Categories
Quatermass

Contact Has Been Established

QuatermassThe first attempt to launch a manned rocket into space meets with serious problems; the three-man vehicle, rather than following a carefully-planned parabola to make a single orbit, veers hundreds of thousands of miles off course, losing all contact with Earth. As the rocket’s designer, Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group, tensely awaits word when the atomic-powered rocket finally approaches Earth again. With no contact from the astronauts themselves, the rocket returns to Earth under remote control from the ground, but the best that Quatermass and his team can manage is to bring it in for the least-damaging crash landing possible. Still intact, the rocket has slammed into a neighborhood near Wimbledon Commons, and astonishingly no one on the ground is hurt, though police evacuate residents from their homes. Quatermass and his team arrive to open the rocket, but inside they find only one astronaut remaining: engineer Victor Carroon, whose wife is a member of Quatermass’ ground control team. The other two men are missing without a trace, their spacesuits left empty in the rocket.

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Moray Watson (Peter Marsh), W. Thorp Devereux (Blaker), Van Boolen (Len Matthews), Iris Ballard (Mr. Matthews), Eugene Leahy (Police Inspector), Neil Wilson (Policeman),Colyn Davies (Fireman), Katie Johnson (Miss Wilde), Oliver Johnston (News Editor), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Patrick Westwood (First Reporter), Dominic LeFoe (Second Reporter), Nicholas Bruce (BBC Newsreader), Pat McGrath (BBC Interviewer), MacGregor Urquhart (Sandwichman), Denis Wyndham (Reveller)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: Broadcast in 1953 as a live play for television with one film insert (actual film from a camera mounted aboard a captured German V2 rocket launched from White Sands, New Mexico in 1946), The Quatermass Experiment was one of the earliest instances of the BBC making a “telerecording” (a film recording from a television screen showing the live broadcast) of a drama production rather than live coverage of a news event. This was also one of the final major productions staged at the BBC’s original television studios at Alexandra Palace, using some of the BBC’s original 1930s cameras, before the bulk of production was moved to the then-new Lime Grove studios (future home of the TARDIS).

Categories
Quatermass

Persons Reported Missing

QuatermassThe Metropolitan Police get involved in the investigation of what happened to Quatermass’ space rocket and its now-mostly-missing crew, and Quatermass is outraged when they begin to treat Victor Carroon as a murder suspect. Police and press alike swarm the crash site in Wimbledon before Quatermass has even had a chance to determine what happened aboard the vehicle. All that is known is that it an electrical component failed, sending the rocket further than the orbit the moon before the vehicle returned to Earth in a long, looping arc. And inexplicably, Carroon now understands and speaks perfect German – a language he never spoke prior to the mission – but he can offer no answers about the whereabouts of his missing crewmates, Charles Green and German rocket engineer Dr. Reichenheim.

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Moray Watson (Peter Marsh), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Christopher Rhodes (Dr. Ludwig Reichenheim), Peter Bathurst (Charles Greene), Enid Lindsey (Louisa Greene), Oliver Johnston (News Editor), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Patrick Westwood (First Reporter), Dominic LeFoe (Second Reporter), Stella Richman (Hospital Sister), Eugene Leahy (Police Inspector), Neil Wilson (Policeman, Wimbledon), Maurice Durant (Policeman, Scotland Yard)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: This is the second and last episode of The Quatermass Experiment to be preserved via BBC telerecording, and the primitive nature of the technology involved shows: an insect lands on the television screen being filmed by the film camera and remains there for several minutes! Dissatisfied with the technical quality of the telerecordings of the first two episodes, the BBC opted to stop doing them, which also nixed a planned rebroadcast of The Quatermass Experiment on Canadian TV; episodes three through six are lost forever. Sadly, the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

Categories
Quatermass

Very Special Knowledge

QuatermassThe questioning of surviving astronaut Victor Carroon continues, and he reveals not only a fluent grasp of German, but knowledge of fellow astronaut Green’s life as well. The cockpit voice recorder from the rocket is found and its tape played back, revealing an unearthly sound that accompanied the rocket going off course. Though Detective Inspector Lomax dismisses the sound as that of “the rocket motors”, Quatermass knows it’s not the sound of the engines. When the tape is played back with Carroon and Lomax present, its obvious that the astronaut is not a murder suspect…but the victim of whas Quatermass believes was “like a cosmic ray, but alive”…

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Philip Vickers (American Reporter), Edward David (Indian Reporter), Katie Johnson (Miss Wilde), Lewis Wilson (Walters)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: The BBC, unsatisfied with its experimental telerecording technique, only recorded the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment. This synopsis and the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Quatermass

