Logopolis: Part One

EPISODE: Logopolis: Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 556
STORY NUMBER: 116
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 28 February 1981
FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO REPEAT: Monday 30 November 1981
WRITER: Christopher H. Bidmead
DIRECTOR: Peter Grimwade
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 7.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - New Beginnings (The Keeper of Traken/Logopolis/Castrovalva)

"The more you put things together, the more they keep falling apart, and that's the essence of the second law of thermodynamics and I never heard a truer word spoken."

On Earth a policeman uses a police box to make a call but is cut off while it flutters visually and is pulled inside. Pacing the cloisters in the Tardis the Doctor decides to avoid going to Gallifrey, evading questions about what Romana has done, and instead suggests a trip to Earth. On Earth Australian air line hostess Tegan Jovanka is being driven to the first day of her new job by her Aunt Vanessa when the car breaks down. The Doctor decides to start the Tardis' long needed overhaul by fixing the chameleon circuit and travels to Earth to measure a real police box for use in Block Transfer Computations materialising round a Police Box on the Barnet Bypass next to the broken down car. Across the road from Vanessa & Tegan a white figure observes the events taking place, but vanishes when they try to summon him to help. The Doctor & Adric measure the police box, with the Doctor explaining about the Logopolitan Block Transfer Computations when the Doctor detects a gravity bubble. Popping out of the Tardis he sees the white figure in a field.

The Doctor & Adric open up the police box, finding a darkened Tardis control room and another police box within. Tegan goes to into the Tardis, believing it to be a real Police Box, just missing the Police Box within dematerialising. She quickly becomes lost in the Tardis' maze of corridors. The Doctor and Adric penetrate the second Police Box finding another yet darker Tardis within. Vanessa approaches the Police Box on the bypass and steps inside to be confronted by an unseen figure who laughs at her. The Doctor & Adric eventually break out of the nested Tardises with the Doctor meeting a police inspector on the road who shows him the shrunken bodies of Vanessa & the police man on the seat of Vanessa's sports car. The Doctor, observed by the white clad watcher, tells the police that this is the work of the Master.

And so the end for Tom Baker's Doctor begins. We pick up the themes of entropy & decay that have been there all season the Doctor decides to fix the Tardis Chameleon Circuit:

DOCTOR: Chameleon circuit.
ADRIC: What? Doctor.
DOCTOR: Look, whenever you see me in this part of the Tardis, pacing up and down like this, be a good chap and don't interrupt me, will you, unless it's terribly urgent. It's not terribly urgent, is it?
ADRIC: Well, no.
DOCTOR: Good, so now you'll know in fact there's no need for you to come barging in here at all, but if it is terribly urgent you can always ring the Cloister Bell.
ADRIC: The Cloister Bell?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ADRIC: What's that?
DOCTOR: Well, it's a sort of communications device reserved for wild catastrophes and sudden calls to man the battle stations.
ADRIC: But the Tardis doesn't have battle stations.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, nothing along those lines. I sometimes think I should be running a tighter ship.
ADRIC: A tighter ship?
DOCTOR: Yes. The second law of thermodynamics is taking its toll on the old thing. Entropy increases.
ADRIC: Entropy increases?
DOCTOR: Yes, daily. The more you put things together, the more they keep falling apart, and that's the essence of the second law of thermodynamics and I never heard a truer word spoken. Come on. Come on.
(They sit on a small stone bench.)
DOCTOR: Have you seen the state of the time column recently? Wheezing like a grampus.
ADRIC: But it will get us to Gallifrey, won't it?
DOCTOR: Gallifrey? Oh yes, yes. Are you really set on going to Gallifrey?
ADRIC: Yes.
DOCTOR: Oh.
ADRIC: That is where we're going, isn't it?
DOCTOR: That's one of the questions I was just pondering. There's bound to be an awful lot of fuss about Romana. Why she stayed in E-space, official investigations, that sort of thing.
ADRIC: The Time Lords won't approve?
DOCTOR: What? She has broken the cardinal rule of Gallifrey. She has become involved, and in a pretty permanent sort of way. I think that you and I should let a few oceans flow under a few bridges before we head back home.
ADRIC: So we don't get to go to Gallifrey.
DOCTOR: Yes. Let me put another question to you. I have a place in mind that's on the way, well, more or less, give or take a parsec or two. It's my home from home. It's called Earth.

We've not seen Earth since the opening moments of the season on Brighton Beach in The Leisure Hive, although the insinuation is there that The Doctor and Romana paid it a visit between Meglos and Full Circle to return the Earthling Meglos had possessed home.

