A Question of Answers

© Andrew Pixley, 1998/2007

"Good day"
"Good day"
"Did you know that you've got four miles of tubing in your stomach?"
"No... no... I didn't know that. No"
"It's a good job I'm here then..."

Peter Cook was a comic genius. Sadly, his talent for irony, word-play and contemporary comment was - by and large - burnt out very early in his career. However, throughout much of his early work runs the theme of one character who is used to excellent comic effect: the obsessive. Cook himself had obsessions about particular interests from his childhood, such as his fascination of bees and newts. His first obsessive character was based on one Arthur Boylett, a public school servant who told the young Cook about tedious things which he found interesting. Cook developed a comic persona of Arthur Boylett, and then began to perform monologues using Boylett's nasal monotone while studying at Cambridge. The character, rechristened 'A Grole', was finally fully unleashed to the world in the landmark revue Beyond the Fringe and was renamed E L Wisty when Cook transferred it to television for a highly successful series of monologues which he performed as part of On the Braden Beat. Wisty went on to make many appearances, notably in Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Ball.

Put succinctly, Wisty was a bore with dull obsessions. Crammed with his ideas on ants, bees, history, computers, naked ladies, C P Snow, Muslims, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, "inalienable rights", Russian, vipers, asps, judges, Latin, exams, the mining community and the notion of the World Domination League, he would inflict these (and indeed a diagram of the human intestine) either on the audience or on another character playing the hapless straight-man in the sketch.

What few people probably realise is that the Wisty voice which Cook created is most often used to represent the most obsessive type of enthusiast - not only in Doctor Who fandom, or even TV fandom, but across the entire range of specialist minority hobbies from train-spotting to bird-watching. The nasal monotone which drones on, eager to impart the information of the trivial, the data of the pointless, the wonder of minutiae. I have lost count of the times that I have encountered versions of Wisty in my life (both inside and outside my TV studies). There's always a Wisty somewhere. Wandering about, desperately keen to discuss whatever their interest - if not obsession - actually is. But nobody ever asks them about it - there are no questions to unlock the mysterious and wonderful facts trapped in Wisty's cranium.

Even I myself identify with it to some extent - there are so many things in my mind which I wish to communicate at times, such as my enthusiasm for the work of Peter Cook - hence the reason that I've just bored you all stupid about him for the last three paragraphs.

After many years of researching Doctor Who and myriad other old television and radio shows, you realise that the facts which you uncover often lack a certain context (much like Wisty's ideas for aircraft which can travel at a million miles an hour but only cost one penny a year to run) - and are usually only spewed up as disconnected statements akin to Cook's immortal Interesting Facts where Wisty pesters the unfortunate sitting on the same park bench. In more recent years, my note taking in many libraries and research facilities - alongside colleagues such as Stephen James Walker, Marcus Hearn, Richard Bignell and Martin Wiggins - has helped me to undercover many scraps of information about the production of Doctor Who which have given me immense satisfaction, solved various mysteries and broken many myths. But Sod's Law dictates that whichever questions you set out to solve, the answers which you find never match your original objective. The answers never fit the questions! And often these are answers to things we don't have questions for yet...

But the answers are still there, itching and wriggling to get out of your memory to make contact with other like-minded folk... or to be inflicted E L Wisty style on the innocent.

For example, you go ploughing through Dudley Simpson's personnel files in an attempt to ascertain when the music recording on The Claws of Axos was done. You can't find anything on this, but a memo lodged there does reveal that a payment had to be made to the Antipodean composer because of damage to his car caused while working on Doctor Who. What? Damage to a composer's car caused by Doctor Who? Well, indirectly yes. Director Paul Bernard wanted to see Simpson on the evening of Wednesday 1 November 1972 to discuss the music for Frontier in Space. Episode 5 was being recorded that night in Studio 3 at Television Centre, but when Simpson arrived he found there were crowds and had problems parking in his usual place. On returning to his car after his discussion, he discovered that his car had been vandalised by fans of the Osmond Brothers who were recording an appearance on Top of the Pops elsewhere at TV Centre. Yeah, nice piece of silly trivia - but where does it fit into the greater picture? The answer is, it doesn't. But we store it up anyway. There's no point in trying to sell an article on Vehicular Damage Sustained by Doctor Who Production Team Members to Gary Gillatt on Doctor Who Magazine. But on the other hand, one of the reasons that I've been part of the Marvel/Panini team for so long is that I can discuss such trivia with them and maybe submit odd extra facts to an article or interview in a consultative capacity - most notably the Ouch! selection of Katy Manning's mishaps which accompanied her interview.

So - rather than you asking the questions which might hit on some of what E L Wisty would call "interesting facts", let me ask the questions instead. They're all bloody contrived to throw up either a little bit of nonsense, another clue about a legend or possibly a brick wall that we've hit and which seems insurmountable. It's also quicker in the long run, or we'll be here all night. Apart from that there's nowhere else really to print these interesting facts.