Believed To Be Suffering

QuatermassAs Victor Carroon, still delirious, shows an unusual amount of interest in a potted cactus, a photographer intrudes on the Carroons, trying to get a photo of the returned asteronaut for his newspaper. One touch from Victor Carroon’s hand leaves the man dead. Quatermass realizes that whatever extraterrestrial intelligence was encountered by the men aboard his rocket has come to Earth in Carroon’s body. Carroon goes missing, spirited away in a car and taken to an organized crime hideout that he is able to escape quickly with his deadly touch. All the while, he is mutating into a man with cactus-like skin…

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Oliver Johnston (News Editor), Philip Vickers (American Reporter), Katie Johnson (Miss Wilde), Lewis Wilson (Walters), Darrell Runey (Photographer), Jack Rodney (Ramsay), Anthony Green (Boy), Richard Cuthbert (Chemist), Leo Fox (Cinema Manager), Janet Joye (Cinemagoer), Bernadette Milnes (Usherette), Keith Herrington (Space Lieutenant), Pauline Johnson (Space Girl)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: The BBC, unsatisfied with its experimental telerecording technique, only recorded the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment. This synopsis and the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Quatermass

An Unidentified Species

QuatermassHaving plundered a drug store an ingested a mixture of chemicals that would normally be deadly to humans, astronaut Victor Carroon has gone missing. The Metropolitan Police, declaring the astronaut a national hero, call off the search for him. Carroon’s whereabouts are discovered soon enough: now a barely-humaniod mass of fungus, the being that was once Victor Carroon apparently took over a small island in a park. Quatermass now fears that the being may spread across Earth as an Earthly fungus would, by releasing spores. And in any case, the creature has now migrated…to the wall of Westminster Abbey.

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Richard Cuthbert (Chemist), Bernadette Milnes (Usherette), Christie Humphrey (Janet), John Stone (Ted), Frank Atkinson (Park Keeper), Reginald Hearne (Police Inspector), Wilfred Brambell (Drunk), Tony Van Bridge (Producer), Neal Arden (Commentator), Josphine Crombie (Secretary), John Kidd (Sir Vernon Dodds)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: Beginning with this episode, the BBC began preceding episodes with content warnings advising that The Quatermass Experiment was not suitable for “children or people of a nervous disposition.” Unsatisfied with its experimental telerecording technique, the BBC only recorded the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment. This synopsis and the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Quatermass

State Of Emergency

QuatermassWestminster Abbey and the area around it are evacuated as the creature progresses toward the stage at which it will release its spores. Quatermass’ lab experiments reveal that being touched by even a single spore would fully mutate any life form on Earth within minutes; if the being that was once Victor Carroon releases its spores, it is the end of all life on the planet. As preparations are made for military strikes and other frontal attacks on the creature, Quatermass gambles on appealing to the last remaining fragments of the consciousness of the three astronauts to resist the alien life form and tear it apart from the inside.

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Tony Van Bridge (Producer), Josphine Crombie (Secretary), Neal Arden (Commentator), John Kidd (Sir Vernon Dodds), Keith Pyott (Cabinet Minister), Andrew Laurence (Major O’Neill), Peter Franklin (Sergeant), Kenneth Midwood (Policeman), Arnold Diamond (Man in Crowd), Rex Graham (Crowd), Cyril Saxon (Crowd), Lloyd Shirley (Crowd), Kobie Westone (Crowd), Langton Jones (Crowd), Nickola Starne (Crowd), Grace Webb (Crowd), Michele Clement (Crowd), Violet Perry (Crowd), Raymond Rollet (Crowd), Sheldon Allen (Crowd), Richard Hugget (Crowd), Charles Horsee (Crowd), Allan Cosley (Crowd)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: Unsatisfied with its experimental telerecording technique, the BBC only recorded the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment. This synopsis and the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 01 Doctor Who

An Unearthly Child

Doctor WhoIn London, 1963, teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright discuss their most problematic student at Coal Hill School, one Susan Foreman. Susan’s knowledge vastly exceeds that of her instructors in science, but she has also been known to challenge long-standing historical facts…yet she also has some things completely wrong, including one occasion where she notes that British currency isn’t on the decimal system “yet.” Ian and Barbara follow Susan discreetly when she walks home one night, and the teachers are puzzled when home seems to be a junkyard. When they follow her into the junkyard, Susan has disappeared, and the only place she could have gone is a police call box which is emitting a strange hum. Moments later, an elderly man appears, apparently determined to enter the police box himself. Ian and Barbara force their way in, along with the old man, and find that the police box is actually a time-space vehicle, bigger on the inside than out. They also discover that neither Susan nor her grandfather, a mysterious and irritable man known only as the Doctor, are human beings. The Doctor, worried that Ian and Barbara will draw unwelcome mass attention to the presence of his ship (called the TARDIS), hastily sets it into motion over everyone’s protests, and when Ian and Barbara next step out of the doors of the TARDIS, they are no longer on Earth as they know it.