ADRIC: Earth's the planet with all the oceans, isn't it?
DOCTOR: That's the chap.
ADRIC: Wet.
DOCTOR: Britain is. That's the one place where we can find these blue boxes.
ADRIC: Tardises?
DOCTOR: Yes, but they're not. No spacious accommodation, no viewer screens. They don't even time travel. Just elementary Earth communications devices, and more or less obsolete by the time we'll be arriving there. There's some in the North that are still in use.
ADRIC: But we've got communications devices.
DOCTOR: But not a police box.
ADRIC: A police box?
DOCTOR: Yes. What the mathematical model of a Tardis exterior is based upon.
ADRIC: I'd like to see Earth, but why go all that way just to look at something that looks like the Tardis?
DOCTOR: Because I want to measure it.
ADRIC: Whatever for?
DOCTOR: Block transfer computation.
ADRIC: I've never heard of that.
DOCTOR: I'm not surprised. Logopolis is a quiet little planet.
ADRIC: Logopolis? But I thought we were going to Earth?
DOCTOR: No, that's the other place. We go to Logopolis afterwards.
ADRIC: You mean we're going to measure Logopolis, too?
DOCTOR: No, no, no. It's all to do with the chameleon circuit problem. We measure the police box on Earth, then we take the measurements afterwards to Logopolis.

All this takes place in the lovely set for the Cloister room, all stone and plants in the centre of the Tardis

So they materialise round a real Police Box and in the process stumble into a trap set by The Master:

DOCTOR: Get back to the Tardis.
ADRIC: But this is the Tardis.
DOCTOR: A Tardis, perhaps.
ADRIC: It looks just like yours.
DOCTOR: Yes, down to the last detail. No, wait, wait. This could be terribly dangerous. You'd better stay with me.

ADRIC: How many more of these are there? It couldn't be an infinite regression, could it?
DOCTOR: I hope not, because if it is, we'll never get out of it.

You do have to wonder how The Master knew they'd materialise round that Police Box at that time!

But at the same time we've got someone stumbling into the Tardis believing it's a real Police Box just like Dodo at the end of the Massacre.

TEGAN: Police telephone, free for use of public. Advice and assistance obtainable immediately. Officers and cars respond to urgent calls. Pull to open..... That's funny. It's very peculiar indeed.

TEGAN: Hello? Anybody there? Well, there must be intelligent life at the end of this lot. Hello? Anybody receiving me? Hello? Come in, anybody. My name's Tegan Jovanka. I'd like to speak to the pilot. Is that the crew in there?

Playing airline hostess Tegan Jovanka is Australian born Janet Fielding. The character was probably designed to attract Australian money for a co-production that failed to materialise. It's not the last time that John Nathan-Turner would create a character with the intent of attracting money or audience from another country..... Tegan's character will give direction to the next year or so by wanting the Doctor to get her home in a manner similar to the original human companions Ian & Barbara.

Playing Tegan's Aunt Vanessa is Delore Whiteman. I've not seen anything else she's been in but her daughters, Tracey & Jodie Wilson appear in Delta & The Bannermen as the band's backing singers.

Playing the the ill fated Policeman with Bike is Ray Knight. He was the UNIT Soldier in the bunker in Robot, a Sorenson Monster in Planet of Evil, a Man in Image of the Fendahl, a Mentiad in Pirate Planet, one of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive, and one of Lexa's Deons in Meglos. He returns as a Trion in Planet of Fire, a Guard in Vengeance on Varos, and one of Glitz's Crew in Dragonfire. He appears in Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in Countdown, a Rebel in Rumours of Death and a Federation Trooper in Warlord.

The mysterious Watcher is played Adrian Gibbs who was Rysik in Full Circle and returns as a Cricketer in Black Orchid.

Tegan's house is Number 43, Ursula Street, Battersea, London which was at the time the home of Andrew McCulloch, where he and John Flanagan wrote Meglos.

Meanwhile the "Barnet Bypass" is actually the A413 with the initial views of the bridge looking north towards Amersham and the lay by being located on the south bound carriageway roughly where the M25 now crosses it, with the railway bridge visible in the story carrying the train line between Deneham Gold Club & Gerards Cross stations.

I've driven this road many times due to at one point having a girlfriend in Aylesbury (Hello Barbara!) but never realised it was a Doctor Who location until years later when I bought Richard Bignell's Doctor Who on Location.