Or if there is, nobody's told me about it.

Or if they have, I've forgotten.

So what do you call the first Dalek story then?

Good question - my personal view is that it's very tricky to assign overall titles to any of the episodes up to and including Serial Z. After all - effectively none of these serials had titles. The paperwork is often contradictory and confused - titles used at the time of production would be contradicted in other press information or Radio Times. The original title for the serial was The Survivors, and this is how it was titled on Terry Nation's storyline submission in early July 1963. A later document referring to a more detailed story breakdown refers to it as Beyond the Sun. When the serial was extended from six to seven episodes on 8 August 1963, it was referred to as Doctor Who and the Mutants. The early October schedule refers to it as Mutants/Beyond the Sun (wherever a slash is used it seems that the first title replaces the second) and the 1 November document has the "working title" of Dr Who and the Mutants. The camera scripts again have no overall title - just Serial B. Overseas sales documents also refer to it consistently as Dr Who and the Mutants - as does the first BBC Enterprises document for the first four stories and A Quick Guide to Dr Who (a 1974 BBC Enterprises document). I personally call it 'the first Dalek story' as a rule when I refer to it in Marvel's Archives - partly to avoid using The Mutants (which is confusing with the 1972 serial) and partly to avoid using The Daleks (a totally made up and make believe title with no historical basis). My notation is a minor homage to the first of the Dan Dare strips from the old Eagle comic which also went untitled, but is referred to as 'the first Venus story'. In fact, given the narrative of the strip (Dan Dare arrives on planet to find highly advanced inhuman technocrats living in uneasy resentment with tall, blond pacifists) this seems rather fitting... Basically all these things are terms of reference - in our work The Doctor Who Production Guide Volume 2 we arbitrarily use the titles at the time of production to give some form of consistency, explaining our reasoning. But no... that one's anyone's guess. All fans know that The Dead Planet is The Daleks is The Mutants...

What about the titles of those other early stories?

Well, basically... they didn't have titles - or the titles changed at different times. There's an undated document from around May 1965 called The History of Doctor Who which lists the first 19 serials and quotes only one title: The Keys of Marinus for Serial E. There was a superb article about this - What's in a Name? - written by my dear colleague Stephen James Walker in The Frame Issue 16 in November 1990. To comment on all the serials would be a very long job to do properly... I think I'll come back to that in a later article if I'm going to do it justice. But at the moment, I don't reckon that Serial U is called The Myth Makers...

Was Terry Nation's The Incredible Robert Baldick pilot really a proposed replacement for Doctor Who in 1970 as has been stated in various sources?

No - it was one of two ideas commissioned as potential pilots on 8 December 1971 (The Incredible Doctor Baldick and Beyond Omega) and recorded in August 1972. This was Nation's first BBC script commission since his episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan in 1965.

Was there an extract from The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve in 30 Years in the TARDIS?

No - odd one this which Kevin Davies and I found posted on the internet by fans discussing the broadcast version of 30 Years in the TARDIS in November 1993. This is a wonderful indication of fan enthusiasm and how many almost attempt to will missing episodes in existence. Rather than assume a clip which they didn't recognise was from an episode which they knew to exist but had not seen, a number of viewers eagerly speculated how the shot of Hartnell's Doctor walking along an avenue of poplar trees was from The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (rather than The Reign of Terror: Guests of Madame Guillotine) and that a couple of lines of dialogue from Polly, Ben and Jamie simply had to be from The Highlanders as opposed to The Underwater Menace Episode 3. The first mistake also indicates the lack of knowledge of some sixties stories - despite reference material such as STINFOs (the DWAS synopsis sheets from the late 1970s), Plotlines (the more detailed replacement for STINFOs), audios, etc. - with regards where exactly would a shot of the Doctor walking on location through the countryside fit into the plot? More on this later...

Did The Abominable Snowmen ever have a working title?

Yes, but don't get excited. It was commissioned as Dr Who and the Abominable Snowman.

Did The Tenth Planet have to be rewritten to avoid William Hartnell appearing with black actor Earl Cameron?

Doesn't look like it - the character of Williams was one of the astronauts in Zeus IV who was not present at Snowcap Base throughout his two episodes. Although Cameron has recalled not getting on that well with Mr Hartnell, the scripts were evidently not rewritten because the character of Williams was written by Kit Pedler as a Welshman.

When was The Krotons originally scheduled?

