Doctor's DilemmaBy Jon PreddleNo one sent in questions about the Key to Time season for last issue, but what happens? I get two for this issue. I have recently watched The Armageddon Factor and something occurred to me: Are there any Zeons on Zeos? Early in the story everyone seems convinced that there are, but later the Doctor concludes that, on the basis of a few deserted corridors, there no longer any Zeons on Zeos. Later, Romana says that if they don't stop the Marshal and/or Mentalis, millions of Atrions and Zeons will perish. Could you explain, please! [Paul Scoones] Shapp recalls having met the Zeons before the five-year war (they were humanoid). Apparently a line was cut from the final episode in which it is stated that the Zeons were wiped out by biological weapons created by the Black Guardian. Terrance Dicks, when writing the novelisation, seems to have picked up on the anomaly because he has added a line on page 69 stating that the Zeons had moved to the other side of the planet. So, there probably are Zeons somewhere on Zeos but none near the chambers and corridors that Mentalis occupies. I think that Romana was assuming that there are Zeons somewhere hiding on the planet on the basis that the Doctor could be wrong. And while we're on the subject of The Armageddon Factor... Why did Mary Tamm leave the series, and what causes Romana's regeneration at the beginning of Destiny of the Daleks? [Bevan Thomas] Mary Tamm decided to leave the series when her one-year contract expired because she felt her character was being written down in the scripts for the latter half of the season. Producer Graham Williams was very keen for Mary to do another year, but was unable to convince her to stay. (Tamm was also pregnant, and would have looked a bit big by the time recording on Season Seventeen would have started, so there was another reason for her not to stay on.) There is nothing in Destiny of the Daleks to say why Romana regenerated although in the first edition of The Programme Guide, Jean-Marc Lofficier theorised that Romana's torture at the hands of the Shadow later caused her change. What were the first words heard from a Dalek in The Daleks? Also, I haven't seen Genesis of the Daleks; does it feature Davros actually creating the first Dalek? If it does, then what were the first words spoken by the Dalek? [Greg R Coupe] The first words uttered by a Dalek on screen were: 'You will move ahead of us and follow my directions. This way,' in episode 2 of The Daleks. Incidentally, the Daleks don't use their catch-phrase until episode 4, when one says 'They are to be exterminated!' In Genesis of the Daleks the first Daleks have already been built by the time the Doctor and his friends arrive on Skaro but we do see Davros testing the Dalek gun for the first time. Later, when the Mark Three Dalek is introduced to the Kaled scientists, the new self-control facilities are demonstrated for the first time. The Dalek speaks for the first time in this scene, chanting, 'Aliens! I must exterminate! Exterminate!' as it advances on the Doctor, so I think we can consider these to be the first independent words ever uttered by a Dalek. Do you know how to translate the Tzun language in the novel First Frontier? [Greg R Coupe] Sorry I don't. If anyone has any ideas on this one, please write in. Are there any planned Dalek or Cybermen New Adventures? [Greg R Coupe] Back in 1993 Virgin had plans to publish a New Adventures novel by John Peel called War of the Daleks (also known as Legacy of the Daleks). The book was delayed and eventually shelved due to unresolved negotiations over copyright fees for the use of the Daleks. Due to the difficulties encountered by the publishers over that book I think it is very unlikely that any further Dalek novels will be published. Thankfully the Cybermen are not bound by the same restrictions. They have already appeared in the New Adventures novel Iceberg by David Banks, and will return in June 1996's Missing Adventures novel Killing Ground by Steve Lyons, featuring the Sixth Doctor. In The Tenth Planet it is said that Mondas is one of the ancient names for Earth. Is this true? [Bevan Thomas] It would appear that Mondas is derived from the Latin word mundus, meaning 'the world'. The French word for Earth is 'le monde', which is also derived from the Latin. If the baby in The Curse of Fenric is Ace's mother, doesn't that make Kathleen Dudman Ace's grandmother? If so, then how come Ace doesn't recognise Kathleen? [Tim Beverstock] The best solution to this paradox is that Kathleen died before Ace was born and that Ace has never seen photographs of her maternal grandmother. Ace's 'Nan', who lives at 17 Old Terrace in Streatham, where Ace sends Kathleen and the baby, would have to be her paternal grandmother (Mrs McShane?), otherwise Ace would be sending Kathleen back to her own house-to-be. This creates an interesting twist: by sending Audrey to the house of Ace's father-to-be Ace is creating her own future. Baby Audrey would have lived with junior McShane in Streatham. Later they would marry; and it's all thanks to Ace! If the TARDIS travels in the space/time vortex how does it pick up Hallet's distress signal in the Vervoid adventure? [Samual McLeod] Hallet's Mayday signal was specifically beamed at the TARDIS. The best solution is that the Doctor gave Hallet a communications device that was capable of reaching the time ship at any point in the vortex. When is Paradise of Death set? It appears to be the 1990s, whereas the Missing Adventure Dancing the Code is set in the 1970s. [Samual McLeod] The jury is still undecided on this one. Virgin has had several attempts at establishing an acceptable chronology for the UNIT stories - all of them different! Jean-Marc Lofficier set the stories a few years after broadcast, while The Discontinuity Guide generally places them contemporary to broadcast, a theory that I follow. Some still prefer to accept the original production brief that the stories were set in the late 1980s/early 1990s and ignore the dates in Mawdryn Undead. Barry Letts was the series producer during the Pertwee era and wrote The Paradise of Death radio-play and book in terms of the brief from this time, therefore locating the story in the 1990s. Virgin's own chronology, A History of the Universe, places not only the television episodes, but also the Missing and New Adventures, into a single timeline. They are going to have a difficult time considering the novels all seem to follow different ideas on dates, particularly Iceberg which sets the UNIT years in the 1980s, and then along comes which is the 1970s. I shall be very interested to see how they explain that one! In what instances has New Zealand or New Zealanders been mentioned in Doctor Who, and what New Zealanders have acted in the show? [James Gould] New Zealand has only been mentioned once on screen as far as I can tell, and that is in Episode 1 of The Tenth Planet where the tracking station monitors the space capsule Zeus IV as it passes over the South Island (this appears on page 21 of the novel). When the planet Mondas is seen on screen, the upside down image of 'New Zealand' can be glimpsed briefly. On page 7 of the Target edition of The Daleks, New Zealand is mentioned. In The Seeds of Death, a map of the world is seen and New Zealand features rather prominently in several shots. As for actors, there have been several, including foreign-born actors who now live (or lived) in New Zealand: Ilona Rogers (The Sensorites); Denis Lill (Image of the Fendahl, The Awakening); Louise Pajo (The Seeds of Death) Ewen Solon (The Savages); Bruce Purchase (The Pirate Planet); John Carson (Snakedance) and Alan Rowe (The Moonbase, The Time Warrior, Horror of Fang Rock and Full Circle). The character played by Victor Pemberton in The Moonbase is clearly identified by the New Zealand flag on his tunic. There have been a number of New Zealanders working behind the scenes too, the late Brian Lenane (once producer of Shortland Street) claimed to have worked on Doctor Who although it is not known in what capacity, and apparently Peter Bartlett, the film cameraman on The Abominable Snowmen, was a Kiwi. The most recent reference to New Zealand is in Sky Pirates!, which mentions the Maori. This item appeared in TSV 46 (January 1996). | |