This location is a very short distance from the field used in Reign of Terror for the very first Doctor Who location filming.

Immediately following that on BBC2 at 18:05 the fifth episode of series 2 of The Adventure Game aired. The guests for this episode were John Craven, Bill Green & Kirsty Miller Then on BBC One at 19:20 was the tenth episode of Blake's 7's fourth season Gold.

The Three Doctors: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Three Doctors: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 333
STORY NUMBER: 065 TRANSMITTED: Saturday 20 January 1973
FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO REPEAT: Thursday 26 November 1981
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 11.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who Revisitations 3: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Three Doctors & The Robots of Death
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"I created this world through the power of my will. I created the organisms which brought you here. This is the source of the light stream you travelled along, and I created it. I alone! Omega! And it is not enough. None of it is enough. I am still trapped. As trapped as I was the moment I arrived in this, this desolation."

The Second Doctor interrupts the conflict saving the Third as the humans escape to UNIT HQ. Omega wishes to be free but can't escape because the singularity needs to be controlled. For him to leave someone must take his place: The Doctor. The Doctors remove Omega's protective gear but find that there's nothing underneath because the singularity has eaten his body away. Just his will remains. Enraged at this discovery he begins to destroy his world allowing the Doctors to flee and shelter with the humans in the Tardis. On the Time Lord planet conditions have become critical. The First Doctor appears on the monitor screen and confers with his other selves coming up with a plan to use the Tardis' force field generator. Trying to remove it they discover the Second Doctor's recorder lodged in the force field generator. They contact Omega with an offer of freedom for him. They use the Tardis to travel to Omega's palace where they bargain with him to return the humans to Earth. One by one they pass through the singularity and are returned home. They offer Omega the force field generator. He knocks it aside in anger releasing the still positive matter recorder from within. The explosion creates a new source of energy for the Time Lords to use. The Tardis appears in UNIT HQ which had been returned to Earth with it's occupants once Omega's will was released. The First Doctor speaks with his other selves then first he and then the second Doctor vanish.

THIRD DOCTOR: Well, here we are, back safe and sound.
SECOND DOCTOR: Quite a party.
FIRST DOCTOR: Yes, well, the party's over now. You young men and I go back to our time zones. Though considering the way things have been going, well, I shudder to think what you'll do with out me.

SECOND DOCTOR: Goodbye. Well, goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. It's been so nice to meet me.
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes, I see what you mean. I hope I don't meet me again.
SECOND DOCTOR: Ah.

As the Doctor mourns for Omega a materialisation noise is heard:

DOCTOR: The Time Lords! Look, they've sent me a new dematerialisation circuit. And my knowledge of time travel law and all the dematerialisation codes, they've all come back. They've forgiven me. They've given me back my freedom!

Finally Mr Ollis arrives home...

MRS OLLIS: And where do you think you've been, Arthur Ollis? I've been worried sick about you, I have. Everybody's been searching. Where have you been? Soldiers looking for you. You didn't come home for your dinner. Well?
OLLIS: You'd never believe me, woman. Supper ready?

We complain often enough about television programs pulling story solutions out of thin air: here the solution has been sign posted throughout and it involves the second Doctor's recorder which fell into the force field generator and was thus protected from anti matter conversion. We'll ignore that the Doctor turned the force field off for the Tardis to get converted. The science of the matter & anti-matter colliding producing an explosion is sound (ish) but we're onto wobblier ground with everything being returned home, reconverted back to positive matter and the Doctors being stuck back into the Tardis! Doctor Tyler drew our attention to some time wasting padding in the previous episode and there's more provided here as five characters are slowly one by one transported back to this world. I'm pretty certain this episode sets a record for "most number of people in the Tardis" at SEVEN with the Second & Third Doctors, Jo Grant, Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, Sergeant Benton, Doctor Tyler & Mister Ollis. This is Sergeant Benton's only visit to the inside of the Tardis but the Brigadier will get another visit some years later.

As the visitors leave we get our first good look at the Tardis doors for a while. The outsides are still sporting the flat panels they gained in The Colony in Space, when the sets saw double use as The Master's Tardis, but they're now painted blue like the Doctor's Tardis exterior.

This episode marks a turning point for the series. Both Producer Barry Letts and Script Editor Terrance Dicks had been not 100% comfortable with the "Doctor exiled to Earth" idea and had been stretching it for some time. Now the Doctor gets his freedom back and can roam the Galaxy more freely. Unit will return, usually at the start and end of a season of stories for a few years yet.