Season 1 Regular Cast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), William Russell (Ian Chesterton), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright), Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)

written by Anthony Coburn
directed by Waris Hussein
music by Norman Kay

Guest Cast: Derek Newark (Za), Althea Charlton (Hur), Jeremy Young (Kal), Howard Lang (Horg), Eileen Way (Old Mother)

Broadcast from November 23 through December 14, 1963

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 01 Doctor Who

The Daleks

.Doctor WhoThe TARDIS arrives on the distant planet Skaro, which seems at first to be uninhabited, except for fossilized animals. When the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara discover a city constructed by an advanced civilization, there is a difference of opinion on whether or not to explore it. But the Doctor deems it necessary due to a shortage of mercury in the TARDIS’ fluid link system. After wandering aimlessly in the city for a while, the travelers discover two horrifying things – their growing fatigue is a sign of radiation sickness from Skaro’s toxic environment, and there are still living creatures inhabiting Skaro. One race, the pacifist humanoid Thals, try to maintain their primitive culture in the face of adversity. The other race, metallic monstrosities known as the Daleks, intend to wipe the Thals out – along with the Doctor and his companions, unless they assist the Daleks in their genocidal plan.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Christopher Barry and Richard Martin
music by Tristram Cary

Guest Cast: Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Michael Summerton, Gerald Taylor, Peter Murphy (Daleks), Peter Hawkins, David Graham (Dalek voices), John Lee (Alydon), Philip Bond (Ganatus), Virginia Wetherell (Dyoni), Alan Wheatly (Temmosus), Gerald Curtis (Elyon), Jonathan Crane (Kristas), Marcus Hammond (Antodus)

Broadcast from December 21, 1963 through February 1, 1964

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 01 Doctor Who

Edge Of Destruction

.Doctor WhoThe Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara are sprawled across the floor of the TARDIS console room after some kind of accident. The TARDIS itself won’t let them exit, and gives very vague readings as to what may be outside. And something appears to be affecting the minds of its occupants…could that something be the TARDIS itself, trying to warn them of their own impending doom?

written by David Whitaker
directed by Richard Martin and Frank Cox
music not credited

Guest Cast: none

Broadcast from February 8 through 15, 1964

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 01 Doctor Who

Marco Polo

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS lands in the Himalayas in 1289, and promptly breaks down, stranding the Doctor, Ian, Susan and Barbara. Fortunately for them, a caravan is passing through and they are able to secure shelter. Ian and Barbara are impressed to learn that their new benefactor is none other than Marco Polo himself, on his latest passage to Cathay from Venice. But they are less enthused when Marco reveals that he intends to take the Doctor’s “flying caravan” to Peking as a gift for Kublai Khan, who will hopefully be impressed enough to continue to grant Marco safe passage. The Doctor and his companions continue traveling with Marco and his own suspicious companion, the Mongol warlord Tegana. Susan befriends a young girl named Ping-Cho, who is being transported to meet her future husband in an arranged marriage. The Doctor doesn’t give up hope that he will have an opportunity to recover the TARDIS, but he may have to travel with Marco for months to sieze it.

Order this story on audio CDwritten by John Lucarotti
directed by Waris Hussein and John Crockett
music by Tristram Cary

Guest Cast: Mark Eden (Marco Polo), Derren Nesbitt (Tegana), Zienia Merton (Ping-Cho), Leslie Bates (the man at Lop), Jimmy Gardner (Chenchu), Charles Wade (Malik), Philip Voss (Acomat), Philip Crest (Bandit), Paul Carson (Ling-Tau), Gabor Baraker (Wang-Lo), Tutte Lemkow (Kuiju), Peter Lawrence (Vizier), Martin Miller (Kublai Khan), Basil Tang (Foreman), Claire Davenport (Empress), O. Ikeda (Yeng)

Broadcast from February 22 through April 4, 1964

Notes: Guest star Zienia Merton would later become a semi-regular cast member on the 1970s ITV science fiction series Space: 1999, as Moonbase Alpha crewmember Sandra Benes. The master tapes of this episode were destroyed by the BBC in the early 1970’s, and no video copies exist, though it has been released as a narrated, audio-only story on CD.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 01 Doctor Who

