I viewed Loose Cannon’s reconstructions of episodes two through to six, links to which are provided below.
The Doctor Who Mind Robber 