Second Doctor Patrick Troughton continued to be a much in demand actor and returns twice more to the show in both The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors but sadly this episode marks the last acting role for First Doctor William Hartnell. As we've seen he wasn't at all well during the making of this story and he died just over two years later on 23rd April 1975 aged 67.

Three Doctors has never been a go to story for me but I loved seeing it this time round. As you probably know I have a few blog entries saved up so sometimes I watch more than on episode in a day. I watched all four episodes on the same day, and found that it rolls along nicely especially compared to the later half of the previous season. The first 2 episodes are especially fabulous as Troughton towers over everything. Apparently he and Pertwee's working methods differed slightly, while Pertwee was a word perfect man Troughton tended to improvise somewhat round the script. However a friendship grew between the two and tales of their later convention exploits, including a water pistol battle, are numerous. They would reunite on screen ten years later during the Five Doctors.

The Three Doctors is the second story featuring the Third Doctor Jon Pertwee that I saw when it was repeated as the fourth story in the Five Doctors season in 1981. Confusingly it was shown *after* the Carnival of Monsters, which was the show broadcast after this one and makes reference to the Time Lords returning the Doctor's freedom to travel through time & space. So although I'd already seen the Third Doctor & Jo, this was my first encounter with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sergeant Benton, UNIT and the Time-Lords.

Monday 2nd November Tuesday 3rd November Wednesday 4th November Thursday 5th November	First Doctor	An Unearthtly Child
Monday 9th November Tuesday 10th November Wednesday 11th November Thursday 12th November	Second Doctor	The Krotons
Monday 16th November Tuesday 17th November Wednesday 18th November Thursday 19th November	Third Doctor	The Carnival of Monsters
Monday 23rd November Tuesday 24th November Wednesday 25th November Thursday 26th November	First, Second & Third Doctors	The Three Doctors
Monday 30th November Tuesday 1st December Wednesday 2nd December Thursday 3rd December	Fourth & Fifth Doctors	Logopolis

I've heard it suggested that the reason the story was shown after Carnival of Monsters was that the day the first episode was shown was the show's 18th Birthday.... I'm not sure I believe this but it got me thinking..... wouldn't An Unearthly Child have fitted better showing the first episode of that on 23 November? The season would then have run thus:

Monday 23 November Tuesday 24 November Wednesday 25 November Thursday 26 November	First Doctor	An Unearthtly Child
Monday 30 November Tuesday 01 December Wednesday 02 December Thursday 03 December	Second Doctor	The Krotons
Monday 07 December Tuesday 08 December Wednesday 09 December Thursday 10 December	First, Second & Third Doctors	The Three Doctors
Monday 14 December Tuesday 15 December Wednesday 16 December Thursday 17 December	Third Doctor	The Carnival of Monsters
Monday 21 December Tuesday 22 December Wednesday 23 December Thursday 24 December	Fourth & Fifth Doctors	Logopolis

The last episode of the season, the fourth part of Logopolis, would then have aired on Christmas Eve a little ahead of the firth Doctor's début proper on 4th January 1982. Oddly enough there was a Doctor Who repeat, of sorts, on Christmas Eve that year: K-9 & Company got it's one and only repeat screening.

The Three Doctors was novelised by Terrance Dicks in 1975. It's first cover bears a distinct resemblance to the cover of Fantastic Four #49, published in April 1966. Especially note the fingers and the energy beams coming from them.

Coincidentally The Three Doctors is one of the earliest Target novels to be rejacketed with a new cover!

The Three Doctors was released on video on 5th August 1991 alongside Masque of Mandragora..... but I had a copy 2 days previous courtesy of a dealer at a central London comic mart. It was re-released in September 2002 as part of the Time Lord collection boxset for WHSmiths along with a vastly improved War Games and The Deadly Assassin.

The original DVD of this story was released on 24th November 2003, the closest Monday (DVD releases always come out on a Monday in the UK) to the program's 40th anniversary. There were two versions of the packaging for this DVD: the normal version and a version with a model of Bessie packed in. This DVD has a major fault with a repeated scene in episode two which was only fixed when The Three Doctors received a special edition version as part of Doctor Who Revisitations 3 along side a newly Vidfired Tomb of the Cybermen and an improved Robots of Death.

The Three Doctors: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Three Doctors: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 332
STORY NUMBER: 065 TRANSMITTED: Saturday 13 January 1973
FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO REPEAT: Wednesday 25 November 1981
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who Revisitations 3: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Three Doctors & The Robots of Death
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Those who oppose the will of Omega shall not live! Destroy him!"