Well... there's a bit of very recently discovered information on that one I can share with you. Peter Bryant commissioned Robert Holmes to write Doctor Who and the Space Trap as a four-part serial on Tuesday 25 June 1968, with the intention being to produce it between the last week of April and the third week of May 1969. This replaced a six-part serial - the first episode of which had already been scheduled and developed. A four-part script by Dick Sharples entitled Doctor Who and the Prison in Space (formerly Doctor Who and the Amazons) then fell apart in late September 1968 because of disputes over rewrites which deviated from Sharples' agreed storyline. The main problem was that Frazer Hines had announced he was leaving the series, and that Sharples was asked to restructure his scripts to write Jamie out in Episode 4 while also introducing the new character of Nik, created by the production office. Then Hines changed his mind, and was contracted for Serial XX on Wednesday 9 October 1968. The same problems with Nik hit Brian Hayles' scripts for Doctor Who and the Seeds of Death which he was writing in September/October 1968, necessitating significant rewrites by Terrance Dicks to the final four episodes.

So what was it that The Krotons was going to replace in production in April/May 1969?

Whatever had the project number 2318/3047. God knows! Annoying isn't it? Wouldn't it be an interesting fact to know what that was, eh?

Anything else about all this business you'd like to add?

Only that The Prison in Space was in turn replacing Dr Who and the Dreamspinner, a four-part serial which had been commissioned from Paul Wheeler as a breakdown on Friday 23 February 1968 with a first episode on Wednesday 13 March, but abandoned as unsatisfactory for Serial WW on Tuesday 9 April.

Who played the original Sarah Jane Smith?

Don't know - that's a well-kept secret. Barry Letts knows - but he is a polite, sensitive and kind man who would never reveal something like that, and I certainly wouldn't want to embarrass him by asking. There's nothing about this in the production file on The Time Warrior - although other actors in the Pertwee era who were contracted and not used have their paperwork present in the files (Haydn Jones as the phone mechanic in Terror of the Autons, Andy Ho as Fu Peng in The Mind of Evil, Susan Jameson as Miss Morgan in Colony in Space, Bill Weisner and Anthony Jackson as Jones and the voice of Azal in The Daemons, Steve Kelly as an Ogron in Day of the Daleks, David Purcell as Ssorg in The Curse of Peladon, Ann Michelle and Nicholas Mutton as Lakis and Baby Benton in The Time Monster). Who else could be likely candidates without going through every actress personnel file in 1973? How about Susan Jameson, whom Barry Letts has mentioned often in interviews about wanting to cast? Nope. Or maybe Fiona Gaunt, who then turns up in Moonbase 3 which was made about the same time? Nope. Delving a bit deeper into Elisabeth Sladen's personnel notes, we discover that she had her first fittings on Wednesday 25 April but was not contracted as Sarah Jane Smith until Thursday 3 May 1973 - four days before filming began. But then again, such late contracting is not unusual. Jackie Lane was signed for three serials on Wednesday 29 December 1965, nine days before her location shoot on Wimbledon Common. Anneke Wills and Michael Craze were contracted on Thursday 26 May 1966, five days into shooting The War Machines. Frazer Hines' contract was extended for The Underwater Menace on Tuesday 13 December, the day before filming began on location for the serial. So - would there in fact even be a contract issued for this unknown actress if regulars were contracted so close to (if not after) their start date?

So, was it viewer reaction that got Jamie secured on the series?

Bit tricky since Frazer Hines started shooting The Underwater Menace on Wednesday 13 December 1966 and Episode 1 of The Highlanders went out on BBC1 on Saturday 17 December. However, it's possible the good reaction did ensure his involvement on The Moonbase for which Hines was contracted on Tuesday 10 January 1967 and which started shooting at Ealing on Tuesday 17 January. Incidentally, Fraser's original contract on Wednesday 2 November 1966 was for The Highlanders but with options on three more four-part stories. One of the reasons he was employed as Jamie was for his special skills in horse riding.

Do you know how much people got paid?

Yes - but I'm not telling you.

Oh - go on!

No. I can't. That's information that I've been privileged to and it's not right of me to be indiscreet about it!

Please!

All right - but no actual figures. William Hartnell did very well indeed - his salary per episode more than doubled from 1963 to 1966 and ended up as being on more than Troughton, Pertwee and Baker began on - in fact it was more than the regulars on Blake's 7 were on over a decade later. Most companions - rising starlets - got a fraction of the Doctor's fee unless they were established actors such as William Russell. Others had rapid increases as they became popular and established - Frazer Hines' fee grew rapidly during his tenure, as did Nicholas Courtney. Tom Baker joined the series on half of Jon Pertwee's final wage.

Did Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln use a pen-name on The Dominators because of the disagreements over the Quarks?

No - again, recently unearthed trivia coming up here! It was actually because, having delivered the first five episodes of The Dominators - which it has recently transpired never had the working title of The Beautiful People - producer Peter Bryant told Haisman and Lincoln to abandon the final episode while they were still writing it as he had already got script editor Derrick Sherwin restructuring the completed scripts. The writers were paid for all six episodes, but felt angry about the way they were treated.

Which bit of The Trial of a Time Lord was called The Ultimate Foe?