The Keys Of Marinus

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS lands on the planet Marinus, a world whose seas are filled with acid and whose beaches are sand fused into glass. They investigate a fantastic building, but at the same time something else is investigating the TARDIS – a tall creature in what appears to be a black skinsuit. Inside the building, more of these creatures are encountered, and Ian saves a man who’s being threatened by one of the beings. The man, Arbitan, tells the Doctor and his friends the story of the Conscience, a machine that was built to be the perfect impartial judge and evolved into a device that eliminated crime from Arbitan’s society by controlling the thoughts of the population. But when a rebel group aided by the Voords arrived, four of the Conscience’s five keys were hidden to prevent the Voord from ruling over Marinus with its mind control. Arbitan enlists the Doctor’s help to search for the missing keys, and to make sure he has the time travelers’ help, he prevents them from reaching the TARDIS. They undertake a lengthy quest across Marinus, through lawless frozen wastelands, enduring moving vegetation, and visiting a ruined city whose inhabitants use hypnotic means to trick visitors into seeing an opulent palace. They even find a counterfeit Conscience key. But when they return with the four keys, they find Arbitan dead and the Voords in control.

written by Terry Nation
directed by John Gorrie
music by Norman Kay

Guest Cast: George Couloris (Arbitan), Martin Cort, Peter Stenson, Gordon Wales (Voords), Robin Phillips (Altos), Katharine Schofield (Sabetha), Heron Carvic (voice of Morpho), Edmund Warwick (Darrius), Francis de Wolff (Vasor), Michael Allaby (Larn), Alan James, Anthony Verner, Peter Stenson, Michael Allaby (Ice Soldiers), Henley Thomas (Tarron), Raf de la Torre (Senior Judge), Alan James, Peter Stenson (Judges), Fiona Walker (Kala), Martin Cort (Aydan), Donald Pickering (Eyesen), Stephen Dartnell (Yartek), Dougie Dean (Eprin)

Notes: This episode marks the first time that the TARDIS is actually seen materializing on screen. William Hartnell was absent from episodes 3 and 4 to take a brief vacation, so those episodes focus instead on Ian and Barbara’s adventures.

Broadcast from April 11 through May 16, 1964

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 01 Doctor Who

The Aztecs

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS lands in the ancient empire of the Aztecs, a culture that has always fascinated Barbara for its mix of scientific and technological achievement and brutal savagery. Exploring with Susan in tow, Barbara quickly discovers that the Aztecs aren’t in the past tense here – the time machine has brought its passengers to the height of that civilization, a time when being caught in the temple vaults is punishable by death. When the Aztecs do discover the two women there, Barbara takes advantage of her and Susan’s “futuristic” appearance by explaining that they are the embodiment of the god Yetaxa and his handmaiden. Quickly installed as a god in the temple, Barbara decides to push history along a different course, declaring the Aztecs’ bloody human sacrifices will no longer be needed – over the Doctor’s protests.

Download this episodewritten by John Lucarotti
directed by John Crockett
music by Richard Rodney Bennett

Guest Cast: Keith Pyott (Autloc), John Ringham (Tlotoxl), Ian Cullen (Ixta), Margot van der Burgh (Cameca), Tom Booth (Victim), David Anderson (Captain), Walter Randall (Tonila), Andre Boulay (The Perfect Victim)

Broadcast from May 23 through June 13, 1964

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 01 Doctor Who

The Sensorites

Doctor WhoIn the distant future, the TARDIS lands aboard a human spacecraft whose crew claims that they are under siege by creatures called the Sensorites, who can influence their thoughts. Captain Maitland warns the Doctor and his friends to leave immediately and assures the time travelers that they can do nothing for the ship’s crew, but by the time they return to the TARDIS, it’s too late – the lock has been removed and the doors cannot be opened. The Doctor resolves to help the human crew fight the influence of the Sensorites. The ship is boarded by spacewalking Sensorites, who are able to exert mental control over Maitland and his crew, though the Doctor and his companions are able to fight off that control, and they begin to show the humans how to do the same. But the Sensorites quickly detect that someone aboard has powerful telepathic abilities of their own, and they use that mind-link to open peaceful negotiations – through Susan. The Doctor and his friends, and the ship’s human crew, are invited to visit the Sensorites’ home planet, Sense-Sphere, where the Sensorites reveal their fear of humanity visiting their world to exploit it for the molybdenum on its surface. Worse yet, a previous human expedition to Sense-Sphere has come and gone, but many of its crew died after leaving the planet. When Ian falls ill, the Doctor discovers that the water is poisoned – and Ian is only the latest victim. But are the Sensorites – who claim that they are peaceful – behind the plot? Time is running out for the Doctor to find out.