The Third Doctor, Jo & Doctor Tyler are taken to see the ruler of this world, Omega, a Time Lord who the Doctor thought destroyed. He was the solar engineer that gave the Time Lords' Time Travel by detonating a star as a Supernova. He feels he was abandoned but the Doctor protests that they thought he had died. He survived in the anti-matter Universe by force of will and controls it by his mind. Omega detects more visitors as the UNIT HQ carrying the Tardis, Second Doctor, Brigadier & Sergeant Benton arrives. The Brigadier believes the Doctor has transported UNIT HQ to Cromer. He goes to find a phone, pursued by the Doctor, who still wants his recorder, and Benton. The Brigadier locates the missing game warden Ollis who's been stuck in the wasteland for a while and sighted The Third Doctor, Jo & Doctor Tyler being taken off by the Gell Guards who have now captured the Second Doctor & Benton. They are taken to Omega where they and the Third Doctor are imprisoned. The Brigadier plans to attack Omega's palace. Jo gets the Doctors to use their will to form a door in their cell allowing their escape. The Doctors find their way to chamber where Omega controls the Black Hole's singularity but Omega is angered that they are free. They fight the dark side of Omega's mind in a psychic battlefield as Jo, Benton & Tyler escape meeting the Brigadier & Ollis on their way out. The First Doctor is summoned by the Time Lords, who are desperately low on energy. They send him through the black hole to aid his other two selves as the Third Doctor is overcome by Omega.

It would be fair to say that the Brigadier does not take his first journey in The Tardis very well, even if it is one under the control of an external force!

SECOND DOCTOR: Well, we appear to have arrived.
BRIGADIER: Corporal Palmer. Come in, Palmer.
SECOND DOCTOR: I don't think you'll get through with that thing.
BRIGADIER: Why not?
SECOND DOCTOR: It hasn't quite got the range.
BRIGADIER: What are you talking about, Doctor? They're only just outside the building.
SECOND DOCTOR: Brigadier
BRIGADIER: Corporal Palmer, do you read me?
SECOND DOCTOR: I think you should prepare yourself for a bit of a shock.
BENTON: Can we take a look outside, Doc?
SECOND DOCTOR: We can try..... Well, I never.
BENTON: It seems to have gone, sir.
BRIGADIER: Yes, well, it looks quiet enough. Right, Doctor, if you'll just open that door, I'll see what's going on.
SECOND DOCTOR: I really wouldn't advise it.
BRIGADIER: Oh, come along now, Doctor.
SECOND DOCTOR: Oh, all right. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, I do wish you'd listen to me. Come along, we'd better follow him..... That's extraordinary. That stuff must have found the Tardis a bit indigestible even without the force field on, so it swallowed a bit of the surrounding matter as well. Hmm. Rather like taking a pill with a swig of water.
BRIGADIER: Well, we seem to have got rid of it. Benton, you stay here.
BENTON: So you think we've moved, is that it, Doctor?
SECOND DOCTOR: Oh, I'm quite sure we have.
BENTON: Well, where do you reckon we are?
SECOND DOCTOR: Not where he thinks we are.

Confronted with UNIT's HQ sitting in a different location he Brigadier once again goes into complete denial:

BRIGADIER: Now see here, Doctor, You have finally gone too far.
SECOND DOCTOR: I rather think we all have. What's it like out there?
BRIGADIER: There's, well, there's sand everywhere!
SECOND DOCTOR: Oh, splendid. Who's for a swim?
BRIGADIER: Do you realise what you've done? You've stolen the whole of UNIT HQ. Now what am I going to tell Geneva? That the whole blessed building has been picked up and put down on some deserted beach? We're probably miles from London!

SECOND DOCTOR: I'm afraid we're a little bit further than that, Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: You mean we're not even in the same country? There'll be international repercussions. This could be construed as an invasion.
BENTON: It's not just a matter of the same country, sir. If the Doctor's right, we're not even in the same universe.
BRIGADIER: What? Oh, nonsense, Benton. I tell you that's a beach out there. It's probably Norfolk or somewhere like that.
DOCTOR: Oh, please, if you'd only listen to me.
BRIGADIER: Right, now I'll tell you what we'll do. You two stay here. See that nobody wanders in. We can't have the place overrun with holiday makers. I'll nip out, find a phone and tell the authorities exactly where we are. I'm fairly sure that's Cromer. Back in a jiff!