It was the original commissioning title of the Vervoidy bit from Parts Nine to Twelve. Pip and Jane Baker were commissioned for these four episodes on Thursday 6 March 1986 after other stories like Christopher H Bidmead's Pinacotheca (aka The Last Adventure, which, seeing as how CHB doesn't recall this, is probably a descriptor), David Halliwell's Attack from the Mind and P J Hammond's End of Term/Paradise Five had fallen through. However, the Bakers don't recall the title The Ultimate Foe... but then again they don't recall being commissioned for a storyline called Gallifrey which they were on Monday 11 March 1985. They always refer to their four-part narrative as The Vervoids - a title which doesn't appear on any scripts or documentation. By April, the umbrella title of The Trial of a Time Lord had been decided upon, thus the rehearsal scripts are headed - for example - Serial 7C Episode 10 (7C-Ep 2): 'The Trial of a Time Lord'. This is the format of titling used on all six scripts of Serial 7C (seven if you count the unused Eric Saward Part Fourteen) - the OB schedules refer to Serial 7C - Episodes 5 & 6. In comparison, Robert Holmes' scripts are titled Doctor Who 7A: 'The Mysterious Planet' (W/T) and Philip Martin's are headed Serial 7B Episode 5: 'Mindwarp' (W/T) on the rehearsal scripts with the camera scripts retaining the subtitles and adding The Trial of a Time Lord. Time Inc. was the title under which Robert Holmes was commissioned for the concluding two episodes on Tuesday 4 February 1986 - but, as explained above, never seemed to make it to his scripts. Then, to add to the confusion, the Vervoid serial and the two wrap-up episodes were made together as Serial 7C. The OB recording for Parts Thirteen and Fourteen was done first between Monday 23 June and Friday 4 July 1986, then the first studio session (Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 July) was spent finishing Parts Thirteen and Fourteen as well as doing all the trial scenes for the Vervoid narrative, and the Vervoid storyline was concluded in sessions two and three (Wednesday 30 July to Friday 1 August and Tuesday 12 August to Thursday 14 August).

Is the screen image of Patrick Troughton in The Three Doctors Episode One from The Macra Terror?

No - still get asked this one. This myth's been kicking around since about 1980 and I haven't a clue how it started. There seems to be little doubt that the Hartnell shot was specially made (apart from one chap I met who swore blind it came from The Smugglers). However, people are convinced that the shot of Troughton running away through the smoke comes from The Macra Terror - despite the fact that Troughton never did any outdoor filming on that story. When you challenge these true believers to identify which exact bit of The Macra Terror this is, they say "It's the bit where he's running away from the colony" and you then have to point out to them that there's no such scene in the story (despite the fact they've probably got the BBC Radio Collection release - see my earlier comments on The Massacre...). The BBC's PasB [Programme-as-Broadcast] document for The Three Doctors Episode One shows that Troughton appears in a specially shot film sequence - which has to be this back-projection element.

Did The Myth Makers have to get rewritten so that William Hartnell never had to appear with gay Jewish actor Max Adrian?

No - wrong again. These tales of Mr Hartnell's prejudices interfering with his work have been blown out of all proportion. Donald Cotton's original scene breakdown for The Mythmakers is very close to the finish version for the first three episodes, although the final episode is very different (with the Doctor talking to Mike [the original name of Steven] and Vicky [one of many variant spellings of Vicki adopted by Cotton] - in morse code from the horse, Helen reunited with Menaleaos [sic] and no mention of Katarina). However, at no point even in the synopsis - let alone the scripts - did the Doctor meet King Priam, regardless of who was playing him! So no, another myth of prejudice. And to nail another rumour, Hartnell did appear with black actors - most notably a very good scene in The Smugglers Episode 3 played out with actor Elroy Josephs. And since Hartnell worked extensively with Alfie Bass in Granada's sitcom The Army Game I think we can also nail the Jewish angle...

Why is Chicki played by two different actresses in The Macra Terror?

Don't know. Sandra Bryant was contracted as Chicki on Wednesday 25 January 1967 for Episodes 1 and 4. She recorded Episode 1 on Saturday 4 March, and then on Friday 10 March a memo indicates that her agent has requested her release from recording Episode 4 - presumably she either had a personal commitment or a more prominent professional commitment such as a film. Karol Keyes was contracted to replace her on Tuesday 14 March for the Saturday 25 March recording.

Why is the cliff-hanger to Part Three of Death to the Daleks so useless?

Because it's not meant to end there - it should have ended where the Doctor and Bellal are in the alcove in the city wall with the Daleks about to sweep around the corner and capture them, but Part Four over-ran and some of the material for that episode had to be pulled back into Part Three, creating a less-than-terrifying cliff-hanger involving a patterned floor.

How did this long scene with the food machine which Dennis Spooner cut from The Power of the Daleks fit in to the plot?