written by Peter R. Newman
directed by Mervyn Pinfield (episodes 1-4) & Frank Cox (episodes 5-6)
music by Norman Kay

Guest Cast: Stephen Dartnell (John), Ilona Rogers (Carol), Lorne Cossette (Captain Maitland), Ken Tyllson, Joe Grieg, Peter Glaze, Arthur Newell (Sensorites), Eric Francise, Bartlett Mullins (Elders), John Bailey (Commander), Martyn Huntley, Giles Phibbs (Survivors)

Notes: Again due to actress Jacqueline Hill being on vacation, the character of Barbara is absent for much of The Sensorites. This episode leaves no doubt that the Doctor and Susan are from a world other than Earth; her description of orange skies and trees full of silver leaves was taken on board in numerous later novels, and was finally depicted – briefly – in the 2007 episode The Last Of The Time Lords. (Previous episodes that visited Gallifrey – which wasn’t named until 1974 – usually didn’t adhere to that description, likely for budgetary reasons.)

Broadcast from June 20 through August 1, 1964

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 01 Doctor Who

The Reign Of Terror

Doctor WhoOffended by Ian, the Doctor is determined to return his two passengers to their rightful place and time. But neither Ian nor Barbara is surprised to find that, while they have indeed returned to Earth, the TARDIS has put them in the path of history again, this time bringing them to the eve of the French Revolution. The time travelers stumbling into a farmhouse being used as a staging area for opponents of the Revolution, where they are captured by the Revolutionary soldiers – except for the Doctor, who’s left for dead when the barn is burned down. A scraggly youngster helps the Doctor to escape, but his companions are rounded up and scheduled for execution. Ian learns of the presence of a British spy among the Revolutionaries, and this knowledge saves his life; Barbara and Susan are eventually liberated by forces fighting against the Revolution. The Doctor adopts a disguise to free his friends from prison, but by the time he arrives, they have all already gone their separate ways; the Doctor tries to convince Robespierre to put an end to the executions, to no avail. Eventually, all four of the time travelers’ actions get them rounded up and returned to prison to await execution once more – unless, of course, their sentences are delayed by Napoleon’s uprising against Robespierre…

written by Dennis Spooner
directed by Henric Hirsch
music by Stanley Myers

Guest Cast: Pete Walker (Small Boy), Laidlaw Dalling (Rouvray), Neville Smith (d’Argenson), Robert Hunter (Sergeant), Ken Lawrence (Lieutenant), James Hall (Soldier), Howard Charlton (Judge), Jack Cunningham (Jailer), Jeffrey Wickham (Webster), Dallas Cavell (Overseer), Denis Cleary (Peasant), James Cairncross (Lemaitre/Sterling), Roy Herrick (Jean), Donald Morley (Renan), John Barrard (Shopkeeper), Caroline Hunt (Danielle), Edward Brayshaw (Colbert), Keith Anderson (Robespierre), Ronald Pickup (Physician), Terry Bale (Soldier), John Law (Barrass), Tony Wall (Bonaparte), Patrick Marley (Soldier)

Notes: The scenes of the Doctor making his way to Paris on foot are the first-ever location footage shot outside the studio for Doctor Who…but they feature not William Hartnell, but a costumed extra made up to look like him.

Broadcast from August 8 through September 12, 1964

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 02

Planet Of Giants

Doctor WhoJust prior to materialization, the TARDIS main doors open prematurely. Ian, Susan and Barbara struggle to close them, and the ship seems to make a smooth landing. Outside, the time travelers find the remains of an enormous earthworm and ants at least a foot in length. When Ian and Susan find a huge sign which is clearly from present-day Earth, and a gigantic matchstick almost hits the Doctor and Barbara, the conclusion is obvious – the in-flight accident has reduced the crew of the TARDIS in size. The planet on which they have landed is Earth, and everything from a normal human being’s footsteps to an ordinary housecat is a potentially lethal danger to the time travelers. Something caused the accident that shrunk them…but can they reverse the damage?

Season 2 Regular Cast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), William Russell (Ian Chesterson), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Maureen O’Brien (Vicki), Peter Purves (Steven)

written by Louis Marks
directed by Mervyn Pinfield and Douglas Camfield
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Alan Tilvern (Forester), Frank Crawshaw (Farrow), Reginald Barratt (Smithers), Rosemary Johnson (Hilda), Fred Ferris (Bert)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green