There's less of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton in this episode than the last one which is a shame but he does get to deliver a crucial line, still hunting for his missing recorder.

SECOND DOCTOR: Just a minute. I think I'll have another look for my recorder.
BENTON: Doctor, when are you going to face the facts? You've lost your recorder and that's that.
SECOND DOCTOR: Oh, no, I'm sure it's in the Tardis somewhere. I shan't be a minute.
BENTON: Doctor! Look.
SECOND DOCTOR: Oh my giddy aunt!

To a first time viewer this could be viewed as narrow minded and silly but it's actually keeping the missing instrument in mind so that when it plays a crucial role in the plot next episode it's not been plucked out of thin air, so a good albeit repetitive use if Chekov's Gun.

And of course we get Stephen Thorne at his mad, shouty best as Omega, who reveals for the first time some of the history of the Time Lords:

DOCTOR: Yes, most impressive, I must admit that.
TYLER: Almost worth the trip just to see this place.
JO: Yes, but who brought us here, and why?
OMEGA: I did. I am the one who brought you here.
DOCTOR: Who are you?
OMEGA: In the legends of your people I am called Omega.
DOCTOR: Omega? But that's impossible. Omega was destroyed.
OMEGA: No, brother Time Lord, I was not destroyed, as you can see. Take the man and the girl.
DOCTOR: Where are you taking them?
OMEGA: They will not be harmed, Doctor. They have no part in my revenge.
OMEGA: I have been grievously wronged, Doctor, and now it is time for my vengeance!

OMEGA: Without me, there would be no time travel. You and our fellow Time Lords would still be locked in your own time, as puny as those creatures you now so graciously protect.
DOCTOR: You knew your mission was dangerous.
OMEGA: Dangerous, yes, but I completed it, and I did not expect to be abandoned. Many thousands of years ago, when I left our planet, all this was then a star until I arranged its detonation.
DOCTOR: You were the solar engineer. It was your duty.
OMEGA: It was an honour, or so I thought then. I was to be the one to find and create the power source that would give us mastery over time itself.
DOCTOR: Well, you succeeded, and are revered for it.
OMEGA: Revered? Here? I was abandoned.
DOCTOR: The histories say that you were lost in the supernova.
OMEGA: I was sacrificed to that supernova. I generated those forces, and for what? To be blown out of existence into this black hole of antimatter? My brothers became Time Lords, but I was abandoned and forgotten!
DOCTOR: No, not forgotten. All my life I've known of you and honoured you as our greatest hero.
OMEGA: A hero? I should have been a god!

DOCTOR: Well, theoretically, of course, all this is quite impossible.
OMEGA: Here, Doctor, everything is possible. Be seated.
DOCTOR: Thank you. Tell me, how did you manage to survive?
OMEGA: How does anyone survive? Force of will. Mind, you might say, over antimatter.
DOCTOR: And this organism stuff that you sent to bring us here?
OMEGA: Created from the raw stuff of matter. An organism that can exist in your world and mine. It brought you here and imbued you with its properties so that you too could exist in both worlds.
DOCTOR: But how do I fit into this picture?
OMEGA: There are some things that even I cannot do, not alone, and at this point in my plans I need the help of a brother Time Lord.
DOCTOR: Oh, I see.
OMEGA: And it pleases me to use you against them.
DOCTOR: And if I give you my help, do you really think you can defeat the Time Lords? All of them?
OMEGA: But I am defeating them, Doctor. All of their power is insufficient to prevent the cosmic energy drain which I have caused.
DOCTOR: And if I refuse to cooperate?
OMEGA: Then you will face the wrath of Omega, you and those miserable humans who accompany you.
(A communications device beeps. Omega goes over to it and hears a message made up of high pitched beeps.)
OMEGA: Investigate immediately but do not harm them.
DOCTOR: Them?
OMEGA: Well, Doctor, it seems that we have more company.

BENTON: Well, who is this Omega, anyway?
DOCTOR: A Time Lord. One of the greatest of all my race.
DOCTOR 2: Our race.
DOCTOR: Our race. Yes, sorry.
DOCTOR 2: Long, long ago, we learnt the secret of time travel, but in order to make it a reality we had to have a colossal source of energy.
DOCTOR: Omega provided that energy by a fantastic feat of solar engineering. We thought he was destroyed, instead of which he finished up here.
DOCTOR 2: Yes, it seems that his imprisonment was the price of our freedom to travel in time.
JO: Even so, you can't let him smash everything up. Well, look, he's not all-powerful, you know, or else why did he need to bring you here?
DOCTOR: Yes, that's true.