It didn't - there wasn't a scene with the food machine. Despite what I wrote in my Archive in DWM whatever it was - you have to remember that I talk as much crap as anybody else! The sequence which this legend refers to is actually one set in the Vulcan colony's medical room in David Whitaker's rehearsal script for Doctor Who and the Power of the Daleks Episode 3: Servants of Masters. Ben and the Doctor enter the room where they had arranged to meet Polly at 14.00 hours. The Doctor says that the medical check they are to undergo is unnecessary as "I haven't felt better for - let's see - two hundred and fifty years!" Ben tries the health testing machine first and is found to be fit - "Almost as fit as I am!" says the Doctor. When Doctor Who uses the machine, the lights flash ominously and a buzzer sounds. Ben says that this shows the Doctor isn't fit - but the Doctor explains "This wouldn't work for me. I'm seven hundred and fifty years old." "Oh yes," says Ben. "I thought you'd just been around? Must have shed a few hundred mustn't you?" "Plasticine, Ben, is still plasticine - whatever shape you change it to", says the Doctor as he exits. The sequence fits in after the scene where Janley lures Polly to the communications room.

What is the serial code of Dalek Cutaway?

This one seems to change every week. In the old days, it was Serial T/A - pure and simple... but that was also in the days when we just called it Mission to the Unknown. Then things got complicated. Dalek Cutaway - itself more of a description than a title, see my comments above about early serial titles - first hailed from the PasB for the episode which gives the title as DR WHO 'DALEK CUTAWAY - MISSION TO THE UNKNOWN' but unfortunately no serial code. However - are PasB's reliable? You can also find PasBs for The Destructors, The Return of the Cybermen and Inferno Episode Nine (tx: Saturday 21 June 1969). Okay, so let's look at the camera script. This is entitled DOCTOR WHO: Mission to the Unknown with the heading Dalek Cutaway typed in the left margin. However, somebody at a later date has hand-written Series 'T' Ep:4 over the front sheet. Then of course a memo entitled The History of Doctor Who lists all the serials up to this one-off episode for John Wiles and Donald Tosh - this gives the serial code as "Serial DC: written by Terry Nation. A one part Dalek cut-away involving none of our principals...". So, that's it then. It's Serial DC. Nope - 'cus this document dates from around May 1965 and there are design drawings - reproduced in Doctor Who: The Early Years - which refer to Dalek Cutaway as T/A Episode 1 drawn on Friday 9 July. So DC became T/A - the episode being made by the same production team as Galaxy 4. Yes, but then it changed again. Another design drawing produced on Tuesday 20 July refers to the episode as Serial T Episode 5. Then again, the wipe order on the episodes' original videotape on Thursday 17 July 1969 (which does not seem to have been carried out) and in August 1974 (which does) refer to it as Serial Ta. As usual, BBC Enterprises' 1974 A Quick Guide to Dr Who loses its bottle and assigns no serial code at all to Dalek Cutaway (Mission to the Unknown). In other words - a right bloody mess.

Are Ted Lewis and Ted Willis the same person?

No - definitely not. This confusion arises from unmade "Key to Time" serials for Season Sixteen. The BBC Drama Scripts Classified List dated Monday 13 March 1978 indicates that there were six active writers working on Doctor Who: Douglas Adams (The Pirate Planet - delivered on Thursday 26 January), Bob Baker, Dave Martin (who had delivered the Armageddon storyline on Monday 19 December), David Fisher (The Stones of Time - commission Tuesday 10 January), Robert Holmes (The Galactic Con Man/The Ribos Operation, delivered by Monday 6 February) and Ted Lewis. Ted Lewis was a thriller writer, whose best-selling 1970 novel Jack's Return Home was filmed as the classic British gangster film Get Carter with Michael Caine. After a number of other novels - including some Jack Carter prequels - Lewis' life fell into turmoil when his marriage disintegrated and his drinking worsened. From around 1976, most projects failed to get off the ground. He wrote some of the later episodes of Z Cars and was commissioned on a Doctor Who serial. He wrote the first episode, had to rewrite it, was completely drunk when he delivered the rewrite and was never asked back by Graham Williams and Anthony Read. He died of a heart-attack in 1982. Ted Willis on the other hand created a stream of notable television series such as Dixon of Dock Green, Sergeant Cork, Taxi, Mrs Thursday, Virgin of the Secret Service, Hunters Walk and Crimes of Passion. His 1991 autobiography, Evening All, fails to mention any connection with Doctor Who, Graham Williams or Anthony Read. However, despite the fact that Willis' name does not seem to appear in connection with Doctor Who on any BBC documentation, Adrian Rigelsford uncovered a set of notes for a four-part storyline The Lords of Misrule which featured in the 1995 Doctor Who Summer Special from Marvel.

Is William Hartnell in Episode 3 of The Savages?

Yes - he certainly is. However, he has no coherent lines of dialogue, just spends most of the time lying on an operating table in Senta's laboratory and then stumbles down a corridor groaning a bit in the final scenes. Incidentally, the first few scenes of Episode 4 of The Savages were also recorded that evening directly afterwards which meant that the dry ice gas only had to be used on one recording session. Isn't that interesting? Hartnell is also present for the recording of Marco Polo: The Singing Sands, although he had been unwell that week and his material was reduced to a couple of lines in one scene. The recordings where Hartnell was absent are The Keys of Marinus: The Screaming Jungle (first week of a fortnight's holiday given to all the regulars; he does not appear), The Keys of Marinus: The Snows of Terror (second week of above; ditto), The Dalek Invasion of Earth: The End of Tomorrow (an extra week's leave granted after an accident on set the previous week; the script is reworked so that Edmund Warwick collapses as a double for Hartnell in the opening scene and Hartnell is on the filmed reprise only); The Space Museum: The Search (scheduled holiday for Hartnell who appears in the filmed reprise only); The Time Meddler: The Meddling Monk (scheduled holiday with Hartnell in filmed reprise and providing pre-recorded off-screen dialogue); Whatever It's Called: Mission to the Unknown (extra episode allocated to recording block, structured without the regular cast); The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve: The Sea Beggar (scheduled holiday with Hartnell appearing in one film sequence as the Abbot of Amboise); The Celestial Toymaker: The Hall of Dolls (scheduled holiday; Hartnell heard in pre-recorded dialogue and Albert Ward doubling as the Doctor's hand); The Celestial Toymaker: The Dancing Floor (second week of holiday; Hartnell totally missing with Ward again as hand double); The Tenth Planet Episode 3 (Hartnell written out of episode at short notice because of health problems, possibly heat exhaustion).

What about Troughton?

Okay... Mr Troughton's weeks off from recording were The Evil of the Daleks Episode 4 (pre-filmed only in the Dalek computer room set); The Web of Fear Episode 2 (filmed reprise only); The Wheel in Space Episode 2 (doubled for by Chris Jeffries as a comatose Doctor); The Seeds of Death Episode Four (doubled for by Tommy Laird - again comatose); The Space Pirates Episode Six (all sequences pre-filmed as this recording coincided with location shooting on The War Games).

Where was The Laird of McCrimmon due to fit into the final Troughton season?

It doesn't. After the first two Yeti serials, Peter Bryant had agreed that Haisman and Lincoln owned the Yeti - and indeed payments had to be made when a Yeti appeared on the back of the World Distributors The Dr Who Annual in October 1968. The storyline was never commissioned formally, and on Monday 15th July 1968 there was correspondence from the writers confirming that Bryant had indicated that there was no more life in the Yeti anyway, and also a letter from the BBC saying that unless Haisman and Lincoln agreed to their terms over the Quarks, neither Quarks or Yeti would return to the series.

Why does Patrick Troughton have a sticking plaster on his finger on all those colour photographs for The Power of the Daleks?

Because while camera rehearsing Episode 1 of the serial at Riverside on Saturday 22 October 1966, he cut his finger on the edge of a steel tape measure with which he was measuring a rock on Vulcan. This was replaced by a fabric tape measure for the actual recording. The BBC have to keep a record of all such accidents for legal reasons.

So you'll know when William Hartnell got hit by this camera then?

Yes - Mr Hartnell was hit on the shoulder by a molecrane camera at 6.10pm on Friday 17 September 1965 during rehearsals for The Myth Makers: Temple of Secrets. He was also famously dropped from a stretcher on Friday 2 October 1964 during rehearsals on The Dalek Invasion of Earth: Day of Reckoning. Jacqueline Hill bruised her knuckles throwing bombs through a window frame on The Dalek Invasion of Earth: The Daleks the previous week and suffered from shock when firing the rocket gun in The Rescue: Desperate Measures on Friday 11 December 1964. Michael Craze fell through a trapdoor while rehearsing The Smugglers Episode 4 at Riverside on the morning of Friday 29 July 1966. Frazer Hines burnt his left arm on a smoke machine in the TARDIS prop during The Wheel in Space Episode 1 on Friday 5 April 1968 and grazed his arm on an IE guard's helmet during a struggle when recording The Invasion Episode 2 on Friday 27 September 1968. Jon Pertwee injured his left leg falling off the motorbike while filming The Daemons on Tuesday 20 April 1971, bruised his ribs falling on a "six inch metal tube in his breast pocket" (i.e. the sonic screwdriver) while flinging himself on barbed wire for The Sea Devils on Wednesday 27 October 1971, and banged his left knee when he slipped on the peated floor of Spiridon on Monday 19 February 1973 while recording Planet of the Daleks. Elisabeth Sladen sprained her right ankle running the muddy sands of Exxilon on the afternoon of Friday 16 November 1973, got a few drops of inhibisol in her left eye while recording the melting door scene for The Monster of Peladon Episode Five on Tuesday 26 February 1974, and was of course nearly drowned when forced to jump from an out of control Sizzla speed-boat at Revenge of the Cybermen's Wookey Hole on Wednesday 20 November 1974. Oddly enough, Tom Baker's cracked collar bone doesn't merit an accident report and Katy Manning's many mishaps were documented in DWM.