Stephen Thorne, here playing Omega, we previously saw as Azal in The Dæmons, and he had recently played, but not yet been seen on screen as, an Ogron in Frontier in Space. He returns as Eldrad in The Hand of Fear. More on this story in a bit... He'd also voiced Aslan in The Animated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Treebeard in in the acclaimed Radio 4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. He became a great friend of Nicholas Courtney and would sign Courtney's nomination for the Equity council every year. You can hear him interviewed in Toby Hadoke's Who Round #191.

OMEGA: You dare threaten to destroy me? You wish to fight the will of Omega?
DOCTOR: Yes, if I must.
OMEGA: Then you shall, but you will fight the dark side of my mind. The dark side of my mind.

Regular stuntman Alan Chuntz plays the version of Omega that fights the Doctor. He was previously a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, Technician Harvey & a Security Guard in The Seeds of Death, one of Collinson’s Men & a UNIT Soldier in the Ambassadors of Death, a Technician, UNIT solider and RSF Soldier in Inferno, during which he was injured when Jon Pertwee ran him over in Bessie, an Auton in Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner in Mind of Evil and a Sea Devil & Sailor in The Sea Devils. He returns as a Security Guard in The Green Death, a Guard in Planet of Spiders, a soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen, the Doctor's stunt double in Planet of Evil, the Chauffeur in Seeds of Doom, a Horda Pit Guard in Face of Evil, a Coolie in Talons of Weng-Chiang, a guard in State of Decay and a Masked Villager in The Visitation. He also did stunt work on the Sean Connery James Bond film You Only Live Twice and on The Italian Job.

For the more physical elements of this sequence Jon Pertwee was doubled, as he frequently was, by Terry Walsh, another series regular. He was a Militiaman in The Smugglers, a Soldier in The Web of Fear, a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, The Ambassadors of Death & Inferno, in the last of which he also played a Technician and an RSF Soldier, an Auton Policeman & Unit Soldier in Terror of the Autons, a UNIT Motorcyclist in The Mind of Evil, a Primitive, Colonist & IMC Guard Rogers in Colony in Space, Castle Guard Barclay & a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, an Overlord Guard in The Mutants and the Window Cleaner in The Time Monster. He returns as a Guard in The Green Death, a Warehouse Looter in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Jack, an Exillon & a Zombie in Death to the Daleks, The Guard Captain & a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, the Man with Boat in Planet of the Spiders, a Bouncer in Robot, Zake in The Sontaran Experiment, a Thal Soldier, Muto and Kaled Scientist in Genesis of the Daleks, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Crew Member in Planet of Evil, the Executioner in The Masque of Mandragora, a Horda Pit Guard in The Face of Evil, Mensch in The Power of Kroll and Doran in The Creature from the Pit.

Walsh stunt doubled for the Doctor in Inferno, Terror of the Autons, Day of the Daleks, Curse of Peladon, The Sea Devils, Carnival of Monsters, Frontier in Space, The Green Death, The Time Warrior, Death to the Daleks, Monster of Peladon, Planet of the Spiders, The Sontaran Experiment, Revenge of the Cybermen, Planet of Evil, The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Androids of Tara, The Creature from the Pit. He was also the double for The Master in The Sea Devils, the Minotaur in the Time Monster, Mike Yates in The Green Death & Planet of the Spiders, Harry Sulivan in The Sontaran Experiment, Sorenson in Planet of Evil, Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin, Count Grendel in The Androids of Tara and a Stuntman on Power of Kroll. He was Fight Aarranger for The Sea Devils, The Mutants, The Green Death, Death to the Daleks, Monster of Peladon, Planet of the Spiders, The Sontaran Experiment, The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Androids of Tara & The Creature from the Pit. He also doubled for The Doctor in the Children In Need Spoof The Dimensions in Time and played the Duelling Guard and a Mercenary in The Ultimate Adventure where he also staged the fights.

He was also in the Adam Adamant Lives! episode - D for Destruction as Watts, which we like because it has Patrick Troughton and a load of control panels in it! In Space: 1999 he was Clan Guard in Journey to Where, the Rescue Eagle Pilot in The Mark of Archanon, a Technician in Space Warp and a Security Guard in The Seance Spectre. He was in Superman II as a KFC Man / French Officer and An American Werewolf in London as the Taxi Driver Who Crashes His Cab. He did stunt work on The Italian Job, the Roger Moore James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, Superman, Superman III & Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Douglas Camfield & Robert Holmes' The Nightmare Man, the aforementioned An American Werewolf in London, Krull and Robin of Sherwood.