Was the original version of The Claws of Axos really an eight part story as the production team seem to recall?

No, it was commissioned originally on Monday 1 December 1969 by Terrance Dicks as a first episode script for a six-parter called Doctor Who and the Gift. This was delivered on Monday 6 April 1970 and formally rejected on Friday 17 April. However, from this, The Friendly Invasion storyline was commissioned on Monday 6 April - this was again a six-parter. It becomes a four-part story when recommissioned as scripts entitled The Axons on Friday 11 September 1970.

What happened to the Doctor in The Daleks' Master Plan: The Abandoned Planet?

God knows - the Doctor is meant to appear throughout the whole episode, but suddenly seems to vanish after the opening scenes of the episode. Production paperwork on Monday 13 December 1965 shows that the Doctor was active in the whole programme - joining Steven and Sara as they ventured into the Dalek headquarters. Basically, the Doctor's dialogue is given to Steven while some of Steven's is given to Sara. Unlike The Daleks Invasion of Earth: The End of Tomorrow however - where the Doctor is still present in the camera script despite Hartnell's absence - the camera script for The Abandoned Planet has been reworked before recording to eliminate him from the bulk of the action. In The Daleks' Master Plan: Destruction of Time, he then just wanders in calmly after the Daleks have set off to exterminate Chen. The rehearsal script for A Switch in Time (the working title of Destruction of Time up to around Wednesday 5 January 1966) shows that the Doctor has been captured by Chen along with Steven and Sara at the end of The Abandoned Planet.

What was the original title of The Three Doctors?

Ahhhh - that's a really interesting fact! Hate to tell you this, but it was The Three Doctors - the working title arose from the production team's description of it as the 'Three Doctors' serial. During writing and filming it became The Black Hole, but then reverted back to the descriptive title before transmission. Oh yes, and unfortunately Planet of the Daleks similarly began life on Friday 21 April 1972 as Planet of the Daleks, became Destination Daleks when the scripts were commissioned on Thursday 11 May and then reverted again before production. The one new working title for the Pertwee era I have found from the writers files is that The Monster of Peladon was commissioned on Thursday 4 January 1973 as Return to Peladon and retained that title through to commissioning of scripts on Thursday 12 July. This was another Hayles serial that Dicks had to have rewritten in its later stages.

Is Lethbridge-Stewart hyphenated or not?

Yes and no. Yes, he's hyphenated on the credits for The Web of Fear, The Invasion and Spearhead from Space... but the hyphen vanishes with Doctor Who and the Silurians, reappears on Day of the Daleks and then vanishes again through to Terror of the Zygons. Mawdryn Undead and The Five Doctors evade the issue by billing him as 'The Brigadier' - and both have documentation with and without the offending punctuation. Then finally the hyphen returns for Battlefield.

What was Brian Wright's unused storyline The Cerebroids about?

Actually, we've just discovered that this was written by Charlotte and Dennis Plimmer, who were commissioned for the six-part storyline on Sunday 14 June 1970.

So who wrote Doctor Who and the Shadow People?

That was Charlotte and Dennis too - a seven-part storyline pre-dating The Cerebroids which had been delivered at the time of commission on Monday 10 November 1969.

OK. So, what was Charlotte and Dennis Plimmer's unused storyline The Cerebroids about?

No idea. But we do know that The Cerebroids was written off as unusable on Monday 29 June 1970.

Do you have any missing episodes?

'Fraid not - I've checked the garage (twice), the cupboard under the stairs and even had the fridge out from against the wall.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Well, Serial 4D was commissioned as Revenge of the Cybermen on Wednesday 15 May 1974 and not as Return of the Cybermen... The first ITV programme scheduled against Doctor Who was a thriller with scientific overtones called Emerald Soup which was written by Martin Woodhouse who had been in dispute with the BBC in July 1963 over them nicking his proposed programme format The Time Travellers for Doctor Who... The Daleks did a dance routine with the George Mitchell Minstrels on the 12 December 1964 edition of The Black and White Minstrel Show... The reformat document for Doctor Who's seventh season indicating a change of Doctor, the introduction of UNIT and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the creation of Liz was issued on New Year's Eve 1968... The John Lucarotti version of The Ark in Space was called The Ark in Space... The Daleks appeared on The Sky at Night in April 1968... If Terry Nation wasn't prepared to play ball with the BBC over the use of the Daleks in Out of the Unknown: Get off my Cloud then the BBC were going to use the Cybermen instead... Gerry Davis did the final drafts of The Tenth Planet Episodes 3 and 4 because Kit Pedler had been admitted to St George's Hospital in Tooting... The six-part Robert Sloman serial that became The Time Monster was commissioned as a storyline entitled The Daleks in London on Tuesday 25 May 1971... Bill Strutton delivered an unused four-part storyline called The Mega on Friday 25 September 1970... David Whitaker never delivered any versions of The Carriers of Death Episodes 4 to 7 at all, they were written from scratch by Malcolm Hulke from his storyline delivered Monday 9 June 1969 (oh yes, this was meant to be Serial BBB)... Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines were celebrity helpers with the games on Christmas Crackerjack recorded Thursday 19 December 1968... Roy Denton was credited with playing '1st Man' in Radio Times for The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve: Priest of Death when in fact the role went to Will Stampe after Denton was taken ill during rehearsals... Jon Pertwee was the celebrity judge on Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game recorded on Tuesday 16 November 1971... Maureen O'Brien was contracted on Friday 9 October 1964 to play 'Susan' because they hadn't settled on a new character name yet... John Levene appears in the title sequence of Paul Temple and took part in Douglas Camfield's "Colour Familiarisation Production Exercise" in October 1967... Roger Delgado was contracted as 'Renegade Time Lord' on Monday 23 March 1970... Terence Woodfield donned his Celation costume to read out the address for viewers' letters on the Friday 4 February 1966 edition of Junior Points of View... The Web of Fear was originally scheduled as Serial SS.... Two 'Dahleks' appeared on the Roy Kinnear sitcom A World of His Own transmitted Friday 21 August 1964, the script being written by Dave Freeman who was an associate of Terry Nation's from the radio comedy Floggitt's in 1956... Recording of The Sea Devils on Monday 15 November 1971 was filmed and shown as part of a schools programme, Television Club, on Monday 21 February 1972... A half-hour adaptation of the Aaru movie Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150AD was broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on Friday 18th November 1966... Bernard Cribbins featured a Doctor Who sketch on his comedy show on Saturday 27 February 1965 and in 1974 was interviewed by Barry Letts to replace Jon Pertwee... Shaw "keep 'em peeled" Taylor was the announcer for the trailer of Galaxy 4: Four Hundred Dawns screened at 8pm on Friday 10 September 1965... As early as Thursday 5 December 1963, Doctor Who was voted second favourite programme by viewers of Junior Points of View (behind Z Cars)... Kit Pedler took part in a discussion programme on the BBC's Third Programme entitled Of Ombudsmen and Cybermats on Thursday 5 June 1969... The fees of the school children from the Cororna Stage School on the pilot came to £56.

Now aren't those interesting facts.

Shall I tell you something? You're one of the most boring, tedious, uninteresting, monotonous people I've ever heard!

Is that a fact? How very interesting.

Reading this brought back some happy memories from 10 years ago or whenever it was. All respect to Paul for commissioning and running with such a strange item, which inspired Gary Gillatt at DWM to ask me for a much more user friendly item along the same lines entitled Revenge of the Matrix Data Bank in Issue 266 (June 1998). Incidentally, the title for this TSV version was taken from the double-length Kojak episode from the 1975 season.

Looking at my comments of what the first Dalek serial should be called, I remember urging Clayton Hickman at DWM that for the last of these standard Archive features, we should give it the title of The Mutants, but on the inside cover - i.e. page 2 - we should also print The Daleks, The Dead Planet and Beyond the Sun in the same font so that affronted readers could clip out their preferred title and paste it over the top ... although ultimately, we instead went with the gag of a different title at the top of each page. I'm still amazed that the whole subject annoys so many people! And, thankfully, after this first draft I was able to assure myself that Serial U was probably called The Myth Makers rather than The Trojan War, although it was touch and go at the time. I still don't think we know what 2318/3047 was either!

Bit more about the Ted Lewis story: Graham Williams originally commissioned it as a four-part storyline called The Doppelgangers on 5 January 1978 with a target delivery date of 18 January, and Lewis delivering on 26 January. The scripts were then commissioned under the title of Shield of Zarak on 24 February with a target of 10 April; the first two episodes were delivered on 28 April with the third on 12 May, and all three were rejected. A note from Graham Williams on 11 January 1979 indicated that he understood from "Anthony Read and Ted Lewis that mutual agreement had been reached not to proceed" with the story which was written off.

It's also nice to see that the question about the footage from The Macra Terror in The Three Doctors - and a number of similar mythological tales from fandom - now seem to have been laid to rest ... or maybe I just don't surf into the right internet forums at the right times.

And I'm still not telling you how much people got paid.

And yes, I still write as much crap as everybody else.

Andrew Pixley, November 2007