The Gell Guards are populated from the ranks of recent Daleks operators, although one hasn't been seen on screen in that roll yet!

Regular Dalek Operator John Scott Martin made his Doctor Who début in The Web Planet as a Zarbi graduating to Dalek Operator in The Chase three stories later a role he'd repeated in Mission to the Unknown, The Dalek Masterplan,Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks & Day of the Daleks. He'll return as a Dalek in Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks, Death to the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He also plays a Mechanoid in The Chase, the Robot in Colony in Space, Charlie & a Coven Member in the Dæmons, a Mutant in the Mutants, a mutant in Frontier in Space, Hughes in The Green Death, a Ministry of Defence Guard in Robot, Kriz in Brain of Morbius, the Virus Nucleus in Invisible Enemy. His distinctive hair makes him a familiar figure amongst bit part actors in many television roles: he was in Quatermass and the Pit as a T.V. Technician in The Wild Hunt and A for Andromeda as a Lab Assistant / Man in Pub in The Message. He appears in the missing Out of the Unknown episode The Naked Sun as a robot but misses out when The Daleks turn up in Get Off My Cloud. In Doomwatch he's a Man in The Islanders and e appears in the first episode of The Tripods as the Schoolmaster. Away from science fiction he was in I, Claudius as Julia's Lover in Waiting in the Wings and a Slave in Some Justice and appears on the big screen in Pink Floyd - The Wall as a Dancing Teacher.

Alongside him is his frequent colleague Murphy Grumbar. He was first a Dalek, credited as Peter Murphy, in The Daleks & The Dalek Invasion of Earth, then as Murphy Grumber he's Dalek in The Space Museum, Mechanoid in The Chase and a Dalek in The Evil of the Daleks. He returns as Arcturus in The Curse of Peladon, a Gell Guard in The Three Doctors, a functionary in Carnival of Monsters, a Dalek in Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks and, as Murphy Grunbar, in Death to the Daleks.

Cy Town made his debut as a Dalek Operator in Frontier in Space, filmed immediately before this story but shown two stories after! He fulfils the same role in the remaining Daleks stories appearing in Planet of the Daleks, Death to the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, Destiny of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He was also an Auton in Spearhead from Space returning as a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a technician in Inferno, a Prisoner, Audience Member & Medical Orderly in The Mind of Evil, a Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen part one, an Android Villager in Android Invasion, a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, an Bi-Al member in The Invisible Enemy, a Guard in The Sun Makers, a Castrovalvan Warrior in Castrovalva, a Guest Gambler in Enlightenment, a Passerby in Attack of the Cybermen, Execution Victim Harold L/drone in The Happiness Patrol and a Haemovore in The Curse of Fenric. Outside of Doctor Who appears in the Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes Spam as a Surfer and - The Money Programme as a Trumpeter plus the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life as a Restaurant Diner. In Doomwatch he's a Man in Flood, he's a Technician in all six episodes of Moonbase 3, a Security Guard in The Sweeney Golden Boy, in Quadrophenia he's a hairdresser, in Blake's 7 he's a Rebel Technician / Federation Trooper in Blake, he's a Coach Passenger in Miss Marple: Nemesis and in Jeeves and Wooster he's the Vicar in Wooster with a Wife (or, Jeeves the Matchmaker). And if you want to know what he looks like outside of his Dalek shell then there's some screencaps of him on his Aveleyman page.

Ricky Newby was a Dalek Operator in Day of The Daleks and a Mutant in the Mutants. There's a lot of comedy on his CV including an appearance in The Young Ones: Cash.

The exterior scenes on Omega's world are filmed at Springwell Quarry, situated in Rickmansworth near the story's other locations. The Doctor Who team will return here for 1982's Earthshock, 1984's The Twin Dilemma & 1987's Delta & the Bannermen. Four appearances may make it the most used quarry, and indeed exterior location, in Doctor Who!

This is Director Lennie Mayne's second directorial assignment after The Curse of Peladon and it's the third story written by Bob Baker & Dave Martin, after Claws of Axos and The Mutants. Writers and Director will combine again in a few years for the Hand of Fear which features Stephen Thorne as Eldrad, who plays Omega here, and Rex Robinson, playing Doctor Tyler here, as Dr. Carter.